Hickam Field, T. H. UFO Sighting (January 4, 1949) — USAF Files
A first saucer wave case from Hickam Field, T. H.. On January 4, 1949, Captain Paul R.
Background
On January 4, 1949, in Hickam Field, T. H., U.S. government investigators recorded an unidentified-object incident later released to the public on May 8, 2026 as part of the Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters (PURSUE). The incident is one of the first wave of “flying saucer” reports that swept the United States after the Kenneth Arnold sighting of June 1947 and the Roswell incident of July 1947. The case appears in U.S. Department of Defense documents.
What the document records
On January 4, 1949, Captain Paul R. Stoney observed an object approximately 25 miles east of Hickam Field. The object appeared to be a large, flat, white, round shape that was oscillating. It circled the area, making both right and left turns, and was estimated to be traveling at 85 miles per hour.
The number of witnesses is not specified in the released document.
Verbatim from the file
“the object appeared to be a large round piece of flat white cardboard, oscillating continually.”. “the object seemed to be extremely white on the underside, while the topside portion of the object seemed to have a dark, non-reflecting surface.”
Type of case
The case is a visual sighting reported by ground or air observers.
Status
All records released under the PURSUE program are designated unresolved by the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) by default. The federal government has not concluded that the events were anomalous, has not concluded that they were conventional, and has not ruled out either possibility. Conventional candidates for sightings of this period include experimental aircraft, weather balloons (especially the Project Mogul series in the late 1940s), atmospheric optical phenomena such as sundogs and lenticular clouds, and astronomical objects including Venus, the Moon, and meteors near the horizon.