---------------------------------------------------------------- ================================================================ PROJECT 10073 RECORD CARD -- TRANSCRIPTION File: 1954-09-8726528-Butler-Mo.pdf Transcribed by Claude Sonnet 4.6 for GlitchyMatrix.com/bluebook/ ================================================================ [NOTE: This file contains TWO co-filed ATIC Form 329 record cards: one for 4 September 1954 and one for 5 September 1954, both from Butler, Missouri. Both classified UNIDENTIFIED. A CRIFO newsletter article filed with the case covers a separate, unrelated sighting in Rockford, Illinois; it is labeled "No Case (Information Only)" and addressed under Supplemental Documents. See also companion case 1954-09-8727100-Butler-Missouri for a third sighting at the same location on 26 September 1954, classified BIRDS.] ---------------------------------------------------------------- PRIMARY CASE -- 4 SEPTEMBER 1954 ---------------------------------------------------------------- FIELD 1 -- DATE: 4 September 1954 FIELD 2 -- LOCATION: Butler, Mo FIELD 3 -- DATE-TIME GROUP: Local [blank] / GMT 04/0900Z FIELD 4 -- TYPE OF OBSERVATION: Ground-Visual [X] Ground-Radar [ ] Air-Visual [ ] Air-Intercept Radar [ ] FIELD 5 -- PHOTOS: No FIELD 6 -- SOURCE: CIVILIAN FIELD 7 -- LENGTH OF OBS: 1.5 minutes (1 and a half minutes) FIELD 8 -- NUMBER OF OBJECTS: 20-30 FIELD 9 -- COURSE: SW FIELD 10 -- BRIEF SUMMARY: String of 20 to 30 white lights together in formation. No sound. Straight and level flight to SW. Observed overhead at estimated 40-50,000 ft. Disappeared in distance after 1.5 minutes. Sighted previous evening by 2 other civilians. Radar check negative. Act[ion] check negative. FIELD 11 -- COMMENTS: [blank] 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: Field 12 shows marks at "Other: UNIDENTIFIED" and apparently at "Insufficient Data for Evaluation" and "Unknown" as well. Checkbox legibility is limited on this copy; UNIDENTIFIED is treated as primary per standard practice and confirmed by the companion file's teletype content.] Form: ATIC FORM 329 (REV 26 SEP 52) ---------------------------------------------------------------- CO-FILED CASE -- 5 SEPTEMBER 1954 ---------------------------------------------------------------- FIELD 1 -- DATE: 5 September 1954 FIELD 2 -- LOCATION: Butler, Mo FIELD 3 -- DATE-TIME GROUP: Local [blank] / GMT 05/0623Z FIELD 4 -- TYPE OF OBSERVATION: Ground-Visual [X] Ground-Radar [ ] Air-Visual [ ] Air-Intercept Radar [ ] FIELD 5 -- PHOTOS: No FIELD 6 -- SOURCE: Civilian FIELD 7 -- LENGTH OF OBS: 25-30 Seconds FIELD 8 -- NUMBER OF OBJECTS: 1 FIELD 9 -- COURSE: [see brief summary] FIELD 10 -- BRIEF SUMMARY: Silver to white. Slight sweep back line. Exhaust following object. Initial observation overhead flight to SW veering to S and disappearing. Obs[erver] Witness observed object on previous night. Straight and level flight. B-47 in area at time 34,000 to 39,000 ft, heading NE. FIELD 11 -- COMMENTS: UNIDENTIFIED FIELD 12 -- CONCLUSIONS: [X] Other: UNIDENTIFIED [?] Insufficient data for evaluation [?] Unknown [Same checkbox legibility caveat as primary card. Field 11 confirms UNIDENTIFIED.] Form: ATIC FORM 329 (REV 26 SEP 52) ================================================================ SUPPLEMENTAL DOCUMENTS ================================================================ 1. Teletype, September 4 sighting. Message: JWFAM 12. Relay: O 041455Z / WPG164 / YDC155 / WYA232 / JWFAM 068. Routing: OO JEDEN JEDWP 222 / DE JWFAM 12. From: LOWRY FLIGHT SERVICE CENTER DENVER COLO. To: JEDEN/COMDR AIR DEFENSE COMMAND ENT AFB COLO. Info: JEDWP/COMDR AIR TECHNICAL INTELLIGENCE CENTER WRIGHT-PATTERSON OHIO. 1. (A) STRING OF LIGHTS (B) FINGER WHEN EXTENDED AT ARMS LENGTH OBSCURED OBJECT (C) WHITE LIGHTS (D) 20 TO 30 LIGHTS TOGETHER OR IN FORMATION (E) UNDETERMINED (F) NEG (G) NOT SURE OF TRAIL (H) NEGATIVE SOUND (I) N/A 2. (A) TAKING A WEATHER OBSERVATION [PAGE TWO]: (B) OVERHEAD -- HEADING 240 DEGREES ESTIMATE 40-50 THSD [thousand feet] (C) SW HEADING 240 DEGREES (D) STRAIGHT AND LEVEL (E) DISAPPEARED IN DISTANT [sic] (F) ONE AND A HALF MINUTES 3. (A) GROUND VISUAL (B) NAKED EYE (C) N/A 4. (A) 04/[0940?]Z [GMT timestamp; record card notes 04/0900Z; slight discrepancy] (B) NIGHT [Observer and location data from co-filed JUFAM message below; civilian names redacted.] 2. Teletype, September 5 sighting. Message: JUFAM 005 (also labeled JUFAM 025 and JUFAM 0-5 in various copies; most legible designation: JUFAM 005). From: Lowry FSC or relay station. Routing: PP JEDAN JEDUP JEPHR or similar [partially legible]; sent to Director of Intelligence HQ USAF Washington 25 DC among others. 