Pulp Magazine Cover, June 1954

Museum Catalog Note This document comprises official military correspondence and witness statements regarding events at Red River Arsenal, Texarkana, Texas, on June 8, 1954. The record documents an explosion of fragmentation cluster bombs that occurred at approximately 0256 hours in a restricted ammunition area, producing two successive blasts that scattered debris across 5-10 yards and ignited nearby fires. Approximately two minutes before this explosion, a General Supply Division employee named Lloyd T. Prewitt reported observing a circular object roughly the size of a washtub descending from northeast to southwest at 5,000-10,000 feet altitude. He described the object as bright golden yellow, silent except for a peculiar sound resembling sky rockets, and without a tail. His detailed written statement, included here, notes that his wife witnessed the accompanying light. The military document notes a possible temporal relationship between the aerial object's descent and the ammunition explosion.