Project 10073 Record Card — Bangor, Maine, 23 February 1958

On February 23, 1958, a sighting of an unidentified aerial object was reported near Bangor, Maine. The witness, identified as A/1C Michaud of the 468th Headquarters Base Police at Dow Air Force Base, described the object as a huge, round, and very bright entity, roughly the size of a grapefruit, observed low on the horizon. The object was reported to be moving up and down for a duration of approximately five minutes. The incident was documented on a Project 10073 record card and subsequently reported via teletype to various military commands, including the Air Technical Intelligence Center. The report notes that the object was also sighted by the Maine Police and management of the Queen City Motel, who claimed the object appeared to hit the road. Dow AFB weather personnel were contacted, and it was noted that Jupiter was in the vicinity of Millinocket, Maine, at the time. Professor Maynard F. Jordan of the University of Maine was consulted regarding the sighting; he suggested the object could have been Mars or Saturn, though he expressed skepticism that such bodies would perform in the manner described. Official military assessments concluded that the report lacked sufficient data regarding elevation, azimuth, and weather conditions to reach a definitive conclusion. The final evaluation suggested the object was possibly a balloon released from either Dow Air Force Base or the Bangor airport, noting that there were no other reports from the area at the time of the sighting.