THE DOCUMENTS
DOW-UAP-D181, “Unresolved UAP Report Catalina Island 1949”, DOW-UAP-D179, “Unresolved UAP Report Catalina Island 1952”, DOW-UAP-D178, “Unresolved UAP Report Catalina Island 1953”, and DOW-UAP-D177, “Unresolved UAP Report Catalina Island 1955”, four Department of War records from the U.S. Department of War’s PURSUE Release 07, published at war.gov/ufo on 23 October 2026. All four titles are the release’s, from the file names. The war.gov site titles add commas, and for DOW-UAP-D179 the site title names a different form: Air Intelligence Information Report, Catalina Island, 1952, which is what its report page prints. DOW-UAP-D181 is three pages: a PROJECT 10073 RECORD card (p. 1), a transmittal card on AMC Form No. 10-2 (p. 2) and a handwritten letter (p. 3). DOW-UAP-D179 is two pages: a faint record card (p. 1) and a report on AF Form 112, Part I (p. 2). DOW-UAP-D178 is five pages: a record card (p. 1), the back of that card (p. 2) and a three-page teletype (pp. 3 to 5). DOW-UAP-D177 is four pages: a PROJECT 10073 RECORD CARD (p. 1), a UFOB INDEX CARD (p. 2) and a teletype on taped, sprocket-holed paper (pp. 3, 4). Each record carries a DECLASSIFIED overlay citing NND 923007 on its p. 1. No page carries a release redaction. Heavy marker strokes lie beside UNCLASSIFIED stamps on DOW-UAP-D178 pp. 3 and 5 and over the classification lines at head and foot of DOW-UAP-D179 p. 2; another runs over the word between slashes that opens the DOW-UAP-D178 report line, with spaced letters showing through (p. 3), and a last one sits at lower right of DOW-UAP-D179 p. 2. What they cover cannot be read. Apart from the quoted lines, everything said here about the cards, the transmittal card, the letter, the 1955 teletype and the handwriting is read from the page images, because the text layers of those parts are damaged or empty.
Why this one is worth your time
Four files about one island, spread over six years, each on different paper: a private letter passed on with a transmittal card, a base’s report on what three Boy Scouts said they saw, and two teletype reports sent within a day of the sighting. Each holds a ruled card that sums up the case.
The release titles call all four an Unresolved UAP Report; three of the four print a conclusion, and the fourth gives its evaluation as None. On the 1949 letter a pencilled note says it was not acknowledged; the 1952 report is dated about two months after the sighting; and the two teletypes carry their own comments.
What the documents say
1949: the letter (D181). The letter is dated May 1st, 1949, and addressed to a private individual (p. 3, read from the page image). It reports that at about 8 o’clock on the night of April 28th a member of the writer’s family and a school teacher saw six objects in the sky, not in a group but singly. A few minutes later, at another family home nearby, three members of the family saw four more. All, the letter says, were travelling in the same direction. The writer offers to write more in full if the addressee is still interested in flying disks, saucers and the like. A postscript places the writer’s town on Catalina Island, about 25 miles from Long Beach. The letter does not say that its writer saw anything.
1949: the cards (D181). The transmittal card, AMC Form No. 10-2, records a first indorsement from the 17th District at Kirtland Field, New Mexico (printed 17th Distr Kirtland Fld NMex), to IAXS, dated 5/20/49, with one inclosure, recorded on 5/26/49 at 1100 (p. 2). Its subject reads 1st Ind, Unknown Aer, the rest of that word under a punch hole, then Phenomena, with Conf. and a handwritten number. The record card gives 28 April 49, 29/0400Z, Catalina Island, California, a civilian source, six objects, the length and course of the observation as Not Reported, and the conclusion INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR EVALUATION (p. 1). On the letter someone has written Insufficient Data in red and, in pencil, MCIAXS did not acknowledge this ltr (p. 3).
1952: the scouts (D179). The 807th Air Base Group at March Air Force Base reported on AF Form 112, Part I, dated 28 August 1952, under the subject Unidentified Flying Objects Reporting, prepared by E. D. H. Maddox, Lt Colonel, USAF, whose typed name stands in the form field with no signature (p. 2). Its first paragraph speaks of alleged “Flying Saucers” in the vicinity of Santa Catalina, reported by three Boy Scouts in summer camp (Camp Fox) on 25 June 1952, and says no report was made by electrical means because of the time lag before the information reached the installation. The summary describes one object, silver, altitude uncertain, speed estimated to be faster than a conventional jet, with no sound and one manoeuvre, apparently a climbing turn immediately before its disappearance by disintegration. The sighting was at 1200 hours (PSDT), on a hike up one of the mountains on Santa Catalina Island, with no observing instruments. The form gives the evaluation as None.
The report lists four inclosures, all letters, the fourth dated 1 Jul 52, and says a rough sketch of what the observers saw is on two of them (p. 2). Each letter is listed with its writer’s name. A copy went to the Chief, Air Tech. Intel. Center at Wright-Patterson AFB. At the upper right someone has written 100 in red, with a red word below it that may read Insuff (p. 2, read from the page image). The faint card (p. 1, read from the enhanced page image) gives June 1952, SANTA CATALINA, CALIFORNIA, 3 Boy Scouts, one object and, under comments, Disintegrated; its conclusion mark cannot be read.
