Project 10073 Record Card: Sighting at Waverly AFS, Iowa, 1 March 1961

This document collection details a UFO sighting reported on 1 March 1961 by the 788th Radar Squadron at Waverly Air Force Station, Iowa. The incident involved a radar contact tracked by the station's Mark X radar system between 0316Z and 0326Z. The object was initially detected at 245 degrees, 40 miles away, moving on a southwest heading. The radar track showed the object proceeding to a range of 125 miles at 243 degrees, executing a left turn to 230 degrees, and eventually turning inbound on a 040-degree heading before disappearing at a range of 30 miles. The duration of the observation was approximately 10 minutes. The report was initially handled by the 788th Radar Squadron and forwarded through the Chicago Air Defense Sector (CADS) to the Aerospace Technical Intelligence Center (ATIC) at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. The documentation includes a scope tracing of the object's path. Throughout the correspondence, there is significant discussion regarding the reliability of the radar data. The 788th Radar Squadron had been experiencing persistent issues with multiple registrations and scattered returns on their Mark X radar equipment. While the 788th initially denied these technical difficulties, subsequent intelligence comments noted that the station reported Electronic Countermeasures (ECM) during the evening, which hindered the ability of FAA personnel to read tracks. The final evaluation by the Aerospace Technical Intelligence Center, dated 7 April 1961, concluded that an equipment malfunction was the most probable explanation for the sighting, given the known technical issues at the station. A secondary, speculative possibility was raised that the object could have been a supersonic aircraft traveling under Mach 3, though the evaluators explicitly stated that no evidence existed to support this theory. The documents serve as a record of the military's internal process for evaluating radar-based UAP reports during the early 1960s, highlighting the tension between technical equipment limitations and the potential for unidentified aerial activity.