Maxwell AFB, Ala., November 1950November 1950

On Thanksgiving Day 1950, a military officer at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama saw four unusual objects moving across the sky in just over fifteen minutes. Between 3:08 p.m. and 3:25 p.m., the major watched these objects descend, ascend, and move in patterns he could not explain. He described them as brilliant white, nearly circular, and about three-eighths of an inch in diameter when he measured them at arm's length. The objects were moving very fast, crossing the wind rather than drifting with it.

The first object came from the southwest, climbed to a very high altitude over Montgomery, and flipped end-over-end as it descended. The major could tell it was round when viewed from below and very thin when seen from the side. It then shot off to the northeast and vanished. A few minutes later, a second object passed overhead in the same direction at level flight and disappeared. The major called over a nearby captain to witness the next sighting. When two more objects appeared together from the south, one climbed steeply and moved north while the other turned back, ascended rapidly, and vanished. The major noted that one of these objects seemed to have an antenna. He was certain they were not balloons.

A captain who came outside to look confirmed seeing the two objects together. He described one as resembling a seagull suspended in mid-air with stiff, outstretched wings, and the other as a white ball. The two objects stayed a fixed distance from each other, remained still for about a minute, then moved north while climbing higher before disappearing in about thirty seconds. The captain could not identify them either. The Air Force file does not record a final determination of what the objects were.

This case file, held by the National Archives, comprises 8 scanned pages.