Fort Worth, TexasFebruary 1961

# Four UFO Sightings Reported by a Fort Worth Teenager in 1961

In the summer of 1961, the Aerospace Technical Intelligence Center at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base received a letter from a 15-year-old UFO enthusiast living near Fort Worth, Texas. The teenager described four separate sightings made between February and June of that year. While the young observer's detailed accounts caught the Air Force's attention, the cases remained difficult to resolve conclusively.

The first sighting occurred on the evening of February 12, 1961, at around 7:30 p.m. The witness was riding in a car on a highway south of the city when he spotted a white light moving across the windshield. The object flashed green once and moved from left to right, circling a few times before disappearing behind trees after about a minute. The skies were clear at the time.

The second event happened a few weeks later between 8:45 and 9:00 p.m. The witness was outside when he noticed a star that appeared to be moving southward through the night sky. After trying to fix its position against nearby reference points, he ran inside to get his telescope. When he returned, the light looked indistinguishable from an ordinary star and remained still.

On the last day of school in June (June 3, 1961), the witness spotted a third object. This time it appeared as a dull silver, non-shiny object traveling slowly northward at low altitude. He watched it cruise across the sky for at least three minutes in clear daylight before it disappeared from view. He heard no sound from the object.

The final sighting came on June 21, 1961, at 8:41 p.m. The witness was in his backyard when he noticed a light that first seemed red but later appeared white. It traveled slowly from south to north, too slowly to be a satellite, and remained visible for two or three minutes. The witness ran inside to fetch his 20x30 telescope but could not focus it in time before the object vanished.

The witness provided additional context in his letter. He had just completed ninth grade and was 15 years old. He expressed a strong interest in UFOs and science fiction. He noted that he had not reported these sightings to nearby Carswell Air Force Base and had read of no similar reports in the local area. He emphasized the seriousness of his account and offered to contact other people he knew who had also reported UFO sightings.

The Air Force sent the teenager a detailed questionnaire to gather more precise information about the sightings. However, the completed form is not clearly legible in the file. Two of the four cases were assigned technical evaluations: two sightings near Dayton, Ohio, in mid-February were investigated separately. One was attributed to the planet Venus based on its brightness, position, and the fact that Venus was exceptionally bright in the evening sky during February 1961. Another was possibly identified as the Echo I satellite.

For the Fort Worth sightings, the file index card indicates that the Air Force concluded the cases were "unidentified." No further investigation or definitive explanation appears in the remaining documents.

The full case file is reproduced below as held by the National Archives, comprising 36 pages of microfilm T1206, Roll 41.