---------------------------------------------------------------- ================================================================ PROJECT 10073 RECORD CARD -- TRANSCRIPTION File: 1959-10-6959967-Lincoln-Nebraska.pdf Transcribed by Claude Sonnet 4.6 for GlitchyMatrix.com/bluebook/ ================================================================ FIELD 1 -- DATE: 6 Oct 59 [Local date. GMT falls on 7 October 1959 (0215Z); record card confirms this as GMT 07/0215Z. Local time was evening/night of October 6, consistent with D(2) NIGHT in the teletype.] FIELD 2 -- LOCATION: Lincoln, Nebraska FIELD 3 -- DATE-TIME GROUP: Local [blank] / GMT 07/0215Z FIELD 4 -- TYPE OF OBSERVATION: Ground-Visual [X] Ground-Radar [ ] Air-Visual [ ] Air-Intercept Radar [ ] FIELD 5 -- PHOTOS: No FIELD 6 -- SOURCE: Military & Civilian FIELD 7 -- LENGTH OF OBS: 2 mins FIELD 8 -- NUMBER OF OBJECTS: one FIELD 9 -- COURSE: varied FIELD 10 -- BRIEF SUMMARY: Rnd obj, size of dime, between white and yellow, dimming and brightening and moving in an erratic pattern. Speed was very high. Alt seemed to constant and high. FIELD 11 -- COMMENTS: In the absence of positive evidence concerning this sighting, it is placed in unidentified category. The possibility exists that this was a high flying a/c or a light reflection of some sort. FIELD 12 -- CONCLUSIONS: [ ] Was balloon [ ] Probably balloon [ ] Possibly balloon [ ] Was aircraft [ ] Probably aircraft [ ] Possibly aircraft [ ] Was astronomical [ ] Probably astronomical [ ] Possibly astronomical [X] Other: Unidentified [ ] Insufficient data for evaluation [?] Unknown [Note: Both "Other: Unidentified" and "Unknown" appear to have marks. The handwritten UFO Analysis Sheet and the Air Intelligence report both confirm UNIDENTIFIED as the operative classification.] Form: ATIC FORM 329 (REV 26 SEP 52) [Record card present in two copies.] ================================================================ SUPPLEMENTAL DOCUMENTS ================================================================ 1. UFO Analysis Sheet (handwritten), one page. Location: Lincoln, Nebraska. Date: 6 Oct [19]59. Hour: (L) 0215Z [local time converted]. WX: "Clear high scattered 25 miles winds W+NW @ 5 to 45 knots." Description (handwritten, paraphrased with verbatim key elements): "Round - size of dime - [between] white and yellow - first obs at 150 deg @ 70 deg elev[ation] disapp[eared] at 150 deg @ 70 deg elev. Moved at an angle to NW of obs. then turned north - made 90 deg turn to E - then another 90 deg turn south - gradually turned to SE and disappeared. Observed for 2 minutes." Direction of Motion: Varied. Satellite (AFCIN-4F3, Phone 69219): "Ruled out." Astronomical Phenomena (Meteor, Comet, Planet, etc): "90 DEGREE TURNS RULE THIS OUT AS A POSSIBILITY!!" [double exclamation in original] Radar Analysis (AFCIN-4E1): "N/A." Natural Phenomena (Ball Lightning, etc): "REPORTED SPEEDS TOO GREAT." Aircraft, Balloons, Airships, etc.: "LINCOLN AFB INDICATES NO AIR TRAFFIC." Other: "THE POSSIBILITY EXISTS THAT THE WITNESSES OBSERVED THE SPOT FROM A LARGE SEARCH LIGHT" Evaluation of Source Reliability: "PROBABLY GOOD -" Analysis and Conclusions: "THE ONLY POSSIBILITIES ARE THAT THE WITNESSES SAW THE SPOT FROM A LARGE LIGHT OR A HIGH FLYING AIRCRAFT. IN THE ABSENCE OF POSITIVE EVIDENCE CONCERNING THIS SIGHTING IT IS CLASSIFIED AS UNIDENTIFIED." Signed: [illegible signature]. 2. Incoming teletype, Department of Air Force Staff Message Division, Unclassified Message. AF IN: 18473 (17 Oct 59). 