---------------------------------------------------------------- ================================================================ PROJECT 10073 RECORD CARD -- TRANSCRIPTION File: 1957-08-6965762-Jacksonville-Florida.pdf Transcribed by Claude Sonnet 4.6 for GlitchyMatrix.com/bluebook/ ================================================================ FIELD 1 -- DATE: 1st Monday, August 1957 (August 5, 1957) FIELD 2 -- LOCATION: Jacksonville, Florida FIELD 3 -- DATE-TIME GROUP: Local 530-600 pm / GMT 2230Z 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: Not reported FIELD 8 -- NUMBER OF OBJECTS: One FIELD 9 -- COURSE: Northerly FIELD 10 -- BRIEF SUMMARY: Report of object in front of moon, letter to President requesting info as to what the object was. FIELD 11 -- COMMENTS: Letters written in 1961 requesting information about a sighting in 1957. No ephimerus for 1957. Possible occultation. Report unreliable and information too meager for evaluation. Case considered as an unreliable rpt. FIELD 12 -- CONCLUSIONS: [ ] Was balloon [ ] Probably balloon [ ] Possibly balloon [ ] Was aircraft [ ] Probably aircraft [ ] Possibly aircraft [ ] Was astronomical [ ] Probably astronomical [ ] Possibly astronomical [X] Other: Unreliable Rpt [ ] Insufficient data for evaluation [ ] Unknown Form: ATIC FORM 329 (REV 26 SEP 52) ================================================================ SUPPLEMENTAL DOCUMENTS ================================================================ LETTER FROM OBSERVER TO THE PRESIDENT (September 18, 1961): Handwritten, partially legible. From Mrs. [REDACTED], R.F.D. 5 Box [?], Jacksonville, Florida. Addressed to the President of the United States. The observer describes a 1957 sighting at approximately 5:30-6:00 PM on the first Monday in August, while in the Jacksonville area. The letter is dense and difficult to follow in places. Recoverable content includes: the object was seen in conjunction with the moon; she characterized it as "the thing on the moon" and compared it to something that does not look like the missiles. The observation was made from or near a garage on the first Monday in August 1957. Others were present. The moon was visible and the object appeared in front of it or against it. The letter concludes with her name, signed as "Mrs. [REDACTED], Jacksonville." MEMORANDUM FOR CONGRESSIONAL INQUIRY DIVISION, SAFLL, 3 October 1961: Subject: Reply to Mrs. [REDACTED]. Prepared by: Maj. WILLIAM T. COLEMAN, JR., USAF, UFO Project Officer, Public Information Division, Office of Information. Content: Draft reply to Mr. [REDACTED, likely a congressional intermediary]. States that the Office of the President has asked the Air Force to reply to the observer's letter. Acknowledges responsibility for UFO investigation and evaluation. Closes with: "Your interest in telling us of the sighting you witnessed in 1957 is appreciated." [Note: Major William T. Coleman served as Blue Book's UFO Project Officer in this period.] REPLY LETTER TO OBSERVER, 9 October 1961: Signed by: C. H. CARLSON, Colonel, USAF, Chief, Public Information Division, Office of Information. Content identical in substance to Coleman's draft. Sent to Mrs. [REDACTED], Jacksonville 5, Florida. Distribution: 2 copies to L&L, SAFOI-3c-comeback, SAFOI-3c-reader. SECOND LETTER FROM OBSERVER (October 12, 1961, received October 18, 1961 -- "SE RE" stamp): Handwritten, partially legible. From R.F.D. 5 Box [?], Jacksonville 5, Florida. Recoverable content: "I am still trying to find out why it was not on the moon when I first look up at the moon. But the next time I look up at the moon it was there." She describes carrying something to B Street that Monday. On looking away and looking back, the object "had moved a foot across the moon and an [?] north. It look like around Ball. It was getting round then." She describes it as visible "with both eyes" and makes reference to a telescope. She notes others could see it. References to a plane seen from the back of the house. States she came home "about 2:00 pm" at one point, suggesting the account covers multiple time references and is difficult to sequence. "I am still trying to find out" -- she remains genuinely puzzled and seeking an explanation. SKETCH (undated, included with correspondence): Pencil sketch showing a large circle (the moon) with an object depicted near or in front of it. Handwritten annotations include color references: "yellow color on the moon." Text describes the object as moving north from the moon. Second note reads "? [?] about [?] yard." A second sketch page appears to be a carbon duplicate. ================================================================ SEARCH INDEX TERMS ================================================================ Jacksonville Florida 1957 August civilian unreliable moon occultation in-front-of-moon northerly-course letter-to-president White-House congressional-inquiry SAFLL William-Coleman C-H-Carlson 4-year-delay 1961 delayed-report ground-visual round ball yellow color meager-information no-ephemeris possible-occultation 530pm 2230Z civilian-female ================================================================ CASE ANALYSIS -- Claude Sonnet 4.6 ================================================================ THE OFFICIAL