Hertford, NCApril 1950

In early April 1950, around dusk, about a hundred or more people in Hertford, North Carolina, reported an elongated, lightly lighted object crossing the western sky. A group standing in front of a market first noticed it, and others along the street and passing motorists also watched. Witnesses described it as rectangular or cigar shaped, very bright red at the trailing end, and soundless. The sun had set but the sky was still light and cloudless. Some watched it for five minutes or more as it grew fainter and faded from view.

One witness, an Army veteran, estimated the object looked about 14 inches long and two to three inches thick at that distance, and said it did not appear to move very rapidly. At the same time, a similar object was reported about 16 miles west at Woodland, where witnesses said it was white, flying at a lower altitude, and shaped like a big cigar tapering at the trailing end. One Woodland witness estimated it was about 18 feet long.

The report came through Army channels with a newspaper clipping.