Air Intelligence Information Report: Unidentified Flying Object Sighting, Offutt AFB, 20 July 1953

This Air Intelligence Information Report details a sighting of three unidentified radar blips by a rawin crew at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, on 20 July 1953. The sighting occurred at 2135C, with the strongest of the three blips being tracked by an SCR-584 radar unit for nine minutes until 2144C. The witnesses, S/Sgt George A. Dupray and A/1c Kenneth F. Smith, were described as experienced and reliable operators. They reported that the radar return from the unidentified object was significantly stronger than that of their standard rawin target, which consisted of a five-square-foot cardboard frame covered in aluminum foil. The P-31 Aircraft Control and Warning (AC&W) unit was notified of the initial sighting at 2140C and provided with the SCR-584 data, but they were unable to locate the object on their own equipment. A verbal report was subsequently provided to the AC&W unit at 2230C. Headquarters noted that no known air traffic was reported at the altitudes in question, which ranged between 25,000 and 55,000 feet. The report explicitly states that no meteorological explanation could be provided for the sighting. However, the investigators suggested that the object's behavior, when compared to winds aloft data, indicated it was falling and drifting with the wind. A specific comment in the project record card suggests a possibility that a portion of the aluminum foil target had become detached from the balloon and was falling with the wind, though this remains a hypothesis. The document concludes that the headquarters was unable to fully evaluate the report, and no physical evidence or photographs of the incident exist.