Marinette, WisconsinMay 1956

On the night of May 1956, Reverend Charles Burmeister, an amateur astronomer in Marinette, Wisconsin, observed three separate formations of small, glowing objects while he was outdoors stargazing. The first sighting consisted of six objects, the second of two objects, and the third of nine objects. All of the objects were described as round, about the size of a baseball, and colored reddish orange. They traveled in a U-shaped formation on a straight line heading west-northwest before disappearing over the horizon.

The objects were observed for roughly one hour starting around 0230 (2:30 a.m.) on May 5th. Burmeister reported that the weather was clear with only a few scattered clouds. The objects moved so quickly that he did not have time to observe them through binoculars. One object briefly moved behind a cloud but remained visible, changing color in a way that suggested it was self-illuminated rather than reflecting light.

The Air Force's investigation of this case took an interesting turn. The initial analysis from the 4602nd Air Intelligence Service Squadron suggested that the objects were most likely meteors. However, when the Air Technical Intelligence Center in Dayton, Ohio reviewed the case with an astronomical consultant, they disagreed strongly. The consultant noted that true meteors do not travel in formation, do not appear in U-shaped arrangements, and do not appear in three separate groups as these objects did. Since Reverend Burmeister was an amateur astronomer himself, he would likely recognize meteoric phenomena. The consultant concluded it was very doubtful that the reported objects were meteors at all.

The Air Force requested additional information from the original investigating unit to help resolve the case, including specific details about the duration and timing of each formation, differences between them, their speeds and movements, and whether the light source was the objects' own or reflected. The OCR quality in portions of the file makes some operational details difficult to read. The case was marked "Insufficient Data for Evaluation," and no conclusive explanation appears in the file. The full case file is reproduced below as held by the National Archives across 9 pages of microfilm.