May 16–31, 1952: Kirtland, Houston, Chorwon and Lombard.
1952: May 16th–31st
UFO|UAP & Entity Sightings Archive
The second half of May 1952 brings the Project Blue Book files to the brink of the great summer wave. At Kirtland AFB in Albuquerque, a radar squadron’s commanding officer and his staff watched a silvery object through a transit telescope for 45 minutes while an F-86D searched for it in vain. A senior CIA official and his dinner guests watched a red light climb and dive over Virginia, Capt. J. E. Spurgin and Capt. B. N. Stephan saw an orange-white light turn and dart over Ellington AFB while practicing with a sextant, and in Korea a guard, a second guard and an F-94 crew tracked something that jerked, reversed and climbed away. This May 1952 UFO sightings archive covers May 16 through May 31, including the Ruppelt investigation at George AFB, a hot, tar-covered glass marble in Lombard, Illinois, and Orfeo Angelucci’s Burbank contact claim.
Lieutenant Colonel Orlando Stephenson’s sworn statement at Kirtland, the May 28 refueling-mission green spheres seen by five B-29 crews from New Mexico to Oklahoma, a San Antonio Air Force pilot’s tilting, lengthening tube of light, and the two-minute Chorwon pursuit that closes the month all sit beside radar reports and press items that Blue Book resolved as meteors, balloons and jamming. Where Blue Book reached a conclusion, it is recorded with each case; where it did not, the report stands as filed. This page continues from May 1st–15th.
Date: Mid-to-late May 1952 (day unknown)
Location: Pacific Ocean, about 100 nautical miles west of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii (HMCS Iroquois, en route to Sasebo, Japan)
Time: About 1:00–3:00 a.m.
Summary: Lt. George R. MacFarlane, Officer of the Watch aboard the Canadian destroyer HMCS Iroquois, saw single fast white lights and formations of 30 or more lights appear and vanish, then a disc- or oval-shaped, brilliantly white object with about two dozen black windows hold station off the port bow, silent, for about 15 minutes before vanishing instantly. Lt. Doug Tutte reported similar sightings on the next watch; both officers logged the events as meteorites and did not report them for 46 years. [Full Report]
Source: Letter from Cmdr. George R. MacFarlane to Gavin McLeod, UFO*BC, March 6, 1998; UFO*BC report; Nauticapedia, HMCS Iroquois
Source Status: The day is not given; the live case page estimates May 15–31 from the ship’s transit timeline. The account was first reported in 1998, and the ship’s log has not been verified.
Date: May 16, 1952
Location: Rio de Janeiro airport, Brazil
Time: 4:30 p.m.
Summary: An aircraft inspector saw an object hover, move near the horizon, slow, return to its original spot and then “really take off,” over about ten minutes. Blue Book evaluated the report Insufficient Data, noting too little information.
Source: Project Blue Book record card
Date: May 19, 1952
Location: 30 miles southwest of San Angelo, Texas (30°37’N 100°47’W)
Time: 7:48 p.m. CST
Summary: The eight-man crew of a USAF 31st Strategic Reconnaissance Squadron RB-36, flying at 18,000 feet, saw seven bright white, doughnut-shaped contrails stacked vertically like lenticular clouds, roughly 50–75 miles distant at 25,000–60,000 feet and about a mile wide. They viewed them through 6x binoculars and photographed them in six frames; a ground radar observer also saw them. The columns persisted 15–20 minutes, possibly up to an hour. Blue Book evaluated the case Possibly Balloon, and its 11–31 May table lists the photographs as Balloon.
Source: Project Blue Book record card; Jan Aldrich; Project Blue Book photo file 1218
Source Status: The card’s GMT entry of 0148 on May 19 corresponds to 7:48 p.m. CST on May 18; secondary listings give May 19.
Date: May 20, 1952
Location: George AFB, California
Time: 2:25 p.m. PDT
Summary: Several airmen saw a silver, bright, round object hover for about five minutes, looking like a bright star. A rawinsonde balloon had been launched from Edwards AFB at 1:32 p.m. PDT, 53 minutes earlier, with winds from 300° to 270°. Blue Book evaluated the case Probably Balloon. [Full Report]
Source: Project Blue Book record card; Status Report 7, Appendix VI; McDonald list; FUFOR Index
Source Status: Secondary listings give 1:25 p.m.; the Blue Book record gives 1425 PDST.
