Project 10073 Record Card — Beckley, West Virginia Sighting, 6 June 1960

This document is a collection of records pertaining to an Unidentified Aerial Phenomena sighting that occurred near Beckley, West Virginia, on June 6, 1960, at approximately 01:30 local time. The primary witness, a 33-year-old male, reported observing a greenish-blue, round object, roughly the size of a basketball, traveling in a southwesterly direction. The witness described the object as emitting a grapefruit-sized ball of fire from each side before abruptly disappearing. The sighting lasted between three and five seconds and was accompanied by a rumbling sound. The witness, who was located outdoors near a Dairy Queen at the time, noted that the object appeared to move at a speed similar to a shooting star and was visible below the mountain horizon. The witness also reported that the object seemed to disintegrate into three or four smaller objects before vanishing. Following the initial report, which was prompted by an Associated Press news story, the U.S. Air Force, specifically the Air Technical Intelligence Center (ATIC) at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, initiated an investigation. Lt. Colonel Lawrence J. Tacker of the Public Information Division corresponded with the witnesses to obtain formal statements via a technical information questionnaire. Multiple witnesses were interviewed by telephone, and their accounts were found to be consistent. The official Air Force evaluation concluded that the object was a meteor, specifically classified as a 'bolide,' noting that the description and the associated sound were characteristic of such an astronomical event. The investigation also considered other possibilities, such as a satellite burning up in the atmosphere or ball lightning, but ultimately favored the meteor explanation. The records include the original Project 10073 record card, the completed technical information sheets from the witnesses, and correspondence from the Air Force requesting further details for evaluation. The witnesses remained uncertain about the nature of the object, with one describing it as a 'very awesome and fascinatingly weird object.'