June 1949 — four cases: the McLaughlin White Sands rocket-pacing sighting; the Anchorage, Alaska recollection; the Oak Ridge, Tennessee sighting; and the Mesa, Arizona objects.
1949: June UFO|UAP & Entity Sightings Archive
June 1949 UFO sightings stretch from a rocket range in New Mexico to a reactor town in Tennessee. At White Sands on June 14, Capt. Robert B. McLaughlin’s Navy team watched two white discs pace a V-2 rocket, one passing through its exhaust before shooting straight up. At Camp Hood, Texas on June 6, an Army triangulation network followed a hovering orange object until it moved off in level flight and burst into a shower of particles. At Oak Ridge on June 22, a teacher, a scientist and a third witness watched two delta shapes and a disc cross the nuclear research facility.
Blue Book record cards and AFOSI files add careful witness work to the month: two airline pilots swerving from a blue-green ball over Haines, Alaska; two Civil Aeronautics Administration employees watching four or five oval objects over Klamath Falls, Oregon; an Air Force-reviewed fireball over Media, Pennsylvania; and an Alaska childhood memory of a disc wobbling down to a crash near Anchorage. This June 1949 UFO and entity sightings archive records each case with its date, place, time, summary and source, including the explanations Blue Book itself reached.
Date: June 1949
Location: Youngstown, Pennsylvania
Time: 08:30
Summary: Sitting on a porch looking at the full moon, a witness and her husband heard a buzzing sound, looked for a plane, and saw an ellipsoid object instead. They continued watching as it crossed the moon and moved out of sight. A multi-colored elliptical object was observed in clear weather by a 60-year-old female witness on a farm for over three minutes.
Source: MUFON
Date: June 1949
Location: Jersey City, New Jersey
Time: Unknown
Summary: Nocturnal lights were reported (Roberts, A).
Source: Eberhart, George M. A Geo-Bibliography of Anomalies, Greenwood Press, Westport, 1980. ISBN:0-313-21337-2
Date: June 1949
Location: Lewisham, UK
Time: Around 15:00
Summary: A hovering flying disc was observed (Sturzaker).
Source: BUFORA
Date: June 1, 1949
Location: 2 miles from Stewart Field, Newburgh (or Walden), New York
Time: 8:30-9:00 p.m. (EST)
Summary: A Staff Sergeant and six others saw a yellow, oblong, soundless object appear and disappear every few minutes, about 30° NW of the moon. Duration 30 minutes.
Source: FOIA; FUFOR Index (BBU)
Date: June 2, 1949
Location: Glendale / Little Tujunga Canyon, California
Time: 12:00
Summary: A silver, disc-shaped object flew northwest into Little Tujunga Canyon near Glendale at around noon, traveling very fast. It was observed by two experienced female witnesses in the canyon for over 15 minutes.
Source: Hatch, Larry
Date: June 3, 1949
Location: Petaluma, California
Time: 03:50
Summary: One object was observed by one witness for 12 seconds (Moore).
Source: Doubt Magazine
Date: June 3, 1949
Location: Shaker Heights, Ohio
Time: 08:00
Summary: One object was observed by one male witness (Comella).
Source: Fate Magazine
Date: June 6, 1949
Location: Killeen Base, Camp Hood, Texas
Time: 9:05-9:08 p.m.
Summary: Williams, Jones and others in the Army’s UFO observation and triangulation network tracked a hovering orange object about 30-70 ft in diameter, 2 mils in angular size, about 1 mile above the ground, 3 miles south of the observation post and 4½ miles south of the Plotting Center. It suddenly started moving in level flight, then exploded in a shower of particles. Part of the 1949 Camp Hood wave. [Detailed Report]
Source: FOIA; FUFOR Index; NICAP 1949 wave report (BBU)
Date: June 8, 1949
Location: Haines, Alaska (about 70 miles north of Juneau)
Time: 08:52 Z
Summary: Two experienced pilots flying a C-46 for a commercial airline at 12,000 ft on a magnetic heading of 165° saw a very bright blue-green ball of light directly in front of the aircraft, close enough that the pilot swerved off course to avoid a collision. The co-pilot was awakened to see it. The object had no tail such as a meteorite would have and did not resemble a jet exhaust. It flew on a course of about 255°, was followed through about 45° of horizon, and faded gradually like the rear light of a departing train. Both pilots called it extremely fast, faster than any jet they had seen, and if pressed estimated about 800 mph. Their aircraft was about 2,000 ft above the undercast, with the object at the same level. A passenger also saw it. The Alaskan Air Command evaluation noted both observers were experienced pilots of normal intelligence, one a former Air Force officer, and found a similarity to another blue-green ball reported in AAC Intelligence Report IR-18-49.