Date: May 20, 1952
Location: Ellington AFB, Houston, Texas
Time: 10:10 p.m. CST
Summary: Capt. J. E. Spurgin and Capt. B. N. Stephan, both rated pilots studying celestial navigation in the Single Observer School, and Mrs. Stephan watched an orange-white light come in from about 45° elevation, move to a 180° bearing, make a turn, and then move erratically side to side along a straight course for about 90 seconds while they were practicing with a sextant at the Stephan home. The wing intelligence officer judged it a competent observation by experienced aviators and added that “what it was would be a matter of conjecture.” Blue Book’s evaluation: Unknown. [Full Report]
Source: Project Blue Book record card; Ellington AFB Air Intelligence Information Report IR 1-52; Berliner; FUFOR Index (BBU 1219)
Date: May 21, 1952
Location: George AFB, California
Time: 1:30–2:40 p.m. PDT
Summary: Blue Book’s Capt. Edward Ruppelt flew in a T-6 piloted by Lt. Melzer at 1:30 p.m. PDT with a Leica and a 135 mm telephoto lens, while a ground team under Maj. Vincent Wolrath watched through a telescope. At about 2:30 p.m. the ground team saw an object that appeared to be a balloon, identical to the earlier reports; it vanished at 2:40 p.m., and an Edwards rawinsonde balloon burst at 2:38 p.m. at 75,000–80,000 feet. Ruppelt concluded the object was that balloon; interviews the next day showed some earlier George AFB reports attributed to balloons and others that could not be explained. [Full Report]
Source: Ruppelt memo “Trip to George AFB 20–23 May 1952,” Project Blue Book file
Date: May 21, 1952
Location: Lombard, Illinois
Time: 3:30 a.m. CDT
Summary: A transparent, glass-like sphere about one inch in diameter, partly covered with a black and reddish material resembling tar or macadam, struck a steel mailbox, denting its rounded corner 3/16 inch, and bounced onto the porch. The homeowner, who had heard something pass over seconds earlier, picked it up four minutes later and dropped it because it was hot, leaving it steaming on the lawn. An F-86 had flown over shortly beforehand. The 4706th Defense Wing forwarded the object to ATIC, which concluded it had not traveled at any great speed or distance and that it was a glass marble. Blue Book’s evaluation: Other: glass marble (physical specimen). [Full Report]
Source: Project Blue Book record card; 4706th Defense Wing, O’Hare, teletype and Air Intelligence Information Report; ATIC analysis
Date: May 22, 1952
Location: Falls Church (or Alexandria), Virginia
Time: Between 1:00 and 2:00 a.m. EST
Summary: A top CIA official and several dinner guests, including a retired general, watched a noiseless red light approach from the west at roughly 5,000 feet, climb almost vertically to the southeast, level out briefly, dive nearly vertically, level off again and disappear to the east.
Source: Ruppelt pp. 135–6; Blue Book Status Report 7; Jan Aldrich
Source Status: Blue Book’s Alexandria, Virginia card (reddish glow, erratic maneuvers southeast of Alexandria, 0500Z, evaluated Insufficient Data; Bolling and Andrews AFB radar negative) may or may not be this same incident.
Date: May 22, 1952
Location: Stockton, California
Time: 12:40 p.m. PDT
Summary: A Reserve artillery officer and seven others watched a bright silver rectangular object for 25 minutes, measured by transit at 85° elevation over the Stockton Naval Supply Station. Radar picked up an object at 8,000 feet at 1:00 p.m. PDT and an interception attempt was negative; winds were from 360° at 20–30 knots aloft. The observers themselves said on interrogation that it was definitely a balloon, and Blue Book evaluated it Probably Balloon.
Source: Project Blue Book record card
Date: May 23, 1952
Location: Union of South Africa (Cape area)
Time: Unknown
Summary: South African military headquarters announced that radar had tracked an unidentified object passing over the Cape six times at a speed exceeding 1,250 mph, within radar range for 16 seconds per pass, at distances of 35,000–50,000 feet and altitudes between 5,000 and 17,000 feet.
Source: Michel/McDonald; Prescott Evening Courier, May 22; UFOE, VIII
Source Status: No Blue Book file in the May 1952 set. NICAP’s chronology lists a Cape Town radar item under 1953, so the year of this report is unconfirmed.