1. (A) UNABLE TO DETAIL IN SHAPE. LEADING EDGE OF OBJECT HAD SLIGHT SWEPT-BACK LINE. (B) LENGTH OF FINGER (C) SILVER TO WHITE IN COLOR (D) ONE LIGHT (FAINT) (E) ONE OBJECT (F) NONE (G) APPEARANCE OF EXHAUST FOLLOWING OBJECT (H) NONE 2. (A) TAKING A WEATHER OBSERVATION (B) ANGLE OF ELEVATION 90 DEGREES AZIMUTH 300 DEGREES (C) ANGLE OF ELEVATION UNKNOWN AZIMUTH 220 DEGREES (D) STRAIGHT AND LEVEL HEADING SW 240 DEGREES (E) HEADING SW THEN VEERED TO THE SOUTH AND DISAPPEARED (F) TWENTY FIVE TO THIRTY SECONDS 3. (A) GROUND VISUAL (B) NAKED EYE (C) N/A 4. (A) 05/0623Z (B) NIGHT 5. 3316N [sic] / [38 16N per approx lat of Butler MO] 6. (A) [REDACTED] 34 402 W OHIO BUTLER MO AIRWAYS OPERATIONS SPECIALIST IN COMMUNICATIONS CAA [Civilian name fully redacted; observer is a Communications Specialist, Civil Aeronautics Authority, Butler, Missouri.] 7. (A) CLEAR AND UNLIMITED (B) 6000 FT 240/45; 10000 FT 240/40; 16000 FT 250/25; 20000 FT 250/25; 30000 FT 90/15 [winds aloft] (C) CLEAR (D) UNLIMITED (E) NONE (F) NONE 8. NONE 9. NONE 10. TWO GCI SITES ALERTED W[ITH] AREA OF SIGHTING WITH NEGATIVE RADAR CONTACT OF ALLEGED OBJECT 11. ONLY KNOWN TRAFFIC AT TIME TO OBSERVATION WAS EASTBOUND [cross-reference to B-47 noted in record card, heading NE at 34-39,000 ft] 12. OPERATIONS OFFICER: SIGHTING WAS RELAYED THROUGH KANSAS CITY ARTC. OBSERVER STATED THAT TWO OTHER CIVILIANS HAD SIGHTED AN UNIDENTIFIED OBJECT OF THE SAME DESCRIPTION ON THE PREVIOUS EVENING. NO COMMENT. [The "previous evening" reference = September 3 or night of September 4; cross-confirms Sept 4 sighting was preceded by civilian sightings as noted on the Sept 4 record card.] Transmitted: 04/1340Z SEP [or 04/1440Z] JUFAM. 3. Action cover page for September 5 teletype. Stamps: 05/0623Z, BUTLER MO 53114; -7 SEP 1954, 07 21; ATIC-IN [SEP?]. Distribution: 1 ATIA, 2 Readyfile [or similar], 4 ATIC. 4. CRIFO Newsletter excerpt, labeled: "No Case (Information Only) Source: CRIFO Newsletter 1 Oct 1954 5 Sep 54, Rockford, Ill." Filed in case for reference; not part of the Butler MO investigation. Content: Amateur astronomers Peter Bartkus and Theodore McColm (Rockford, Illinois) observed a spherical object ascending from the northern section of Mare Humboldtianum during lunar observation through a 6" cassigranian reflector telescope (150x and 200x) between 10:35 and 11:15 PM on September 5, 1954. McColm estimated object at 12,500 feet in diameter through calculus. Bartkus: object "not glowing or brilliant, but seemed more like a dull reflected light of a planet." Object ascended while moon was descending at 1081 mph; Bartkus concluded "object must have been a powered body." Editorial note in newsletter advocates extraterrestrial hypothesis. Drawings of object's movement relative to moon included (5 panels). CRIFO = Civilian Research, Interplanetary Flying Objects. This is a civilian organization newsletter, not a military investigation document. REDACTION FLAG -- UNREDACTED NAMES IN CRIFO CLIPPING: - Peter Bartkus: amateur astronomer, Rockford, Illinois; named in published CRIFO newsletter. - Theodore McColm: amateur astronomer, Rockford, Illinois; named in published CRIFO newsletter. Both appear in a publicly-published third-party source filed as "No Case (Information Only)" -- not a military document. Review before deployment regardless. ================================================================ SEARCH INDEX TERMS ================================================================ Butler Missouri Bates-County 1954 September 1950s 4-September 5-September string-of-lights formation 20-30-objects white exhaust swept-back single-object 40-50000-feet altitude-estimate straight-level southwest civilian CAA airways-operations weather-observer radar-negative GCI two-GCI-sites B-47 aircraft-in-area unidentified multiple-nights previous-evening three-days Kansas-City-ARTC Lowry-FSC CRIFO newsletter Rockford Bartkus McColm moon-observation lunar telescope companion-case-8727100 September-1954-Butler-cluster ================================================================ ================================================================ CASE ANALYSIS -- Claude Sonnet 4.6 ================================================================ THE OFFICIAL CONCLUSION ----------------------- Both September 1954 events are classified UNIDENTIFIED on the ATIC Form 329 -- a contemporaneous designation, assigned in 1954 during or shortly after the investigation. No follow-up evaluation changed these classifications. The UNIDENTIFIED label reflects a genuine inability to explain the observations, not a retroactive editorial judgment. Compare this with companion case 8727100, where the BIRDS conclusion was applied on a post-1963 form -- nine or more years after the event and after the contemporaneous investigation had concluded "nothing definite." WHAT THE EVIDENCE SHOWS ----------------------- On the night of September 