Ventura, CaliforniaMarch 1956

Unidentified

Summary

On March 21, 1956, in Ventura, California, two round objects described as rod and white, about the size of peas held at arm's length, were reported by civilian and military witnesses. The first observer watched for ten minutes. The second observer saw two objects for one hour and thirty minutes. One object moved very slowly while the other moved very fast, both traveling west. No radar contact was made. The Air Force noted inconsistencies in the sighting. The fact that one object moved very slowly and the other very fast during the same periods seemed illogical for a single phenomenon. The evaluation was unidentified.

Reported location

Ventura, California

Date of incident

March 1956

State / country

CA / US

Page count

2 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unidentified

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 25

Original case file scans

Original case file · scanned by NARAPage 1 of 2

View transcribed text

PROJECT 1003 RECORD CARD

1. DATE                          2. LOCATION                     12. CONCLUSIONS
21 March 1956                   Ventura, California              [ ] Was Balloon
3. DATE-TIME GROUP                                                [ ] Probably Balloon
Local                           4. TYPE OF OBSERVATION           [ ] Possibly Balloon
GMT 22/0338Z                    X[X]Ground-Visual  [ ] Ground-Radar  [ ] Was Aircraft
                                [ ] Air-Visual     [ ] Air-Intercept Radar [ ] Probably Aircraft
5. PHOTOS                                                          [ ] Possibly Aircraft
[ ] Yes                         6. SOURCE                        [ ] Was Astronomical Venus
X[ ] No                         Civilian & Military              [ ] Probably Astronomical
7. LENGTH OF OBSERVATION                                          [X] Possibly Astronomical
1st observer: ten mins          8. NUMBER OF OBJECTS  9. COURSE
2nd observer: 1 hr 30 min//     two               seen in west [ ] Other...
10. BRIEF SUMMARY OF SIGHTING                                    [ ] Insufficient Data for Evaluation
Two round objects, rod and white, the [ ] Unknown
size of peas held at arms length, one
very slow and one very fast seen by       11. COMMENTS
civilian and then later by a/c at Ox-    The duration of the sighting, the
nard AFB Tower. No radar contact with     lack of radar contact, the fact
the objects.                              that the objects were reported in
                                          the west (the location of Venus)
                                          leads this th the above
                                          checked evaluation. It does not
                                          seem logical that one object
                                          was traveling very slow and the
                                          other "very fast" if they were
                                          seen for the periods indicated
                                          in 7 above.

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Source: National Archives Catalog · NAID 28965194