PROJECT 10073 RECORD 1. o.:. TE T:ME GROUP 4. NUMBER OF OBJECTS 5. LENGTH OF OBSERVATION 10 Hinutes 6. TYPE OF OBSERVATION Ground-Visual 9. PHYSICAL EVIDENCE 2. tOCATit.N Pine Bluff Arkansas 10. CONCLUSION Probaole SA Tfl.LI'I'E 11. BRIEF SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS Objact was brighter than a full moon. Would dim then brighten. Ebject was traveling due east. Seemed to see a red light blink on and oft occasiponal. Observer stated that the object traveled about the speed ef a plane but it was very close to the ground. Several times the object appeared to stand still ~ben move on. Looked like a plane except that the light was very brilliant. 2 Witnesses FTD SEP 6 3 0-329 (TOE) Prnloua ediU- or thl tone..,., be u .. d The Department of Defense ~{ashi ngton, D. c. Gentlemen: Pine Bluff, Arkansas After reading the attached a nd having witnessed only last night a strange object in the sky, which I will explain, I am wondering if a n intensive investigation would reveal the true identity of these objects, which I am sure a r e not hatched up stories, as is i.ndioateQ<J-byv ; or something college boys devise. I ~ra~ employee of the Federal Government an important defense plant since 1942. I h .~ever seen or looked for . objects I have heard and read so much ab'Mi~'tWs-1 personally witnessed one of the strangest sights I have ever seen and only strange because of the size and the silence of the object, as well as the brilliance. I was on Il\1 way to McGehee, Arkansas, a town 53 t:rl.les south of Pine Bluff. At exactly 7:30 this object appeared overhead,baving come from behind me.At this time I had gone thru McGehee and was traveling cue east and the object traveled due east ahead of me. At first I thought it was an airliner on fire, completely engulfed in fire.The light of this object however was the color of a bright moon(there was no moon l~hatsoever last night) The object was many tjmes larger than a bright full moon as we see it; the light would fade dimmer at times then fUllY bright, fading to a hazy l ook at the outer fringes.The object did not appear to be a round or perfect shape, rather like a floating cloud or smoke except for the brilliance of the object. I stopped and got out of my car to see if I could hear any sound.There was no sound whatsoever.One can hear the highest flying jet or helicopter. At the center of this brilliant moving object a red ~ig;-.al light flashed on from time to time, so unlike the signls on air planes or helicopters. This red signal light was the size of the brake or tail light on certain automobiles having the perfectly large round tail or brake lights. I got back in my car and drove some 10 or 12 blocks and turned into the yard of the home of Mrs. Halan Balloue, blowing :nv horn constantly to attract her to the yard where together we watched thi~ strange object for seemjngly 1 0 or more minutes, still flying due east. As far as it ~as visible the brilliance did not change, except f or fading at times, a pparently standing still at times and the red signal light could be seen flash on at times. The object travelled at about the same speed of any plane tho it was close to the earth, very close. The explanation of' these f lying objects in the attached clipping by the Astronomer is an insult to honest people. What I saw last night wasn't p gas, prank by college students, !'lares or an illusion. It was a mechanical vehicle of some sort and f'~ng at the speed of an air plane. It occurred to me that if Airports along the route this object was travelling could have been notified or maybe Air Force Bases notified, the object might have been intercepted. ' Eichigan story may have been a hoax by boys using flares, but what I saw ast night over this quiet country town wasn't any hoax. Only a f'ew nights ago two teen age girls came to the door of a friend(also an employee of the Federal Government) and asked someone to come outside and l ook at an object so big a nd bright flying over Pine Bluff; that it was the strangest object they had e ver seen.Their request was not granted.The flying saucer story has grown old; it had to me until l ast night. only difference b9 t.~o~een the objJct I ~tnassed az:ld nn airliner was t~-a brilliance of the element as the object travelled, the silence and the fact the r ed arge signal light could be seen flashing on and off.There was no mysterious maneuvering, no mu1 ti-color appearance; no streaking, blinking, winking, zooming or otherwise circus acts as i s indicated in the attached clipping. As stated the strange and unusual difference between this _ld_o!-her .PJ:anes was the brilliant light, its silence and the closeness to the earth, the fact several times this object appeared perfectly still. The red signal was proof this thing was some sort of man made mechanical flying vehicle or pJane of some sort. This report of the object I witnessed is for \-lha.t it may be worth in the interest of our government. Sincerely, JJOl Poplar Street (Mrs) TheJma W. Durham . ''Jde~tifies' UFO' s Tlrne~oPost N.-Servle11 t (WIIIIngton PMI) WASHINGTON-Michigan's much-publicized and ntiful unidentified _flying objects have beep. identified. turn out to be will o' the wisps; college-boy nks and the moon in March. ~ This.. 1s the official explana- tion by-Air Force experts wbo investigated reports of the color- ful, glowing, .Dying, zoommg, winking . awesome, blinking, ; streaking, hovering objects that captured southern Micbi- : gan's. imagiMtion. l Meanwhile, back in Washing- ! ton, Representative Gerald R. Ford of Michigan said it would be "a very wholesome thing"l for Congress to investigate unt identified flying objects. Sucbl an investigation would make . the American people "feet bet- Identification of Michigan's strange objects carne yester- . day at a formal press confer- ' ence in Detroit. J . Allen Hy- nek, an astronomer and an Air Force consultant on identifying unidentified flying objects, ca- tegorized the hitherto mysterious sightings this way: -"':be sincere and honest" I ref)4li"U of unidentified flying !objects by young ladies at HitJs- 1dale College. it bas been deter- mtned. came after "cert~in young men have played pranks wtth flares." -A second sighting-, widely distributed as photographic evi- dence, tu;ns out to a time ex- posure of the rising crescent !Jloon and the planet Venus. I -A majority of the other ob- servations-reported to be silent, multicolored glowin~ objects -appears to be an " unusual and puzzling display" of lumi- nous swamp gas, which is also responsible for the will o' the \ wisp seen in marshes. Hynek said there was no ready explanation for how ~.vamp gas glow really works.