OPNAV 3820
OPNAV 3820 is a January 23, 1954 directive issued by the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations that required US Navy personnel to report UAP sightings — formally designated as "flying object reports" — to the directors of the Air Technical Intelligence Center (ATIC), USAF Intelligence, and Naval Intelligence. The directive explicitly cited JANAP 146c as its authority and represented the US Navy's formal participation in the centralized, classified management of military UAP data.
Content and Requirements
The directive required all UAP sightings observed by Navy personnel or platforms to be routed simultaneously to three intelligence recipients: the director of ATIC (the Air Force's primary technical intelligence body), the director of USAF Intelligence, and the Director of Naval Intelligence. This tri-directional reporting requirement ensured that naval UAP data was immediately shared with Air Force intelligence infrastructure — specifically to ATIC rather than to Project Blue Book — preventing credible Navy sightings from entering any publicly accountable investigation.
By using the term "flying object reports" rather than "UFO" or similar designations, the directive also contributed to the terminological fragmentation that has historically complicated FOIA searches for military UAP records.
Documentation
A copy of OPNAV 3820 appears in Donald Keyhoe's book The Flying Saucer Conspiracy, providing public documentation of the directive and its explicit citation of JANAP 146c. This documentary record establishes that the Navy's participation in centralized UAP data management was a formal institutional policy, not an informal practice.
Regulatory Context
OPNAV 3820 was one component of a regulatory framework that shaped military UAP reporting from 1953 to 1969 and beyond:
- USAF Regulation 200-2 (1953) — Routed confirmed Air Force UFO reports to ATIC rather than Blue Book
- JANAP 146c (1954) — Prohibited public discussion of officially reported sightings under criminal penalties
- OPNAV 3820 (January 1954) — Implemented Navy-specific reporting requirements under JANAP 146c's authority
Together these regulations created a closed-loop system routing all credible military UAP reports — including maritime USO sightings — into classified channels managed by ATIC, with no mechanism for public disclosure.