THINK ABOUTIT UFO SIGHTINGS REPORT

1955: Glendale, California Sighting

On a Santa Ana-clear night in November 1955, two Glendale, California high schoolers were lying on sleeping bags on a garage roof, marveling at an unusually star-filled sky, when one of them spotted five greenish, disc-shaped lights sweeping in from the eastern horizon. In under nine seconds, the formation crossed the entire visible sky in a straight line and vanished over the western horizon — moving, by the witnesses’ account, far too fast and far too silently for any aircraft either of them knew. Shaken, the two ran down from the roof and called the California Ground Observer Corps, who reportedly told them other observers had called in the same sighting, and that no aircraft had been in the area.

Date: November 15, 1955

Sighting Time: Undocumented; approximately an hour or more after the witnesses first lay down to observe the night sky

Day/Night: Night

Location: Glendale, California (garage rooftop behind an apartment complex)

Urban or Rural: Urban (Los Angeles suburb)

No. of Entity(s): Not Applicable

Entity Type: Not Applicable

Entity Description: Not Applicable

Hynek Classification: NL — Nocturnal Light. A point or extended luminous source observed at night.

Duration: Less than 9 seconds, horizon to horizon

No. of Object(s): 5

Description of the Object(s): Five greenish light circles or discs, moving smoothly in a straight trajectory from the eastern to the western horizon, completely silent throughout

Shape of Object(s): Discs / circular lights

Size of Object(s): Undocumented

Color of Object(s): Greenish

Distance to Object(s): Undocumented; objects passed nearly directly overhead the witnesses’ position

Height & Speed: Undocumented altitude; speed described as very fast, covering the full visible sky (horizon to horizon) in under 9 seconds with no sound at any point

Number of Witnesses: 2 (the report’s author and his friend, identified as Bob Conover), both of high school age

Special Features/Characteristics: Clear “Santa Ana condition” sky with unusually low light pollution and high visibility; both witnesses had a personal interest in astronomy; total silence despite the objects’ high apparent speed; witnesses reported the sighting the same night to the California Ground Observer Corps, a real Cold War-era civilian aircraft-spotting organization, and were reportedly told other observers had also called in the same sighting and that no aircraft were known to be in the flight path at the time

Case Status: Unexplained

Source: First-person written account submitted by the witness (report author); no external publication or compilation source is cited for this case

Summary/Description: Two Glendale, California high school friends lying on a garage rooftop on the night of November 15, 1955 observed five greenish disc-shaped lights sweep silently from the eastern to the western horizon in under nine seconds. Both witnesses were interested amateur astronomers and had spent roughly an hour beforehand observing the unusually clear night sky before the sighting occurred. They reported the incident that night to the California Ground Observer Corps, who reportedly told them other observers had independently reported the same objects and that no known aircraft had been in the area.

Related Cases: None documented

Full Report

My friend, Bob Conover, and I, of high school age, had decided to go up onto the flat roof of a three-car garage which was located right behind and next to the back fence of the apartment complex in which my family resided. It was a part of the property directly behind our apartment complex. We had two sleeping bags that we carried up there, and the weather was incredibly clear for the Los Angeles area due to a so-called “Santa Ana condition” as termed by the weather bureau. We were truly amazed at the clarity of the night sky, with very little light pollution from the ground, and we kept commenting about it as we laid ourselves down on the flat roof on top of our laid-out sleeping bags.

I would say that about an hour passed as we both lay there gazing intently at the unusual amount of stars and planets we could see. We both had a good interest in astronomy, and in my case, I had some rudimentary knowledge about the universe, our solar system, and so on. My memory is vivid when it comes to the next stage in our experience. We both noticed and commented on how we were seeing the sky in a new way, in that we became so accustomed to gazing at this wondrous scenario that we could actually perceive the stars and planets in 3-D to some degree.

Instead of seeing brighter or dimmer, we saw closer and further, and were both amazed at the phenomenon. A few minutes passed after that last perception when Bob, who was right next to me, suddenly was looking across my body toward the horizon to the east, pointing and excitedly saying, “What is that?” The direction of our bodies was feet-south, heads-north, and I was to Bob’s left. As I quickly followed his pointing arm and finger, I saw what made my whole psyche vibrate with an uncanny and new feeling of awe. There were five greenish light circles or discs coming from the east horizon toward us. As we both gazed intently at these smoothly moving objects, we noticed that as they came directly over our position, they had gotten there very quickly, and without a single sound.

There was an eerie silence, especially for Glendale, California, a suburb of L.A. Once they passed into the western horizon, we jumped up and jumped off the roof, a risky feat, due to our super-high emotional state. It was clear to both of us that the total time sequence of the straight trajectory of these objects from horizon to horizon took less than 9 seconds. We couldn’t get over that there was no sound.

As we hit the ground and ran into my family’s apartment, we told my parents, who were moved by our state and helped us find someone to call on the phone. After a few minutes of discussion, we decided to call the California Ground Observer Corps to report the incident in as much detail as possible. When we were able to speak to someone at the Corps and tell our story, they were very positive in their reception of the information and also told us that others had seen the same thing. They told us that no planes were in the area of the flight path of the objects, and that everyone was mystified.

RESEARCHER’S NOTES

The Glendale Rooftop Sighting — 1955 and the Value of an Immediate Report

The Ground Observer Corps detail is historically real and checkable. The California Ground Observer Corps the witnesses describe calling was a genuine Cold War-era civil defense organization, part of a nationwide volunteer aircraft-spotting network active through the 1950s as an early-warning system against surprise air attack. That the witnesses knew of and immediately contacted this specific, real organization the same night lends procedural credibility to the account, independent of whether the underlying sighting is ultimately explainable.
Same-night reporting reduces (without eliminating) memory-drift concerns. Unlike many decades-later recollections in this archive, this account describes the witnesses acting on the sighting within minutes, seeking out a real contemporary reporting channel rather than only recalling the event informally much later. This does not resolve the account’s other limitations, but it is a meaningfully stronger evidentiary structure than a cold recollection alone.
Astronomically engaged witnesses strengthen the “not a misidentification of known sky objects” reading. Both witnesses describe active personal interest in astronomy and had spent roughly an hour deliberately observing the night sky immediately before the sighting, priming them to notice deviations from ordinary stars and planets rather than encountering the objects cold. Their own account explicitly distinguishes the object’s movement from any prior perceptual effect they had been discussing (the “3-D” depth perception of stars), suggesting they treated the two phenomena as clearly distinct.
The GOC’s reported corroboration is secondhand and unverified. The claim that the Ground Observer Corps operator confirmed other independent reports of the same objects, and ruled out known aircraft, is relayed entirely through the witnesses’ own recollection of a phone conversation; no GOC log, report number, or independent record of that call has been located for this entry. It should be read as the witnesses’ sincere recollection of what they were told, not as independently confirmed corroboration.
No source citation beyond the witness’s own account. Unlike many 1950s California cases in this archive drawn from NICAP, Richard Hall, or other published compilations, this report carries no external source citation; it stands as a direct personal submission. This does not diminish its internal consistency but does mean it lacks the layer of third-party editorial vetting some other entries in this archive have received.

Two teenagers lying on a garage roof under an unusually clear Glendale sky watched something cross from one horizon to the other in less time than it takes to read this sentence aloud, twice, with no sound at all. They called it in that same night to a real Cold War aircraft-spotting organization, and by their account were told they were not alone in what they’d seen. Seventy years later, the sighting remains exactly what it was that night: unexplained.