Project 10073 Record Card — Lackland AFB, Texas, 9 April 1952

This document is an Air Intelligence Information Report dated 16 April 1952, concerning a sighting of an unidentified flying object at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, on 9 April 1952. The report, authored by 1st Lt. Bernard J. Mackin of the Intelligence Division, details an incident involving a single witness, an airman who was a Cryptographic Technician. At approximately 2245 hours, the witness was in his barracks room watching a C-97 aircraft take off from the nearby Kelly Air Force Base when his attention was drawn to a white, spherical object moving at a high rate of speed. The object, which left a white trail, was observed through a closed glass window for a duration of one to two seconds. The witness reported that the object traveled in a straight line from the southeast to the northwest, performed a right turn, disappeared behind a cloud, and then reappeared briefly before vanishing. The witness estimated the object's size to be comparable to an ordinary marble. The report notes that no sound was heard and that the witness was alone at the time of the observation. Official flight logs from Kelly Air Force Base confirmed the C-97 takeoff at 2239 hours. Weather conditions at the time were reported as overcast with broken clouds and a cloud base of approximately 6,500 feet. The Intelligence Division concluded that there was insufficient data for a definitive evaluation of the sighting. The document includes an extract from a separate status report regarding a different incident in Ada, Minnesota, on 10 April 1952, where civilians reported an object that traveled in a horizontal plane, changed from a circle to an oval, and then split into parts of equal brightness, which was tentatively categorized as a 'possibly fire ball' event.