Source: Project Blue Book record card (conclusion: Insufficient Data); Alaskan Air Command report IR-31-49
Date: June 8, 1949
Location: Guam, 12°25’N 140°20’E (Far East)
Time: 11:09 Z
Summary: Military observers sighted what appeared to be a contrail moving WSW at an estimated 1,400 mph. The trail dissipated almost as soon as it formed. It was white and traveled a straight course. Observed for about one minute.
Source: Project Blue Book record card (conclusion: Other, contrails; probably a meteor trail)
Date: June 10, 1949
Location: 20 miles SW of Boston, Massachusetts
Time: Unknown
Summary: USAF pilot Kirschbaum, flying a T-6 with the 58th Fighter Interceptor Squadron, saw a white, tubular object about 100 ft long flying at 100 mph. He gave chase but lost it.
Source: Project 1947; FUFOR Index (BBU)
Date: June 10, 1949
Location: Anchorage, Alaska
Time: 21:00
Summary: The witness, a child at the time in the company of adults, recalled a disc first visible at about 10,000 ft elevation roughly ten miles off, moving SSW as it emerged from behind the southern profile of the Chugach Range near 12th and G streets. Clearing the southernmost visible peak, it made a near-U-turn and proceeded NNE on the west side of the mountains, now below the peak elevations (5,000-7,000 ft), gradually losing altitude and closing distance. It appeared disc-shaped with a slightly curved underside, a wider band below the midpoint, and a domed top with windows just above the midpoint; the windows appeared clear yellow as if heated, with the craft showing a faint glowing hot-metal appearance tinged green, blue, and orange. It began to wobble as it descended, apparently about to crash; there was no sound in flight or at impact, though the witness recalled a low vibration. The witness was told the next day that government employees had been sent to recover debris, which was crated and sent to Wright-Patterson.
Source: NUFORC
Date: June 14, 1949
Location: White Sands, New Mexico
Time: Approximately 15:35-15:40 local
Summary: A team of Navy engineers and technicians under the command of Capt. Robert B. McLaughlin, USN, watched two round, white discs, about 20 ft across, pace a V-2 rocket during a test launch from White Sands. One disc passed through the rocket’s exhaust and then shot straight up; no sound was heard. At least five U.S. Navy rocket scientists and engineers witnessed the event, which lasted over 15 minutes. The Los Angeles Times reported that film had been taken, but AFOSI was told the film showed nothing. WSMR launch records show no Navy missile launches in June 1949 (the only Viking launches that year were May 3 and September 6), but an Army V-2 was launched on June 14, 1949, at 15:35 local time: the Blossom IVB ionosphere, solar and biological mission, which reached an apogee of 133.9 km and carried cosmic and solar radiation, temperature, pressure, ionosphere and photo experiments for the Air Research and Development Command, along with a live Air Force Aero Medical Laboratory monkey, Albert II, who survived the flight but died on impact.
Source: Confirmed by Capt. R. B. McLaughlin, USN; Brad Sparks, Comprehensive Catalog of Project Blue Book Unknowns (BBU #244); Dan Wilson (Blue Book microfilm research)
Date: June 14, 1949
Location: Emmett, Idaho
Time: 21:00
Summary: One object was observed by several witnesses for 20 minutes (Knox).
Source: Newspaper
Date: June 17, 1949
Location: Battle Creek, Michigan
Time: Daytime
Summary: An object was observed and photographed. One luminous triangle was observed by one witness (Sanders/Saunders).
Source: Arnold, Kenneth. Coming of the Saucers, Authors, Amherst, 1952
Date: June 20, 1949
Location: Glendale, California
Time: Unknown
Summary: One transparent object was observed by 18 witnesses in a residential area for over 15 minutes; the semi-transparent object hovered, flipped over, then vanished.
Source: Hatch, Larry
Date: June 20, 1949
Location: Los Alamos, New Mexico
Time: 20:10
Summary: One observer, rated reliable, saw a blue-green object pass directly overhead moving west to east, with no train and no sound, vanishing as though extinguished. Duration about 1.5 seconds.
