Project 10073 Record Card and Related Correspondence — Sahuarita, Arizona, February 1956

This document file contains the records and correspondence related to a UFO sighting reported on February 25, 1956, near Sahuarita, Arizona. The primary witness, a civilian, reported observing a spherical object for over an hour. The witness described the object as being twice the diameter of a utility pole, colored dark green, brown, or black, and noted that it hovered over the desert, descended toward the ground, and then rose again. The witness, who was traveling with their spouse, observed the object through binoculars and reported it to the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, though they felt their report was met with disinterest. The witness later provided a detailed technical information sheet, including a sketch of the object and the surrounding area, and expressed a firm belief that the object was tangible and not a hallucination, airplane, or balloon. The 4602d Air Intelligence Service Squadron (AISS) initiated an investigation, assigning the case to Project 10073. The AISS attempted to correlate the sighting with known balloon flights, specifically contacting the Air Force Cambridge Research Center regarding balloon launches from Vernalis NAAS. Despite extensive correspondence between the 4602d AISS and the Air Force Cambridge Research Center, investigators were unable to confirm the presence of any balloons in the area at the time of the sighting. Major R.H. Braun of the Atmospheric Devices Laboratory eventually reported that available records for balloon flights I-2 and I-5 did not account for the reported object. Consequently, while the official conclusion on the record card was listed as 'Possible Balloon,' the internal correspondence highlights the lack of evidence to substantiate this claim, with the 4602d AISS explicitly stating that there was no evidence a balloon was in the area.