San Luis Obispo, CaliforniaMay 1956

Unidentified

Summary

On May 20, 1956, a civilian in San Luis Obispo, California reported seeing one round red object that was glowing and moving southwest. The sighting lasted five minutes before the object faded into the distance. The witness was 65-year-old William Esten, retired, located at UTQ Bachon Street in San Luis Obispo. The weather was clear and bright with winds from the northwest at 12 miles per hour. Two fighters were scrambled from Van Neys Air Force Base but reported no sighting. The Air Force evaluated the report as Insufficient Data for Evaluation.

Reported location

San Luis Obispo, California

Date of incident

May 1956

State / country

CA / US

Page count

3 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unidentified

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 25

Original case file scans

Original case file · scanned by NARAPage 1 of 3

View transcribed text

PROJECT 10073 RECORD CARD

1. DATE                          2. LOCATION                      12. CONCLUSIONS
20 May 1956                     San Luis Obispo, California      [] Was Balloon
                                                                  [] Probably Balloon
3. DATE-TIME GROUP              4. TYPE OF OBSERVATION           [] Possibly Balloon
Local                           [X] Ground-Visual                []
 GMT    20/1828Z                [] Ground-Radar                  [X] Probably Aircraft
                                [] Air-Visual                    [] Possibly Aircraft
5. PHOTOS                       [] Air-Intercept Radar           
[] Yes                          6. SOURCE                        [] Was Astronomical
[X] No                          Civilian                         [] Probably Astronomical
                                                                 [] Possibly Astronomical
7. LENGTH OF OBSERVATION        8. NUMBER OF OBJECTS  9. COURSE
five minutes                    one               SW           [] Other
                                                                [] Insufficient Data for Evaluation
10. BRIEF SUMMARY OF SIGHTING  11. COMMENTS                     [] Unknown
One round red object, size      Recontact with the originating
unknown, glowing, and moving    agency for additional information
southwest. Faded into distance. failed to produce same. Evaluated
                                as Insufficient data.

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Source: National Archives Catalog · NAID 28965671