Incident #123 Sighting Report — Alton, Illinois, 11 April 1948

This document details Incident #123, a sighting reported on 11 April 1948, four miles north of Alton, Illinois. The primary witness, identified as a former commandant of an air base and a colonel, reported observing a creature that resembled a 'huge fowl' which was 'bigger than an airplane' and 'flapped its wings.' The report includes a newspaper clipping from The Dayton Daily News, which highlights that the witness was riding with a companion, Col. Ralph Jackson, who did not observe the object. The report also mentions a 12-year-old witness, James Trares, who claimed to have seen a similar bird three months earlier in Glendale, Missouri. The official evaluation, associated with Project Grudge and Dr. Hynek, concludes that there is nothing of an astronomical character in the incident. It suggests that if the colonel's account is isolated from other less reliable reports, the object was likely a bird. The document notes that the reliability of the report is impossible to evaluate, as the primary witness was never formally questioned by investigators, despite his background.