DOW-UAP-D164, Flying Object Report, Indiana, 1953
This document is a Flying Objects Report prepared in accordance with Air Force Regulation 200-2, which established guidance for reporting unidentified flying objects. The report records an incident near Seymour, Indiana, in which two civilian reporters stated that they observed two airborne objects while traveling by car. The report does not identify an exact event date; its weather assessment addresses conditions during the period December 8–15, 1953. The report describes the incident as consisting of a “brilliant moving light” and two large, white, cloudy or gaseous objects in a staggered formation. It further describes four bright points of light within each object and a bluish-white, vapor-like trail. The report describes the object kinematics as an in-line approach with a steady descent, a stationary interval of unreported duration, and a rapid departure along an abrupt upward angle toward the southwest. It records an estimated direct observation period of three to four minutes, with a total elapsed period of five to six minutes that included changes in the vehicle’s route. All descriptive and estimative language contained in this report reflects the reporter’s subjective interpretation at the time of the event. Such characterizations should not be interpreted as a conclusive indication of the presence or absence of any intrinsic object features or performance characteristics.
The summary above is sourced from the released file metadata as published to war.gov. The analysis sections below are original to this tracker.
Text of the document
Machine-extracted from the PDF war.gov published (its text layer or OCR), so expect errors, especially in names, numbers and handwriting; the PDF is the authoritative copy. Lines that did not extract as readable text are left out. Showing about 723 words from pages 1, 3, 4, 5 of 6.
PAGE 1
2466th AIR FORCE-RESERVE COMBAT TRAINING CENTER (CONACl_ Atterbury Air Force Base Columbus, Indiana SUBJECT : UFOB TO : Director of' Intelligence Headquarter s, United States Air Force l. In lieu of AF Form 112b as required by AFR 200-2, 26 August 1953, the following inf'ormation is submitted to conf'orm to paragraph 6b of cited (1) Shape : Circular ring of smoke; cloudy substance that stayed in a plane. No upper or lower structure could be seen. (2) Size : Observer would not estimate size with the exception of' using the word, "large". No relati ve comparison. (4) Number: Two (5) Formation: Staggered like two jets in flight, tightly following each other. (6) Discernable features or details: Four bright or brilliant equidistant points of light 'Within the same plll]le, rotat ing slowly clockwise and seeming to be the source of cloudy aura, white in color. (7) Tail, trail or exhaust: Compared favorably with Jet take off when observed at night. Bluish vhite with vaporish Sound : None to the ear, although observer s stood outside of car to make sure. (9) Other pertinent or unusual features : Controlled downward ti lt f'rom direction of approach to hovering point. Com plete level stability while hovering. Take-off in upward tilt with bright points of light fixed, two to the r ear and two forward. Incredible speed when disappearing.
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Hq 2466th AFRCTC, Atterbury AFB, Columbus, Indiana., RIO, Subj : ti'OB b. Description of course of objects: Attention: Observers attracted by brilliant moving (2) Angle of flight: Observers were in moving car and travelling East. Looked North at approximately 20° (3) Angle of flight on disappeiu-ance: Undetermined by observers; spoken of as, "sharp upward travel", in southwesterly direction having approached from the North. Flight path and maneuvers: In-line approach with steady decent; stationary attitude at one spot; then tremendous acceleration on in-line flight at an abrupt (5) Manner of disappearance: Seemingly instantaneous surge to maximum speed, keeping formation. (6) Length of time observed: Approximately three (3) to four (4) minutes. Observation period included two (2) moves and ·one chan~ of direction of car travel fig ured at about two (2) minutes elapsed time. Total time, then, was five to six minutes. c. Manner of observation: Ground-visual. Area of final observation was flat, north of city congestion, with no buildings nearby. (2) No optical aids employed. (3) Not applicable. d. Time and tate of sighting: Date: Observers unable to remember exactly. (2) Light conditions : Between dusk and night. e. Locati on of observers : f . Identifying information of all observers : 100 South Chestnut Street, Seymour, Ind. He is a drugist. Owner-operator of Jones Drug Store. Not prone to exaggeration; direct forthright attitude toward people; within his Imo,-1ledge, he is truthful, honest.
