---------------------------------------------------------------- ================================================================ PROJECT 10073 RECORD CARD -- TRANSCRIPTION File: xxxx-xx-8774566-Macon-Georgia.pdf Transcribed by Claude Sonnet 4.6 for GlitchyMatrix.com/bluebook/ ================================================================ FIELD 1 -- DATE: 24 August 1952 (Confirmed by multiple supplemental documents; date field on record card partially obscured in scan; archive file classified as date unknown) FIELD 2 -- LOCATION: Macon, Georgia (Near Robins Air Force Base; Herbert Smart Airport vicinity per Spot Report 1; residential area per Spot Report 2) FIELD 3 -- DATE-TIME GROUP: Local 2030 (2020 per second witness) / 0130Z FIELD 4 -- TYPE OF OBSERVATION: Ground-Visual [X] (Naked eye and binoculars) Ground-Radar [ ] Air-Visual [ ] Air-Intercept Radar [ ] FIELD 5 -- PHOTOS: No FIELD 6 -- SOURCE: Civilian (varied -- two independent civilian witnesses; witness 1 employed as Teletype Supervisor, Robins AFB) FIELD 7 -- LENGTH OF OBS: 3-5 minutes (3 min per witness 1 questionnaire; 5 min per both Spot Reports) FIELD 8 -- NUMBER OF OBJECTS: One FIELD 9 -- COURSE: Object initially appeared to approach observer (from SW); then receded to SW, then W (per questionnaire and Spot Reports; course field on record card partially illegible) FIELD 10 -- BRIEF SUMMARY: Orange color. Round. FIELD 11 -- COMMENTS: Object seen by inexperienced observers. Balloon release at Robins. Sighted at sunset. FIELD 12 -- CONCLUSIONS: [ ] Was balloon [ ] Probably balloon [X] Possibly balloon [ ] Was aircraft [ ] Probably aircraft [ ] Possibly aircraft [ ] Was astronomical [ ] Probably astronomical [ ] Possibly astronomical [ ] Other: _______________ [ ] Insufficient data for evaluation [ ] Unidentified [Note: Field 12 checkboxes on record card are partially obscured. Conclusion confirmed as "Possibly Balloon" by ATIC Test Form 334 (Project 10073 Worksheet), Section V Final Evaluation. Same worksheet rates source as "Poor."] Form: ATIC FORM 329 (REV 26 SEP 52) [Form revision date post-dates the sighting by approximately one month; consistent with normal ATIC processing timeline.] Supplemental docs: (1) HQ Warner Robins Air Materiel Area investigation letter, AUG 28 1952, signed [REDACTED] CRAFT, Lt Col USAF, Air Provost Marshal, IG Office (WRIP/OC/JCD/cc). (2) Spot Report of UFO (Incl 1): Witness 1, Age 35, Teletype Supervisor, Communications Branch, Robins AFB; interviewed 25 Aug 1952. (3) Spot Report of UFO (Incl 3): Witness 2, Age 31, Macon Hospital employee; interviewed 26 Aug 1952. (4) Witness sketch (Incl 4): Flask/half-spherical object, labeled "Entire Unit Emitted Reddish-Orange Light," moving SW. (5) Teletype relay message (23/1437Z AUG JEPHO) routed to ATIC WPAFB, ENT AFB COLO, Langley AFB VA. (6) ATIC letter (4 Sep 1952) from Robert E. Kennedy, Major USAF, Air Adjutant General, transmitting questionnaire to witness 1. (7) Project 10073 Worksheet (ATIC Test Form 334, 13 Aug 52): Final Eval "Possibly Balloon"; Source Eval "Poor"; Balloon Data field indicates release in area approximately 2 hrs 35 min before sighting. (8) Project 10073 Weather Data Sheet (ATIC Test Form 333, 13 Aug 52): wind aloft table blank; comment "No weather info." (9) Tentative Observers Questionnaire completed by witness 1 (8 pages), including written supplement and shape/motion sketches at questions 22-25. ================================================================ SEARCH INDEX TERMS ================================================================ Macon Georgia Bibb-County 1952 August-24 8774566 civilian military-employee Robins-AFB WRAMA Warner-Robins Herbert-Smart Cochran-Field Rice-Mill-Road Highway-41 ground-visual binoculars half-spherical saucer reddish-orange yellowish fire-colored light-bulb-shape southwest west sunset overcast two-witnesses independent-witnesses possibly-balloon balloon ceilometer C-47 WMAZ WBML source-evaluation-poor 1950s ATIC-worksheet ================================================================ CASE ANALYSIS -- Claude Sonnet 4.6 ================================================================ THE OFFICIAL CONCLUSION ----------------------- ATIC evaluated this case as "Possibly Balloon" with a "Poor" source evaluation, noting on the record card that the observers were "inexperienced," that a balloon release occurred at Robins, and that the sighting was at sunset. The Project 10073 Worksheet confirmed the balloon hypothesis, indicating a balloon had been released approximately two hours and thirty-five minutes before the sighting. The attribution is immediately complicated by the ground investigation. The WRAMA letter of 28 August 1952 explicitly documents that a check with the Base Weather Station at Robins AFB confirmed no weather balloons were released from that station on 24 August 1952. The record card's notation "Balloon release at Robins" directly contradicts this finding. The ATIC worksheet and the ground