Wilmington, OhioJanuary 1948

On January 7, 1948, military personnel at Clinton County Army Air Field near Wilmington, Ohio, observed an unusual object in the sky for about 35 minutes. Control tower operators and alert crew members first spotted a bright light in the southwest around 7:20 p.m. (local time). At first they thought they were watching aircraft in trouble, so they tracked it with field glasses.

Through the glasses, the object appeared to be a flaming red cone with a green mist trailing behind it. It hung suspended in the air, then climbed and descended rapidly in ways the witnesses found baffling. The light changed colors, shifting from red to white to yellow. As it moved, a faint green exhaust trail was visible during ascents and descents. The object eventually headed southwest and disappeared over the horizon around 7:55 p.m.

The witnesses included Staff Sergeants Gale F. Walter and John P. Haag, Staff Sergeant Irvin H. Lewis, and other trained observers. They described the object as shaped roughly like a cone or an upside-down triangle when descending. It appeared to hover at intervals, then move with terrific speed. The sky was partly cloudy that evening, and the object's light penetrated through the cloud layers. No sound was heard from the object at any time.

Intelligence officers from the Air Force examined the sighting along with several other reported objects in the region that same evening, including sightings from Lockbourne Army Air Base near Columbus, Ohio, and observations by pilots in flight. The Air Force file does not indicate a definitive explanation for what was observed, though weather personnel were consulted to determine whether it might have been a balloon or other meteorological phenomenon. The full case file, reproduced below as held by the National Archives, spans 46 pages.