Project 10073 Record Card and Related Correspondence — Washington, Indiana, 1 April 1952

This document collection details a UFO sighting reported by three civilians—Harold [illegible], James Turpin, and Donald Kelley—on 1 April 1952. While driving six miles north of Washington, Indiana, the witnesses observed a round, basketball-sized object with a deep orange, spherical tail. They described the object as moving at a high rate of speed from the west toward the northeast, noting that it turned 45 degrees and varied in size. The witnesses reported that the object's exhaust appeared to be 20 to 50 feet long and that the object itself glistened like a mirror. The sighting lasted approximately four minutes. The report was initially phoned to the Atterbury Air Force Base, and subsequent correspondence between the 2466th Air Force Reserve Training Center and the Air Technical Intelligence Center clarified the date of the incident, which had been confused with 11 April 1952 in some internal communications. Base operations noted that a C-45 aircraft was in the area at the time, though it departed shortly after the reported sighting. Official conclusions suggested the object might have been the vapor trail of an aircraft illuminated by the setting sun, though the witnesses were noted as being inexperienced observers. No physical evidence was recovered, and no radar contact was reported.