★Historically significant

A 1948 CONFIDENTIAL inter-service directive showing the U.S. Air Force Director of Intelligence formally alerting the Navy Department to an anticipated new wave of 'Flying Disc' reappearances and establishing a joint reporting and intelligence-forwarding chain across all Naval Districts.

DOW-UAP-D086, USNavy-Report-of-Flying-Discs_1948

Department of WarPDFMemoCONFIDENTIALNo redactionsPURSUE Release 3

4/10

niche or mildly interesting

UAP Insight significance score

Released: June 12, 2026

Evidence Types

Testimony

Official Conclusion

No conclusion stated; document is a procedural directive requesting reporting of sightings for investigation.

Official Description

This document is a memorandum from the Commandant of the 5th Naval District, and it cites a memorandum related to "flying discs" from the Chief of Naval Operations. The memorandum requests that naval stations report incidents to the nearest Air Force command and to the Naval District Intelligence Office.

Key Findings

→The Director of Intelligence, U.S. Air Force informed the Navy Department that a cycle of reappearance of 'Flying Discs' was becoming apparent and a new interval was imminent.
→All naval stations were directed to report sightings of 'Flying Discs' or other unidentified aerial objects to the nearest Air Force command and Naval District Intelligence Office.
→Photographic evidence of the phenomena was requested whenever possible.
→Naval District Intelligence Officers (DIOs) were instructed to forward information to the Chief of Naval Intelligence, who would pass it to the Director of Intelligence, U.S. Air Force.
→The directive was distributed to 85 copies across multiple distribution lists, indicating broad dissemination within the naval command structure.

UAP Insight Analysis— AI generated, not official

A December 1948 confidential memorandum from the Commandant, Fifth Naval District (Norfolk, Virginia) forwarding a Chief of Naval Operations directive regarding 'Flying Discs.' The CNO directive, dated 4 November 1948, instructs all Naval District commandants to direct stations to report any sightings of 'Flying Discs' or unidentified aerial objects to the nearest Air Force command and to the Naval District Intelligence Office, with photographic evidence obtained when possible. The document is administrative and procedural in nature, establishing a reporting chain rather than documenting a specific sighting.

Analyst Notes

This is an administrative directive establishing a reporting procedure, not an incident report. It contains no specific UAP sighting data, no witness accounts, and no physical descriptions of observed objects. Its evidentiary value for UAP content is minimal; it is primarily significant as a procedural record showing inter-service coordination on the flying disc phenomenon in 1948.

Extracted Entities

People

Thos. B. InglisR. C. Hudson

Agencies & Organizations

Headquarters Fifth Naval DistrictChief of Naval OperationsNaval District Intelligence OfficeU.S. Air Force Directorate of IntelligenceChief of Naval IntelligenceOffice, Chief Army Field Forces

Locations

Norfolk, VirginiaFifth Naval District

Aircraft & Objects

Flying Discsunidentified aerial objects

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AI analysis by claude-sonnet-4-6 · July 20, 2026