Date: May 23, 1952
Location: Kirtland AFB, Albuquerque, New Mexico
Time: 4:00–4:45 p.m. MST
Summary: Lt. Col. Orlando W. Stephenson Jr., commanding officer of the 135th Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron radar site, Senior Director Lt. William J. Hopkins, Capt. Clarence R. Holloway, Lt. Edwin G. Kenyon, Philco radar tech rep John B. Cooper and at least one other witness saw a silvery, flat-bottomed object 1,000–3,000 feet up at 10–20 miles to the west, viewed through a transit telescope and binoculars. It reflected sunlight at irregular intervals for three seconds to two or three minutes, circling slowly, then descended below the horizon. Radar showed no contact, and an Idaho F-86D vectored out to 11,000 feet and then 23,000 feet found nothing. Blue Book evaluated it Other: possible paper in the updraft, and its table lists debris in wind. [Full Report]
Source: Project Blue Book record card; Kirtland AFB sworn statements; Jan Aldrich
Date: May 23, 1952
Location: Burbank, California
Time: Afternoon
Summary: Orfeo Angelucci was driving home from work when he began experiencing a tingling sensation. A luminous disc appeared ahead of him, then shot away, leaving two glowing spheres in front of his car. A voice called to him from his vehicle, and a man and woman of striking appearance materialized before him. They offered him a goblet to drink from, which relieved his unpleasant sensation; after a brief conversation, they promised to return and vanished. [Full Report]
Source: Orfeo Angelucci, “Secret of the Saucers”
Source Status: Contactee account from the witness’s own book.
Date: May 24, 1952
Location: Zuni, New Mexico
Time: 1:27 a.m. MST
Summary: The pilot of a TWA airliner saw two reddish, torpedo-shaped objects appear in front of the aircraft, move through a 60° arc at 45° elevation, slowly descending, for about 15 seconds, with no contrail visible. The card comments “possibly astronomical, but why two?” and Blue Book evaluated the case Possibly Astronomical (meteor).
Source: Project Blue Book record card; Project 1947; FUFOR Index
Source Status: The card corrects the date from May 23 to May 24.
Date: May 24, 1952
Location: 25 miles east of Santa Rosa, New Mexico
Time: 9:00 a.m. MST
Summary: An Air Force lieutenant and his wife saw a shiny round object hover for about two minutes and then leave at high speed. Blue Book evaluated it Possibly Balloon.
Source: Project Blue Book record card
Date: May 25, 1952
Location: Randolph AFB, Texas
Time: 9:27 p.m. CST
Summary: A USAF navigator, his wife and a pilot saw about 12 orange-white, teardrop-shaped lights, points forward, in three groups of four, moving west to east at high speed (roughly 2,000 mph) at 10,000 feet and 70° elevation, with a deep, soft, intermittent noise. Blue Book’s evaluation table lists the Randolph report as Birds.
Source: McDonald files; Jan Aldrich; Blue Book Status Report 7; cf. Ruppelt p. 140; FUFOR Index
Date: May 25, 1952
Location: Walnut Lake, Michigan (42°34’N 83°20’W)
Time: 9:15 p.m. EST
Summary: John Hoffman, his wife and friends, seven civilians in all, saw a large white to yellow-orange object, larger than the moon and with dark sections along its rim suggesting windows, fly west and then north for about 30 minutes. They followed it half a mile by car, watched it enter a cloud, where one observer saw a red glow, and photographed it twice, though the photographs proved of no value. Blue Book evaluated it Unknown. [Full Report]
Source: Project Blue Book record card; Air Intelligence Information Report; Berliner (BBU 1227)
Source Status: This appears to be the same witness family reported on the April 27 and June 18, 1952 pages of this archive.
Date: May 25, 1952
Location: Tierra Amarilla Air Force Station, New Mexico
Time: 9:58 a.m.
Summary: Radar operators tracked an unknown target on a course of 325°, straight and level, at a reported 1,800 mph passing across the Los Alamos area. The card notes possible interference from another radar or jamming (spoofing), and Blue Book evaluated it Other: radar jamming (ECM).
Source: Project Blue Book record card; Dan Wilson
Date: May 25, 1952
Location: Los Alamos, New Mexico
Time: 11:30 p.m.
Summary: Radiation was reported detected at Los Alamos.
