Oakwood, OhioFebruary 1961

Unidentified

Summary

On February 23, 1961, a resident of Oakwood, Ohio saw a bright white object in the night sky that reminded them of a star. The object appeared in the southwest and moved toward the northeast, taking about two minutes to cross the sky. The witness described it as very bright and very fast, and said it seemed to turn slightly toward the north before disappearing behind trees.

The object's small apparent size and extreme brightness made it difficult to judge its true distance or speed. The Air Force questionnaire filled out by the witness provides limited additional details, and the OCR text of the form is difficult to read in several places. The witness reported being certain about the two-minute duration of the sighting, and noted clear sky conditions at the time of observation.

Air Force investigators found that available information was insufficient to reach a firm conclusion. The case file notes that even after re-contacting the witness for more details, investigators could not gather enough evidence to determine what had been observed. The possibility was raised that the light might have been an aircraft, but this could not be confirmed. The Air Force officially rated this case as unidentified.

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

Reported location

Oakwood, Ohio

Date of incident

February 1961

State / country

OH / US

Page count

8 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unidentified

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 41

Vie PROJECT 10073 RECORD CARD 1. DATE ’ LOCATION 12. ‘CONCLUSIONS O Was Belloon | 23 Feb 61 Oakwood. Ohio O Probably Balloon 3. DATE-TIME GROUP 4. TYPE OF OBSERVATION A Sn ng EEE MANE Ch CE A Ground- Visual ~ 0 Ground-Rador a Eouiay Several oMT_2400352 a Air Visual O Air-Intercept Radar DO Possibly Aireraft 5. ‘PHOTOS | . SOURCE O Was Astronomical | O Yes Oo Probably Astronomical No Civilian OD Possibly Astronomical | 7. LENGTH OF OBSERVATION 8. NUMBER OF OBJECTS | 9. COURSE BD iiss | : =e 114 hen Data for Evaluction | | 2 min 1 SW-NE gi | 10. BRIEF SUMMARY OF SIGHTING White objt size of star,['l: COMMENTS 13 ht ohserved was possibly o Very bright and very fast. Disappeared behind] an a/c. Even after re-contacting witneds, trees. Appeared in SW, Disappeared in Ne. enough info could not be gekbew to forn Appeared to turn toward N a little. a valid conclusion. ER TAINED f ATIC FORM 329 (REV 26 SEP 52) y / ; ‘ ; RE RR Dr HE gi SYNCS, 2 Spt dns : :