DOW-UAP-D180: The Final Personnel Record of Colonel Howard M. McCoy, Intelligence Chief at Wright Field in the Project Sign Years (1930-1954)

Source file: DOW-UAP-D180_Final-Personnel-Record-for-McCoy-Howard-M-US-Air-Force-1954.pdf Originating agency: U.S. Air Force (record held by the National Personnel Records Center) Document type: Retired officer's master personnel file: station and duty cards, orders, oaths of office, efficiency and effectiveness reports, letters of appreciation, retirement application and approvals, and an official portrait Date: 1930-1954 (the career); retirement effective 31 August 1954, plus later records-center and Veterans Administration correspondence Classification: Mostly unclassified administrative records; a few enclosures (the PSEA charter of 1951) carry a "RESTRICTED" marking; released to the public in 2026 Page count: 298 VIRIN: 260508-D-D0360-1172 PURSUE Release: 7

Summary

DOW-UAP-D180 is an officer's career file, not a UAP report. Its connection to the PURSUE releases is the man himself. Howard M. McCoy held the senior intelligence post at Air Materiel Command (AMC), Wright Field, from December 1946 to August 1949. Those were the years in which AMC ran the Air Force's first investigations of "flying discs." Earlier releases in this archive show him signing for AMC on that work: the first Project Sign progress report of April 1948 (DOW-UAP-D097) and AMC's 1948 correspondence on flying-object reporting by airline pilots (DOW-UAP-D100).

The 298 scanned pages follow his whole career. He was a West Point cadet from 1926 and was commissioned on 12 June 1930. He trained as a pilot at March and Kelly Fields, flew with the 94th Pursuit Squadron at Selfridge Field, earned a master's degree in aeronautical engineering at Caltech and became a propeller specialist at Wright Field. During the war he served in technical intelligence in Europe. After Wright Field he attended the Industrial College of the Armed Forces and served at the CIA. From 1951 to 1954 he was Director of the Physical Security Equipment Agency (PSEA). He retired as a colonel on 31 August 1954.

The file supports the official blurb's dates and titles. It does not support the blurb's statement about Project Sign and Project Grudge. A text search of all 298 pages finds no mention of Sign, Grudge, flying saucers or unidentified objects. What the file adds is a different, little-known part of his Wright Field command: a classified laboratory called the Science Survey Office.

Research Article

Structure of the file

The record is not in chronological order. Pages 1-21 are later correspondence from the National Personnel Records Center and the Veterans Administration. Pages 22-41 are the retired master personnel record: station cards, a chronological record of service, flying ratings, the statement of service and retirement-pay forms. Pages 43-80 hold the 1954 retirement orders and application, with copies of the Department of Defense directives that created and then abolished PSEA. Pages 100-153 contain letters of appreciation, promotion papers, oaths of office, Caltech correspondence and flying-school records. Most of the rest, roughly pages 158-295, is a long run of efficiency and effectiveness reports going back to 1930. The official portrait is on pages 296-297. This article does not reproduce service numbers, birth dates, addresses, medical records or family information found in the file.

The career on paper

The station cards (pages 24-25) and the chronological record (page 30) set out the career in order. He attended the Air Corps Primary Flying School at March Field (October 1930-June 1931) and the Advanced Flying School at Kelly Field (to October 1931). He then served with the 94th Pursuit Squadron at Selfridge Field, Michigan, until September 1934. One early commendation, from Major General B. D. Foulois, Chief of the Air Corps (page 236), names Second Lieutenant Howard M. McCoy among the crew of a squadron flight from Selfridge to Rockwell Field, San Diego, flown "in conjunction with testing the V-1570F motor." The typed date on this letter looks like 1952 on the scan, but the context places it in 1932.

