================================================================ PROJECT 10073 RECORD CARD -- TRANSCRIPTION File: 1953-03-6384463-Spooner-Wisconsin.pdf Transcribed by Claude Sonnet 4.6 for GlitchyMatrix.com/bluebook/ ================================================================ FIELD 1 -- DATE-TIME GROUP: 29 March 1953 / 29/2145Z FIELD 2 -- LOCATION: Spooner, Wisconsin FIELD 3 -- SOURCE: Civilians FIELD 4 -- NUMBER OF OBJECTS: One FIELD 5 -- LENGTH OF OBS: 15 Seconds FIELD 6 -- TYPE OF OBSERVATION: Ground-Visual FIELD 7 -- COURSE: N-S-N (reversed direction twice) FIELD 8 -- PHOTOS: No FIELD 9 -- PHYSICAL EVIDENCE: No FIELD 10 -- CONCLUSION: UNIDENTIFIED FIELD 11 -- BRIEF SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS: None of the observers have any previous experience in a/c recognition. No known a/c is not capable of such maneuvers in 15 seconds. [Note: The phrase "No known a/c is not capable" appears to contain a double negative; likely intended as "No known a/c IS capable of such maneuvers in 15 seconds." The meaning inverts but not in the observer's favor -- the ATIC conclusion stands as UNIDENTIFIED on the basis that no known aircraft could perform the described maneuvers.] Form: FORM FTD SEP 63 0-329 (TDE) [Note: This is the later Foreign Technology Division form, printed September 1963, not the original ATIC 329. The case record card was transcribed or re-created during the FTD era, approximately 10 years after the original 1953 sighting. Any original contemporaneous ATIC 329 card is not present in this file package.] Supplemental documents present: - U.S. Air Force Technical Information Sheet (Form A), ATIC civilian questionnaire, pages 1-8, completed by primary observer. Questionnaire dated June 8, 1953 (approximately 10 weeks after the sighting). - U.S. Air Force Technical Information Sheet (Form B), Summary Data page, signed June 8, 1953. Summary section left blank. - Air Intelligence Information Report, AF Form 112 (Approved 1 June 1948). Country: USA. Area: State of Wisconsin. Date of Report: 7 Apr 53. Date of Information: 3 Apr 53. Evaluation: F-2. Source: Mr. [REDACTED] (Civilian). Prepared by: 1st Lt. Conrad R. Case. Approved by: James R. Larson, Lt. Col., USAF, Director of Intelligence. - Joint Messageform (FLYOBRPT), UNCLASSIFIED, 2 pages. FM: CG 31ADIV ST PAUL 11 MINN (HQ 31st Air Division, Fort Snelling, Minnesota). TO: JEPHO/D/I USAF WASH D C; JEDWP/CG ATIC WRIGHT PATTERSON AFB OHIO; JEDEN/CG ADC COLORADO SPRINGS COLO; JEDKF/CG CADF KSC MO. Dated: 3 April 1953, 1926Z. [Handwritten note: "Bottom?"] [Handwritten routing annotation: "29/3/us2 / Spooners Wis"] - Forwarding letter, HQ 31st Air Division, Fort Snelling, Minnesota. WD 319.1. 3 APR 1953. Subject: FLYOBRPT. TO: Chief, Air Technical Intelligence Center, Wright-Patterson AFB, Dayton, Ohio. Signed by: Odus L. Kimberling, Major, USAF, Adjutant. Enclosures: FLYOBRPT (3 Apr 53) and FLYOBRPT (5 Apr 53). - Letter on THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY letterhead, Emerson McMillin Observatory, Columbus Ohio. Dated 19 May 1953. From: Allen Hynek (signed "Allen Hynek"). To: 1st Lt. Robert Olsson, Wright-Patterson AFB. [See ANALYSIS for full relevant content of this letter.] ================================================================ SEARCH INDEX TERMS ================================================================ Spooner Wisconsin Washburn County Madge 1953 March 29 four observers multiple witnesses antenna installer hatchery manager civilian circular disc aluminum silver high altitude high speed direction reversal north south ground-visual 15 seconds daylight clear sky UNIDENTIFIED Hynek Allen Hynek Ohio State University FTD ATIC 31st Air Division Fort Snelling Conrad Case James Larson 1938 prior sighting no aircraft recognition experience FLYOBRPT Blue Book consultant maneuver reversal impossible impossible-maneuver ================================================================ CASE ANALYSIS -- Claude Sonnet 4.6 ================================================================ THE OFFICIAL CONCLUSION ----------------------- UNIDENTIFIED. The FTD record card's analysis note states that no known aircraft is capable of the described maneuvers in 15 seconds. The FLYOBRPT was routed to ATIC, Air Defense Command, HQ USAF, and the Canadian Air Defence Force -- a distribution that reflects institutional interest beyond routine filing. The evaluation on the Air Intelligence Information Report is F-2, meaning the source's reliability was not established but the information itself was rated "probably true." WHAT THE EVIDENCE SHOWS ----------------------- On Sunday afternoon, 29 March 1953, at approximately 3:45 PM local time (2145Z), four civilians were installing an antenna approximately six and a half miles east of Spooner, Wisconsin in Washburn County -- putting them outdoors and looking up, in good position to observe the sky. The primary observer was a 46-year-old male, a hatchery manager and caretaker with a high school education. What they saw: a circular, aluminum-colored disc approximately half the size of the moon, at very high altitude. The object's shape and size never varied during