Shawnee, KansasJune 1953

On June 23, 1953, a homeowner in Shawnee, Kansas reported seeing an unusual object in the sky at 3:45 p.m. The witness, a civilian woman sitting on her front porch, noticed a bright glare on her glasses that drew her attention upward. She observed what she described as two large, solid, silver discs positioned one in front of the other. The objects appeared very bright and high in the sky, moving toward the southeast. The witness heard no sound. The sighting lasted approximately 10 seconds before the objects vanished completely without the witness seeing where they went.

The witness sketched the objects and compared them to wagon wheels, noting that one disc seemed slightly offset from the other, as if connected by something. She estimated the objects to be approximately 9,000 to 10,000 feet in altitude. She described the material as resembling hammered silver or aluminum foil and emphasized her certainty about their shapes and appearance, though she could not estimate their actual size. When asked what she thought the objects were, the witness stated she had no idea.

An Air Force investigator visited Shawnee on June 23, 1953, and interviewed the witness. The investigator noted that the woman appeared sincere and had a clear mental picture of what she observed, though she had never seen anything like it before. Military records show that the Air Force checked for unusual aircraft activity in the area and obtained weather data on winds aloft and atmospheric conditions at the time of the sighting.

The Air Force concluded the sighting could be a reflection of some sort but determined the information was insufficient to rule out other explanations. The full case file is reproduced below as held by the National Archives, totaling 21 pages.