FBIUnknown

CRIFO — Col. O'Mara confirms flying saucers exist — Cincinnati newsletter (Section 8 detail)

Sep 21, 1954Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Dayton, Ohio

⟳ Deeper read pending. This record is from the FBI 62-HQ-83894 flying-disc file, whose cursive, clippings and faint scans are under-read by automated OCR. It is flagged for a vision-transcription pass and likely undercounts what the source contains — see the documents collection note.

Analysis — our summary

Section 8 contains the full text of the CRIFO (Civilian Research, Interplanetary Flying Objects) Newsletter Vol. I No. 7 (October 1, 1954), edited by Leonard H. Stringfield of Cincinnati, Ohio, describing his private conversation with Lt. Col. John O'Mara, Deputy Commander of Intelligence at Wright-Patterson AFB, on September 21, 1954. O'Mara reportedly stated flying saucers 'do exist,' characterized past contradictions as 'unfortunate,' and described three categories of phenomena. The newsletter also cites a mystery crater near Logan, Utah (May 1, 1954), a cigar-shaped object over Rome, Italy (September 18, 1954), and a jet that crashed near Utica, New York while investigating a UFO (July 2, 1954). Also contains Detroit Flying Saucer Club FBI surveillance file (1954) reporting club activities and possible counterintelligence concerns.

As reported — verbatim from the document

“"Flying saucers 'do exist' the Colonel told me, and he added, in effect, past contradictions were unfortunate"; "the Colonel said he believed there were 'three breakdowns' -- the third, 'natural phenomena'"”

Analyst notes — caveats & confidence

This record is based on a civilian newsletter filed in FBI records. The O'Mara statements are Stringfield's account, not a direct FBI transcript. FBI was monitoring Stringfield for potential counterintelligence concerns. Section 8 contains substantially more detail on the CRIFO organization than Section 6. OCR quality is moderate to good.

Provenance

Source document65_HS1-834228961_62-HQ-83894_Section_8.pdf

Document typecorrespondence collection

Reporting agencyFBI

Source pages217

Redaction markers in doc14

DeclassifiedFirst public at this release (2026)

Held classified~72 years (≥, to this release)

Extraction confidence LowHow cleanly this record could be parsed from the source — driven by legibility & redaction. It is not a measure of how credible or anomalous the sighting is.