1953: the teletype (D178). The three-page teletype was sent on 17 November 1953 to the commanders of ADC, ATIC and the Continental Air Command and to the Director of Intelligence, HQ USAF (p. 3). Its FM line, naming the 2347th AFRTC at Long Beach Municipal Airport, is struck through by a typed line. Under the heading 0239 UFOB (1) it reports a round saucer shape the size of a pea, purplish white at first sighting and fading to a whitest colour until it disappeared (p. 3). The object appeared to be stationary in first sighting over Catalina, then moved north-west toward Los Angeles, where it disappeared from view; the flight path appeared straight and level, the light faded from view, and the sighting lasted ten minutes, from 160505 to 160515, on a clear night (p. 4). Item (5) gives the place of observation as a street intersection in San Pedro, California (p. 4).
The observer was an Air Force technical sergeant; item (6)(B) gives his name, age, a post office box, a street address and his occupation. The message says the witness appeared fairly reliable because of his association with jet aircraft activity while stationed at an Air Force base the page names, and closes that the astronomers’ observation may account for the appearance (p. 5). Two stamps on p. 3 read 17 Nov 53 and 1953 NOV 17 (read from the page image).
1953: the card (D178). The card gives 16 November 53, 16/1305Z, Catalina, California, a military source, one object, 10 minutes, course NW, and the conclusion Astronomical (JUPITER) (p. 1, read from the page image). It adds that the movement of the object does not coincide with winds aloft, that astronomers at Griffis Park observatory (so typed) evaluated the observation as possibly planets, and that the angular velocity is unknown. Its summary ends with a position for Jupiter on Nov 15: 5 hrs, 38 min., 45 deg elevation in West. Page 2 is the back of the card, with nothing but the card’s own typing showing through in reverse.
1955: the teletype (D177). The 670th ACWRON at San Pedro sent its report on 15 March 1955 to the 27th AD at Norton AFB, ADC, the Air Tech Int Cen at Wright-Patterson and the Director of Intelligence, HQ USAF, marked /UNCLASSIFIED/ and submitted under AFR 200-2, paragraph 7D, as a report of an unidentified flying object (p. 3, read from the page image). It gives one round object, the size of a nickel (typed NICKLE), orange to red and very bright, which went straight down and faded out of sight in two seconds, seen from the ground at night. Item 5 gives a grid reference and a place on Catalina Isle. Item 6 gives one civilian witness’s name, street address, post office box and telephone number. Item 11 reads that the flight path and length of time in sight suggest the object was probably a meteor, and carries the typed name of Captain Clifford E. Brant, USAF Intelligence Officer (rank typed CAPTIAN), with no signature (p. 4). Prob. Meteor is written in blue ink on p. 3.
1955: the two cards (D177). The PROJECT 10073 RECORD CARD, on ATIC FORM 329 (REV 26 SEP 52), gives 15 March 1955, Avalon, Catalina Isle, with California added by hand, 2 seconds, one object, straight down, and the comment Probable meteor. In its conclusions column the word Meteor is typed beside the printed Was Astronomical, and no box is marked (p. 1). The UFOB INDEX CARD, AISOP Form 5 (15 Oct 54), describes one object about the size of a nickel held at arm’s length, very bright and orange, falling straight down in the vicinity of Catalina Isle, and has Possibly Astronomical ticked by hand (p. 2). Its comment says that owing to the brevity of the sighting no further investigation was deemed worthwhile by this organisation, which it names as the 4602d AISS.
What the documents do not say
No page of the four records prints unresolved or UAP: both return zero in all four text layers, and neither word stands on any of the fourteen page images. The words the pages use are a subject beginning Unknown Aer on the 1949 transmittal card, alleged “Flying Saucers” in 1952, and UFOB and UNID FLY OBJ in the teletypes.
None of the four refers to another. In each text layer the years of the other three return zero, and the images show no cross-reference. Jupiter returns zero in all four text layers; on the images it stands only on the 1953 card, and the 1953 teletype’s astronomers speak of possibly planets, not of Jupiter (p. 5). That card dates its Jupiter position Nov 15, a day before the sighting date it gives. It gives the time as 16/1305Z; the teletype gives 160505 to 160515, with no time zone (p. 4).
Two of the cards, D181’s of a sighting in 1949 and D178’s of one in 1953, are printed FTD SEP 63, with the line that previous editions may be used. That they were typed in or after September 1963 is an inference from the form edition; no page says when either card was made. Neither the 1949 letter nor its cards record any contact with the writer or the witnesses, and the pencilled note says the letter was not acknowledged. How the letter passed from its addressee to the 17th District is not stated. No page of D181 names the Air Force.
The 1952 report records no length of observation and no wind data, and attempts no estimate of reliability. Its four letters and their sketches are not in the record, which is two pages. The 1953 teletype carries no signature and no name of a reporting officer. Of the 1955 file’s evaluations, the one that declines further investigation is the 4602d AISS’s, on the index card, and the officer’s own is probably a meteor.
