Stillwater, OklahomaJuly 1953

On the night of July 6, 1953, a control tower operator and a college student in Stillwater, Oklahoma, watched two bright white lights moving back and forth in a limited arc of roughly ten degrees across the sky. The objects appeared elliptical in shape and were so small that the observer could cover them with his thumb at arm's length. One light sat directly above the other, and the upper light flickered on and off. The witnesses said the lights seemed to behave like searchlight beams reflecting off clouds to the southeast. The observation lasted approximately two and a half minutes, and the sky was otherwise clear, with stars visible behind the objects.

The witnesses were both experienced observers. The first, a first lieutenant in the Air Force with three years of control tower experience and roughly 100 hours of flying time, estimated the objects were moving at speeds between 500 and 750 miles per hour based on what he had observed from aircraft. He heard no sound. The second observer, a civilian student, thought the lights resembled a searchlight beam bouncing off the bottom of a cloud. He watched from the dormitory on the Oklahoma A and M College campus. Neither witness took photographs or found any physical evidence.

The Air Force investigated the sighting thoroughly. Radar operators at a nearby facility detected no contact with any object in the area. Weather reports from three towns in the region confirmed clear conditions, though a thunderstorm was active to the southeast at an unknown distance. The Air Force checked for local air traffic and found none. No aircraft were reported in the area that night.

The file suggests that both observers, based on their experience and the behavior of the lights, concluded the objects were probably searchlights on cloud bases. The Air Force's evaluation listed the case as "unknown," though the evidence and witness statements in the file point toward the searchlight explanation. The complete case file of 20 pages is reproduced below as held by the National Archives.