Oberlin, OhioCirca 1951

Unidentified

Summary

In 1951, a witness near Oberlin, Ohio saw a silver object hanging motionless in the sky about thirty feet above some trees. The object was roughly one thousand feet away. It hovered silently for about five minutes without making a sound.

Then the object began to move. It flew away slowly at first, but then accelerated rapidly. As it sped up, the witness saw it shoot off as a white streak across the sky and disappear. The witness never forgot what they had seen.

The witness wrote to the Air Force about the sighting in 1964, thirteen years after it happened. In March 1964, an Air Force official responded that the service was unable to make any evaluation of the observation. Although the description was clear and detailed, the Air Force said, too much time had passed since 1951 to gather additional information that might help explain what was seen. The case was listed as unidentified and remains unsolved.

The complete case file, consisting of 10 pages, is reproduced below as held by the National Archives.

Reported location

Oberlin, Ohio

Date of incident

Circa 1951

State / country

OH / US

Page count

10 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unidentified

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 8

Original case file scans

Original case file · scanned by NARAPage 1 of 10

View transcribed text

PROJECT 10073 RECORD CARD , |
5 ——— FRERHPATC3 (0 Shag) Sh S85 SPL cvial MU | -——
I. DATE ; ( 2. LOCATION ' 12. CONCLUSIONS
i951 | overlin, Ohio " |o Was Balloon |
; 0 Probably Balloon
| 3. DATE-TINE GROUP : 4. TYPE OF OBSERVATION 8. Posallly Seltoon
0 Was Aircraft
| Local gra B Ground- Visual D Ground-Roder QO Probably Aircraft
cmt RC reporte 0 Air Visual DO Air-Intarcop? Rodar 0 Possibly Aircraft
5. PHOTOS 0 3 Was Astronomical
O Yes 0 Probably Astronomical
XD Ne civilian O Possibly Astronomical
7. LENGTN OF OBSERVATION 8. NUMBER OF OBJECTS | 9. COURSE 2 Othetlanel tabla Lo—poiont. or
Insufficient Data for Evaluation :
5 minutes one not reported wa
10. BRIEF SUMMARY OF SIGHTING 11. COMMENTS
Q Object observed in 1951 reported in letter Unreli=ble report. Toco old to evaluate
in 19564. Obj observed to hang in air for or Investigate.
about 5 minutes end then fly away picking up - 5 tn - -
speed. Alt estimated at 30 ft and appeared to on 58 ’ 3 -«
| be about 1,000 ft from the witness. Silver 2928 he
solor. Shot off as a white streak. £ > S EW
> 8 5 ri
no. (A
1 IN 5 Z g 2 !
: vf. C :
: ; ow 8 < )
BR 3c
[8] or - : tN pl
ATIC FORM 329 (REV 26 SRP $52) —

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Source: National Archives Catalog · NAID 28938853