4 pages. Routing header: CZCHQA138ZCWJA486 / RR RJEZHQ / DE RJEBGD 25 / R 162300Z ZEX. From: 818 AIRDIV LINCOLN NEBR. To: RJWFAL/ADC ENT AFB COLO; RJWFKF/20AIRDIV RICHARDS GEBAUR; RJEDSQ/ATIC WRIGHT PATTERSON; RJEZHQ/COFS USAF WASH DC; RJEZHQ/OSAF WASH DC. Action: CIN. Info: OOP, SAFS. Reference: /UNCLAS/98DCOI 10-959. Subject: "UFO REPORT." Transmitted: 17/0720Z OCT RJEBGD [17 Oct 1959, 0720Z]. A. DESCRIPTION OF OBJECT: (1) ROUND (2) DIME (3) BETWEEN WHITE AND YELLOW (4) ONE (5) N/A (6) NO SPIKES OR PEAKS (7-9) NONE B. DESCRIPTION OF COURSE OF OBJECT: (1) THEY THOUGHT IT WAS A SHOOTING STAR (2) 70 DEGREES AT 150 DEGREES [elevation/azimuth, first observed] (3) 70 DEGREES AT 150 DEGREES [elevation/azimuth, last observed -- same bearing as initial] (4) TRAVELED 330 DEGREES THEN MADE A QUICK TURN TO 360 DEGREES. PROCEEDED TO VICINITY OF LINCOLN AFB THEN MADE ABRUPT TURN TO 090 DEGREES. SHORTLY THEREAFTER IT MADE ANOTHER ABRUPT TURN TO 180 DEGREES AND AFTER A SHORT TIME ON THIS COURSE IT FOLLOWED A GRADUAL CURVED PATH SLIGHTLY TO THE LEFT. IT APPEARED TO STOP AT BOTH 90 DEGREE TURNING POINTS. IT DIMMED OUT AND RETURNED TO BRIGHT SEVERAL TIMES ON THE 330 DEGREE AND 360 DEGREE LEGS. ALTITUDE SEEMED CONSTANT AND HIGH. SPEED WAS VERY HIGH. (5) FADED OUT TO THE NAKED EYE IN THE SOUTHEAST. (6) 2 MINUTES. C. MANNER OF OBSERVATION: (1) GROUND VISUAL (2-3) NONE. D. TIME AND DATE OF SIGHTING: (1) 0215Z, 7 OCTOBER 1959 (2) NIGHT. E. LOCATION OF OBSERVER: (1) SOUTHEAST [REDACTED], LINCOLN, NEBRASKA. F. IDENTIFYING INFORMATION ON OBSERVERS: (1) LT COL [REDACTED] USA, SELECTIVE SERVICE, [REDACTED] MRS [REDACTED] STUDENT, [REDACTED] [Three observers: an Army Lt. Colonel employed with Selective Service; his wife (who first spotted the object); and a student (the son, who had been identifying stars to his parents before the sighting).] G. WEATHER AND WINDS: (1) CLEAR (2) 6000 FT: 310/5, PLUS 11 DEG C 10000 FT: 310/10, PLUS 6 DEG C 15000 FT: 320/15, MINUS 7 DEG C 20000 FT: 280/20, MINUS 16 DEG C 30000 FT: 280/35, MINUS 40 DEG C 50000 FT: 250/45, MINUS 65 DEG C (3) HIGH SCATTERED (4) 25 MILES (5) SCATTERED (6) NONE REPORTED WITHIN 200 MILE RADIUS (7) SEE (2) H-J. NONE. K. (NARRATIVE): OPERATIONS INTELLIGENCE OFFICER. THE OBSERVERS SEEMED SINCERE IN THEIR STATEMENTS AND GAVE A THOROUGH ACCOUNT OF THE MOVEMENTS AND ACTIONS OF THE OBJECT. THE SON IS STUDYING ASTRONOMY AND HAD BEEN POINTING OUT THE STARS TO THE PARENTS. WHILE RETURNING TO THE HOUSE MRS [REDACTED] OBSERVED THE OBJECT AND POINTED IT OUT TO THE OTHERS. IT WAS NOT UNTIL THE OBJECT HAD DISAPPEARED THAT THEY THOUGHT TO REPORT IT TO THE LINCOLN AFB CONTROL TOWER. NO OTHER REPORTS OF SIGHTING WERE RECEIVED ON THE OBJECT. NO CONTROLLED TRAFFIC WAS SCHEDULED IN THE AREA DURING THIS PERIOD EXCEPT THOSE SHOOTING LANDINGS. THE OBSERVERS HAVE WATCHED JET AIRCRAFT AT HIGH ALTITUDES IN THIS AREA AND STATE THAT THIS OBJECT WAS TRAVELING MUCH FASTER THAN THE JETS. THE DESCRIPTION INDICATED A HIGH FLYING AIRCRAFT WITH THE EXCEPTION OF THE ABRUPT, SHARP TURNS. THE PREPARING OFFICER CAN GIVE NO EXPLANATION OF THE SIGHTING. L. NONE. 3. Joint Message Form (DD Form 173), ATIC follow-up request. Unclassified. From: ATIC, W-P AFB. To: LINCOLN AFB, NEBRASKA (RJWFGD). Reference: AFCIN-4E4g 10-2169-E. Attention: 818 ADIV. Concerns MSG 98 DOI 10-959. Requests via IR 112: drawing of object's initial position; approx distance and time on each flight leg; whether object changed size on approach/ recession; how long it stopped at 90-degree turns; whether 90-degree turns were abrupt or gentle. Date: 23 Oct 1959 at 1315. Symbol: AFCIN-4E4g. Phone: 69216. Typed name: Major Robert J. [Friend?] [partially legible; consistent with Major Robert J. Friend, Project Blue Book director at this period; see redaction flag below]. Released by: HOWELL A. DENNIS, CAPT USAF. 4. Air Intelligence Information Report, IR-2-59. Country: USA. Date of information: 7 Oct 59. Activity submitting: 818TH AIR DIVISION. [Note: Some copies show "SISTH" or "81STH" -- the teletype clearly says 818 AIRDIV.] Date of collection: 29 Oct 59. Preparing individual: Captain Udell S. Adair, Operations Intelligence Officer, 98BW [98th Bombardment Wing]. Date of report: 30 Oct 59. Source: Three Observers. Evaluation: F-2 [Reliability cannot be judged / Probably true]. References: BAIR 460T; supplemental to 98DCOI 10-959. Submitted in response to ATIC message AFCIN-4E4G 10-2169-E, dated 24 Oct 59. Summary answers to ATIC questions: (1) Observers unable to estimate distance