Engineering followed. He studied aeronautical engineering at Caltech (1934-35), attended the Air Corps Engineering School at Wright Field (1935-36) and worked in the Materiel Division's Propeller Laboratory from 1936. A letter he wrote from Caltech on 14 December 1940 (page 134) explains that he had received a Master of Science degree there in 1935, had been "admitted to Candidacy for Doctor of Philosophy Degree," and had specialized in aircraft propellers for six years. His research topic was "The Control and Synchronization of Aircraft Propellers." By 1942 he was Chief of the Propeller Laboratory. He then attended the Army and Navy Staff College (1943-44) and went to Europe with the Office of the Director of Technical Services, USSTAF, then Air Technical Service Command in Europe and the A-2 (intelligence) section. In October 1945 he returned to Wright Field as Chief of the Analysis Division and Chief of the Air Documents Division in Intelligence (T-2). His awards (page 10) are the Legion of Merit, the Bronze Star Medal, the European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with battle star, and service and victory medals.

T-2 and the Intelligence Department, 1946-1949

According to the chronological record, McCoy became acting Deputy Commanding General for T-2 on 10 December 1946, and took the post formally from 1 April 1947. From 15 October 1947 he was Chief of the Intelligence Department, Headquarters AMC, and he held that post until he left for the Industrial College on 25 August 1949. The efficiency reports for this period describe the job in some detail. Lieutenant General N. F. Twining, commanding AMC, made him responsible for "planning, establishing policy and supervising all phases of Technical Intelligence for the AMC," as well as AMC's photographic services and "compiling the AMC history" (page 260). Lieutenant General B. W. Chidlaw described the mission of the Intelligence Department as "an Air Technical Intelligence Service for the USAF required for the prevention of technological surprise from any source" (page 264).

The ratings are consistently high and also consistently candid. In December 1946, Colonel D. L. Putt, writing about McCoy as one of his division chiefs, rated him Superior but noted: "His weakness lies in the initiation of many projects without following thru to completion" (page 267). Twining also rated him Superior and called him "Very serious but industrious and capable," adding that he was "So enthusiastic about his own job that at times may tend to irate others" (page 262). Chidlaw wrote that he "Attacks his objective aggressively" and had raised "the standards and improving the results of Air Technical Intelligence" (page 258). Chidlaw also said McCoy had developed "the relatively new field of Air Technical Intelligence" and that his "enthusiasms for broadening the horizons of his job have to be continually checked" (pages 264, 266). The mid-1949 report praised his "Unusual technical knowledge and analytical ability," but warned that he was "inclined to either forget or overlook the dollar costs" (pages 255, 257). General Joseph T. McNarney concurred in these reports.

None of these reports mentions unidentified flying objects. That is a real gap, not just a missing keyword. The ratings list technical intelligence, security, foreign intelligence, photography and history, but the Sign and Grudge work that the archive's other documents show him signing does not appear among his rated duties.

The Science Survey Office

The most revealing passage in the file is in McCoy's own retirement statement of July 1954 (page 62): "As Deputy Commanding General (T-2 Intelligence), then Chief, Intelligence Department, Headquarters, Air Materiel Command, for the period December 1946 - August 1949, the undersigned managed a specialized laboratory known as the Science Survey Office (SSO) which developed certain classified types of security and investigative equipment." He adds that the laboratory "was abolished for unknown reasons shortly after" his transfer in August 1949. The file includes AMC Organizational Directive 20-202, revised June 1949, for the "SCIENCE SURVEY OFFICE (MCIS)." It gives the office's entire mission in one line: "Perform the classified functions as prescribed" (page 70).

Letters of appreciation give some idea of the office's work. On 3 December 1948 McCoy and his staff gave a demonstration at the Counter Intelligence Corps Center, Camp Holabird, to CIC detachment commanders "from all parts of the world" (page 102). On 21 February 1949 two civilians from the "Scientific Survey Office, Department of Intelligence" lectured the first class of the Air Force Office of Special Investigations (OSI) training school on "Sound Equipment" and "Investigative Photography" (page 101). In 1947 he lectured at the Air University on "Foreign Research and Development," illustrating the talk with motion pictures (pages 106-107). The file describes the SSO only as a laboratory for security and investigative equipment. It does not say the SSO had anything to do with flying-object investigations, and this article draws no such link.

