Project 10073 Record Card and Related Correspondence — January 1961

This document is a collection of Project 10073 record cards and correspondence regarding a series of UFO sightings in the vicinity of Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas, during January 1961. The reports detail multiple incidents occurring between January 9 and January 15. One primary report concerns a sighting on January 14, 1961, by a program director and weatherman from KFDX-TV, who observed an object while driving south of Roosevelt, Oklahoma. The witness described the object as bright white and red with a tinge of gold and occasional blue, appearing significantly larger than the brightest star. The object was observed for approximately 40 minutes, moving in a straight line from horizon to horizon. The witness noted that the object appeared to be an astronomical body, and the official conclusion on the record card suggests it was likely the planet Venus. Other reports included in the file describe sightings by military personnel, such as Major Warren R. Aiken and Major Donald P. Taylor, who observed an object on January 9, which they concluded was likely a meteorite or space debris. A sighting on January 11 by a civilian woman was dismissed by the investigating officer as an illusion or a publicity stunt, noting that her husband did not see the object when she pointed it out. The correspondence from the Air Intelligence Branch at Sheppard AFB to the Aerospace Technical Intelligence Center at Wright-Patterson AFB highlights the difficulty in determining the cause of some sightings, while others were correlated with astronomical phenomena. The investigating officer, 1st Lt. Charles J. McClure, noted discrepancies in the reported times of some sightings, suggesting that the distance between the witness's locations may have caused errors in their accounts. The file includes various sketches and completed questionnaires from witnesses, providing detailed, albeit subjective, descriptions of the objects' appearances and movements.