Air Intelligence Information Report — Ft. Monmouth, New Jersey, 6 January 1953

This Air Intelligence Information Report, dated February 5, 1953, details a sighting of an unidentified aerial object that occurred on January 6, 1953, near Avon, New Jersey. The report was compiled by the Combat Intelligence Center at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, and forwarded to the Air Technical Intelligence Center (ATIC) at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. The primary witness, a meteorologist assigned to the Meteorological Branch of the Evans Signal Laboratory, reported observing a silver, football-shaped object in the sky at approximately 1155 hours. According to the witness, the object remained motionless for about three minutes before moving in a north-northwesterly direction at a slow speed. The witness estimated the object's altitude to be at least 30,000 feet. Crucially, the witness, who was professionally familiar with weather observation balloons, explicitly stated that the object could not have been a balloon, noting that it was traveling against the prevailing wind direction. At the time of the incident, the weather was described as clear with excellent visibility. The investigation was conducted by Agent William L. McKelvey under the direction of Chief Agent Andrew J. Reid. Despite the witness's professional background, the official conclusion reached by the evaluating agency was that there was insufficient data to provide a definitive evaluation of the phenomenon. The report was originally submitted to the First Army before being processed through standard Air Force intelligence channels.