Marshfield, MissouriSeptember 1954

On September 22, 1954, two employees of the Webster Gas Company were driving near Marshfield, Missouri when they witnessed an unusual object in the sky. The men were returning from a delivery in Bracken, about three miles east of Marshfield on Scout Camp Road, traveling west at about twenty miles per hour. One of them noticed the object first around 11 a.m., and they stopped the truck to get a better look.

The object resembled a boomerang in shape, with one long arm and one short arm. It was tan in color with two black stripes near the tip of the longer arm. The men estimated it was about five to seven feet wide and very thin. The object appeared to be made of plastic or some thin material, and it rotated slowly without making any sound. As it spun, the longer arm oscillated at roughly fifteen to twenty-five rotations per minute. The sun was behind the object at times, causing it to appear lighter when backlit.

The object hovered at about six hundred feet above the ground, then rose slowly to roughly fifteen hundred feet over about twenty seconds. It then descended more slowly to around five hundred feet, where it changed from a smooth rotation to a tumbling motion. As it fell, it emitted a single puff of white smoke or vapor. The object then descended straight down behind a tree line without any sound or visible impact. The men watched for about fifteen minutes total. After searching the area on foot and with help from personnel at Fordland Air Force Station, they discovered two patches of ground that appeared pulverized, with disturbed rocks but no animal tracks.

An Air Force investigator interviewed both witnesses and found them credible and sincere. One witness held a private pilot's license and was familiar with aircraft, including model airplanes, and ruled out those possibilities. The investigator also confirmed that no helicopter activity had occurred in the area at the time of the sighting. Despite the detailed accounts and the physical evidence of the disturbed ground, the Air Force concluded the object remained unidentified.

The full case file, as reproduced below and held by the National Archives, consists of 39 pages.