Milroy, IndianaNovember 1957

Insufficient Data

Summary

On Friday, November 15, 1957, at around 5:30 p.m., a man and his wife in Milroy, Indiana, stepped outside their home and saw an unusual object streaking across the sky. The man called his wife's attention to it as it approached at tremendous speed, looking like a large ball of fire traveling parallel to the ground. The object came from the east and was heading toward the southwest.

The object appeared to be white hot and left a trail of sparks behind it. It traveled only a short distance past the couple before seeming to disintegrate completely, with sparks flying in all directions. The entire sighting lasted just a few seconds, yet the object crossed more than half the horizon during that brief time. The man estimated the object was at least 50 times larger than a falling star, comparable in size to holding a basketball at arm's length. The couple disagreed about how far away it was: the wife thought it was very distant and must have been the size of a large airplane, while the husband believed it was closer and roughly 6 feet in diameter.

The man sent a written report to the Air Force after finding that a newspaper article about the sighting had misrepresented his initial telephone account. He noted that two other people had also called to say they had seen the same object. According to his account, the object vanished somewhere between Milroy and Greensburg, possibly near State Highway 3. The Air Force concluded that the object was probably a meteor or fireball based on its appearance and behavior.

The full case file is reproduced below as held by the National Archives, spanning 8 pages of microfilm.

Reported location

Milroy, Indiana

Date of incident

November 1957

State / country

IN / US

Page count

8 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unknown

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 30

Original case file scans

Original case file · scanned by NARAPage 1 of 8

View transcribed text

Tgp e—— ms : BON SN SSA po Seve PYAR, "WS" Eman
i E - N a all Laas i 4 gb Saks A & 3 A 4 { 2 RMN NE body
k ~ 3
3 | |
bi PROJECT 10073 RECORD CARD | ;
a 0c cisions onion Tn Ss en al A SAD Fr, Ss PANG { :
2 I. DATE 2. LOCATION 12. CONCLUSIONS |
| :
3 1 Was Balloon |
{ 15 November 1957 Milroy, Indiana BR Yea sa |
{ 3. DATE-TIME GROUP 4. TYPE OF OBSERVATION mee |
i 9:ald FM Sp , A O Was Aircrauft |
PT TREN, IL. RIN (RE ‘0<Ground- Visual 0 Ground-Radar 0 Probably Aircraft
3 GMT _ 15/22302 0 Air Visual 0 Air-intercept Radar DO Possibly Aircraft :
| 5.. PHOTOS 8. SOURCE DO Was Astronomical [i2t00O
O Yes O Probably Astronomical
‘Q No Civilian Possibly Astronomical
i "7. LENGTH OF OBSERVATION 8. NUMBER OF OBJECTS | 9. COURSE BE RIT ii ci ii
j O Insufficient Data for Evaluation
! O Unknown
few seconds 5 0 RE Ae [WIE 4 5 ;
10. BRIEF SUMMARY OF SIGHTING 11. COMMENTS
Object traveling at a tremendous rate | From description of object, it
of speed, looking like a large ball was probably a meteor or fireball,
of fire, It seemed to bz white hot
and leaving a trail of what seemed to
be sparks. After it passed it seemed
to disintegrate completely. The object
was about 50 times larger than a fall-
ing star,
ATIC FORM 32% (REY 26 SEP 52)
: CE J a SO iss 8 EARS i ate cg NE SE ada: Radian: i dk i "
: | eg
{ ¢
: .
4 :
i i sl Le li lbh li i i i 3

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Source: National Archives Catalog · NAID 28974857