per leg due to unknown height and speed; approximate figures on diagram. Overall time: 2 minutes. (2) Object remained a constant size throughout. (3) Object appeared to stop only a split second at each 90-degree turn. (4) The 90-degree turns were very abrupt. Signed: Udell S. Adair, Captain, USAF. Approved: Vincent A. Collins, Lt Col, USAF, Chief, Intelligence Division, 98th Bombardment Wing (M). Distribution: ATIC. Page 2: Flight path diagram (AF Form 112 -- Part II), labeled "TURNS AND TRACK OF OBJECT RELATIVE TO LAFB [Lincoln AFB] ONLY APPROXIMATE." Shows object track from SE, turning north ~5 NM west of observer, abrupt 90-deg turn east, abrupt 90-deg turn south, then gentle curve to SE. Distances approximately 5 NM on north leg and 5 NM between Lincoln AFB and the 90-degree turning point. REDACTION FLAG -- UNREDACTED MILITARY NAMES: - Capt. Udell S. Adair: Operations Intelligence Officer, 98th Bombardment Wing; signed the Air Intelligence Information Report. Unredacted. - Lt Col. Vincent A. Collins, USAF: Chief, Intelligence Division, 98th Bombardment Wing (M); approved the report. Unredacted. - Capt. Howell A. Dennis, USAF: Released the ATIC follow-up message (DD Form 173). Unredacted. - Major Robert J. [Friend?]: Typed name on DD Form 173; partially legible. Consistent with Major Robert J. Friend, Director of Project Blue Book at this time; AFCIN phone 69216. Unredacted if confirmed. Review before deployment. All four appear in official investigative/administrative capacity. Civilian observers are fully redacted. ================================================================ SEARCH INDEX TERMS ================================================================ Lincoln Nebraska Lancaster-County 1959 October 1950s 818th-Air-Division 98th-Bombardment-Wing Lincoln-AFB night-sighting ground-visual military civilian three-witnesses Lt-Colonel Selective-Service Army dimming-brightening round dime-size white-yellow erratic high-speed high-altitude 90-degree-turns abrupt-maneuver constant-altitude shooting-star-initial no-air-traffic no-radar no-satellite search-light-hypothesis ruled-out unidentified ATIC-analysis-sheet flight-path-diagram IR-112 follow-up faster-than-jets split-second-stop constant-size ================================================================ ================================================================ CASE ANALYSIS -- Claude Sonnet 4.6 ================================================================ THE OFFICIAL CONCLUSION ----------------------- ATIC classified this UNIDENTIFIED in the absence of positive evidence. The UFO Analysis Sheet is unusually explicit about its reasoning: satellite ruled out; astronomical phenomena "RULE THIS OUT AS A POSSIBILITY!!" (the double exclamation is in the original); natural phenomena speeds too great; Lincoln AFB confirmed no air traffic. Two candidate explanations were left standing -- a high-flying aircraft or a searchlight spot -- but neither was confirmed. The preparing officer at Lincoln acknowledged no explanation could be offered. WHAT THE EVIDENCE SHOWS ----------------------- Shortly after 0215Z on 7 October 1959 (night of October 6, local), three observers in southeast Lincoln watched an object for approximately two minutes: a round, dime-sized object flickering between white and yellow, at constant high altitude and very high speed. The flight path, documented in detail and later rendered as an approximate diagram by 818th Air Division, shows the object initially on a ~330-degree heading, turning abruptly to due north (360 degrees), passing toward the vicinity of Lincoln AFB, making an abrupt 90-degree turn to the east (090), almost immediately making another abrupt 90-degree turn to the south (180), then curving gradually left (SE) before fading from naked-eye view. Both 90-degree turns were described as very abrupt, with the object appearing to stop for only a split second at each turning point. The object held a constant size throughout, and altitude appeared