I don’t believe that officers in the airforce would not be able to recognise a balloon be it a weather balloon or project mogul or what ever
Nevertheless it happened. Many times. 42 similar events in 1947 were misidentified as flying disks, in the US and elsewhere. Many of these are crashed weather balloons or other similar events.
1947 crashes
==========
6-20-47 Titusville, PA [and other locations]
6-21-47 Tacoma, Washington
6-25-47 Nyssa, Oregon Ob
6-27-47 Tularosa and Eagle, New Mexico
7-1-47 Circleville, Ohio (weather balloon)
7-4-47 Roswell, New Mexico (weather balloon)
7-6-47 Grafton Wisconsin
7-6-47 East St. Louis, Illinois
7-7-47 Oxford, Ohio (probably weather balloon)
7-7-47 New Hampshire
7-7-47 Jackson, Ohio (probably weather balloon)
7-7-47 Shreveport, Louisiana
7-7-47 Bozeman, Montana
7-7-47 Oelwein, Iowa
7-8-47 Ludlow, Kentucky
7-8-47 South Bloomfield, Ohio (probably weather balloon)
7-8-47 Windsor, Ontario Canada
7-9-47 Baker, Montana (probably weather balloon)
7-9-47 Midland, Michigan
7-9-47 North Hollywood, California
7-9-47 Thompsonville, Connecticut (weather balloon)
7-9-47 Rindge, New Hampshire
7-10-47 Greensburgh/West Chester, N. Y. (weather balloon)
7-10-47 Springfield, Massachusettes
7-10-47 Beulah Bay, Alabama
7-10-47 Niwot, Colorado (weather balloon)
7-11-47 Woodworth, North Dakota
7-11-47 Laurel, Maryland
7-11-47 Black River Falls, Wisconsin
7-11-47 Twin Falls, Idaho
7-12-47 Eugene, Oregon
7-12-47 Linden, New Jersey
7-12-47 Eastchester, New York
7-12-47 Nelsonville, Ohio
7-13-47 Amarillo, Texas
7-15-47 Clearwater, Florida
7-15-47 Seattle, Washington
7-17-47 Marysville, Kansas (probably weather balloon)
7-18-47 Chengtu, China (weather balloon)
7-23-47 Ragland, West Virginia (weather balloon)
8-8-47 Mullensville, West Virginia (weather balloon)
Some of the others may have been weather balloons too, but details are too vague.