Big Bethel, VirginiaSeptember 1956

On the evening of September 9, 1956, three civilians near Big Bethel, Virginia saw an unusual object in the sky. The primary witness was a man driving his sister-in-law home to Hampton at around 2035 (8:35 p.m.). Both observers noticed the object coming from the south and initially thought it was the moon. However, its speed seemed too fast for that. They watched it move across the sky for about twenty minutes until it disappeared around 2055 (8:55 p.m.), descending gradually toward a wooded swamp area roughly one mile away, heading in the direction of Yorktown.

The object's appearance changed as it moved. When first spotted, it glowed bright red or gold, somewhat like a car headlight. It would flatten out, then brighten again. Over time, it seemed to shrink to the size of a softball or grow to a diameter of fourteen to fifteen inches. As it diminished in size, its color would darken to deep red. All the witnesses agreed the dominant shape resembled the moon or a crescent. One observer thought she saw features of a man's face inside the object, including his feet. Another witness, watching from her home, described what looked like vapor shooting out from one end toward the other, forming a circular pattern before fading. She also reported seeing lights of two shapes (oblong and triangular) surrounding the object, radiating outward roughly one foot from its edges. No sound was heard at any point. The weather at the time was generally clear with scattered clouds, and the nearest distance at which the object was observed was two miles.

The Air Force investigators noted that the witnesses were credible. One was an electrician, one a registered nurse, and one a homemaker. The registered nurse had worked in military signal operations during World War II. The Air Force investigation concluded that the object was most likely the moon. Weather reports indicated the moon was waning and set at 2115 (9:15 p.m.) that evening, about twenty minutes after the object disappeared from sight. The moon's apparent color and size changes as it nears the horizon, which the investigators noted could account for the witnesses' descriptions. However, the Air Force assigned the case an F-4 evaluation (meaning there was no way to determine the observers' reliability with certainty), since each observer simply confirmed the others' statements rather than providing independent verification. The OCR text is somewhat degraded in places but sufficient to establish the basic facts. The full case file is reproduced below as held by the National Archives, 13 pages.