the observation. It was silver in color, appeared solid, had sharply outlined edges, and made no sound. The object was traveling at a very high rate of speed from south to north, then returned to the south, reversed its direction, and was last observed heading north. The observer described the disappearance on his questionnaire as: "Faded away after coming back from its line of flight twice." His own construction of the object: "Plain aluminum disk." The primary observer held no previous aircraft recognition experience. However, he stated on his questionnaire that he had observed a similar object at Spooner in 1938, while hunting along a stream on his property -- 15 years earlier. He described the 1938 object as similar but larger and flying from north to south. Weather was clear to thin light cirrus clouds with blue sky visible. Surface conditions were dry, no wind, cool. Winds aloft were from the NW/NNW at 50-80 knots at 18,000 to 40,000 feet. POINTS OF INTEREST / WHAT GIVES ME PAUSE ----------------------------------------- The most significant document in this file is a letter from Dr. J. Allen Hynek -- then Project Blue Book's scientific consultant, writing from his post at the Emerson McMillin Observatory at Ohio State University. Writing on 19 May 1953 to 1st Lt. Robert Olsson at Wright-Patterson, Hynek reviewed a batch of cases and commented on this one: "29 March Spooner, Wisc: Duration times needs checking here. Hard to believe that object could have done all that in 15 seconds. An interesting case and one of the regular questionnaires should be sent to Mr. Gilette." The questionnaire was subsequently sent; the primary observer completed it June 8, 1953. Hynek's instinct was sound: the duration is the crux of this case. The FLYOBRPT and the FTD card record 15 seconds. The civilian questionnaire records 2 minutes. These are very different observations of very different phenomena. In 15 seconds, a disc performing two complete direction reversals at high speed would require acceleration values far beyond any known 1953 aircraft -- or any aircraft since. In two minutes, the description becomes physically less extreme, though still unusual. The direction-reversal behavior is the core of the ATIC conclusion. Wind data aloft showed northwesterly flow at 50-80 knots at altitude -- which would carry a free balloon or other wind-borne object generally to the southeast, not through repeated north-south reversals. The balloon hypothesis is effectively ruled out by the meteorological data in the file. Four witnesses is a meaningful number. Antenna installation work requires cooperation and attention -- these were not casual passersby who happened to glance up once. The description across the FLYOBRPT and the questionnaire is consistent: circular, aluminum/silver, high altitude, high speed, multiple direction reversals. The 1938 prior sighting is worth noting without over-weighting. The observer's memory of a disc-shaped object at the same location 15 years earlier could be accurate, or it could be a framing effect on his 1953 description. There is no corroborating file for the 1938 event. What it does suggest is that this observer had been watching the sky carefully for years and was not describing the 1953 event in isolation. One archival note: the record card in this file uses the FTD form dated September 1963 -- a decade after the sighting. This indicates the card was created or transcribed during the FTD reorganization of Blue Book records, not contemporaneously. Whether the FTD transcription introduced the 15-second duration (versus the questionnaire's 2 minutes) or faithfully copied an earlier record cannot be determined from this file. BOTTOM LINE ----------- This is a genuinely interesting UNIDENTIFIED that earned Hynek's attention at the time. The core of the case is physically compelling: multiple witnesses, consistent description of an aluminum disc, weather data that rules out balloons, and a flight profile -- multiple rapid direction reversals -- that was not achievable by any 1953 aircraft and remains unexplained. The duration discrepancy (15 seconds vs. 2 minutes) is real and Hynek was right to flag it. It doesn't resolve into a conventional explanation either way -- it only changes how extraordinary the described maneuvers were. At 15 seconds, the physics are more extreme; at 2 minutes, the description is still unusual but less physically demanding. What remains constant across both durations is the direction-reversal behavior and the disc appearance, which the ATIC analysts correctly identified as beyond the capability of known aircraft. The UNIDENTIFIED classification is sound. The case would have been stronger with Hynek's questionnaire follow-up producing more detail on the timing, but the core report from four witnesses describes something that could not be conventionally explained in 1953 and has not been explained since. ================================================================ https://glitchymatrix.com/bluebook/ GlitchyMatrix Project Blue Book Archive All 10,808 declassified USAF UFO case files, 1945-1969 ================================================================