Documents / Report
This declassified U.S. Air Force compilation of unidentified flying object incidents 101 to 172 contains check-list reports from 1948 and 1945. Incident 101 covers the 18 February 1948 sky explosion over Norcatur, Kansas, with letters from Norman G. Markham suggesting a lunar spacecraft, Dr. Lincoln LaPaz's reply judging it a genuine meteorite fall, and witness statements. The final incident, 172, records George F. Gorman's 27 minute F-51 pursuit of a white light over Fargo on 1 October 1948, corroborated by tower controllers and Dr. Cannon.
From the source:Release of 2026-06-12 Includes a "Check-List - Unidentified Flying Objects" that contains details about the incident. Many summaries also include witness lists or statements and other narrative reports or descriptions.
“Headquarters”8 pages
Shortly after checking Blackstone, at approx 0230, a trail was picked up that appeared to be a jet or rocket trail. The object leaving the trail was traveling at terrific speed in a southwesterly direction and as nearly as they could estimate they calculated the degree of travel as $ 2 3 0^{\circ} $
They were on a heading at the time of 215 $ ^{\circ} $ . The jet or rocket trail at no time crossed their flight path. It was on the distant western horizon at approx 20 $ ^{\circ} $ above the horizon. The trail covered an 80 $ ^{\circ} $ to 90 $ ^{\circ} $ arc laterally.
NOTE: There is a 15 minute difference in time f/this sighting (0230) to the rocket sighting at 0245 in Atlanta some 400 to 475 miles distant.
NOTE: The above time (0230) tallies with another sighting by another pilot in the vicinity of Blackstone, Va. who saw a very unusual meteor that appeared to be on a bearing of about $ 2 1 0^{\circ} $ from them traveling in a southerly direction above but close to the horizon. Report, from the pursue collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. The text was read from the page images by an OCR model; expect the odd misread word. 210 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.