Amazing Stories, September 1950

This document is not a pulp magazine but rather a classified U.S. Army memorandum dated September 19, 1950, from Colonel John Meade at Fort McPherson, Georgia, to the Commanding General of Air Materiel Command at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. The memo transmits newspaper clippings from the Nashville Tennessean and Commercial Appeal (both September 18, 1950) reporting on unidentified aerial phenomena observed over Middle Tennessee. Witnesses across Cookeville, Livingston, Buffalo Valley, and Nashville reported seeing two parallel orange-hued streaks of light moving southwestward shortly before 6 p.m. on Sunday. Observers offered various explanations—rockets, jet aircraft, or flying saucers—while skeptics attributed them to sunlight reflecting on cloud formations. Tennessee Tech president Everett Derryberry and radio station manager Joe Mabry were among witnesses. The Army document classifies these sightings for official investigation.