PSEA and a disputed retirement

The rest of his career continued the SSO's work. After the Industrial College, where he took the course in Economic Mobilization (page 85), he served at the CIA from mid-1950 to March 1951. H. Marshall Chadwell, Assistant Director, rated him there for "a thorough knowledge and understanding of intelligence" (page 252). On 1 March 1951 he became the first Director of the Physical Security Equipment Agency. A Secretary of Defense memorandum of February 1951 had set up PSEA as a joint agency under Air Force management, to develop "physical security and related investigative equipment as a common service" for the Department of Defense (pages 71-72). Department of Defense Directive 5154.9 abolished it on 4 March 1954 (page 80).

In his statement McCoy says he spent "about 20,000 hours" from 1946 onward "fighting Communism through technical means." He writes that PSEA's staff of 25 was never enlarged, that its research and development funds were frozen in March 1953, and that it met only "about 10%" of its charter. Its customers included the GSA, the State Department, the AEC, the NSA and the CIA. He proposed leaving the Air Force to found a civilian "Industrial Security Engineering Service," modeled on Project RAND and the Battelle Memorial Institute (pages 60-68).

The Air Staff disagreed about his request. An undated memorandum to the Secretary of the Air Force Personnel Council argued that his record showed "sufficient potential" and recommended that the application "be not favorably considered at this time" (page 52). A second memorandum to the same council, dated 26 August 1954 and signed by Lieutenant General Emmett O'Donnell, Jr., Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel, takes the opposite view. It says McCoy "has reached or passed the peak of his effectiveness and he lacks motivation for an assignment in a new field," and recommends approval. The Air Force Personnel Council stamped it "APPROVED" the same day (page 55). The 1932 Foulois commendation also lists a Second Lieutenant Emmett O'Donnell, flying with McCoy in the 94th Pursuit Squadron (page 236). The file does not say whether this is the same officer.

Significance

This record will not settle any question about UAP. Its value is in context. It confirms, from primary personnel records, the dates and titles in the official blurb: acting and then formal Deputy Commanding General for Intelligence (T-2) from December 1946, and Chief of the Intelligence Department, AMC, until August 1949. It also gives the archive the most detailed profile yet of the officer whose signature appears on the first Project Sign report (DOW-UAP-D097). He was an engineer and pilot who specialized in propellers, and his superiors described him as brilliant, intense and inclined to over-extend.

The record also corrects the blurb on one point. Its 298 pages give no evidence that McCoy helped design or administer Sign or Grudge. That evidence comes from other documents. The file instead shows that the same intelligence department ran a classified security-equipment laboratory, the Science Survey Office, which he called one of his main achievements. It is a reminder that in 1947-1949 flying-object reports were only one of many responsibilities for the officers who handled them.

Key People

Locations

Key Concepts

Notable Quotes

"As Deputy Commanding General (T-2 Intelligence), then Chief, Intelligence Department, Headquarters, Air Materiel Command, for the period December 1946 - August 1949, the undersigned managed a specialized laboratory known as the Science Survey Office (SSO) which developed certain classified types of security and investigative equipment." -- page 62

"Mission: Perform the classified functions as prescribed." -- page 70

"Very serious but industrious and capable. Has handled a difficult assignment in a most excellent manner. So enthusiastic about his own job that at times may tend to irate others." -- page 262

"This officer is very capable, technically qualified and a good engineer. His weakness lies in the initiation of many projects without following thru to completion." -- page 267

"Unusual technical knowledge and analytical ability are his outstanding characteristics." -- page 255

"Since 1946 this officer has devoted practically all of his efforts (about 20,000 hours) fighting Communism through technical means by developing security and investigative equipment." -- page 61

"A review of his service indicates that he has reached or passed the peak of his effectiveness and he lacks motivation for an assignment in a new field." -- page 55