Gulf Of Mexico, March 1960March 1960

Insufficient Data

Summary

On March 9, 1960, the USCGC Cutter Cahone in the Gulf of Mexico reported a sighting of a possible missile reentry. A military observer reported a bright light flash with a trailing object at 18 degrees in azimuth, traveling north to south around 2:34 a.m. local time. The object was at 40 degrees altitude and traveled 72 to 80 degrees true azimuth from the ship's position, about 20 miles away in calm bright moonlight. Three persons observed the object. Military checked with Eglin Air Force Base for any activity from their base and found negative activity coinciding with the sighting. The Air Force noted the object could have been a meteor but did not look like usual meteors. The evaluation was Unknown.

Reported location

Gulf Of Mexico, March 1960

Date of incident

March 1960

State / country

? / XX

Page count

2 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unknown

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 37

Original case file scans

Original case file · scanned by NARAPage 1 of 2

View transcribed text

COAST GUARD CUTTER, CAHONE PROJECT IC973 RECORD CARD

1. DATE                           2. LOCATION                      12. CONCLUSIONS
9 March, 1960                    Gulf of Mexico                   [] Was Balloon
                                                                   [] Probably Balloon
3. DATE-TIME GROUP               4. TYPE OF OBSERVATION           [] Possibly Balloon
Local                           [X] Ground-Visual                [] [illegible]
GMT 10/09 3:47                  [] Ground-Radar                   [] Was Aircraft
                                [] Air-Visual                     [] Probably Aircraft
5. PHOTOS                        [] Air-Intercept Radar            [] Possibly Aircraft
[] Yes                          6. SOURCE
[] No                           Military                         [] Was Astronomical [illegible]
                                                                   [] Probably Astronomical
7. LENGTH OF OBSERVATION         8. NUMBER OF OBJECTS  9. COURSE    [] Possibly Astronomical
Flash                           One                   South      [] Other
                                                                   [] Insufficient Data for Evaluation
10. BRIEF SUMMARY OF SIGHTING   11. COMMENTS                      [] Unknown
Flash of bright light with trail travelling
from North to South. Described as Meteor   Discoverer VIII registered on March
or Satellite reentry.                      9. No entries for this date. The
                                           view of this SWAK object is assumed
                                           to be a meteor, although the data
                                           submitted is very limited.

AFIC FORM 329 (REV 26 SEP 52)

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Source: National Archives Catalog · NAID 28986194