Within Register Numbers
Was T4 1846 Really the Memo's Control Number?
T4-1846 helped archivists locate the folder, but the disputed memo itself lacked the Top Secret register identifier expected in the series.
On this page
- What T4 1846 actually identified
- Why the memo still lacked a register number
- How later reproductions blurred the distinction
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Introduction
T4-1846 was closely associated with the Cutler–Twining memorandum, but it was not a register number printed or written on the memorandum itself. That distinction is explicit in the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) record: the disputed sheet was found in Record Group 341, entry 267, a series filed by Top Secret register number, yet NARA stated that the memorandum “does not bear such a number”. Its next point was separate: the document was filed in folder T4-1846.[National Archives]archives.govNational Archives Project BLUE BOOKNational ArchivesProject BLUE BOOK - Unidentified Flying Objects | National ArchivesJune 25, 2024
The confusion arose because T4-1846 was extremely useful for finding the document. Once the number became associated with the Cutler–Twining sheet, reproductions and later discussions could make it look like the memo’s own archival control identifier. But a locator for the folder containing a document is not automatically an identifier physically assigned to that document. In this case, treating the two as interchangeable erases the very anomaly that NARA highlighted.
What T4-1846 actually identified
The clearest evidence comes from the structure of NARA’s own MJ-12 reference report. Its first two findings deliberately distinguish two facts:
- Record Group 341, entry 267 was arranged by Top Secret register number, but the Cutler–Twining memorandum itself did not bear one.
- The memorandum was nevertheless located in folder T4-1846, which contained no other document concerning “NSC/MJ-12”. National Archives
Those statements would make little sense if T4-1846 were simply the register number appearing on the Cutler–Twining memorandum. If that were so, NARA could not simultaneously have described the memorandum as lacking the register number by which the series was filed. The archival report therefore provides a straightforward answer: T4-1846 identified the filing location with which the memorandum had become associated, not a control number borne by the disputed sheet itself.
Contemporary material preserved in the William Moore files makes the physical filing context more concrete. Notes describing Box 189 place the relevant records in a run of Top Secret numbers from roughly 4-1818 to 4-2
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- They identify “4-1846” as containing the MJ-12 document together with a withdrawal record for an Air Intelligence Estimate dated 1 May 1
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- The same notes list surrounding numbered files and numerous missing or withdrawn records. Project Aquarius This is useful evidence for understanding why “1846” could function as a powerful locator even though the MJ-12 sheet itself lacked that identifier.
A later researcher who inspected the records at NARA likewise reported that the Cutler–Twining memorandum was in file folder 4-1846 within Record Group 341, entry
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- That first-hand account describes archivists using the record-group, entry and folder information to retrieve the box and folder. TOM WHITMORE BLOG In practical archival terms, therefore, T4-1846 could lead a researcher to the sheet without being a marking actually carried by it.
Why the memo still lacked a register number
The important question is not whether somebody could call the Cutler–Twining memorandum “T4-1846”, but whether the surviving document itself displayed the Top Secret register identifier expected from its archival setting. NARA’s answer was no. That conclusion appears not merely in later summaries but in the agency’s July 1987 reference report, copies of which survive in government archival holdings. reaganlibrary.archives.gov
This creates an evidential distinction between location and documentary provenance. Finding a sheet inside an authentic government records series proves that the sheet was physically present there when researchers encountered it. A register number actually carried by the document would offer a different kind of evidence: it could help connect the sheet to the administrative system through which Top Secret records in that series were controlled and filed.
T4-1846 could not fill that gap merely by association. The National Archives did not say, in effect, “the memo’s register number is T4-1846”. It said the opposite combination of things: the document lacked the required number, while the folder in which it sat was T4-1
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- Reporting conversations with National Archives staff member Edward Reese, the article said that Reese initially had difficulty locating the Cutler memorandum. According to that account, a later requester supplied the Top Secret register number of the file containing the memorandum. Reese could then find the sheet and, because the memorandum itself lacked the number, reportedly associated the file number with it so that it could subsequently be relocated. The Daily Dialectics
That account is a secondary report rather than an official NARA finding, so its reconstruction of exactly how the number became attached to retrieval requests should be treated more cautiously than NARA’s formal reference report. Nevertheless, it fits the documentary distinction established independently by NARA: the series had Top Secret register numbers; the Cutler–Twining sheet lacked one; yet researchers could retrieve it through folder T4-1
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Endnotes
1.
