Sighting Incident Report — Colville, Washington, 8 July 1953

This document contains a formal sighting report and supporting press clippings regarding Unidentified Aerial Phenomena observed near Colville, Washington, in July 1953. The primary incident occurred on 8 July 1953, when three members of the Ground Observer Corps—Mrs. Gerald Willett, Mrs. John Link, and James Kohlstedt—observed a star-like object from their observation tower for approximately two hours. The witnesses described the object as shiny, roughly the size of a half-dollar, and noted that it moved in a narrow arc before disappearing behind a cloud bank. The official conclusion recorded on the FTD form identifies the object as the planet Venus. A secondary report included in the document details a sighting by John P. Thomson, a county coordinator for the Ground Observer Corps, who reported seeing an object on 8 July while traveling near Valley, Washington. Thomson described the object as having a dazzling reflection of sunlight, appearing brighter than the metal on aircraft, and traveling at approximately 5,000 feet altitude. He noted that the object vanished rapidly without gaining altitude. A handwritten note appended to this report suggests that the 17 July observation might be explained by a distant plane igniting a magnesium flare attached to a wing tip. The document highlights the active role of the Ground Observer Corps in monitoring the skies and the subsequent reporting process to the Air Technical Intelligence Center in Dayton, Ohio.