Air Force tracked UFO witnesses for 22 years with individual identification numbers
By June Hargrove ·
Witnesses to unidentified aerial phenomena were indexed by number and subjected to counterintelligence and behavioral research during the Cold War.
The US National Archives catalog contains an entry for a series titled "Records of Investigations of Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) Relating to the Office of Special Investigations." This is a scope-and-content description, not the investigative files themselves, but it provides a map of how the Air Force organized its curiosity and its suspicion during the height of the Cold War.
Individual Identification Numbers
According to the catalogue entry, the series is composed of investigative reports, correspondence, and photographs. The structure of these reports followed a rigid administrative pattern. The file's catalogue entry records that reports include "brief information on the particular sighting," specifically the location, the timing, and the identity of the individual who reported the event.
Of particular interest to anyone who has dealt with military logging is the note that "each report also includes an individual identification number." This indicates a systematic indexing of witnesses. The sightings were not merely anecdotes to be filed away; they were assigned numeric identifiers, transforming a visual experience into a data point.
While the initial reports were brief, the archive description notes that the "remaining pages of the reports often include correspondence about the investigation." This suggests a secondary layer of processing—a back-and-forth between the investigators and the reporting parties that exists beyond the initial summary.
AFOSI Files
Provenance is where the record becomes more complex. The catalog entry states that while the records were maintained by the Project Blue Book Office and its predecessor, there are files specifically "relating to the Air Force Office of Special Investigations."
Public record identifies the Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI) as the primary agency for criminal investigations and counterintelligence within the Air Force. The intersection of AFOSI and Project Blue Book suggests a shift in perspective. Blue Book was ostensibly a scientific and technical effort to catalog anomalies, but the involvement of AFOSI brings a different set of tools and priorities to the table—priorities usually associated with security, personnel reliability, and the detection of foreign espionage.
The catalog does not specify why AFOSI was called into these particular cases or what the nature of their "relation" to the UFO records was. It simply notes their presence in the series.
1947 to 1969
To understand the timeline of these files, one must look at the related series descriptions within the same archive search. The "List of Sightings" was not managed by a single entity, but passed through three different offices over two decades. From 1947 to 1951, the Technical Intelligence Division held the series. From 1951 to 1952, it moved to the Air Technical Intelligence Center. Finally, from 1952 to 1969, the Project Blue Book Office took over the maintenance of the series.
This movement reflects the evolving nature of the Air Force's approach to unidentified aerial phenomena. The transition from "Technical Intelligence" to a dedicated "Project" suggests a shift from treating sightings as purely technical intelligence gaps to treating them as a distinct category of study.
Other related series in the archives point to a wider net of surveillance. There are records involving the 4602D Air Intelligence Service Squadron, and a separate collection of "Behavioral Research Project Files" containing case files, data coding sheets, and summaries. The presence of behavioral research in the same archival proximity as UFO sightings suggests the military was interested not just in what was in the sky, but in the psychological state of the people reporting it.
Canadian Military Matters
The scope of these investigations extended beyond US borders. Related series in the National Archives concerning "Military Matters in Canada" include correspondence and reports on the North American Air Defense Command (NORAD) and civil defense. Among the subjects listed in those Canadian records are "unidentified flying object."
This cross-border coordination was a necessity of the era. The radar screens of the 1950s did not stop at the 49th parallel, and the movement of unidentified objects often triggered responses from both US and Canadian assets. The archival trail suggests that UFO sightings were woven into the larger fabric of continental defense and the operational reality of NORAD.
What remains missing from the catalogue description is the outcome of the AFOSI-related files. We know the reports exist, we know they are indexed by number, and we know they contain photographs and letters. We do not know how many of those reports led to security clearances being revoked or how many were dismissed as atmospheric phenomena. The catalog merely confirms that the remaining pages of these reports often include correspondence from the individual that witnessed the sighting.