1952 Washington, D.C., UFO incident
UFOs and ufology |
---|
Notable sightings and hoaxes |
|
Conspiracy theories |
Religions |
Lists of organizations, sightings, studies, etc. |
From July 12 to 29, 1952, a series of
1952 UFO flap
The 1952 UFO flap was an unprecedented rash of media attention to unidentified flying object reports during the summer of 1952 that culminated with reports of sightings over Washington, D.C.[3][4] In the four years prior, the US Air Force had chronicled a total of 615 UFO reports; During the 1952 flap, they received over 717 new reports.[5] Ruppelt recalled: "During a six-month period in 1952... 148 of the nation's leading newspapers carried a total of over 16,000 items about flying saucers."[6]
On April 3, the Associated Press reported on an upcoming story in Life magazine that would reveal the Air Force was taking a serious interest in flying saucers.[7] The June edition of Look magazine featured a story where astrophysicist Donald Howard Menzel proposed flying saucers were optical mirages created by temperature inversions.[8][9] American papers covered similar statements from French astronomer Ernest Esclangon who debunked the "flying saucer reports" by explaining they could not be supersonic craft because no sonic booms were reported. [10]
On April 7, Life magazine published the Flying Saucer article under the title "Have We Visitors From Space?", becoming the most reputable outlet to seriously consider the possibility that flying saucer reports might be caused by extra-terrestrial spaceships.[11][12] Publicity surrounding the piece is believed to have contributed to the subsequent wave of reports that summer.[13][14]
Sightings over Washington
At the height of the UFO flap, there were UFOs reported at the nation's capital on two consecutive Saturday nights.
Night of July 19
At 11:40 p.m. on Saturday, July 19, 1952, Edward Nugent, an
The objects were located 15 miles (24 km) south-southwest of the city; no known aircraft were in the area, and the objects were not following any established flight paths. Nugent's superior, Harry Barnes, a senior air-traffic controller at the airport, watched the objects on Nugent's radarscope. He later wrote:- We knew immediately that a very strange situation existed . . . their movements were completely radical compared to those of ordinary aircraft.[16]
Barnes had two controllers check Nugent's radar; they found that it was working normally. Barnes then called National Airport's radar-equipped control tower; the controllers there, Howard Cocklin and Joe Zacko, said that they also had unidentified blips on their radar screen, and saw a hovering "bright light" in the sky, which departed with incredible speed.[15] Cocklin asked Zacko, "Did you see that? What the hell was that?"[15]
At this point, other objects appeared in all sectors of the radarscope; when they moved over the White House and the United States Capitol, Barnes called Andrews Air Force Base, located 10 miles from National Airport. Although Andrews reported that they had no unusual objects on their radar, an airman soon called the base's control tower to report the sighting of a strange object. Airman William Brady, who was in the tower, then saw an "object which appeared to be like an orange ball of fire, trailing a tail . . . [it was] unlike anything I had ever seen before."[15][17] As Brady tried to alert the other personnel in the tower, the strange object "took off at an unbelievable speed.[17]
On one of National Airport's
Meanwhile, at Andrews Air Force Base, the control tower personnel were tracking on radar what some thought to be unknown objects, but others suspected, and in one instance were able to prove, were simply stars and meteors.[20] However, Staff Sgt. Charles Davenport observed an orange-red light to the south; the light "would appear to stand still, then make an abrupt change in direction and altitude . . . this happened several times."[19] At one point both radar centers at National Airport and the radar at Andrews Air Force Base were tracking an object hovering over a radio beacon. The object vanished in all three radar centers at the same time.[21]
At 3 a.m., shortly before two
Publicity and Air Force reaction
The sightings of July 19–20, 1952, made front-page headlines in newspapers around the nation. A typical example was the headline from the
