What happened
Called out of his barracks, the private photographed a black ring with a Kodak Brownie. He said it seemed solid, not like smoke, and not shiny. Between his second and third frames it became engulfed in white smoke. The six photos were published in 1967 as "the amazing ring-shaped UFO." For the Condon study, William Hartmann learned from base officials that the photos showed a vortex cloud from an "atomic bomb simulation demonstration," often staged at the base. He estimated the ring at about 200 ft across and traced its drift back to the demonstration site. Ann Druffel later noted that no document of the simulator itself has been found.