4 (0900Z), a civilian weather observer at Butler, Missouri -- a Communications Specialist with the Civil Aeronautics Authority -- watched a string of 20-30 white lights in formation pass overhead at an estimated 40-50,000 feet, heading southwest in straight and level flight. The formation disappeared in the distance after 90 seconds. Two other civilians had seen what they described as the same object the previous evening. Radar check negative. Intercept action check negative. The following night (September 5, 0623Z), the same or a nearby observer saw a single object: silver to white, slight swept-back leading edge, with the appearance of exhaust trailing behind, passing overhead and veering south before disappearing. Duration: 25-30 seconds. Two GCI radar sites were specifically alerted for the September 5 event; both returned negative contact. The only known air traffic was a B-47, eastbound at 34-39,000 feet heading northeast -- confirmed as a separate, identified contact. POINTS OF INTEREST / WHAT GIVES ME PAUSE ----------------------------------------- The altitude estimate of 40-50,000 feet (September 4) is the most analytically loaded detail. At that height, a string of 20-30 lights in formation rules out most natural candidates. Birds do not fly at 40,000 feet. The observer was a trained aviation communications professional who had just been taking a weather observation -- not an untrained civilian looking up at the sky. That said, nighttime altitude estimates from ground observers are notoriously unreliable, and the true altitude could have been much lower. If the September 4 formation was actually at, say, 5,000- 8,000 feet rather than 40,000-50,000, a flock of geese or other waterfowl in migration becomes plausible. Western Missouri in September is prime migration corridor. The string (rather than V) formation is less typical of geese but is observed in other species. No sound is consistent with birds at any realistic altitude. The September 5 single-object sighting is harder to dismiss. "Exhaust following object" is a specific feature not consistent with birds. Silver to white, swept-back leading edge, overhead then curving south -- this reads like a high-altitude aircraft or rocket, but the B-47 was accounted for (separate altitude, separate direction), and two GCI sites found nothing. The negative radar at both GCI sites is a meaningful data point: if it was a conventional aircraft, radar should have caught it. The CRIFO newsletter article filed with this case (Bartkus and McColm, Rockford, Illinois, September 5 lunar observation) covers a completely different type of event observed by telescopic means in Illinois. It was filed for reference by ATIC, which routinely collected civilian reports, but shares only a date with the Butler cases. The editorial note in the CRIFO publication asserting extraterrestrial origin should be treated as advocacy, not analysis. The user who flagged these cases as possibly having swapped classifications (UNIDENTIFIED vs BIRDS) is tracking something real. On the surface, the September 4 string formation heading straight-line southwest could LOOK more like a bird flock than the circling V-formation of September 26 (which got BIRDS). But the classifications are defensible as applied: V-formation is the textbook bird formation, while a string at high altitude with exhaust reported on a follow- up night is not. The more significant analytical point is that the BIRDS classification on the companion case was assigned retroactively, long after the contemporaneous investigation, while the UNIDENTIFIED on these cases was assigned immediately and based on active investigation including two GCI alerts. BOTTOM LINE ----------- Both September events are legitimately unresolved. The September 4 string formation might have a mundane explanation if the altitude estimate was far off -- but the observer's professional background and the follow-up corroboration from two earlier civilian witnesses argue for taking the account seriously. The September 5 single object with apparent exhaust, negative radar at two GCI sites, and a confirmed separate B-47 account, presents harder problems for any conventional explanation. This observer was seeing unexplained things on three separate occasions in September 1954 (September 4, 5, and 26). That pattern is worth noting. The evidence does not point to extraterrestrial origin, but it also does not close cleanly on any conventional candidate. ================================================================ https://glitchymatrix.com/bluebook/ GlitchyMatrix Project Blue Book Archive All 10,808 declassified USAF UFO case files, 1945-1969 ================================================================ ----------------------------------------------------------------