Amarillo, TexasAugust 1956

On August 1, 1956, at 0400 (4 a.m.), a Dallas man named J.G. Kirby was driving back to Dallas from Colorado Springs via Amarillo, Texas, when he and his wife and two children observed an unusual phenomenon in the sky. About ten miles outside Amarillo, they noticed a bright green trajectory in the sky at roughly the 10 o'clock position. The object appeared to have landed just east of Amarillo, north of Highway 287. Over the next two hours and fifteen minutes, Kirby observed similar trajectories and a bright light that seemed to appear within a large cloud formation, estimated to be between 10,000 and 20,000 feet high and roughly fifty miles long running north to south. The object never descended below the cloud base and moved intermittently within and sometimes outside the cloud formation. No sound was audible at any time.

The phenomenon appeared roughly the size of a grapefruit. Its brightness resembled burning phosphorus, casting a beam of light both above and below itself, but never simultaneously. At various times, a faint red trace was observed moving across the object. The object demonstrated what Kirby described as extreme navigability, appearing at different locations within the cloud formation. Kirby, a former World War II bomber pilot who flew B-17s, stated he had never observed anything comparable to this phenomenon in his military experience. As daylight approached, the object appeared to ascend, becoming star-sized and eventually invisible through the clouds while remaining visible around them.

Kirby photographed the phenomenon using a Kodak 520 camera. The resulting photograph showed a distinctive zig-zag trail. Military analysts later examined the image to determine its nature. Some suggested it resembled a ballistic missile vapor trail, although the presence of the trail during a prolonged two-plus-hour observation period made this explanation problematic. The object could not be moving like a missile, which would travel hundreds or thousands of miles. Artillery testing at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, was ruled out by military inquiry. One academic at the University of Michigan suggested the photograph might be a trick shot, possibly using stones or a lavaliere, noting the photographer was a lapidarist (gem cutter). The Air Force's official position was that it could not identify the object or explain the trail captured in the photograph.

The full case file, held by the National Archives, consists of 26 pages.