Unexplained

Circle over Crete, IL

Investigated by a competent body and left unresolved. The rarest grade, and never awarded by us — only recorded.

The report, as filed

Crete, Illinois. 4:05 p.m. Witness: farmer Ed Schneeweis. One shiny, round, silver object flew straight up very fast for 18 seconds.

Held as-reported from Project Blue Book, United States Air Force. Witness text is preserved verbatim, including its spelling; nothing is edited beyond formatting.

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Sightings from the Project Blue Book era (through 1969) live in Record Group 341 at the National Archives. Through Aletheca, the house instrument, anyone can commission the request — filed, chased, and published in the open, refusals included. The draft goes over already written: the records sought, and the date window they would live in.

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Routed to: National Archives and Records Administration · records window 1960-08-26 → 1960-09-12

From the same sky

Related entries

October 14, 2014 · 8:00 PM · SPHERE

Crete, IL

On the way out to my the barn tonight, located in rural Crete, Illinois, in the southern sky a little to the east, I noticed a stationary spot in the sky, alternating red, blue, and white light or lights, a single source, not like a plane's lights that appear as separate lights and near their wingtips. There are lots of planes in the sky at night out by me, and I see those all the time, but this was much different. I noticed it wasn't moving...or if it appeared to move, was in very, very small circles...so got out the binoculars, turned all the exterior house lights off, and held them as steady as I could against a tree, and watched this thing for over 15 minutes. I think it was spherical in shape, but I can't be sure. It never really seemed to move, the light just kept oscillating red, blue, white, appearing from a single point, not separate points...but this was at significant altitude, so it could have been separate lights close together. At arms’ length, it’s size was perhaps 1 millimeter. After watching for this period of time, suddenly, in a %$#& instant, and I mean, in a half-second, it became a pinpoint, way far off, moving from the SSE to the SSW, and its inclination went from about 30 degrees off the horizon to perhaps 60 degrees. At arms’ length, its size at this point was only a fraction of a millimeter. I could barely make it out, but could still see a faint color change taking place, unlike the stars around it. Tried to keep focused on it, but it disappeared or I lost track of it. Stayed out there for a while, hoping for another look, but the clouds moved in.

August 23, 2014 · 9:15 PM · FIREBALL