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This U.S. Air Force Project Blue Book case file, hosted by The Black Vault, covers a fireball seen on 9 December 1965 over Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Canada, and concludes it was a meteor. It holds memos on calls about Acme, Pennsylvania, where a search from the Oakdale Radar Site found nothing, plus letters from witnesses and a photographer. It also includes a Sky and Telescope article on the Great Lakes fireball and letters identifying material found in Lapeer County as chaff.
Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.
Tapen Michigan SAFOICC/Lt Col Freeman/bp/76526/19 Oct 66 ( chaff ) OCT 9 1966 Dear Mr. This is in reply to your letter of December 10 to Wright- Patterson Air Force Base in which you requested information regarding the identity of the material which you inclosed. The "fireball" which was spotted by Lapeer County residents was also observed by residents in Indiana, Ohio, southeastern Michigan and Pennsylvania. There is no connection between the fireball and the material which was found in Lapeer County. The material which you submitted for analysis is chaff. This material is dropped by aircraft to confuse radar complexes when participating in interdiction exercises. Chaff can travel for many miles, depending on wind currents and wind velocities. Your interest in the A1r Force is appreciated and we sincerely regret the delay in answering your letter. Sincerely, GEORGE P. FREEMAN, JR. Lt Colonel, USAF Chief, Civil Branch Community Relations Division Office of Information SATOL-CC SAP01-CC
Document, cited by the archive. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. The text was read from the page images by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word. 37 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.