Project 10073 Record: Sighting Report - Killeen, Texas

This document is an Air Intelligence Information Report (SAC IR 17-54) regarding a series of Unidentified Flying Object (UFO) sightings reported at Gray Air Force Base in Killeen, Texas, between October 1 and November 20, 1954. The report details observations made by multiple military personnel, including security guards from the M.P. Co. 8h55th D.P. The witnesses described seeing a single, oval-shaped object with a silver glow, approximately the size of a quarter, which exhibited no sound, trail, or exhaust. The object was observed to move in a horizontal plane, frequently changing direction by 20 degrees, before disappearing low on the horizon in the Southwest. The duration of individual sightings was approximately 15 seconds. The witnesses, including several officers and enlisted personnel, reported these sightings on multiple occasions during the specified period. The report notes that the observers were considered highly reliable. Despite the witnesses' belief that the object was foreign to them, the official conclusion reached by the Directorate of Intelligence was that the sightings were descriptive of the refraction of a star or planet as it set. This conclusion was supported by the fact that the sightings were repeated and occurred in a direction coincident with the ecliptic. The report includes a list of the military personnel who witnessed the phenomena and confirms that no aircraft were in the area at the time of the sightings, as verified by a negative report from local air traffic control. The document was approved by Major Roy L. DeRose and signed by Adjutant Major Charles W. Bates, Jr.