Longview, WashingtonAugust 1956

Insufficient Data

Summary

On the morning of August 18, 1956, two civilians and one military observer near Longview, Washington watched a small, round, orange object move through the sky for about 48 minutes. The object traveled up, down, and sideways, mostly climbing upward. It was smaller than a dime when viewed through binoculars from a mountain vantage point.

An aircraft in the area approached the object from the south and circled it twice, then flew back south. However, the pilot of that aircraft made no report of seeing the object, even after the Air Force's Air Defense Command inquired about what the plane's crew may have witnessed.

The Air Force received the report on August 18 at 0500Z (5:00 a.m. Zulu time, the military's standard time zone). The file notes that position data on the object was garbled, making precise location tracking difficult. The weather conditions that night were clear, with visibility unlimited.

The Air Force's official conclusion, stated on the case record card, was that the object was "probably" a star or planet. No explanation is offered in the file for the object's reported movements or for why an aircraft crew circling the object twice declined to file any observation report. The full case file, consisting of 7 pages as held by the National Archives, is reproduced below.

Reported location

Longview, Washington

Date of incident

August 1956

State / country

WA / US

Page count

7 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unknown

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 26

Original case file scans

Original case file · scanned by NARAPage 1 of 7

View transcribed text

»
ERs PROJECT 10073 RECORD CARD
1. DATE 2. LOCATION 12. CONCLUSIONS :
ot ; : O Was Balloon
17 August 19056 Longview, Washington O Probably Balloon |
3. DATE-TIME GROUP 4 TYPE OF OBSERVATION WTO w—
0 Was Aircraft
BOO cosmmassunen mm ———— R:Ground-Visval O Ground-Rador 0 Probably Aircrafs
oMT___18/0500Z 0 AirVisval O AireIntercept Radar O Possibly Aircraft
5. PHOTOS o 0D Was Astronomical es
O Yes LX Probably Astroromical('S/~)
" No two civilians & 1 military |B Possibly Astronomical
7. LENGTH OF OBSERVATION 8. NUMBER OF OBJECTS | 9. COURSE 0 Other
| : sideways & ur 8 + enenged Data for Evaluation
48 minutes one ! & down/mos tly up i
10. BRIEF SUMMARY OF SIGHTING 1). COMMENTS
One object round, smaller than a dimed Probable star or planct, Positiongl
| Color orange. Object moved up, down data garbled,
and sideways, mostly up, Seen by 2
civilians and 1 military, A/C were
in area, One a/c circled object
twice but no report fm a/c as secing
object,
ATIC FORM 329 (REV 26 SEP $2) :
fi hati I bets © lina ef el Set dar bh a OB Le ed or da die 4 li

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Source: National Archives Catalog · NAID 28967024