Project 10073 Record Card and Related Investigation Reports — Sandy Hook, New Jersey, 10 September 1951

This document is a comprehensive investigation report concerning a sighting of an unidentified aerial object on 10 September 1951 by two Air Force pilots, 1st Lt. Wilbert S. Rogers and Major Ezra Ballard, Jr., flying a T-33 aircraft near Sandy Hook, New Jersey. The pilots reported observing a round, metallic, disc-shaped object moving at speeds exceeding 900 mph in an arc-like trajectory before it veered out to sea. The report details the subsequent investigation conducted by the Office of Special Investigations (OSI) into how information about this sighting was released to the press, specifically to the newspaper Newsday, which the Air Force initially feared might constitute a security violation. The investigation, led by Special Agent Paul L. Mc Coy, concluded that the pilots' sighting was likely a weather balloon launched from the nearby Evans Signal Laboratory. Radar sightings reported by students at Fort Monmouth on the same date were also investigated and ultimately attributed to student training activities and anomalous propagation rather than genuine unidentified aircraft. The document includes transcripts of interviews with the pilots, the reporter Dick Aurelio, and various military personnel, as well as internal memoranda and routing sheets. It concludes that there was no security violation in the press release and that the sightings were likely misidentified weather balloons or radar artifacts.