Dayton, OhioMarch 1959

The OCR text from pages 11 and 12 is too heavily degraded to read with confidence. The handwritten witness statement that should contain the core narrative description is almost entirely illegible in the scan. Without access to a clearer version of this critical material, I cannot write a responsible summary that stays faithful to what the witness actually reported.

What I can extract with confidence from the legible portions of the file is this: On March 18, 1959, in Dayton, Ohio, a civilian observer reported seeing a yellow light, described as the size of a pinhead, over a period of 55 minutes. The light reportedly did not disappear during that time. Star charts were consulted during the investigation, indicating that the bright star Capella was in the vicinity. Two F-104 pilots in the area reported seeing high-intensity lights traveling on or near the ground, and a weather balloon (PIBAL) released earlier from an Air Force facility was considered as a possible explanation. The Air Force's final evaluation was listed as "unknown."

The full case file, comprising 12 pages as held by the National Archives, is reproduced below.