Project 10073 Record Card: Sighting at Wurtsmith AFB, 6 Jan 54

On January 6, 1954, at 2000Z, Airman Second Class Gordon E. Bruebach of the 527th Air Police Squadron observed an unidentified aerial object at Wurtsmith Air Force Base in Oscoda, Michigan. The witness described the object as a single, round, black entity with a lighted rim, approximately the size of a grapefruit. The object was observed for a total of 16 minutes. For the first 15 minutes, the object remained stationary, with the witness initially mistaking it for the moon. It then performed a maneuver, moving 5 degrees upward and 7 degrees to the right before moving straight away until it disappeared from view. The witness reported that the object made no noise and left no exhaust trails. Weather conditions at the time were reported as heavy clouds, dry and cold, with 20 percent overcast and 10-mile visibility. There was no air traffic in the area at the time of the sighting. The incident was formally recorded under Project 10073. The official evaluation by the Air Technical Intelligence Center concluded that while it was a possible balloon sighting, the event could not be confirmed at the site due to insufficient data. A preliminary analysis suggested that the visual phenomenon might have been caused by lighting effects reflecting from the overcast cloud layer.