Project 10073 Record Card — Poplar Bluff, MO, 19 September 1950

This document comprises an Air Intelligence Information Report (IR-291-50) regarding an unidentified aerial object sighted over Poplar Bluff, Missouri, on 19 September 1950. The report details the involvement of the Tennessee National Guard, specifically two F-51 pilots, 1st Lt. James Haverty and 1st Lt. Donald L. Soefker. The object was first reported to Malden Radio at 1630C. Lt. Haverty was dispatched from Memphis and attempted to intercept the object, which he observed at an altitude he could not reach, despite climbing to 30,000 feet. A second F-51, piloted by Lt. Soefker, also attempted an intercept, reaching 40,000 feet, but remained unable to determine the object's altitude or size. The object was described as a large, silver-colored, spherical and elliptical shape. It appeared to hover or remain stationary for approximately five hours. Later in the evening, around 1918C, the pilot observed green and white lights moving at a high rate of speed in a northerly direction toward St. Louis. The report notes that the pilot believed the object was a weather balloon. The document includes a memorandum from Headquarters Third Army at Fort McPherson, Georgia, forwarding a newspaper clipping from the Memphis Press-Scimitar, which provides additional witness accounts and context regarding the sighting. The report also contains a separate, unrelated news clipping regarding a meteor blast in the same region on 20 September 1950, which caused significant noise and damage, and was studied by the American Meteoritics Society. The intelligence report concludes that the object sighted by the pilots was likely a weather balloon, though the pilot noted that the lights observed after dark might not have been connected to the object itself.