Miss Iowa was being named winner in Long Beach about 10:00 p.m. Kansas time when an Arkansas City, Kansas news editor and highway patrol were listening to the radio band announce accidents and incidents from nearby Wichita, and other communities.The Hutchinson Naval Air Station had a UFO on their radar screen that :hot and muggy night". The target was moving in semi-circular area reaching 50-75 miles east of Hutchinson.
A B-47 from McConnell AFB, Wichita, Ks was in the air searching. The last fix on the object showed it near Emporia, Kansas - 109 miles northeast of Hutchinson! Then shortly before midnight it was in the north.
It was described as being brilliantly lighted, teardrop shaped, a blob of light. A strong light sprayed downward to earth from the object. It was big - about the size of a 200 watt light bulb and the light beam moved vertically and horizontally over a wide area of sky. Then the object just faded away.
Now, the Air Force checked all weather balloons launched from Dodge City and Wichita but were having trouble finding any. So they solution they shared was that people had seen a reflection from burning waste gas torches in a local oil field. How these burning torches moved from Hutchinson to Emporia was not discussed.
A pilot of a B-47 out of Forbes AFB in Topeka, Ks reported the gas torches and offered the suggestion of reflections. A witness - whose name was blacked out in the files- affirmed what he had seen had not been imagination.
Of interest in the file was a small note from an "Capt Gray-----" who said "This is of national interest" and "Put this in the case file "Arkansas File".
The report below also notes "several" teardrop shaped objects, tqo of which had lighted dangling tentacles and all had metallic blue lights. Objects were reported in Wichita, Hutchinson, El Dorado (An oil refinery town where one would expect oil burn offs to be commonly recognized) and Wellington (south of Wichita and west of Arkansas City).
Mention was made of private photos being taken but none are in the file from 19 July 1956 related to Arkansas City, Kansas.
It is possible that weather balloons account for some of this sighting, a few burnoff torches for other parts of it. Until more details of reports in each location are found and compared it remains interesting, especially since it was labeled of "National Importance". I cannot guess how a balloon or oil field waste burn off could achieve that level of interest.
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