Presque Isle, MaineOctober 1956

# Summary

On October 24, 1956, at dusk, a pilot in the U.S. Air Force saw an unusual object over Presque Isle, Maine. First Lieutenant James R. Turpen was stationed at Presque Isle Air Force Base and was serving with the 75th Fighter Interceptor Squadron. He watched a round, orange-red object with a trailing streak behind it, about the size of a dime held at arm's length. The tail was the same size as the main body and tapered toward the rear. The object appeared in the northern sky at about 30 degrees above the horizon and moved eastward at what the pilot estimated was 1,609 knots (nearly 1,900 miles per hour) before dropping below the horizon. The sighting lasted about two to three seconds.

A second witness also reported seeing something at nearly the same time. Technical Sergeant Wilson H. McMillan worked as a weather forecaster for Detachment 17 of the 12th Weather Squadron. He reported seeing a similar round object with a tail that started at 39 degrees above the horizon toward the southeast, rose to 85 degrees, and traveled in a straight path from southeast to northwest. His sighting lasted about five seconds. At the time, B-47 bombers were dropping chaff (thin metal strips used to interfere with radar) in the area, and the Caribou weather station had released a balloon at 21:32 hours (9:32 p.m.).

The Air Force investigation noted that six aircraft were in the vicinity at the time of the sighting. The intelligence officer's preliminary analysis found no conventional explanation. However, the official conclusion stated that the description matched criteria for a meteor. The OCR quality of this file is poor in places, making some technical details difficult to parse with certainty.

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