THE DOCUMENT
DOW-UAP-D180, “Final Personnel Record for McCoy Howard M US Air Force 1954”, a Department of War record from the U.S. Department of War’s PURSUE Release 07, published at war.gov/ufo on 23 October 2026. The title is the release’s, taken from the file name; the war.gov site title gives the same words with commas and full stops, and the site’s Incident Date is 8/31/1954. The record has no title of its own and no contents list. It is the personnel file of Howard M. McCoy, 298 pages scanned sheet by sheet: a buff jacket stamped RETIRED, with three National Personnel Records Center labels and a printed DECLASSIFIED label reading Authority: NW 90262 (p. 1, read from the page image), and a jacket face with a typed name tab, scanned twice (pp. 2, 3); request and archive papers of 1976 to 1998 (pp. 4 to 16); retired-status cards (pp. 17 to 21); a file cover sheet (p. 22); index cards (pp. 23 to 28); his qualification record, WD AGO Form 66 (pp. 29 to 32); retirement and service papers, mostly of 1954, with his application and its attachments (pp. 33 to 84); career papers of 1926 to 1953 (pp. 85 to 152); casualty papers of 1976 and 1977 (pp. 153 to 157); efficiency reports from 1941 back to 1930, with a service chart and school records (pp. 158 to 232); a rating card, two commendation letters and decoration records (pp. 233 to 239); reports from 1954 back to 1941, with two academic sheets and a 1945 letter (pp. 240 to 295); and two photographs with the stamped reverse of the second (pp. 296 to 298). Six pages had no usable text as issued; five carry this project’s OCR (pp. 42, 194, 237, 296, 297). RESTRICTED markings at the head of pp. 71 to 79, 117 and 121 are struck through. No redaction or exemption code was found in it.
Why this one is worth your time
The war.gov site describes D180 as the final personnel record of an officer whom it places, from December 1946 to August 1949, as the Air Materiel Command’s deputy commanding general for intelligence (T-2) and then head of its Intelligence Department. It says that the Air Force began Project SIGN and Project GRUDGE, two studies of unidentified anomalous phenomena, while he held those posts, and that he was one of the senior intelligence officers who helped plan, run and carry them out.
The file is the official paper on his career. It gives his posts in its own words and dates, what his raters wrote, and his own 1954 account. Its text never names either project.
What the document says
Pilot and engineer, 1926 to 1944. He was a cadet at the United States Military Academy from 1 July 1926 and a commissioned officer from 12 June 1930 (p. 59). The service chart shows flying school at March Field and Kelly Field, the 94th Pursuit Squadron at Selfridge Field, the California Institute of Technology, the Air Corps Engineering School and, from 1936, the propeller unit at Wright Field (p. 168, read from the page image).
Europe, 1944 to 1945. From July 1944 he was deputy director of technical services at Headquarters, Air Service Command, US Strategic Air Forces in Europe (p. 279). His Bronze Star citation credits him with co-ordinating the efforts of the several Army Air Forces activities concerned with the exploitation of enemy research and development, and says his membership on certain British committees enabled him to obtain for American organisations the latest information on German research, developments and operations on their V-1 and V-2 weapons (p. 237, read from the page image).
T-2, 1945 to 1947. From 18 October 1945 the duty entry on his qualification record reads Ch, AnalDiv&Ch, AirDocDiv, at 4020AAFBU(HqATSC)T-2 Intell, WF, Dayton, O (p. 30, rows read from the page image here and below), and his reports to mid-1946 give him as Chief, Air Documents Div, rated by Colonel D. L. Putt (pp. 270, 272, 273). For 1 July to 9 December 1946 the two kinds of paper disagree. The qualification record’s entry for those dates is ActDepComdGen T-2 (p. 30). The efficiency report for exactly those dates gives his duty as Chief, Air Documents Div, Intelligence (T-2), for 143 days, and Putt, signing as commanding Intelligence (T-2), calls him one of his division chiefs (p. 267, read from the page image). Neither page refers to the other. The next report, for 10 December 1946 to 30 June 1947, gives his duty as Deputy CG, Intelligence (T-2), and its rater, the commanding general of Air Materiel Command, gives his status as My Deputy for Technical Intelligence (T-2) (p. 262, read from the page image); for that period the qualification record reads Same, Eff1Apr47, DepComdGen T-2 (p. 30). The report for July to October 1947 makes him responsible for supervising all phases of technical intelligence for the command, its photographic services and its history (p. 260).