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Hq 2466th AFRCTC, Atterbury AFB, Columbus, Ind. , RIO, Subj: UFOB (1) Period covers the week of 8 December to 15 December Light rain, drixzl e, light snow, fog prevailed Visibility: l½ miles to 15 miles variable thruout h. Other unusual activity or conditions : No noticeable disturbances or conditions in the area. Observati on information provided by s/sgt Billy R. Egger, Chief Observer, Detachment 21, Ninth J.JeP.ther Group, Atterbury 1. Physical evi dence of the sighting: k. Air traff'ic in area: None according to observers. Impossible to verify without exact date through ACS and 2466th Operations. 1. Position, title, comments by preparing Officer (NCO). No off'icer assigned at the time of report contact. NCOIC, Reserve Information Office Comments: Contact with Mr Jones developed on the advice of telephone call to Lt Marvi n Satin, Adjutant, (at the time, OD)
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Hq 2466th A.."li'RCTC, Atterbury AFB, Columbus, Ind., RIO, Subj: UFOB Comments: Mr Jones was a patient in the Bartholomew County Hospital and under the care of Dr. Fisher. He was to'be released 10 January or 11 January after short con Mr Jones stated that he had not told anyone of his exper iences other than three personal friends desiring to avoid ridicule. He firmly believes in what he saw, however. His wife has the same attitude. Dr Fisher uncovered the story by saying he had a letter from his son in the Air Force in Saudi, Arabia, who claimed to have seen a "Flying Saucer". Therupon, Mr Jones divulged his experiences. FOR TI-IE; COMM !\NDER : Info Copy to AITC 2D 1.,T, USAF Ad utani;
Where this file fits in the PURSUE archive
This file is one of DoD's 282 files in the Trump PURSUE disclosure. Within the DoD agency block it ranks #170 of 282 by Anomalousness Index. Across the entire 478-file archive it ranks #294 of 478.
That places it in the lower-scoring band of the archive (294 of 478 by score), typical of investigative-record style files where the report is paper-based rather than instrumented.
Anomalousness Index: 56/100
Evidentiary weight that this encounter remains unexplained after conventional analysis. Not a probability of extraterrestrial origin - that number is not honestly computable from the released files and this tracker refuses to publish it.
🤖 AI-ASSISTED SCORING · methodology
The six rubric components break down for this file as follows. Each component has a weighted contribution to the final score; the per-component explanation below describes what this file's particular value on that component means in the rubric's framework.
Reported by a witness with no instrumented record. The lowest tier in the rubric's sensor axis. Eyewitness perception in field conditions, even when the witness is highly credentialed, scores below capture by any instrumented modality. This report reached the federal record through the Department of War.
Trained U.S. military personnel reporting from an operational mission context. A high witness-credibility tier, ranked in the rubric below astronaut, trained-aviator, and federal-agent testimony. This is the witness profile shared by the entire AARO-submitted infrared-capture cluster that anchors the 66-point score band.
Single-witness or single-instrument capture. This is the corroboration tier for the overwhelming majority of the PURSUE archive on the released metadata - the rubric records the honest limit of the underlying record rather than inferring multi-witness corroboration that the released summaries do not establish. A small number of files with an independent second witness or instrument score on the multi-witness/multi-instrument tier above this one.
No kinematic measurements - speed, acceleration, vector - are published in the released file with sufficient precision to score on the kinematic axis. The rubric does not infer kinematic anomaly from narrative observer estimates. Every file in the archive carries this value, which is itself an observation about the disclosure: kinematic-grade telemetry was not part of what was released.
A conventional candidate explanation has been considered but is not dispositive. Every file in the archive scores this way - reflecting that the underlying release metadata systematically caveats strong determinations in either direction. The released summaries warn against reading them as conclusive analytical judgments, and the rubric respects that.
Released as open after formal review by the originating agency. The file passed through a review process and was published in that posture - a stronger disposition signal than 'unresolved with no review,' because review has occurred and the open status is the agency's published conclusion.
Bottom line on the score: the Anomalousness Index of 56/100 reflects evidentiary weight that this specific file's encounter remains structurally unexplained by the rubric's six axes - it is not a claim that the underlying event involved anything non-conventional, and it is not comparable across rubrics that use different weights. For the full per-axis weights and the rubric JSON, see /methodology.
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DOW-UAP-PR024, Unresolved UAP Report, Middle East, 2023
DOW-UAP-PR072, "ADMINISTRATIVE REVISION: IIR 1777 J0032 22 Kazakhstan - UAP in the vicinit…
DOW-UAP-PR106, Unresolved UAP Report, Eastern United States, 2020
DOW-UAP-PR108, Unresolved UAP Report, Western United States, 2020
DOW-UAP-PR109, Unresolved UAP Report, Eastern United States, 2015
DOW-UAP-PR110, Unresolved UAP Report, Eastern United States, 2020
Verification
SHA-256:
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