Project 10073 Record Card — Tyndall AFB, Florida, 21 December 1961

This document contains a Project 10073 record card and associated correspondence regarding an Unidentified Flying Object (UFO) sighting reported by a Master Sergeant at Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida, on December 21, 1961. The witness, a member of the Hq 73 Air Division, reported observing an elliptical, radiant object at 0545 hours. He described the object as appearing similar to a star, moving from the Northwest (315 degrees) to the Northeast (25 degrees) over a duration of 15 minutes. The witness claimed the object was at an altitude of approximately 800 miles and traveling at 18,000 miles per hour, basing these estimates on his personal experience with space vehicles and the Echo satellite. He also noted that his television set experienced interference during the event, which he associated with his previous UFO sightings. The witness reported the incident to the Base Weather Station, the Office of the Director of Operations, and the Office of Information. The official military evaluation concluded that the sighting was not an anomalous craft but rather the star Betelgeux, which appeared distorted due to atmospheric refraction caused by a temperature inversion present in the Tyndall area at the time. The investigating officers were highly critical of the witness, noting that he had made multiple previous reports and considered himself an expert, despite lacking the data to support his claims. The report explicitly states that the witness's 'over active imagination took charge.' The file includes extensive meteorological data in the form of adiabatic charts used to analyze the atmospheric conditions at the time of the sighting, as well as a formal report submitted by Captain Robert E. Cole on January 3, 1962, to the Aerospace Technical Intelligence Center at Wright-Patterson AFB.