The war.gov site’s descriptions go further than the pages in places, and this is the site’s framing. For D177 the site speaks of a provisional assessment and gives the preparing officer the possibly astronomical, no further investigation comment; provisional returns zero, and the page gives that comment to the 4602d AISS. For D178 the site adds military to the page’s jet aircraft activity, and gives local astronomers’ view that Jupiter might explain it; the astronomers on the page speak of possibly planets, and Jupiter stands only on the card. For D179 the site says the object climbed quickly; the page has apparently a climbing turn. For D181 the site describes the documentation as being of the time and speaks of an Air Force conclusion; the card is on the 1963 form edition, and no page names the Air Force. The site also names the 1955 witness, the 1949 letter writer and his addressee, whom this briefing gives by role.
From the record
INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR EVALUATION
DOW-UAP-D181, p. 1, item 10, Conclusion, of the PROJECT 10073 RECORD card
Each flew by alone.
DOW-UAP-D181, p. 1, the second of the two sentences of item 11, Brief summary and analysis
maneuver was observed which was apparently a climbing turn immediately prior to its
DOW-UAP-D179, p. 2, paragraph 2 a of the report on the three scouts; the sentence continues: disappearance by disintegration.
No estimate of the reliability can be attempted by the reporter.
DOW-UAP-D179, p. 2, paragraph 2 e, the sentence on reliability, complete
THESE ARE POSSIBLY PLANETS WHICH APPEAR MORE CLEARLY AFTER RAIN
DOW-UAP-D178, p. 5, item (8) of the teletype, the middle line of its one sentence, on the astronomers of a park observatory the page names; the sentence begins: ASTRONOMERS AT GRIFFIES PARK OBSERVATORY AVER AT OBJECTS SUCH AS
ASTRONOMERS OBSERVATION MAY ACCOUNT FOR THE APPERANCE OF THE SUBJECT
DOW-UAP-D178, p. 5, the closing sentence of item (12), the last line of the message text
Probable meteor.
DOW-UAP-D177, p. 1, item 11, Comments, of the PROJECT 10073 RECORD CARD, a complete sentence
Where the case connects
D179, from March Air Force Base, is on AF Form 112, Part I. So is DOW-UAP-D155, written at March AFB by a bombardment wing in January 1957 on a radar contact with an unidentified aircraft, area reported Saudi Arabia (p. 1). D155 is one of the ten other Air Force reports of this release, the subject of Release 07 Briefing 2; nothing on either record links the two cases. The four Catalina files carry the NND 923007 overlay; that authority number appears in none of the text layers of the other ten.
Release 06 Briefing 1 describes a PROJECT 10073 RECORD CARD in DOW-UAP-D102, whose release title calls it a Project Blue Book file on the Tremonton film. The same printed title stands on D177 p. 1, and PROJECT 10073 RECORD on D181 p. 1. Nothing on these pages refers to that case.
Read it yourself
DOW-UAP-D181, “Unresolved UAP Report Catalina Island 1949”, DOW-UAP-D179, “Unresolved UAP Report Catalina Island 1952”, DOW-UAP-D178, “Unresolved UAP Report Catalina Island 1953”, and DOW-UAP-D177, “Unresolved UAP Report Catalina Island 1955”, are hosted at war.gov in PURSUE Release 07. The 1949 letter is page 3 of its PDF, the 1952 report page 2, the 1953 teletype pages 3 to 5 and the 1955 teletype pages 3 and 4; each file’s card is page 1.
Read the files. Decide for yourself.
Related wiki entries
The wiki entries below give background on the programme and publisher behind this briefing, and on the subjects it touches.
- PURSUE
- Department of War
- Catalina Island Sightings 1949-1955
- Air Intelligence Information Report
- Air Technical Intelligence Center
- 4602d Air Intelligence Service Squadron
- Air Force Regulation 200-2
- Project Blue Book
- Tremonton Film 1952
References and further reading
- DOW-UAP-D181, “Unresolved UAP Report Catalina Island 1949”, PURSUE Release 07, U.S. Department of War, hosted at war.gov/ufo
- DOW-UAP-D179, “Unresolved UAP Report Catalina Island 1952”, PURSUE Release 07, U.S. Department of War, hosted at war.gov/ufo
- DOW-UAP-D178, “Unresolved UAP Report Catalina Island 1953”, PURSUE Release 07, U.S. Department of War, hosted at war.gov/ufo
- DOW-UAP-D177, “Unresolved UAP Report Catalina Island 1955”, PURSUE Release 07, U.S. Department of War, hosted at war.gov/ufo
- Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters (PURSUE), U.S. Department of War, war.gov/ufo
- AARO UAP Records, All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, aaro.mil/UAP-Records
- Signals from the Periphery, Release 07 Briefing 2, on the other ten Air Force field reports of Release 07, among them DOW-UAP-D155
- Signals from the Periphery, Release 06 Briefing 1, on DOW-UAP-D102, the Project Blue Book file on the Tremonton film