Air Intelligence Information Report: Unidentified Flying Object Report - Okinawa, 21 June 1953

This document is an Air Intelligence Information Report (IR 1-53) dated 27 June 1953, concerning an unidentified flying object sighting over Okinawa on 21 June 1953. The report details an observation made by nine experienced weather observers from the Ryukyus Weather Service at Naha and Kadena Air Force Bases. The object was described as spherical to star-shaped, metallic or silvery in color, and roughly the size of a baseball when viewed through a theodolite. The observers reported that the object traveled in a straight line at an altitude of approximately 20,000 feet with no exhaust trail or sound. Estimates of its speed varied between 20 and 45 miles per hour. The sighting lasted for 20 minutes, beginning around 1900 hours. The observers, who were Japanese or Okinawan nationals with 6 to 30 years of experience, were interrogated and deemed sincere. Despite their experience, the report notes that radar sites in the area reported no track of an unidentified object. Furthermore, a radiosonde balloon had been released in the area around 1800 hours, which was moving eastward. The reporting officer, Captain Lawrence E. Randall, expressed doubt about the validity of the sighting, suggesting that friendly aircraft or the weather balloon might have been mistaken for an unidentified object. However, the report acknowledges that the sincerity and experience of the observers meant the sighting could not be entirely discounted. Subsequent correspondence between ATIC and the 20th Air Force reveals that no triangulation was possible because no elevation angles were recorded by the observers. ATIC also suggested that local helicopter activity might account for the sighting, but the 20th Air Force confirmed that no helicopters were airborne during the period of the sighting. The report concludes that while the sighting remains officially doubtful, it was not definitively explained.