investigation cannot both be correct. WHAT THE EVIDENCE SHOWS ----------------------- Two civilian observers reported the sighting independently from different Macon locations on the night of 24 August 1952. The first witness -- a Teletype Supervisor at Robins AFB, age 35 -- noticed the object at approximately 2030 EST while walking to his garage. He retrieved a set of 10-power binoculars and watched the object with his wife for three to five minutes. Through binoculars he described it as "the bright outline of a saucer standing on end." It appeared first to approach, then to recede slowly to the southwest and west. His completed questionnaire and written supplement provide unusually detailed responses, including sketches of the object's shape, position, and trajectory. The second witness -- a Macon Hospital employee, age 31 -- had already noticed the object at approximately 2020 EST from his backyard and immediately reported it to radio station WMAZ. He described a shape like a huge light bulb, three to four feet in apparent height, reddish-orange, with the entire unit emitting light. He estimated it at 200-300 feet altitude and 2-3 miles distant, moving slowly to the southwest. His submitted sketch shows a flask-shaped object with the label "Entire Unit Emitted Reddish-Orange Light." Both witnesses independently noted that just before the object disappeared, a plane flew close to it traveling from northwest to southeast. This corresponds to a C-47 from Brooks AFB that arrived at Robins at 2115 and was contacted over Butler, Georgia (30 miles distant) at 2042 hours. The aircraft pilot stated no object was observed. Official base weather at 2028: visibility 10 miles, overcast at 4,500 feet, temperature 72 degrees, northeast wind 3 knots. POINTS OF INTEREST / WHAT GIVES ME PAUSE ----------------------------------------- The balloon discrepancy is the central unresolved problem in this file. Three pieces of documentation conflict: the record card says "Balloon release at Robins"; the WRAMA investigation says no balloons were released at Robins on that date; and the ATIC worksheet says a balloon release occurred 2 hours 35 minutes before the sighting. The most likely explanation is that the ATIC balloon data referenced a different facility or balloon type than the one the WRAMA investigator queried -- but this is not resolved in the file, and the record card carries the erroneous note as settled fact. The "Poor" source evaluation applied to an account that includes a Robins AFB civilian employee observing through 10-power binoculars is difficult to justify on the record. Witness 1's questionnaire responses are systematic and self-aware: he notes the time, retrieves optics, describes the object in clinical terms, and explicitly contrasts what he saw against the moon and searchlights. "Inexperienced observer" may be a technically accurate label but it obscures what the documentation actually shows. Witness 2's altitude estimate of 200-300 feet is the most analytically troublesome detail for the balloon hypothesis. A released weather balloon ascends rapidly from ground level and would not remain at 200-300 feet for the duration of a 5-minute observation. At that altitude and the stated 2-3 mile distance, angular size would also be inconsistent with the basketball comparison offered in the questionnaire. The binocular description -- "saucer standing on end" -- is not a natural description of a balloon, even a partially- inflated or oddly-oriented one. This observation, made with 10-power magnification, is the element that most resists the official explanation. The ceilometer operating at Robins that night is worth brief mention. Its beam measures cloud ceiling by reflecting off the overcast base, which can produce a visible glow in the sky, but would not produce a discrete half-spherical object matching the accounts of two independent witnesses separated by distance and time. BOTTOM LINE ----------- "Possibly Balloon" carries the appropriate hedge: "possibly" rather than "was" or "probably." The sunset timing and the reddish-orange coloration are consistent with a buoyant object illuminated by low-angle sunlight below the overcast. But the ground investigation's denial of any balloon release at Robins, the implausibly low altitude estimate from witness 2, the binocular description from witness 1, and the "Poor" source rating applied to a base employee with magnification optics all leave this conclusion on uncertain footing. Not a compelling unknown -- but not a clean balloon resolution either. The internal documentation conflict alone is enough to place "Possibly" at the appropriate edge of its hedge. ================================================================ https://glitchymatrix.com/bluebook/ GlitchyMatrix Project Blue Book Archive All 10,808 declassified USAF UFO case files, 1945-1969 ================================================================ ----------------------------------------------------------------