JANAP 146c
JANAP 146c (Joint Army Navy Air Force Publication, directive 146c) is a 1954 US military directive requiring both airborne and waterborne sightings of unidentified flying objects to be reported under specific service communications instructions, while simultaneously prohibiting the civilians and military personnel who filed these reports from discussing them publicly. It is one of the primary regulatory instruments cited in the history of systematic suppression of military UAP reporting.
Scope and Requirements
Published by the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 1954, JANAP 146c designated UFO sightings — both aerial (from aircraft) and waterborne (from ships and submarines) — as Vital Intelligence Sightings (VISORS) that required immediate reporting through official service communications channels. By including waterborne sightings alongside airborne ones, JANAP 146c formally acknowledged that maritime UAP encounters were a recognized category of intelligence event requiring systematic documentation.
Prohibition on Public Disclosure
The directive explicitly prohibited military personnel and civilians who had filed official sighting reports under JANAP 146c from discussing those reports publicly. Violations were classified as offenses under the Communications Act of 1934 and espionage statutes, carrying penalties including a $10,000 fine and imprisonment. This legal framework transformed voluntary military culture of discretion into a criminal prohibition on disclosure, creating a formal legal barrier to military personnel discussing their UAP encounters publicly.
Relationship to Other Regulations
JANAP 146c was implemented alongside complementary regulations that together formed the regulatory architecture of UAP suppression:
- USAF Regulation 200-2 (1953) — Required all officially confirmed Air Force UFO reports to be routed directly to Air Technical Intelligence Center (ATIC), not to Project Blue Book, ensuring the most credible aerial sightings bypassed the public-facing investigation.
- OPNAV 3820 (January 23, 1954) — The US Navy's directive requiring UAP sightings (designated "flying object reports") to be sent to the directors of ATIC, USAF Intelligence, and Naval Intelligence, directly citing JANAP 146c as its authority.
Together, these regulations created a closed reporting loop in which military UAP sightings — including maritime USO encounters — were channeled into classified intelligence systems with no obligation for public accounting or congressional disclosure.
Donald Keyhoe's Documentation
A copy of OPNAV 3820, which directly cites JANAP 146c, appears in Donald Keyhoe's book The Flying Saucer Conspiracy, providing civilian documentation of the Navy's implementation of JANAP's reporting requirements.
Significance for USO Research
JANAP 146c is especially significant in the context of USO history because it explicitly covered waterborne UFO sightings — demonstrating that the US government had by 1954 formally recognized maritime UAP as a category requiring classified management. By prohibiting military and civilian witnesses from discussing officially reported sightings, JANAP 146c effectively silenced the witness pool for USO encounters at the same time it required those encounters to be secretly documented.