---------------------------------------------------------------- ================================================================ PROJECT 10073 RECORD CARD -- TRANSCRIPTION File: 1952-04-6312648-LaCrosse-Wisconsin.pdf Transcribed by Claude Sonnet 4.6 for GlitchyMatrix.com/bluebook/ ================================================================ FIELD 1 -- DATE: 14 April 1952 FIELD 2 -- LOCATION: LaCrosse, Wisconsin FIELD 3 -- DATE-TIME GROUP: Local 1235 CST / GMT 1835Z [GMT field reads "1/ 1835 Z" -- leading day digit partially obscured by scan; 1835Z is mathematically consistent with 1235 CST (UTC-6), no discrepancy] FIELD 4 -- TYPE OF OBSERVATION: Ground-Visual [X] Ground-Radar [ ] Air-Visual [ ] Air-Intercept Radar [ ] FIELD 5 -- PHOTOS: No FIELD 6 -- SOURCE: airline pilot FIELD 7 -- LENGTH OF OBS: Not recorded FIELD 8 -- NUMBER OF OBJECTS: several FIELD 9 -- COURSE: Not recorded on card [NW per supplemental teletype and Status Report #7] FIELD 10 -- BRIEF SUMMARY: Light colored. Straight and level maneuvers. FIELD 11 -- COMMENTS: Objects traveling at high speed and changing positions in V-formation. FIELD 12 -- CONCLUSIONS: [ ] Was balloon [ ] Probably balloon [ ] Possibly balloon [ ] Was aircraft [ ] Probably aircraft [ ] Possibly aircraft [ ] Was astronomical [ ] Probably astronomical [ ] Possibly astronomical [ ] Other: [handwritten notation in box area -- text illegible; checkbox status uncertain] [X] Insufficient data for evaluation [X] Unidentified [Note: Checkbox examination suggests prior X marks were erased from the printed boxes -- white centers with residual marks are consistent with erasure rather than clean unchecked boxes or fresh checkmarks. The word "UNIDENTIFIED" appears written by hand in the conclusions area, suggesting this is the final classification as corrected rather than a dual-checked result. The "Other" line also carries a handwritten notation whose text remains illegible in the scan. The physical document history implied here -- X marks made, then erased, with UNIDENTIFIED added in hand -- is consistent with the 1968 reviewer's question about how the case was "presently carried."] Form: ATIC FORM 329 (REV 26 SEP 52) Supplemental documents present: -- AFHQ Form 0-309D "Emergency Incoming Clear Message" (teletype), dated 14 Apr 52, from JEPFF / Olmsted AFB PA to Sec Defense Washington DC. AF IN: 16527 (14 Apr 52). References follow-up message AF IN: 16555 (15 Apr 52) -- not present in this file bundle. -- Extract from Status Report #7, dated 14 Apr 52. Unclassified. -- Letter, Northwestern University Department of Astronomy, Lindheimer Astronomical Research Center, Evanston IL 60201, dated 4 June 1968, to Lt. Col. Hector Quintanilla Jr., FTD (TDETR), Research and Aerial Phenomena Division, Wright Patterson AFB OH 45433. Attn: TDPT (UFO). Subj: UFO Investigation. Reference: letter of 22 May 1968 from Quintanilla. The LaCrosse case is item #2 in a multi-case review spanning at least three incidents. The same letter also addresses item #1 (7 January 1952, Palmer, Alaska) and item #3 (4 June 1952, Stuttgart, Germany). Those incidents are separate eval candidates co-filed in this document bundle. [Note on named individuals: Witness name is redacted in the teletype. "SCHRODER," identified as CTH Manager, appears unredacted as the message signing officer -- not confirmed as a witness. No unredacted witness names identified.] ================================================================ SEARCH INDEX TERMS ================================================================ LaCrosse La-Crosse Wisconsin 1952 April 1950s V-formation V-shape formation airline-pilot commercial-pilot captain multiple-witnesses ground-visual several-objects light-colored high-speed straight-level 12000-feet 20000-feet altitude NW northwest heading unidentified insufficient-data Hynek Quintanilla FTD TDETR Wright-Patterson Northwestern-University Lindheimer-Astronomical-Research-Center Evanston Olmsted-AFB Pennsylvania followup-failure status-report status-report-7 Wisconsin-Central-Airlines teletype ATIC-329 1968-review undetermined-size changing-formation tremendous-speed ================================================================ CASE ANALYSIS -- Claude Sonnet 4.6 ================================================================ THE OFFICIAL CONCLUSION ----------------------- The record card conclusion area shows signs of physical revision: the printed checkboxes exhibit white centers with residual marks consistent with erased X's rather than cleanly unchecked boxes. The final classification appears to have been entered by hand as "UNIDENTIFIED" written into the conclusions area rather than a standard checkbox fill. An additional handwritten notation appears on the "Other" line but is illegible in the scan. The card's physical history suggests the conclusion was changed at least once before the handwritten UNIDENTIFIED was settled on as the final entry. By 1968, when the file was reviewed by the Air Force scientific consultant at the request of Lt. Col. Quintanilla, the question of which classification actually applied was still open enough that the reviewer asked it directly. His position: neither "unidentified" nor a bare "insufficient information" label was quite right. What the case merited was "insufficient information because of lack of