UFO case file · UFO-3585
Temple unidentified-object report — March 23, 1966
Temple, Oklahoma, United States
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Case description
William Eddie Laxson, a civilian instructor at Sheppard Air Force Base and an experienced pilot, reported finding an unusual apparatus across Highway 70 south of Temple, Oklahoma, around 5:05 a.m. on March 23, 1966. The surviving NICAP and Project Blue Book material provides substantially more detail than the imported one-line catalogue entry.
Laxson described a silver, wingless, fish-shaped machine with a top canopy, landing supports, a small door and lights. He saw an ordinary-looking man in military-style work clothing and a cap inspecting the underside with a flashlight, then boarding by steps. The object reportedly rose vertically with a hissing or drilling sound before departing. Letter-and-number markings were recalled inconsistently across records.
Laxson said he returned to his car for a camera but obtained no photograph. A truck driver supplied a related observation; that does not make him an independent witness to the close view of the apparent crewman. Blue Book retained the case among its unidentified reports, a classification that does not establish extraterrestrial origin. The illustration includes Laxson, his car, the human-looking worker and the reported apparatus, without converting the worker into a biological alien.
Recorded details
- Craft description
- Road blocked by a wingless aircraft, perch fish-shaped
- Coordinate precision
- LOCALITY_APPROXIMATE
- Date precision
- EXACT_DAY
Case videos and witness interviews
Sources and further reading
- NICAP database JSON — full sequential public corpus
- NICAP database listing by date — source index PDF
- Government UFO case file: Temple, Oklahoma, United States — March 23, 1966
- Larry Hatch UFO*DB (*U*)
- NICAP Temple case directory and Blue Book source links
- Case source: 660323temple_docs.pdf
- Original NICAP forms and contemporary clippings, CUFOS/Greenwood packet