Source: Unknown
Source Status: Unverified; no source for this report has been located, and it is not part of the Blue Book Tierra Amarilla radar record.
Date: May 26, 1952
Location: North Korea
Time: 3:20 a.m.
Summary: A USAF pilot and radar observer flying an F-94C saw and radar-tracked a bright white object that accelerated to high speed; ground radar also tracked it. Blue Book’s 11–31 May table lists the radar report as balloon with flare, consistent with an Air Force intelligence note on enemy light-balloons near the front.
Source: Weinstein; FUFOR Index; Blue Book 11–31 May evaluation table
Date: May 27, 1952
Location: Baltimore, Maryland
Time: 11:30 p.m.
Summary: Two men reported a bright light heading east for about ten seconds, with “terrific speed,” floating and bobbing; independent observations were logged at 10:30 and 11:30 p.m. Two L-19A aircraft, each with a large white navigation light top and bottom, were in the area, and Blue Book evaluated the report Aircraft.
Source: Project Blue Book record card
Date: May 27, 1952
Location: French Morocco
Time: Unknown
Summary: Blue Book’s 11–31 May evaluation table lists a French Morocco report for May 27 as a submarine periscope.
Source: Blue Book 11–31 May evaluation table
Source Status: Table entry only; no record card for this case is in the May 1952 set.
Date: May 28, 1952
Location: Saigon, French Indo-China
Time: 10:30 a.m.
Summary: A large crowd at a ceremony saw a white-silver disc-shaped object fly straight and fast for about two minutes. Blue Book evaluated the case Unknown.
Source: Project Blue Book record card; Berliner; Dan Wilson (BBU 1232)
Source Status: The date on the record card is hard to read and may be May 26; the case is kept here with Berliner’s date.
Date: May 28, 1952
Location: Albuquerque, New Mexico
Time: 1:45–2:40 p.m.
Summary: City fire department employees Romero and Atterbury saw two circular objects, one shiny silver and one orange or light brown, perform fast maneuvers three times. Blue Book’s 11–31 May table lists Albuquerque for May 28 as Unidentified.
Source: Berliner; Blue Book 11–31 May evaluation table (BBU 1233)
Source Status: No record card for this case is in the May 1952 file set.
Date: May 28, 1952
Location: East of Albuquerque, New Mexico, with later sightings near Tulsa and Enid, Oklahoma
Time: 8:10 p.m. MST and later
Summary: During a night refueling mission, crews of five B-29 bombers reported greenish spherical objects, like a Very flare at 100 yards. The main sighting involved three B-29s at 15,000 feet east of Albuquerque at about 0310–0340Z; a second sighting came near Tulsa at 25,000 feet around 11:30 p.m., and a third, about three hours later, near Enid, Oklahoma, also at 25,000 feet. The crews said the objects were not meteors. Blue Book evaluated the case Other: possible meteor shower.
Source: Project Blue Book record card; Project 1947; FUFOR Index
Date: May 29, 1952
Location: Near the Florida Keys (USS Oriskany)
Time: About 5:00 p.m.
Summary: Two elliptical objects larger than a fighter aircraft, each appearing to have a bubble on top and leaving a white vapor trail, were observed from the carrier USS Oriskany (CV-34), one visually through a telescope and the other on the ship’s radar scope by the radar officer. Their course paralleled the carrier’s.
Source: Blue Book Microfilm; NICAP chronology
Source Status: No record card for this case is in the May 1952 file set.
Date: May 29, 1952
Location: San Antonio, Texas
Time: 7:00–7:14 p.m. CST
Summary: A USAF pilot with 3,100 flying hours, observing from his home with his wife and a neighbor, saw a bright tubular object move left to right over a television antenna, turn upright and remain so for eight minutes by the clock, tilt to near-horizontal, assume the vertical again, then accelerate upward, lengthen and turn mild red or orange as it disappeared in about four seconds. The observer believed it was a flame trail rather than a material object. Blue Book wrote that it was a “good report, very similar to one reported from Alaska”; “Was Astronomical” is struck out and the evaluation is Unknown. [Full Report]
Source: Project Blue Book record card; Air Intelligence Information Report; Berliner; FUFOR Index (BBU 1236)
Source Status: Berliner names the observer as Maj. D. W. Feuerstein; the name is redacted in the Blue Book file.