Source: NICAP; AFOSI Case 73 or 74
Date: June 20, 1949
Location: Paget, Bermuda
Time: 6:05 p.m. (local daylight time)
Summary: A Bermuda architect at his home sighted a spherical, brilliantly silver object about 45-50° above the horizon due north, traveling due south. It began about the size of a medium star and grew slightly as it moved south. About five minutes later it slowed, and at about 80° elevation due south it disappeared straight upward within seconds. Altitude and speed could not be measured; relative to cumulus clouds it was at least 10,000-15,000 ft above the ocean, roughly estimated at 30,000 ft or higher. Other people, including visitors from New York and Philadelphia, agreed with his account. Observed for about ten minutes. The 6/9 Weather Squadron Detachment released a weather balloon at 6:00 p.m. that day, but the weather officer’s plot of its course showed it could not have been seen from Paget. The Hamilton Sunday Royal Gazette of July 3 printed an account of the balloon’s path that differs from the weather officer’s plot.
Source: Project Blue Book record card (conclusion: Balloon); Bermuda Base Command, Kindley AFB Air Intelligence Information Report
Date: June 21, 1949
Location: Tuolumne County, California
Time: Unknown
Summary: One object was observed for several hours.
Source: Doubt Magazine
Date: June 21, 1949
Location: Monroe, Michigan
Time: 9:24 a.m.
Summary: Several Naval aircraft were in the sky when a Monroe resident saw directly overhead a disc-like object with a heavy center section, about half a mile high, travel southwest and vanish within two seconds. A vapor disturbance could be seen whorling from its outer edge as it moved. He suggested it might be a new type of ram jet. A newspaper item was printed by reporters who said they had seen it too, and on June 23 a reporter for the Monroe Evening News phoned in a similar report. The Navy forwarded the account to the Chief of Naval Operations on June 29.
Source: Project Blue Book record card (conclusion: Insufficient Data); Navy letter to the Chief of Naval Operations, June 29, 1949
Date: June 22, 1949
Location: Oak Ridge, Tennessee
Time: 19:00
Summary: A teacher, a scientist, and one other witness watched two delta-shaped UFOs and a disc fly over the U.S. government nuclear research facility around 7 p.m. The objects appeared metallic and flew slowly toward the northwest, visible for 15 minutes. Known as the Teacher incident.
Source: Hatch, Larry
Date: June 23, 1949
Location: Toledo, Ohio
Time: Unknown
Summary: An unidentifiable object was observed at close range (Gass).
Source: Project Bluebook
Date: June 23, 1949
Location: Klamath Falls, Oregon
Time: About 2:00-2:15 p.m. (PDT)
Summary: Four or five oval objects the size of a dinner plate, grayish-white and apparently metallic, crossed the sky in trail formation, heading SSE at an estimated 25,000-30,000 ft and faster than any jet the witnesses had seen. They left no exhaust or trail, made no sound, and had no visible appendages, lights or means of propulsion. One object passed the one in front, then the group made a sharp turn of nearly 90° to the east and faded from view after three to four minutes. AFOSI interviewed two Civil Aeronautics Administration employees: a maintenance technician who watched from outside the main hangar, and the manager of the airport’s CAA station, who spotted them from the control tower and phoned his wife a mile away so she could watch. A third observer was later located at the CAA station in Yakima, Washington. The manager noted that military and commercial aircraft pass over Klamath Falls at all hours but knew of no formation flights that day, and no weather-station test devices were aloft.
Source: Project Blue Book record card (conclusion: Aircraft); AFOSI Report of Investigation, July 1949
Date: June 24, 1949
Location: Central Washington
Time: Daytime
Summary: An unidentified object was sighted, with an unusual appearance and performance: changing color from white to gray and back, revolving while hovering, perfectly round, and then moving away at a high rate of speed. Observed by three experienced male military witnesses at a military facility (Howard, R).
Source: Sullivan, Edward. CSI/LA investigation files
Date: June 24, 1949
Location: Mesa, Arizona
Time: 3:45 p.m.
Summary: A Los Angeles-area man reported four steel-gray metallic discs, at first about 85° above the horizon and seeming to hover around a small, very high cloud, with a fifth disc passing west to east at a lower but still extreme altitude. At least one was a disc with two flanges, and their shape seemed to change with viewing angle. Four were watched for about 30 minutes and one for about 25 seconds, at speeds up to 400 mph, partly through seven-power binoculars, before they faded from view. Four people watched (two adults and two children). Interviewed by AFOSI on September 22, 1949, he said he hoped to get permission from the Air Materiel Command to photograph future discs for commercial sale.
Source: AFOSI Case 75; AFOSI Report of Investigation, Sept. 27, 1949; Project Blue Book record card (conclusion: Unreliable Report)
Date: June 1949
Location: Wildrose Canyon, California
Time: 21:00
Summary: One object was observed by four witnesses for a few minutes (Turner).