The Intelligence Department, 1947 to 1949. From 15 October 1947 his report gives him as Chief of Intelligence, Air Materiel Command (p. 264). The rater, Lt. Gen. B. W. Chidlaw, lists three duties: an Air Technical Intelligence Service for the USAF required for the prevention of technological surprise from any source, the exploitation of all available sources of foreign intelligence, and command policies on security (p. 264). Air Materiel Command General Orders Number 66 of 8 August 1949 announced Colonel Harold E Watson as Chief, Intelligence Department, with McCoy relieved (p. 92). His last report in the post ends on 30 June 1949 (p. 255); the order relieving him is dated 8 August 1949 (p. 92), and the qualification record carries the post to 24 August 1949 (p. 30).
The Science Survey Office. His 1954 statement says that as Deputy Commanding General (T-2 Intelligence), then Chief, Intelligence Department, from December 1946 to August 1949, he managed a specialised laboratory known as the Science Survey Office, which developed certain classified types of security and investigative equipment, and that it was abolished for unknown reasons shortly after his transfer in August 1949 (p. 62). After the statement come a tab sheet for the office (p. 69) and a directive revised June 1949 whose one provision gives its mission (p. 70). The statement and the directive name none of the office’s equipment.
The Central Intelligence Agency and after. The qualification record has him at Headquarters USAF with CenConGp/CIA from 14 July 1950 to 28 February 1951, as Air Tech Intell O (p. 30), and the effectiveness report for those dates is delegated to Mr H. Marshall Chadwell as his immediate superior (p. 250). A Central Intelligence Agency memorandum over Chadwell’s name, as Assistant Director, covers 30 August 1950 to 13 March 1951 (p. 252, read from the page image). Neither page names his office or duty there. He was appointed Director, Physical Security Equipment Agency, as of 3 March 1951 (p. 88), and a Department of Defense directive of 4 March 1954 abolished the agency (p. 80).
What his raters wrote. His rater for 1946 to 1947 judged him very serious, yet hard-working and able, rated his handling of a hard job highly, and thought his zeal for his own work might at times irate others, as the page prints it (p. 262). Putt rated him able and technically sound, a good engineer, but faulted him for launching many projects and not seeing them through, and for not learning the detailed running of his division, to the cost of its efficiency (p. 267). Chidlaw credited him in 1948 with building up air technical intelligence as a fairly new field and counted him among the few Air Force officers then fit for that post, while noting that his wish to widen the job needed checking (pp. 264, 266). For 25 February 1953 to 24 February 1954, Maj. Gen. Joseph F. Carroll, Director, Special Investigations (IG), wrote that the agency’s unsettled status left him badly hampered, without a clear mission or policy guidance, and that, in fairness to him, he knew too little of his work then to judge it (p. 243).
The retirement, 1954. On 27 July 1954 he applied for voluntary retirement on 31 August 1954, citing “extenuating circumstances” and attaching a nine-page statement (pp. 59 to 68). It says his work since 1946 on physical security equipment had made him the governmental authority in that field, and that he wished to retire to take up a non-profit civil project, an Industrial Security Engineering Service (pp. 60, 65, 67). Two memoranda on the application to the Secretary of the Air Force Personnel Council list the same three inclosures. One carries no date and no signature, and recommends that the application be not favourably considered at this time, as his overall military record indicates he possesses sufficient potential to be of continued value to the Air Force (p. 52). The other, stamped 26 AUG 1954 and signed by Lieutenant General Emmett O’Donnell, Jr., Deputy Chief of Staff, Personnel, says that a review of his service indicates he has reached or passed the peak of his effectiveness and lacks motivation for an assignment in a new field, and, with the possibility of increased forced attrition, recommends approval; it bears an APPROVED stamp dated 26 Aug 54 (p. 55, read from the page image). Special Orders No. 167 of 27 August 1954 retired him effective 31 August 1954 (p. 37), as a colonel (p. 53). Casualty papers record his death in October 1976.
