Orange, VASeptember 1951

On the evening of September 30, 1951, three high school boys stood atop a fifty-foot grain silo near Woodberry Forest School in Virginia and spotted something unusual in the sky. About eight to ten miles away, roughly three miles southwest of Orange, they observed an unidentified object moving over a small mountain. The boys said the object was circular in shape, surrounded by a brownish-black haze, and when it moved the haze trailed behind it. The object traveled at high speed with violent, jerky motions, starting and stopping suddenly. No sound was heard, although they noted that a piston-engined aircraft at that distance should have been audible. Despite its violent maneuvers and speed, the boys were convinced no conventional airplane could have performed as the object did.

The Air Force received the boys' account through a letter dated October 1, 1951. They wrote in precise language that the object appeared to be flat, shaped like a plate or ball, presenting only a thin line when viewed edge-on. It stayed in an area roughly a half square mile and remained visible for an unknown duration. The Air Force investigators noted that the report contained insufficient data to evaluate. No photographs or radar confirmation exists in the case file. An intelligence officer from the Army Air Forces remarked that the area of observation lay near Woodberry Forest School, in a region with limited population and few immediate witnesses beyond the three boys.

The full case file for this sighting, comprising 118 pages as held by the National Archives, is reproduced below.