Greensboro, North CarolinaJuly 1963

On a July night in 1963, a man in Greensboro, North Carolina watched fireworks with a group of boys when he spotted something unusual to the north. The object was yellow or orange in color and had a row of red lights around its edge. He kept the sighting to himself and observed the craft for about two minutes as it moved silently to the east.

The object's behavior caught the observer's attention. It suddenly reversed direction and picked up speed, then assumed its original eastward course again. After moving slowly upward, it disappeared from sight. The observer estimated the object was about a mile away, hovering near treetop level, and judged its speed at between 50 and 80 miles per hour. He noted that while he did not claim the object was extraterrestrial, its large size and unusual flight pattern suggested it was not a conventional aircraft.

The observer had some experience with celestial objects, mentioning that he owned a small telescope and was familiar with stars and meteors. He reported the sighting to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, which is the Air Force's central repository for UFO reports. However, the observer did not report the sighting until March 1967, nearly four years after the incident occurred. The Air Force concluded it had insufficient data for evaluation and noted the observer was too old to investigate further at that point.

The complete case file, comprising 8 pages as held by the National Archives, is reproduced below.