Incident #219 Sighting Report — Newburgh, New York, 29 November 1948

This document details Incident #219, a sighting reported by a 14-year-old student, Doris Croke, in Newburgh, New York, on the night of 29 November 1948. The witness, a ninth-grade student at North Junior High, observed a 'large red ball' with a 'long tail' while standing at the corner of Concord Street and 1st Street. She described the object as moving from east to west and remaining visible for approximately two seconds before disappearing below the horizon. She compared the phenomenon to a 'blue-tailed comet' and noted that she had never seen anything like it before. The report includes a newspaper clipping from the Newburgh News, which corroborates the witness's account and mentions that her friends also saw the object. Official military evaluations, including those from the Air Weather Service and Project Grudge, analyzed the incident. While the initial assessment categorized the object as a 'slow-moving fireball' consistent with the bolide hypothesis, internal correspondence highlights a discrepancy regarding the object's flight path. Specifically, the report notes that the object's movement from east to west was inconsistent with the prevailing westerly winds at the time, which would have affected any weather balloons launched in the area. The document also contains administrative correspondence between the Air Weather Service and the Air Materiel Command at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, discussing the review of incident summaries 173 through 233 and recommending improvements to the 'Guide To Investigation Of Unidentified Aerial Objects' to better distinguish between vertical and horizontal motions in future reports.