St. Louis, MissouriJuly 1960

Unidentified

Summary

In July 1960, a resident of St. Louis, Missouri reported seeing an unusual object in the night sky over the course of two nights. The object appeared roughly the size of a quarter when held at arm's length, glowed bright red, and changed intensity as it moved.

On the first night, the witness observed the object for roughly 20 minutes. It hovered in place, moved backward once or twice, and eventually disappeared toward the east. On the second night, the same or similar object appeared again, this time for about 30 minutes before vanishing to the west. The witness noted that the object had sharply outlined edges and moved in ways that seemed deliberate rather than random.

The Air Force initially considered high-altitude aircraft (such as jets) as the most likely explanation. However, the file notes that if the witness's account of the object hovering in place is accepted as accurate, standard aircraft could be ruled out, leaving only helicopters as a conventional alternative. The investigators ultimately had insufficient data to reach a definitive conclusion and classified the case as unidentified.

The full case file is reproduced below as held by the National Archives across 15 pages.

Reported location

St. Louis, Missouri

Date of incident

July 1960

State / country

MO / US

Page count

15 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unidentified

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 39

Original case file scans

Original case file · scanned by NARAPage 1 of 15

View transcribed text

L

 —. PROJECT 10073 RECORD CARD

: 1. DATE 2. LOCATION 12. CONCLUSIONS

: 0 0 Wes Boll

19,20,21 Jul €0 St. Louis, Missouri 2 Probably Belloon

~ |>- DATE-TIME GROUP 2. TYPE OF OBSERVATION iW FOuY —

Locot night (varicus) 1 Ground-Visua! O Ground-Roder a dy River oft

GMT 0 Air Visvel O Air-Intercep? Rodor O Possibly Aireroht

5. PHOTOS r c O Was Astronomicol

0 Yes D Probably Astronomical

| Ne Civilian O Possibly Astronomical

3 7. LENGTH OF OBSERVATION 8. NUMBER OF OBJECTS | 9. COURSE RL — S———

O Insufficient Data for Evaluation

| 20 min & 30 min one E&W » TE

~ [1o. BRIEF SUMMARY OF SIGHTING [11. COMMENTS ,

Bound. size of quarter. brigat red with varying The most probable cause of this sighting

jntencity, first scen overocad, last seen T at | is high flying s/°. However, if the

nigh altitude. Object storr=ad and hoverad, statement by the witness that the object
went backwards once cr twice, first nignt it hovered is to be accepted this possibilit

I disappeared to E; second night it disappeared |must be ruled out {other than helicopters}.

to W, First seen for 2° min; second time for This case is classed "Unidentified" for

30 min, lack of data which points conclusively

: toward a solution,

ATIC FORM 329 (RFV 26 SEP $2)

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Source: National Archives Catalog · NAID 28987892