January 7, 1948 — Kentucky
1:00 p.m. Kentucky State Police telephone Commanding Officer Col. Guy F. Hix’s office at Godman Army Airfield in Fort Knox, Kentucky, reporting an unidentified object near Elizabethtown, Kentucky. Another call to Hix comes from state police at about 1:10 p.m. of an observation by a civilian in Madisonville, Kentucky, through a Finch telescope of a cone-shaped object about 100 feet tall by 43 feet wide, at an altitude of 4 miles and moving at 10 mph. This is apparently General Mills Skyhook balloon Flight B, which passes about 40 miles to the southwest of Madisonville. Other reports come in from Lexington and Mannsville, Kentucky. 1:20–2:10 p.m. Army Flight Service reports to Godman Army Airfield control tower that the object is over Irvington then Owensboro, Kentucky. Godman Tower Operator Tech/Sgt Quinton A. Blackwell, Capt. James F. Duesler Jr., Base Air Inspector Lt. Col. E. Garrison Wood, and other USAF personnel see a round or ice-cream-cone-shaped white or silver object with a revolving red streamer toward the south beginning at 1:50 p.m. Many others see it as well after 2:07 p.m., such as Operations Officer Capt. Cary W. Carter and Col. Guy F. Hix. [Eberhart]
Record Card:
Incident 33g [1:10pm Madisonville] :
Incident 33b [1:20 p.m. Godman FIeld]:
Incident 33 [1:35 to 1:50 p.m. Godman FIeld]:
Incident 33a [2:00 p.m. Godman FIeld]:
Incident 33d [ After 2:07 p.m. Godman FIeld]:
Incident 33c [2:20 p.m. Godman FIeld]:
Incident 33e [2:45 p.m. Godman FIeld]:
Incident 33f [3:15 p.m. Godman FIeld]:
Statement by Guy Hix:
Statement by Quinton Blackwell:
1PM Summary:
Sources:
“Spyglasses Search through the Southwest Sky but Great What-Was-It Keeps Out of Sight,” Louisville (Ky.) Courier-Journal, January 9, 1948, p. 12;
Brad Sparks, Blue Books Unknowns Catalogue, Case 69, p.30;