Date: May 29, 1952
Location: Edwards AFB, California
Time: 1:30 p.m. PST
Summary: Seven technical civilian personnel saw two light metallic, disc-shaped objects appear in the east, arc to the north and disappear to the southwest, too fast, they said, for a balloon. Blue Book evaluated the report Insufficient Data.
Source: Project Blue Book record card
Date: May 29, 1952
Location: Tipp City, Ohio
Time: Night
Summary: An Air Force captain and a major saw a star- or planet-like object twice, the second time through 10-power glasses showing steady red and green lights and no sound. The second object was possibly a high jet and the first may also have been an aircraft. Blue Book evaluated the report Aircraft.
Source: Project Blue Book record card
Date: May 30, 1952
Location: Sea of Japan, south of Oshima Island, Japan
Time: 7:00 p.m.
Summary: Three USAF crew members of a C-54 transport saw a round black object, first motionless and then moving rapidly west. Blue Book’s table lists the report as Cloud.
Source: Project 1947; FUFOR Index; Blue Book 11–31 May evaluation table
Date: May 30, 1952
Location: Port Townsend, Washington
Time: 12:30 a.m. PST
Summary: A State Police officer reported a bluish-white “meteorite,” reported in the Dayton Daily News of June 1, 1952. Blue Book judged it a large meteor from vague information.
Source: Project Blue Book record card
Date: May 30, 1952
Location: 17 miles south of Fresno, California
Time: 4:00 a.m.
Summary: A man saw a green object with bright green flames and a tail of yellow sparks arc across the sky and go out directly overhead in about a second. Blue Book evaluated it Other: probable meteor.
Source: Project Blue Book record card
Date: May 31, 1952
Location: South of Chorwon, South Korea
Time: 3:45–3:55 a.m.
Summary: A bright object to the northeast fell from about 3,500–3,600 feet to 2,000–2,600 feet, then ascended to 3,000–4,000 feet, moved east about half a mile with jerky motion, stopped, reversed to the northeast, reversed again heading east, then climbed away accelerating with jerky motion over three to four seconds. A second guard at a different post also saw the object, heard a pulsating sound and described a disc shape; duration was about two minutes. Around 3:50 a.m. a 319th Fighter Interceptor Squadron F-94 held a white-bluish round object on airborne radar for nine minutes at 500 mph, 6,000 feet, as it maneuvered between 1,000 and 28,000 feet before disappearing. Blue Book felt a “faint possibility of balloon” but had no balloon-release information and evaluated the case Unknown. [Full Report]
Source: Project Blue Book record card; Hynek UFO Report; 607th Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron statements
Date: May 31, 1952
Location: Korea
Time: 3:50 a.m.
Summary: Two airmen second class, radio men, saw a blue-tinted round object descend and climb vertically and fly straight and level for about two minutes. Blue Book suggested a possible jet with a high-powered spotlight and listed the case as balloon with flare.
Source: Project Blue Book record card; Blue Book 11–31 May evaluation table
Source Status: This may be a second view of the Chorwon event above; Blue Book filed it as a separate report.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Kirtland’s Radar Squadron, a CIA Official’s Light, and a Korean Night Intercept
May 16–31, 1952 is anchored by three well-documented military cases. At Kirtland AFB on May 23, the commanding officer of a radar squadron and his staff gave sworn statements about a silvery object that radar could not see and an F-86D could not find; at Ellington AFB in Houston on May 20, two rated pilots and one spouse watched an orange-white light turn and dart; and in Korea on May 31, ground guards and an F-94 crew tracked a maneuvering light for nine minutes. Around them the Blue Book files record the follow-through of its George AFB investigation, in which Capt. Ruppelt flew a T-6 on May 21 and concluded that an Edwards balloon explained that day’s object.
The remaining cases range from a hot, tar-covered glass marble that dented a mailbox in Lombard, Illinois, to a CIA official’s dinner-party sighting over Virginia, five B-29 crews’ green spheres on a refueling mission, and a San Antonio pilot’s tilting, lengthening tube of light that Blue Book left unidentified. Blue Book’s own 11–31 May table lists meteors, balloons and jamming among the explanations, and it kept Houston, Walnut Lake, Saigon, Albuquerque and San Antonio as unidentified.
“…a competent observation. What it was would be a matter of conjecture.”
— Ellington AFB wing intelligence officer, Houston, Texas, May 23, 1952
