Declassified UFO / UAP Document
Project 10073 Record Card — Annapolis, Maryland, 30 July 1956
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AI-Generated Summary
A 1956 sighting report from Annapolis, Maryland, describes a round, color-shifting object observed for over an hour. Military investigators concluded the object was likely the planet Mars.
This document consists of a Project 10073 Record Card and associated teletype correspondence regarding an unidentified aerial phenomenon reported on July 30, 1956, in Annapolis, Maryland. The witnesses, Mr. and Mrs. Lavarrence Merril, observed a single round object for a duration of one hour and five minutes. They described the object as having the apparent size of a quarter held at arm's length, with colors shifting from red to orange to white. The object was noted to be orbiting at 15 degrees elevation and 90 degrees azimuth. The report explicitly states that no photographs were taken and no radar contact was made. The investigation, which involved the 647th AC&W Squadron and the Air Technical Intelligence Center, concluded that the sighting was astronomical in nature. The official assessment provided in the comments section of the record card states that the sighting was likely the planet Mars. The teletype correspondence confirms the routing of the report to the Air Defense Command, the 85th Air Division, and the Air Technical Intelligence Center at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
Concur with the opinion of the reporting officer that this sighting was astronomical in nature. This sighting was probably the planet Mars.
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Official Assessment
This sighting was probably the planet Mars.
The reporting officer concluded the object was astronomical in nature, specifically identifying it as the planet Mars.