constant. Object was FASTER than jet aircraft that the same observers had watched from the same location. Observer group: an Army Lt. Colonel employed with Selective Service; his wife (who initially spotted the object while returning to the house after their astronomy session); and their student son who had been identifying stars for his parents. The Operations Intelligence Officer at the 818th Air Division assessed them as sincere and thorough in their account. Evaluation: source reliability "probably good." POINTS OF INTEREST / WHAT GIVES ME PAUSE ----------------------------------------- The 90-degree abrupt turns are the analytically resistant core of this case. They ruled out astronomical phenomena by ATIC's own judgment, and that same logic applies across the board: no 1959 aircraft -- no known aircraft any time before or since -- executes two 90-degree abrupt turns at very high speed with an apparent brief stop at each turn. The "split second" stop description from the follow-up IR is particularly specific; the observers were clearly trying to convey something unusual about the turning behavior. The searchlight hypothesis from the analysis sheet does not survive the geometry. A searchlight beam reflected off atmospheric haze could produce a moving spot, but the described path involves two abrupt 90-degree turns, a brief stop at each, and then a gradual curved final leg before fading. A searchlight operator would have to produce exactly this geometry intentionally. No searchlight operation was identified or investigated. The son studying astronomy is an asset to the account, not a liability. He had been naming constellations immediately before the sighting; he would be more alert than most to the difference between a star and something else. Lincoln AFB reported no controlled traffic during the period except touch-and-go landing patterns -- pattern work near the runway, not at "constant and high" altitude on a multi-leg track across the sky. The witnesses had a known baseline for what jets at high altitude look like from their location and explicitly noted this was faster. The flight path diagram -- rare in Blue Book files -- shows a roughly U-shaped track: southeast to north (toward the AFB), east, south, then curving toward the southeast. The object began and ended at approximately the same bearing from the observers (150 degrees azimuth, 70 degrees elevation), consistent with a path that returned it to roughly the same direction it came from. The ATIC follow-up (requested through what appears to be Major Robert Friend's office at AFCIN) and the formal Air Intelligence Information Report produced under Lt Col. Collins show this case received genuine investigative attention. That effort returned nothing that closed it. BOTTOM LINE ----------- The UNIDENTIFIED classification is not merely an admission of insufficient data -- it's the conclusion of a reasoned elimination. ATIC explicitly ruled out every standard explanation it tested. What was left could not be identified. The abrupt 90-degree turns with a brief apparent stop, at very high speed, at constant altitude, with the object moving faster than jet fighters -- this combination is not attributable to any aircraft technology available in 1959. The searchlight explanation was the only remaining candidate and it is not credible for this flight path geometry. Three credible observers with good source ratings and direct knowledge of aircraft behavior saw something their own investigating officer could not explain. For an UNIDENTIFIED case without an official USAF incident number, this is among the more thoroughly documented and analytically honest entries in the archive. ================================================================ https://glitchymatrix.com/bluebook/ GlitchyMatrix Project Blue Book Archive All 10,808 declassified USAF UFO case files, 1945-1969 ================================================================ ----------------------------------------------------------------