Project 10073 Record Card and Correspondence Regarding Unidentified Flying Object Sighting in Columbia, Tennessee

This document collection details a sighting of an unidentified flying object that occurred on the afternoon of November 8, 1957, over Columbia and Maury County, Tennessee. According to a letter from the local newspaper, The Daily Herald, approximately 100 people observed the object, with some witnesses using binoculars to identify it as a high-flying jet plane. The newspaper contacted the nearest U.S. Air Force filter center, which reported that no jet aircraft were operating in the area at that time. This led the newspaper to inquire whether foreign nations might be operating aircraft over the United States without the knowledge of the Air Force. The inquiry was forwarded through military channels, starting from the 58th Air Division (Defense) to the Eastern Air Defense Force, then to the Air Defense Command, and finally to the Air Technical Intelligence Center (ATIC) at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. The official response, authored by Major Lawrence J. Tacker of the Office of Information Services, stated that the sighting had never been reported to ATIC. Major Tacker dismissed the suggestion that the object was a foreign aircraft or missile as entirely unfounded, citing a lack of evidence to support such a conclusion. The Project 10073 record card associated with the incident categorizes the object as an 'obvious a/c' (aircraft).