Washington State ‘UFO’ Investigation, 1952-1960

An eight-year window into the working relationship between the FBI and the U.S. Air Force on UFO cases, this file captures how two major federal agencies communicated — and apparently coordinated — on sightings over Washington State during one of the most active periods in early UAP history. The timing matters: July 1952 puts this right at the peak of the famous Washington D.C. radar incidents, when the subject was impossible for the government to ignore. The internal memos here offer a rare ground-level view of how that institutional conversation actually played out, far from the press conferences.