What the document does not say
Its text never names either project. Over the whole record, in the issued layer, this project’s OCR and the supplementary block, Project Sign, Grudge, Blue Book, saucer, flying disc, flying object, unidentified, sighting, anomal and UAP each return no hit; UFO returns three, each inside an OCR-damaged word, and Air Technical Intelligence Center none. The counts are case-insensitive, substring and whole word. The layer is poor on forms and handwriting, where a zero is weaker.
The duties the pages give for his intelligence posts are technical intelligence, the prevention of technological surprise, foreign intelligence, security, photographic services and the command’s history (pp. 256, 258, 260, 264). The site’s Incident Date, 8/31/1954, matches the effective date of his retirement; that the site took it from there is an inference, since no page links them.
The record does not say what the Air Documents Division did, which 1946 entry is correct, what the Science Survey Office’s equipment was, which Personnel Council memorandum was sent first, or whether the unsigned one was sent at all.
The release redacts nothing in D180: redact, exempt and 1843 return no hit, and the site leaves the record’s redaction flag blank. Home addresses and telephone numbers, his birthplace and date of birth, service numbers, fingerprints, his family’s names and a private requester’s particulars are all in the clear. None of it is repeated here, and the two photographs that close the file (pp. 296, 297) are not described.
From the record
ActDepComdGen T-2
DOW-UAP-D180, p. 30, the duties column of his qualification record for 1 July to 9 December 1946, the period the efficiency report of p. 267 gives as Chief, Air Documents Div
Deputy CG, Intelligence
DOW-UAP-D180, p. 262, the duty assignment on the efficiency report for 10 December 1946 to 30 June 1947, rated by the commanding general of Air Materiel Command; the entry continues on the next line: (T-2)
Air Technical Intelligence Service for the USAF required for the prevention of technological
DOW-UAP-D180, p. 264, the first of three duties the rater lists for the Chief of Intelligence, Air Materiel Command, 15 October 1947 to 31 May 1948; the sentence continues: surprise from any source
is announced as Chief, Intelligence Department, vice
DOW-UAP-D180, p. 92, General Orders Number 66 of 8 August 1949, the staff assignment, which opens with Colonel Harold E Watson’s name and closes with McCoy’s, relieved
specialized laboratory known as the Science Survey Office (SSO) which
DOW-UAP-D180, p. 62, his 1954 statement, the sentence on his two posts; the sentence continues: developed certain classified types of security and investigative equipment
Mission: Perform the classified functions as prescribed.
DOW-UAP-D180, p. 70, the directive headed Intelligence Department, SCIENCE SURVEY OFFICE (MCIS), its one numbered provision
Agency, leaving 1 March 1951 to become Director of the newly activated
DOW-UAP-D180, p. 62, the same statement, two sentences on; the sentence begins: From there he was assigned to the Central Intelligence
Where the case connects
This briefing draws no link from D180 to any other record of Release 07. The two programmes come from the war.gov site’s description, not from the pages.
Release 06 Briefing 3 read a record of the same kind, the Navy’s personnel file on Delbert C. Newhouse, DOW-UAP-D104. In form only: the release redacts nothing in either, and DOW-UAP-D104 is three file jackets scanned end to end, while D180 opens with a jacket that carries a printed DECLASSIFIED label.
Read it yourself
DOW-UAP-D180, “Final Personnel Record for McCoy Howard M US Air Force 1954”, is hosted at war.gov in PURSUE Release 07. The qualification record’s duty rows are page 30 of the PDF, the 1954 application and statement pages 59 to 68, the two memoranda pages 52 and 55, and the reports on the intelligence years pages 255 to 273.
Read the file. 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
- H. M. McCoy
- Central Intelligence Agency
- Project Sign
- Project Grudge
- Delbert C. Newhouse
References and further reading
- DOW-UAP-D180, “Final Personnel Record for McCoy Howard M US Air Force 1954”, 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 06 Briefing 3, on DOW-UAP-D104, the Navy’s personnel record of Delbert C. Newhouse