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.
“Hill”9 pages
Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.
415 West Rosser Ave Bismark, N. D. 5-23-48 United States Army - Intelligence Div. Washington, D. C. Gentlemen:- On the night of May 17th at about 11:30 PM driving from Baker, Montana to Miles City Montana on U.S. Highway #12 just West of Plevna, Montana before getting to the hills I noticed a very bright object in the sky to the Northwest. The sky was overcast in the West but to the South the moon could be seen at times - with a broken sky. Having traveled this same route for many years - about 15, I am pretty well used to open prairie road at night and can tell a star from an unusual object when I see it. Northwest Airlines travel a Western route just North of this route also, but I stopped at the Powder River Bridge where the road dips considerably down from a high ridge - cut off my car motor and watched this object as it sailed around in the sky - which at times close and others seemed to speed away into the heavy cloud bank to the West and then later reappearing, at a very bright white light at what I would judge about not more than several miles away or closer. I carry a pair of field glasses with me, and after stopping the car engine watched this thing through my glasses, which seemed to appear as a small object with a long very bright light shooting from the under part of it. Because of the speed of the object and the darkness it was very difficult to make out what it might be, but I am sure that if I had had a more powerful glass I might have made it out. I am perfectly sincere and do not drink so the foregoing is absolutely the truth. With some of this newspaper funabout flying saucers etc, this had all of the appearance of just that- and in stopping the car if this had been an aeroplane I would certainly have been able to hear the motors. I stopped at a service station just before getting to the Powder River Bridge but they had all gone to bed so did not have anyone along with me to witness the object as it flew through the air. It stayed around this area for about 20 minutes and then flew off through the heavy cloud bank to the West. I am enclosing a map showing the location of the foregoing. Yours very truly, The B. F. Goodrich Company /s/ Wm. Bonneville Territory Manager
Report, from the pursue collection. 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. 210 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.