Two 'Dirigibles' over the Lake City Radar Station

The objects appeared at dusk on 20 November 1955, between about 22:20 and 22:45 Greenwich time, around 17:20 in Tennessee. Four airmen on the hilltop of Lake City Air Force Station saw them, and so did others down at Oak Ridge. There were two of them one behind the other, bright orange and elliptical. They looked metallic and solid, about as bright as a car headlight a mile off. They travelled from the south-west towards the west without a sound. At times they seemed to stand still and then moved off erratically, and speed estimates ran as high as 900 mph. Sightings lasted from 30 seconds to 20 minutes. One likened them to "two dirigibles or barrage balloons". At Alexandria, 130 miles to the west, a telephone company manager named in the file as Mr Hildreth saw two red-orange cigar shapes.

What is on the record

The squadron's report and the witness questionnaires make up Blue Book case 3862. The named observers include the operations officer, Captain Edward G. Denkler, and the senior director, First Lieutenant Martin L. Anderson Jr. With them are the security sergeant Robert S. Manning, the crew chief Harry Geno and three radar operators: Airmen Second Class John J. Kupcho, Gerald T. Lassiter and Gordon B. Jessee. The station's radar did not track the objects. The direction centre scrambled two F-86D interceptors, and they found nothing. Questionnaires from four more witnesses at Oak Ridge were held up by Atomic Energy Commission security clearance.

The officers did not agree on a cause. The preparing officer ruled out meteors, aircraft and stars and doubted balloons, but neither he nor the senior director could name a cause. The approving officer's comment favoured Venus seen through two temperature inversions. The record card's conclusion is Unidentified. Berliner lists it among the Blue Book Unknowns with the operations officer as "Capt. B.G. Denkler", where the file has Edward G. Denkler. NICAP, Eberhart and Hatch also list it.

Why it sits where it does

L4 · OFFICIAL RECORD: a released government record names who saw it. The file names eight witnesses: seven men of the 663rd and the Alexandria telephone manager. Their statements are the whole of the testimony the archive holds. The grade measures the paperwork and settles nothing about the sighting. What moved west over Oak Ridge that evening is not resolved here.