CONCLUSION ----------------------- Other: Unreliable Rpt. The investigators note that the letters were written four years after the event, that no ephemeris for 1957 was readily available for cross- reference, that the account raises the possibility of a lunar occultation, and that the information is too meager for evaluation. The case is not labeled unreliable on grounds of deception or character defect -- it is a documentary failure: too little, too late, too unclear. WHAT THE EVIDENCE SHOWS ----------------------- The observation was made on August 5, 1957 between approximately 5:30 and 6:00 PM local time in Jacksonville, Florida, with others present. The observer, a civilian woman, saw an object associated with the moon -- described as appearing "in front of" the moon and moving across it in a northerly direction. In her second letter she wrote that it was not visible when she first looked at the moon, but was present when she looked again, and that it subsequently moved "a foot across the moon" in a northward direction, appearing round and getting rounder. Her sketch depicts the moon as a large circle with an associated object, annotated with yellow color references. The account was not filed until September 1961, four years after the event. It arrived as a personal letter to the President of the United States, which was routed to the Air Force via the Congressional Inquiry Division (SAFLL). POINTS OF INTEREST / WHAT GIVES ME PAUSE ----------------------------------------- The routing of this case is unusual and worth noting. A civilian woman wrote directly to the President about a four-year-old UFO sighting. The White House forwarded it to the Air Force. The Congressional Inquiry Division handled it. Maj. William T. Coleman -- then serving as UFO Project Officer, and later a recognized figure in Blue Book's public communications -- drafted the form reply. The actual reply was signed by Col. C.H. Carlson, Chief of Public Information. This is a notable escalation chain for a brief civilian letter about an ambiguous sighting near the moon. The investigator's suggestion of a possible occultation deserves acknowledgment. Lunar occultations of bright planets or stars can appear dramatic to an unprepared observer -- an object visible near the moon that then moves behind it or reappears, or that is seen to shift position relative to the lunar limb as the moon travels across the sky, could produce exactly the kind of account presented here. The observer's description of the object being absent on first look and present on second, then moving northward "across" the moon over time, is broadly consistent with this. The investigator's note that no ephemeris for August 5, 1957 was at hand suggests this thread was recognized but not pursued. The observer's persistence is worth noting. She wrote a second letter three weeks after receiving the Air Force's polite non-answer, still actively trying to understand what she witnessed. The second letter is disorganized but sincere. People do not typically continue pressing for explanations about events they fabricated. BOTTOM LINE ----------- The UNRELIABLE classification here reflects evidentiary inadequacy rather than observer misconduct. Four years of elapsed time, a handwritten account that is genuinely difficult to parse, the absence of a contemporaneous record, and the investigator's lack of a readily available 1957 ephemeris together produced a dead end. The case could not be evaluated -- not because the observer was deemed dishonest, but because the available information was insufficient to resolve or dismiss it. The occultation hypothesis is plausible and was the investigators' best inference. Whether it is correct cannot be determined from the file. The verbal account, stripped to its core, describes a round object associated with the moon, not present on initial observation, visible on second look, moving northward across the moon's face over time. That description fits a mundane astronomical event. It does not obviously require anything anomalous. The case is genuinely inconclusive, and the UNRELIABLE tag is the filing system's way of saying so. POST-FILE FLAGS: - Observer name, address, and congressional intermediary names are redacted throughout, consistent with standard practice. - Maj. William T. Coleman, Jr. is named in his official capacity as UFO Project Officer; standard institutional disclosure. His role in this case is of historical interest given his later prominence in Blue Book public affairs. - Col. C. H. Carlson is named in official capacity as Chief, Public Information Division; standard disclosure. - The case was escalated through the Office of the President to SAFLL; this routing is notable for a meager, 4-year-delayed civilian report and may be worth flagging for the companion article's discussion of how the UNRELIABLE category was applied to low-evidence reports regardless of their institutional escalation path. ================================================================ https://glitchymatrix.com/bluebook/ GlitchyMatrix Project Blue Book Archive All 10,808 declassified USAF UFO case files, 1945-1969 ================================================================ ----------------------------------------------------------------