December 3, 1954 — Gulfport, MS
12:12 p.m. Sargent Prentiss Mellen, a flight instructor, and his wife Dottie are driving along Highway 49 in Gulfport, Mississippi, near the Mississippi Aluminum Company building. They see a round, flat object about 30–35 feet in diameter, hovering with an up-and-down motion, and rotating on its vertical axis at high speed. It ascends at a 10–20° angle, moving off to the east at an estimated speed of 500–600 mph. It appears to be shaped as though two plates were placed together. [Eberhart]
Record Cards:
Sources:
“Sights Peculiar Object In Sky Over Gulfport,” Biloxi (Miss.) Sun Herald, December 7, 1954, p. 20;
Brad Sparks, Blue Books Unknowns Catalogue, Case 1096, p. 222;
Thomas M. Olsen, The Reference for Outstanding UFO Reports, UFO Information Retrieval Center, November 1966, sec. 3, p. 39;
Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1954 November–December, The Author, 1991, pp. 44-45;
NICAP, “Couple Observe Rotating Object”;