followup" -- a distinction he considered meaningful and the more appropriate designation. WHAT THE EVIDENCE SHOWS ----------------------- On 14 April 1952 at 1235 CST, a captain of Wisconsin Central Airlines and an unspecified number of other witnesses observed several light-colored objects from the ground at LaCrosse, Wisconsin. The observation was ground-visual only; no radar contact is recorded. The objects were in V-formation, estimated at 15,000 to 20,000 feet altitude, heading northwest. They changed formation with what the originating teletype describes as "tremendous speed," with a swaying motion noted before the objects disappeared to the northwest. Duration is not recorded on the card and is listed as "Not Reported" in Status Report #7. The teletype (AFHQ Form 0-309D, AF IN: 16527) was routed as an Emergency Incoming Clear Message from JEPFF / Olmsted AFB PA to the Secretary of Defense in Washington, with information copies distributed to Army, Navy, CIA, JCS, and AFSA -- a notably wide distribution for a brief initial report. A follow-up message (AF IN: 16555, 15 Apr 52) is referenced at the bottom of the teletype but is not present in this file. Status Report #7 adds heading (NW), speed (fast), altitude (12-20,000 feet), and the note "No conclusions." The originating teletype opens with the word "CARVIS" before "SIGHTED FROM GROUND AT LA CROSSE WISC AT 1235 CENTRAL." The word does not match standard Blue Book routing identifiers or obvious military abbreviations in this context. It may be a garbled name, a transmission artifact, or a station designator; its meaning is unclear. Flagged here rather than silently dropped. POINTS OF INTEREST / WHAT GIVES ME PAUSE ----------------------------------------- The Northwestern University letter is the most analytically significant document in this bundle. Written in response to Quintanilla's 22 May 1968 multi-case inquiry, the author -- writing from the Lindheimer Astronomical Research Center, Northwestern University -- states he reviewed this case specifically in hopes that additional followup had since been made. He found none. The critique is direct and specific: no attempt was made to determine who "the others" were who witnessed the sighting, whether they were passengers, crew members, or bystanders, how many witnessed it, or how long the observation lasted. Information that may have been available was never gathered. The reviewer argues the case should not simply carry "insufficient information" but rather "insufficient information because of lack of followup" -- the store of available information was simply never tapped. He then asks plainly how the case is presently carried, "unidentified, or insufficient information," and says the latter would certainly be more appropriate. This letter carries institutional weight. The author's affiliation and the fact that Quintanilla sought a review of this case sixteen years after the fact suggest it remained something of an open item. The primary witness was a commercial airline captain -- a professionally trained observer whose licensure required demonstrated competency in aircraft identification and atmospheric conditions. Whatever was seen, the observer is not easily dismissed, and the reviewer clearly agreed. The teletype's behavioral language is more specific than the terse record card summary suggests: "changed formation with tremendous speed" and "disappeared to NW swaying motion" describe not just a path but coordinated movement. That level of observational specificity from a trained pilot is worth noting. The follow-up message (AF IN: 16555, 15 Apr 52) referenced in the teletype is absent from this file. If it survives in the archive, it may contain additional witness details or early investigative notes that would partly address the reviewer's 1968 complaint. BOTTOM LINE ----------- The most honest assessment of this case was written in 1968 by the Air Force's own scientific consultant: this is not a genuinely investigated UNIDENTIFIED. It is a case that was never properly investigated at all. A commercial airline captain and an unknown number of additional witnesses reported several objects in coordinated formation at altitude, changing positions at high speed -- behavior that warranted at minimum a follow-up interview -- and the investigative record ends essentially with the initial teletype. Whether the objects were military aircraft on an exercise, an unusual optical or atmospheric phenomenon, or something else cannot be determined because the file contains almost nothing beyond the original report. The physical evidence of erasure on the record card -- prior X marks removed, UNIDENTIFIED written in by hand -- hints at its own story: someone cared enough about the classification to change it, yet apparently not enough to investigate it. An UNIDENTIFIED earned through rigorous inquiry is one thing. One arrived at by handwriting it onto an erased form is another. The 1968 reviewer saw this clearly; the record agrees. ================================================================ https://glitchymatrix.com/bluebook/ GlitchyMatrix Project Blue Book Archive All 10,808 declassified USAF UFO case files, 1945-1969 ================================================================ ----------------------------------------------------------------