Lincoln & Omaha Nebraska, August 1958August 1958

On August 12, 1958, in the early morning hours, multiple witnesses in the Lincoln and Omaha, Nebraska area reported seeing unusual lights in the sky. The sighting occurred around 0410 (4:10 a.m.) and involved at least three observers with different vantage points.

Two of the primary witnesses gave detailed accounts. Captain Robert L. Stoffer, a special weapons officer at Lincoln Air Force Base, was flying in a C-47 aircraft at 3,500 feet when he spotted an unusual light above his plane at a 45-degree angle. He described a white, basketball-sized object with a tail approximately 10 times the size of the ball itself. The tail glowed fluorescent green with a purple halo around it, and the entire object turned purple as it disappeared. Stoffer watched the object gradually burn out over 10 to 15 seconds as it followed what he called a "fluid arc" through the sky.

A second observer on the ground, identified in the file as a grocery clerk, saw a green, basketball-sized object with a similar tail. From his position about 5 miles west and 3 miles south of Lincoln, he watched it follow a flat arc at a low angle, between 250 and 300 feet high. His sighting lasted only 5 to 10 seconds before the object vanished instantaneously toward the north. A third witness, Major George W. Leggat, the tower officer at Lincoln Air Force Base that night, reported seeing numerous meteors in the sky during the same time period.

The investigating officer, Major John R. O'Keefe of the 98th Bombardment Wing Intelligence Division, concluded that the object was most likely a meteor or similar object with an unusually long burning time. Weather conditions at the time were calm and clear, with excellent visibility extending to the horizon. The Air Force file contains 16 pages of documentation on this case, now held by the National Archives.