Colonel, United States Air Force, Chief of the Intelligence Department at Air Materiel Command in 1948, and the author of the assessment that closes the first phase of the Air Force’s flying disc investigation.
McCoy signed the first indorsement of 8 November 1948 replying to General Charles P. Cabell’s letter of 3 November, published in PURSUE Release 05 record DOW-UAP-D100. Its twelve paragraphs record that AMC had by then studied approximately 180 incidents, and reach three conclusions: that in the majority of cases observers have sighted some type of flying object they cannot classify as an aircraft within the limits of their personal experience; that there is as yet no conclusive proof that unidentified flying objects other than known balloons are real aircraft; and that the exact nature of those objects cannot be established until physical evidence such as would result from a crash has been obtained. He recommended against any press release unless press demands made one imperative.
The same indorsement records that the possibility of vehicles from another planet had not been ignored but that tangible evidence was completely lacking, that AMC had plotted incident frequency against the approach curves of Mercury, Venus and Mars, and that Charles Fort’s collected books had been consulted. McCoy also signed the October 1948 approach asking the Central Intelligence Agency to disclose any evidence that the objects were of domestic origin; no reply appears in the file. An earlier McCoy proposal that fighters be held on continuous alert to intercept discs was refused by Plans and Operations in March 1948.
Connections
Air Materiel Command · General Charles P. Cabell · Project Sign · PURSUE · Charles Fort · Nathan F. Twining