Project 10073 Record Card - East Danville, Illinois - 12 August 1956

This document is a Project 10073 record card detailing a UFO sighting reported on August 12, 1956, in East Danville, Illinois. The report was filed by Lee R. Waldrop, an Operations Officer with the 1478th Flight Service Squadron. The primary witness, a civilian housewife, observed a single, round, red-glowing object for approximately 30 minutes. The witness described the object as being roughly the size of a baseball held at arm's length, appearing to hover directly overhead before moving in a westerly direction. A notable feature reported was an intense beam of light, described as being like a searchlight, glowing downward from the object. The weather conditions at the time were reported as clear with good visibility. The official conclusion recorded on the card suggests that the object could have been an astronomical body, such as the planet Mars, but explicitly states that there was insufficient data to provide a definitive evaluation of the incident. The document includes a teletype transmission from the 1478th Flight Service Squadron to various Air Defense Command and Air Technical Intelligence Center (ATIC) offices, confirming the administrative handling of the report.