COLD OPEN. This is a reading of document number one nine five eight dash ten dash seven two zero one three two eight dash Florida South Carolina Area, a United States government record dated October twenty, nineteen fifty‑eight. The file appears in the public archive of The Black Vault and is notable for containing multiple contemporaneous reports of unidentified flying objects observed over the Charleston, South Carolina region.
PROVENANCE. The document was uploaded to The Black Vault on the archive page titled “1958‑10‑7201328‑Fla‑S‑C‑‑Ga‑Area,” accessible at https://archive.org/download/1958-10-7201328-Fla-S-C--Ga-Area/1958-10-7201328-Fla-S-C--Ga-Area_djvu.txt. The material was released under a Freedom of Information Act request; the specific case number is not listed in the archive entry. The declassification authority is indicated on the pages as “UNCLASSIFIED,” suggesting the records have been cleared for public release.
THE DOCUMENT. Project one hundred seventy‑three record card, item I. Date: two C, Qct obex* lfu?2 three. Date‑time group: location local GMT minus two; twenty‑seven f greater than five Z I one one a. Type of observation: visual, air‑visual, ground‑radar, air‑intercept radar. Photos: yes. Source: M i one one one a r y k C t v ilia n. Length of observation: one to three seconds. Number of objects: one. Brief summary of sighting: “White ball of fire, about the size of a dime with orange tail about the length of a lead pencil. Object appeared to burn out, then reappeared before disappearing completely.” Another observer described the object as “glowing red, about the size of a basketball with a blue streak tail.” Course: unknown. Conclusions: Balloon – probable; Balloon – possible; Aircraft – probable; Aircraft – possible; Astronomical – probable; Astronomical – possible; Other – insufficient data for evaluation; Unknown – insufficient data.
Comments: Description of a meteor and time duration. ATJC Form three two nine (revision twenty‑six September nineteen‑two).
District Intelligence Office, Sixth Naval District, United States Naval Base Charleston, South Carolina. Memorandum, code 00103‑6, from the District Intelligence Officer to the Office of Special Investigations, Charleston Air Force Base. Subject: Unidentified Flying Object, reporting of. The memorandum states: “An unidentified flying object, spherical in shape with long ‘tail,’ was sighted at seventeen hundred six Z on twenty October nineteen fifty‑three by one observer aboard the AIT‑12 docked at Pier U, U.S. Harbor, Charleston, South Carolina. This information was furnished to the District Intelligence Office, Sixth Naval District, thirty October nineteen fifty‑three by telephone and later by personal interview.” The observer, identified only as H. R. J. Alston, a shipyard worker, is described as “apparently reliable.” The memo continues: “The object was first sighted about thirty degrees above the horizon traveling downward at an angle of about zero point six degrees with the horizon at a very high rate of speed. The object appeared to be about the size of a basketball, glowing red in color, and had a blue streak ‘tail’ estimated to be thirty feet long. The leading edge of the object appeared uniform and smooth while the trailing edge was rough and irregular. Visual contact was maintained only momentarily. The observer moved from his position forward of amidships to the stem of the vessel when the object disappeared behind ships docked nearby. The observer estimated the position of the unidentified object to be east of his position at a range of approximately two miles.” The memorandum adds: “Several other workers with the observer noted a multi‑engine United States Air Force aircraft circling the vicinity of the sighting for about ten minutes after the original sighting.” Weather conditions are recorded as clear and sunny on the day of the reported sighting, twenty‑six October nineteen fifty‑six. The observer also reported that he and his wife had previously sighted a “missile part” tumbling through space in July nineteen fifty‑six while driving on a local highway, a phenomenon thought to be a Soviet satellite re‑entering the atmosphere.
Unclassified memorandum, dated thirty October nineteen fifty‑three, from the District Intelligence Officer, Sixth Naval District, to the Office of Special Investigations, Charleston Air Force Base, subject “Unidentified Flying Object, reporting of.” The memo includes the statement: “There was no further evidence concerning this sighting of an
