Four cases from January 1952, headlined by the Nenana, Alaska radar intercept and the Wonsan-Sunchon, Korea B-29 sightings.
1952: January UFO|UAP & Entity Sightings Archive
On the night of January 29, 1952, a B-29 crew flying a combat mission over North Korea watched a glowing orange sphere, about three feet across, pull up beside their bomber and fly formation with it at the Superfortress’s own speed and altitude. Two crews at two locations saw it, and these were men who had flown mission after mission over enemy territory and told intelligence they had never seen anything like it. Twelve days earlier, in the small hours of January 22, a radar operator at Murphy Dome near Fairbanks, Alaska, had tracked an unidentified target at up to 2,400 mph that reversed course in an eight-mile turn and left two scrambled F-94 jets chasing blips they could not see.
This January 1952 UFO sightings archive gathers every documented case from the month Project Blue Book was still cataloguing the Air Force’s own files: green fireballs over Travis AFB, Watsonville and Falls Church, a Navy TBM chasing a parachute-shaped object off Mitchel AFB, two intelligence NCOs watching a blue-tailed sphere at Fairchild AFB, a Florida pilot at Cedar Keys, and a Connecticut woman’s dome-shaped craft. Alongside them sit the Alaska radar-jet intercept, the Artesia balloon-circling discs cross-referenced from 1951, and older entity reports from Shemya, Oakdale and Itanhaém. Each entry is tied to its Blue Book card, Air Force report or catalog, so the dates, times, witnesses and official evaluations can be checked.
Date: January 1952
Location: Shemya Island, Aleutian Islands, Alaska
Time: Unknown
Summary: A bat-shaped object was reported over the Aleutian outpost of Shemya. See the Full Report.
Source: Existing archive entry
Date: 1952 (widely dated to January)
Location: Oakdale, California
Time: Unknown
Summary: A four-foot entity was reported near Oakdale. See the Full Report.
Source: Existing archive entry
Source Status: Month is the commonly cited date; no primary record on file.
Date: January-February 1952
Location: Itanhaém, Brazil
Time: Unknown
Summary: A humanoid sighting on the Brazilian coast. See the Full Report.
Source: Existing archive entry
Source Status: Spans two months; no primary record on file.
Date: January 1952
Location: Weston, Wyoming
Time: Unknown
Summary: Carried forward from the prior page.
Source: Existing archive entry (BBU)
Source Status: No record card on file to confirm the BBU designation.
Date: January 9, 1952
Location: Kerrville, Texas
Time: Unknown
Summary: Carried forward from the prior page.
Source: Existing archive entry
Date: January 4, 1952
Location: Travis AFB, California
Time: 0500 PST (1300Z)
Summary: An airman on the ground watched a bright green, round object with a red tail streak downward at high speed and low altitude for 15–30 seconds. The sky was dark and clear under a high broken overcast. Project Blue Book evaluated it Probably Astronomical (meteor).
Source: Project Blue Book record card; ATIC File 1034 (photo index entry)
Date: January 4–5, 1952
Location: Watsonville, California
Time: Shortly after 0100 PST
Summary: A fireball with a bluish-green tail “like a string of beads” was reported at about 1,000 feet. It was also seen at Greenfield, Gonzales and in Monterey County.
Source: ATIC Form 329 (newspaper-sourced)
Source Status: The form gives January 4 as the event date and January 5 as the report date; the Air Force form notes the other reports were not in the file.
Date: January 7, 1952
Location: Palmer, Alaska
Time: 1652 local (0252Z January 8)
Summary: A civilian woman watched a bluish light hold still for 10–15 minutes, then slowly tilt and move east, for about 30 minutes in all. Blue Book concluded Probably Astronomical, an astronomical body reflecting the setting sun.
Source: Project Blue Book record card
Date: January 16, 1951 (misdated to 1952 in some Air Force records)
Location: Artesia, New Mexico
Time: Daytime
Summary: Two General Mills balloon-project observers tracking a 110-foot Skyhook balloon at about 112,000 feet saw a dull white round object near it. From Artesia Airport, with four civilian pilots, they then watched two objects approach from the northwest, circle the balloon and leave to the northeast in about 40 seconds. Full entry on the January 1951 archive.
Source: Blue Book appendix (OSI); Sparks catalog (BBU #1037); Berliner
Source Status: The Air Force appendix is headed 1952, but the case is dated January 16, 1951. The BBU number is Sparks’ and the card is not in the file on hand.
Date: January 17, 1952
Location: East Long Island, New York
Time: 0100 EST (0600Z)
Summary: A civilian man saw a bright yellowish-orange light rise from the southeast horizon, brighten and gain speed with an apparent tail, then vanish by exploding, in about 5 seconds. Blue Book: Probably Astronomical (meteor).
Source: Project Blue Book record card
Date: January 19, 1952
Location: Cedar Keys, Florida
Time: 2056 EST (0156Z January 20)
Summary: A B-29 crew at 25,000 feet, with aircraft commander Robert E. Gordon, watched a large bluish-green ball of light with a blue tail fall toward the horizon and explode in about three seconds. Blue Book: Probably Astronomical (meteor); Ruppelt called it typical of the green fireball class. See the Full Report.
Source: Project Blue Book record card; SAC cable (301st Bomb Wing, Barksdale AFB); Ruppelt teletype
Source Status: The SAC status extract gives 1954 local; the card gives 2056 EST.
