Summary of Information: Unidentified Object Cited Over Orangeburg, South Carolina

This document, dated 14 March 1950, consists of a series of reports and summaries from the Headquarters Third Army at Fort McPherson, Georgia, regarding sightings of 'unconventional aircraft' or 'flying saucers' in South Carolina. The primary incident occurred on 9 March 1950, over Orangeburg, where numerous residents reported a disk-shaped object hovering for 15 minutes before disappearing and leaving a vapor trail. Witnesses, including staff from the Orangeburg Times and Democrat, described the object as being the size and color of a new moon, only brighter. The object was observed to turn slowly in the air, shifting from a vertical to a parallel orientation relative to the horizon. Additional reports from Columbia, South Carolina, and Florence, South Carolina, are included, as well as a mention of a separate report from Los Angeles, California, involving a dynamite salesman named Ray L. Dimmick, who claimed to have seen a 46-foot diameter metal ship with a 23-inch tall pilot. The document also references international reports, specifically from Mexico, where the newspaper El Nacional quoted an astronomer suggesting that disks reported over Mexico were carrying visitors from Mars. Despite the sensational nature of these reports, the official assessment provided by the army investigator who witnessed the Orangeburg event was that the object was a very high-flying aircraft and the observed phenomenon was simply a regular vapor trail. The documents were forwarded to the Air Materiel Command at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base for further attention under control number A-1917.