Spring Hope N.C., January 1958January 1958

On January 12, 1958, shortly after midnight, a man in Salem, Virginia, reported seeing an unusual glowing object in the night sky. He watched the object from his living room window for only a few seconds as it moved rapidly westward and disappeared over the mountains.

The observer described a round object about 10 to 20 feet across. The front half appeared greenish in color, while the rear half glowed red. A trailing cone of fire, roughly the same length as the object itself, trailed behind it. The man noted no sound during the sighting. The Air Force later interviewed him and gathered additional details, but the brief duration of the sighting limited what could be observed.

The case came to the Air Force's attention through a newspaper article in the Roanoke Times. Reports also indicated that people in Floyd County and near Draper in Pulaski, Virginia, may have seen the object or objects on the same morning. The weather at Salem was clear with unlimited visibility, which helped rule out cloud-related phenomena.

In its official evaluation, the Air Force noted that although some inconsistencies appeared in the observer's statements, the object's characteristics and manner of movement were consistent with those of a typical fireball, a type of bright meteor. The file does not state a final conclusion beyond noting the fireball similarity.

The full case file, containing 16 pages as held by the National Archives, is reproduced below.