Night of July 26
At 8:15 p.m. on Saturday, July 26, 1952, a pilot and
Meanwhile, Albert M. Chop, the press spokesman for Project Blue Book, arrived at National Airport and, due to security concerns, denied several reporters' requests to photograph the radar screens. He then joined the radar center personnel.[27] By this time (9:30 p.m.) the radar center was detecting unknown objects in every sector. At times the objects traveled slowly; at other times they reversed direction and moved across the radarscope at speeds calculated at up to 7,000 mph (11,250 km/h).[28] At 11:30 p.m., two U.S. Air Force F-94 Starfire jet fighters from New Castle Air Force Base in Delaware arrived over Washington. Captain John McHugo, the flight leader, was vectored towards the radar blips but saw nothing, despite repeated attempts.[29] However, his wingman, Lieutenant William Patterson, did see four white "glows" and chased them.[30][15] He told investigators that "I tried to make contact with the bogies below 1,000 feet," and that "I was at my maximum speed but...I ceased chasing them because I saw no chance of overtaking them."[15] According to Albert Chop, when ground control asked Patterson "if he saw anything", Patterson replied "'I see them now and they're all around me. What should I do?'...And nobody answered, because we didn't know what to tell him."[19]
After midnight on July 27, USAF Major Dewey Fournet, Project Blue Book's liaison at the Pentagon, and Lt. John Holcomb, a
White House concern and CIA interest
The sightings of July 26–27 also made front-page headlines, and led President
CIA historian Gerald Haines, in his 1997 history of the CIA's involvement with UFOs, also mentions Truman's concern. "A massive buildup of sightings over the United States in 1952, especially in July, alarmed the Truman administration. On 19 and 20 July, radar scopes at Washington National Airport and Andrews Air Force Base tracked mysterious blips. On 27 July, the blips reappeared."[34] The CIA would react to the 1952 wave of UFO reports by "forming a special study group within the Office of Scientific Intelligence (OSI) and Office of Current Intelligence (OCI) to review the situation. Edward Tauss reported for the group that most UFO sightings could be easily explained. Nonetheless, he recommended that the Agency continue monitoring the problem."[34] The CIA's concern with the issue would lead to the creation, in January 1953, of the Robertson Panel.[34]
Air Force explanation
Air Force Major Generals
Among the witnesses who supported Samford's explanation was the crew of a
At the request of the Air Force, the
Criticisms
In his book,
Former radar controller Howard Cocklin told the Washington Post in 2002 that he was still convinced that he saw an object, stating that "I saw it on the [radar] screen and out the window" over Washington National Airport."[15]
The Robertson Panel
The extremely high numbers of UFO reports in 1952 disturbed both the Air Force and the
In popular culture
- The tenth and final episode of the first season of the 2019 History Channel television series Project Blue Book is titled "The Washington Merry-Go-Round". It's based on the 1952 Washington, DC UFO incident.[46]
- Several episodes of the 2021 Netflix series Top Secret UFO Projects Declassified refer to the 1952 Washington, DC UFO incident, including the first episode "Project Blue Book Unknown", which reenacts the incident with CGI and plays archival footage with several former witnesses.[47]
References
Notes
- ^ Peebles 1994, p. 73.
- ^ Peebles 1994, p. 78.
- ^ Ruppelt ch 11 "The Big Flap"
- ^ Peebles, Ch5 "The 1952 Flap"
- ^ Ruppelt, p141
- ^ Ruppelt, Edward J. (28 May 2022). "The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects".
- ^ "The Spokesman-Review 04 Apr 1952, page 27". Newspapers.com. Retrieved 11 February 2024.
- ^ "Green Bay Press-Gazette 02 Jun 1952, page Page 6". Newspapers.com. Retrieved 11 February 2024.
- ^ Ruppelt, p. 109
- ^ [http:/www.newspapers.com/image/117295509/ Arizona Republic]
- ^ Ruppelt, p. 131-132, "Other very reputable magazines, such as True, had said it before, but coming from Life, it was different"
- ^ [http:/www.newspapers.com/image/6449522/ Lubbock Evening Journal] newspapers.com
- ^ Lang, Daniel (March 15, 1954). "The Man in the Thick Lead Suit". Oxford University Press. p. 49 – via Google Books.