Source: archives.gov
Title: National Archives Project BLUE BOOK
Link:https://www.archives.gov/research/military/[air-force
Source snippet
National ArchivesProject BLUE BOOK - Unidentified Flying Objects | National ArchivesJune 25, 2024...
Published: June 25, 2024
2.
Source: reaganlibrary.archives.gov
Title: Ronald Reagan [Presidential Library]({{ ‘library-searches/’ | relative_url }})
Link:https://reaganlibrary.archives.gov/public/2021-06/40-654-209237726-004-008-2021.pdf
6.
Source: bibliotecapleyades.net
Title: Biblioteca Pleyades The MAJESTIC-12 Papers
Link:https://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/sociopolitica/esp_sociopol_mj12_10.htm
7.
Source: presidentialufoblog.wordpress.com
Title: disclosure pattern 1980 85
Link:https://presidentialufoblog.wordpress.com/2018/06/10/disclosure-pattern-1980-85/
8.
Source: bibliotecapleyades.net
Title: Is The Cutler-Twining Memo A Hoax?
Link:https://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/ciencia/ciencia_reich09a.htm
9.
Source: tomwhitmoreblog.wordpress.com
Link:https://tomwhitmoreblog.wordpress.com/2019/09/
10.
Source: presidentialufoblog.wordpress.com
Link:https://presidentialufoblog.wordpress.com/tag/falcon/
12.
Source: bibliotecapleyades.net
Title: esp sociopol mj12 21
Link:https://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/sociopolitica/esp_sociopol_mj12_21.htm
13.
Source: corfman.com
Link:https://www.corfman.com/html/notes.html
Additional References
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Watergate, the JFK assassination and a UFO secret at the center of it all | Reality Check...
15.
Source: gyatdalf.substack.com
Title: mj 12 new majestic revelations
Link:https://gyatdalf.substack.com/p/mj-12-new-majestic-revelations
Source snippet
The document was located in Record Group 341, entry 267. The series is filed by a Top Secret register number. 2. The document is filed in...
16.
Source: youtube.com
Title: 10 Bizarre Things the FBI Has Investigated
Link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnRcTMqzJ5w
Source snippet
This discussion on A secret history: Inside shadow intelligence, the MJ-12 documents is relevant because it features researchers specific...
17.
Source: youtube.com
Link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeULVsP-jEQ
Source snippet
Ross Coulthart asks: Did JFK know about UFOs? | Reality Check...
18.
Source: jfkrfkmurdersolved.com
Title: JFK RFK Murder Solved THE REMOVAL OF JFK # 1
Link:https://jfkrfkmurdersolved.com/forum/viewtopic.php?sid=69e4aafe67a6ead2c9f2e5e5e153b05f&t=3237
Source snippet
JFK RFK Murder SolvedTHE REMOVAL OF JFK # 1 - # 41: - JFK RFK MLK Assassination Forum...
19.
Source: nature.com
Link:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-26472-9
20.
Source: youtube.com
Title: Ross Coulthart asks: Did JFK know about UFOs? | Reality Check
Link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VHdP_DdAUs
Source snippet
Inside Air Force UFO Investigations - Secrets of the Aviary Revealed...
21.
Source: bluebook.one
Link:https://www.bluebook.one/case/PURSUE-RELEASE-01/serial/56a8f6c8-cd23-4932-a2e8-6701b74e11b5
22.
Source: archive.org
Link:https://archive.org/stream/Dreamland_201801/Dreamland_djvu.txt
23.
Source: es.scribd.com
Link:https://es.scribd.com/document/460683732/John-B-Alexander-Burt-Rutan-Jacques-F-Vallee-Tom-Clancy-OVNIS-Mitos-Conspiraciones-y-Realidades-2011