Date: January 20, 1952
Location: Fairchild AFB, near Spokane, Washington
Time: 7:20 p.m. PST (1920)
Summary: T/Sgt Cavagnaro and M/Sgt Holm, intelligence NCOs, saw a large bluish-white spherical object with a long blue tail travel north on a horizontal path below a solid overcast at 4,700 feet. S/Sgt Barnes did not see it. Blue Book: Probably Astronomical.
Source: Project Blue Book record card; Ruppelt; Sparks #349
Date: January 21, 1952
Location: Mitchel AFB, New York
Time: 0950 EST (1450Z)
Summary: A Navy pilot in a TBM aircraft chased a light-colored circular object resembling a parachute canopy for about 2½ minutes. It traveled near 300 knots when first seen, then sped up in a climb and made various turns. A weather balloon was launched from Mitchel at 0950 EST, and Blue Book concluded Possibly Balloon. See the Full Report.
Source: Project Blue Book record card; GRUDGE report; Sparks #351
Source Status: Some records date the case January 22; the card says January 21. The file spells the base both Mitchel and Mitchell.
Date: January 22, 1952
Location: East of Nenana, Alaska
Time: 12:20–2:13 a.m. AHST
Summary: A CPS-6B radar operator at Murphy Dome tracked a target at 1,500–2,400 mph that reversed course in an 8-mile turn. Two F-94 jets were scrambled and obtained airborne radar contacts, closing to about 200 yards without a visual before breaking off. See the Full Report.
Source: Sparks #350; Project Blue Book Status Report 7 (BBU)
Source Status: No record card on file; details are from Sparks’ catalog.
Date: January 22, 1952 (reported August 25, 1952)
Location: Norwalk, Connecticut
Time: About 5:50–6:00 p.m. EST
Summary: A woman driving home told the FBI and Air Force OSI seven months later that she watched a smooth, stainless-steel, dome-shaped craft with a transparent band of white light hover over the Armory for 5–6 minutes before moving off slowly toward Long Island Sound. She had delayed reporting for fear of ridicule. OSI interviews found her neighbors reliable, but Blue Book judged the description to border on fantasy. See the Full Report.
Source: Air Intelligence Information Report 24-O-164 (OSI, Hartford/New Haven)
Source Status: Single uncorroborated witness, reported late. The witness is redacted in the file and not named here.
Date: January 29, 1952
Location: Falls Church, Virginia, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Time: 1830 EST (2330Z)
Summary: A USAF pilot at Falls Church watched a brilliant green spheroid with an orange and red tail about three times its diameter arc southwest at high speed for 15–30 seconds. He said it did not resemble any meteor he had seen. A second card from Philadelphia, from Col. Caldara and Dr. Olivier, describes the same event. Blue Book: Possibly Astronomical (meteor).
Source: Project Blue Book record cards 1 and 2; teletype
Source Status: One green fireball reported from two locations.
Date: January 29, 1952
Location: 30 miles west-southwest of Wonsan, Korea
Time: 2300 local (Blue Book card: 2200)
Summary: A B-29 crew flying combat missions over North Korea saw a globe-shaped orange object, at times bluish, moving on a “churning” horizontal course. It then pulled up from the 8 o’clock position and flew formation with the bomber at the B-29’s speed and altitude, about 3 feet in apparent diameter, for about a minute. The crew said they had never seen anything similar. ATIC’s propulsion group ruled out jet, afterburner, pulsejet and rocket exhaust. Blue Book: Possibly Balloon and Possibly Aircraft. See the Full Report.
Source: Project Blue Book record card; FEAF wire; Sparks #352
Source Status: The FEAF wire reports two B-29 crews at two locations and times (2300 and 2324 local); the Sunchon entry below is the second.
Date: January 29–30, 1952
Location: Sunchon, South Korea
Time: 2324 local
Summary: A second B-29 crew reported an orange sphere that followed the bomber for about five minutes, fiery like the sun, on the same course, speed and altitude. The Korea file closes with ATIC analysis pages. See the Full Report.
Source: Project Blue Book record card; FEAF wire; Sparks #353
Source Status: Same Blue Book card as the Wonsan entry: Possibly Balloon and Possibly Aircraft.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
B-29 Spheres Over Korea, an Alaska Radar Chase and a Month of Green Fireballs
January 1952 holds seventeen entries, and the strongest evidence is military. Two B-29 crews over Korea reported an orange sphere pacing their bombers; a Murphy Dome radar operator and two F-94 crews logged a target moving at up to 2,400 mph near Nenana; a Navy pilot chased a canopy-shaped object near Mitchel AFB; and two Fairchild AFB intelligence NCOs watched a long-tailed blue-white sphere cross a solid overcast. Blue Book evaluated most of the cards as astronomical, balloon or aircraft, which leaves the Alaska intercept and the Korea encounters as the month’s most documented cases.
A cluster of green fireballs frames the month: Travis AFB and Watsonville on January 4–5, then Falls Church and Philadelphia on January 29, the latter described by a pilot who said it looked like no meteor he had seen. The record also carries a late-reported Connecticut dome-shaped craft that OSI judged improbable, a B-29 crew’s three-second green fireball off Cedar Keys, Florida, and three entity or undated entries from Shemya, Oakdale and Itanhaém. The Artesia case appears as a cross-reference because the Air Force filed it under 1952 although it occurred in January 1951.
“Observers, who have made various combat missions over N. Korea, stated that they had never seen any similar objects before.”
— Project Blue Book record card, Korea, January 29, 1952