Source: Bloecher, Ted R.
Date: June 26, 1949
Location: Media, Pennsylvania
Time: About 12:05 a.m.
Summary: Witnesses on a lawn near a reservoir saw an exceptionally large blue-green fireball, estimated at one-half to two-thirds the diameter of the moon, drop through about 20° of arc to the south in three to three and a half seconds and disappear behind a house roof. It was slightly green, very bright, moving very fast on a curved course and shedding smaller pieces of light like a skyrocket, with no hissing, no thunder and no lighted trail. Witnesses included the executive director of the American Institute of Architects and a Curtis Publishing Co. treasurer who was a member of the American Meteor Society. Dr. Charles P. Olivier, director of Flower Observatory (Upper Darby) and president of the American Meteor Society, concluded from the reports that it was a fireball. Franklin Institute astronomers received letters about it, and AFOSI interviewed the witnesses in September and October 1949 at the request of the Kirtland AFB district office, which had received a letter about the sighting addressed to Dr. Lincoln LaPaz.
Source: Project Blue Book record card (conclusion: Astro, fireball); AFOSI Report of Investigation; Philadelphia Inquirer, June 26, 1949
Date: Late June 1949
Location: Vernon, British Columbia, Canada
Time: Around midnight
Summary: One object was observed by one witness briefly (Delong).
Source: NICAP
Date: June 27, 1949
Location: Albera Ligure, Italy
Time: 20:20
Summary: A brass, domed disc with a transparent dome was seen at only about 10 meters altitude. It emitted a gaseous cloud of vapor, then flew away over a hill.
Source: Hatch, Larry
Date: June 27, 1949
Location: Durango, Colorado
Time: 22:35
Summary: One object was observed by one witness briefly (Heard).
Source: Newspaper
Date: June 29, 1949
Location: White Sands, New Mexico
Time: Unknown
Summary: A Naval rocket expert observed a silvery disc.
Source: NICAP
Date: June 30, 1949
Location: Seligman, New Mexico (29 miles W and 14 miles S of the town)
Time: 4:30 p.m. (MST)
Summary: A USDA veterinary meat inspector standing in the open, with 20/20 eyesight and described by the interviewing agent as well educated, steady and observant, accidentally looked up and saw a dull gray, sharply outlined circular object about 30° above the horizon, estimated 12 miles away, flying north on a straight and level path at an estimated 2,000 mph or faster. There was no sound, trail, projection or reflection; the sky was perfectly clear and the area very sparsely populated. It disappeared into the distance after eight seconds. The witness, who had seen meteors, said this was not one.
Source: Project Blue Book record card (conclusion: Astro, meteor); AFOSI Guide to Investigation, Aug. 1949
Date: June 1948 (alleged); investigated May-July 1949
Location: Gilchrist Beach, Galveston, Texas
Time: Unknown
Summary: An 18-year-old Beaumont, Texas youth wrote to the Saturday Evening Post on March 4, 1949, claiming he had heard and seen a flying object like a flying saucer at Gilchrist Beach in June 1948, with a description and drawing. The Air Materiel Command asked AFOSI to investigate. On July 6, 1949, he told agents he had invented the story to impress friends after reading the magazine’s article “What You Can Believe About Flying Saucers,” drawing on newspaper and magazine accounts, and he signed a written retraction. His parents said he had a habit of telling imaginative stories and that he gave eight versions during the interview before admitting he had seen nothing.
Source: Project Blue Book file (AFOSI Report of Investigation, May 17, 1949, and follow-up, July 1949; Project Grudge)
Source Status: Hoax, retracted by the witness. The alleged sighting dates to June 1948 and is kept here because the Blue Book file is dated 1949.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
A Rocket Range, a Reactor Town and Trained Observers
The month’s strongest cases come from people trained to watch the sky or to measure it: Navy rocket engineers at White Sands, Army artillery observers at Camp Hood, Civil Aeronautics Administration staff at Klamath Falls and experienced pilots over Alaska. The White Sands case is dated June 14, the day an Army V-2 carrying the monkey Albert II was launched, and its two discs were reported by five or more Navy witnesses. The Air Force reached conclusions of balloon, meteor, fireball or insufficient data for the Bermuda, Seligman, Media, Haines and Monroe reports, but its files also record witnesses who said what they saw did not behave like those explanations.
“One of the discs passed through the rocket’s exhaust and then shot straight up.”
From the June 14, 1949 White Sands account, confirmed by Capt. R. B. McLaughlin, USN.
