Navy FLYOBRPT reporting instruction (1954)
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 7
| Date | 23 July 1954 |
|---|---|
| Topics | Ocean & underwater (topic) |
| People | Donald Keyhoe |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 52 |
| Year | 1954 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 1954 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 4 |
On 23 July 1954 the commandant of the U.S. Navy's Potomac River Naval Command issued PRNC Instruction 3820.1, telling Navy units in the Washington area how to report unidentified flying objects. Reports were to be sent by message without delay to Air Force and Navy intelligence and air defence commands, headed with the code word "FLYOBRPT" (flying object report).[1]
The instruction
The instruction defined unidentified flying objects as any airborne object which, by performance, aerodynamic characteristics or unusual features, did not conform to any known aircraft or missile. It noted that the Air Force had primary responsibility for collecting such information and had asked all naval activities to cooperate. It cited an earlier Chief of Naval Operations notice of 26 September 1952, the military communications directive JANAP 146(C) and an Air Force letter of April 1952.[1]
Reporting
Reports were to go for action to the Director of Intelligence at Air Force headquarters, the Air Technical Intelligence Center at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Air Defense Command at Ent Air Force Base in Colorado Springs and the Eastern Air Defense Force, with copies to the Director of Naval Intelligence, the Eastern Sea Frontier and the Potomac River Naval Command. They were to describe the object's shape, size, colour and number, and the circumstances of the sighting.[1]
Context
The instruction closely matched the Air Force's revised regulation AFR 200-2, issued a few weeks later on 12 August 1954. Together they show the military treating UFO reports as an air-defence and intelligence matter at the height of the Cold War, when officials feared that Soviet aircraft could use unusual tactics or that reports might mask an attack.[1][2]
Publication
The text was obtained by civilian researchers and appears in Donald Keyhoe's 1955 book The Flying Saucer Conspiracy. Keyhoe used it to argue that the Navy took UFOs more seriously than the Air Force's public statements suggested. The Naval History and Heritage Command has published background on how the Navy handled UFO reporting in this period.[1][3]
People and topics
- U.S. Navy — The U.S. naval service, whose pilots reported the UAP encounters revealed in 2017.
- Unidentified anomalous phenomena — The U.S. government's current term for unidentified objects in the air, in space and underwater.
- U.S. Air Force — The U.S. military service that ran the official UFO projects from 1947 to 1969.
- Air Force Regulation 200-2 — Air Force Regulation 200-2
- Unidentified flying object — An object in the sky that can't be identified; the older term for UAP.
- Donald Keyhoe — Retired Marine officer, author and director of NICAP who campaigned against UFO secrecy.
On the Timeline
- Roswell-area helicopter crash claim (1954) (12 April 1954) — An Air Force helicopter trainee says he was sent to a desert crash near Roswell in 1954.
- 4602d AISS crashed-object claim (1954) (14 October 1954) — A Marine aviator says he was told an Air Force intelligence squadron ran a crashed-object program.
See every 1954 event on the UAP Timeline →
References
- PRNC Instruction 3820.1, 23 July 1954 (text), Project UFO archive · discmaster.textfiles.com · archived copy
- AFR 200-2, 12 August 1954, Wikisource · en.wikisource.org · archived copy
- "U-2s, UFOs, and Operation Blue Book", Naval History and Heritage Command (archived) · webarchive.library.unt.edu · archived copy
- nicap.org · nicap.org · archived copy
This page was last edited on 29 October 2026. Articles are written in our own words from the sources listed under References; disputed claims are attributed to the people who made them.
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