Unidentified Flying Object Report — Offutt AFB, Nebraska, May 1959

On May 14, 1959, at 0321 Zulu, M/Sgt Harold M. Applegate of the 544th Recon Technical Group at Offutt AFB, Nebraska, observed an unidentified aerial object. The object was described as oval-shaped, approximately twice the size of a pinhead, and blue-white in color with a slight yellow tinge. It featured a trailing flame six times its length and traveled without a tail for over two minutes, followed by intermittent ten-second bursts. The object's flight path involved complex maneuvers, including changes in course from 210 degrees to 330 degrees, then to 110 degrees, and finally to 300 degrees. The sighting lasted fourteen minutes. During the observation, a telephone call was received from Omaha Municipal Airport reporting that the pilot and first officer of a Braniff flight had observed the same object. Furthermore, RAPCON reported that three tower operators at Des Moines—Lyle Bjererstrand, Donald E. Miller, and Robert G. Ford—had also sighted the object in the northwest sky, noting it was traveling in a southerly direction and appeared to turn a glowing green color before disappearing. Despite the multiple witness accounts, the official conclusion reached by the Air Technical Intelligence Center (ATIC) was that the cause of the sighting remained unknown due to insufficient information to form a valid conclusion.