Temple, OklahomaOctober 1958

On October 10, 1958, a rectangular sheet of clear plastic measuring roughly seven feet by seven feet turned up at the property of a couple in Temple, Oklahoma. The plastic was folded and tied at the corners by string in a parachute-like configuration. Attached to the string was a note written in Russian. The owners found the object caught in a tree at the rear of their property and believed it had arrived on strong northeast winds.

The note read, in Russian, "I do not understand Russian. How are you?" A translator at Fort Sill determined that the phrase appeared to come from the kind of pocket phrase book issued to American soldiers for basic conversation in foreign languages, or from similar reference materials available to the public. The owners had discarded the string that tied the plastic corners together and turned the note over to U.S. Army officials at Fort Sill before Air Force investigators arrived.

When asked if they wanted the plastic sheet back, the owners said no and allowed Air Force personnel to take it into custody. Air Force personnel examined the area where the object was found but discovered no other unusual evidence. A search of weather records and atmospheric data turned up no documented balloon launches that could account for the find. The plastic itself was identified as ordinary polyethylene of the type used by weather stations, but analysts noted that its small size made it impossible for such a lightweight object to have crossed the Pacific Ocean on prevailing winds.

The Air Force concluded the incident was most likely a hoax. The combination of the phrase-book Russian message, the absence of any weather instruments, and the straightforward nature of the plastic sheet suggested that someone had created the object as a prank rather than that it represented a genuine surveillance device or balloon of unknown origin. The full case file is reproduced below as held by the National Archives, 14 pages.