- ^ Mazur, Allan (July 5, 2017). "Implausible Beliefs: In the Bible, Astrology, and UFOs". Routledge – via Google Books.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Carlson, Peter; Carlson, Peter (21 July 2002). "50 Years Ago, Unidentified Flying Objects From Way Beyond the Beltway Seized the Capital's Imagination". The Washington Post.
- ^ Clark 1998, p. 653.
- ^ a b Clark 1998, p. 654.
- ^ Clark 1998, p. 655.
- ^ a b c d e f g Gilgoff, Dan (14 December 2001). "Saucers Full of Secrets". Washington City Paper. Retrieved 23 January 2024.
- ^ Peebles 1994, p. 74.
- ^ Ruppelt 1955, p. 160.
- ^ a b Michaels 1997, p. 22.
- ^ Ruppelt 1955, p. 210.
- ^ Ruppelt 1955, p. 162.
- ^ a b Ruppelt 1955, p. 163.
- ^ Peebles 1994, pp. 75–76.
- ^ Ruppelt 1955, p. 164.
- ^ Ruppelt 1955, p. 159.
- ^ a b Peebles 1994, p. 76.
- ^ Clark 1998, p. 659.
- ^ Ruppelt 1955, p. 166.
- ^ Ruppelt 1955, p. 165.
- ^ Peebles 1994, p. 77.
- ^ a b c "CIA's Role in the Study of UFOs, 1947-90 — Central Intelligence Agency". www.cia.gov. Archived from the original on October 1, 2019. Retrieved Jul 9, 2019.
- ^ Lewis-Kraus, Gideon (April 30, 2021). "How the Pentagon Started Taking U.F.O.s Seriously". The New Yorker magazine. Archived from the original on 23 June 2023.
- ^ "Page 2 Project Blue Book - UFO Investigations - Fold3". Minutes of Press Conference Held By Major General John A. Samford Director of Intelligence, U.S. air Force 29 July 1952 - 4:00p.m. - Room 3E-869, The Pentagon.
- ^ Peebles 1994, p. 80.
- ^ "Los Angeles Times: Archives - U.S. SAUCER HUNTER DOUBTS THEY EXIST" Archived 2017-07-30 at the Wayback Machine. pqasb.pqarchiver.com.
- ^ a b Ruppelt 1955, p. 170.
- ^ Peebles 1994, p. 62.
- ^ Peebles 1994, p. 66.
- ^ a b Peebles 1994, p. 79.
- ^ Peebles 1994, p. 360.
- ^ "Condon Report, Sec III, Chapter 5: Optical & Radar Analysis". files.ncas.org.
- ^ Peebles 1994, p. 102.
- ^ "Project Blue Book | TV Guide". TVGuide.com. Retrieved Jul 9, 2019.
- ^ "Project Blue Book Unknown." Top Secret UFO Projects Declassified, season 1, episode 1, Netflix, 2021. Netflix, https://www.netflix.com/watch/81066337
Sources
- Clark, Jerome (1998). The UFO Book: Encyclopedia of the Extraterrestrial. Visible Ink. ISBN 1-57859-029-9.
- Michaels, Susan (1997). Sightings: UFOs. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 0-684-83630-0.
- Peebles, Curtis (1994). Watch the Skies!: A Chronicle of the Flying Saucer Myth. ISBN 0-425-15117-4.
- Randle, Kevin D. (2001). Invasion Washington: UFOs Over the Capitol. HarperTorch. ISBN 0-380-81470-6.
- Ruppelt, Edward J. (1955). The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects.
External links
- CIA's Role in the Study of UFOs, 1947-90 — Central Intelligence Agency Archived 2019-10-01 at the Wayback Machine 1997 Gerald Haines article on the CIA's involvement with the UFO phenomenon.
- Minutes of Press Conference Held By Major General John A. Samford Director of Intelligence, U.S. air Force 29 July 1952 - 4:00p.m. - Room 3E-869, The Pentagon.
- General Samford Meets The Press at Saturday Night Uforia
- "The flying saucers are real" - open source 1950 novel by Donald Keyhoe on www.sacred-texts.com
- Flying Saucers Over the Capitol and White House - Ghosts of DC history blog