Five cases from July 1951, spanning wildly different levels of documentation, from a verified military pilot's pursuit to an unsourced Cold War legend.
1951: July UFO|UAP & Entity Sightings Archive
July 1951 pairs nine Air Force case files with a run of stories that left no paper trail. The files include a Portsmouth, New Hampshire tube-shaped object that Blue Book left Unidentified, a radar target at Empire, Michigan that raced at up to 28,000 mph and was blamed on interference from another radar, and a Peruvian photograph that the Peruvian Air Force called a hoax. The rest of this July 1951 UFO sightings archive holds Fred Reagan’s Georgia collision, Lt. George Kinmon’s encounter near Dearing and a Soviet pilot’s alleged firefight near Murmansk, each with its own full report, along with entity accounts from Idaho, France and California.
Date: July 1951 (exact date not recorded)
Location: Over Georgia
Time: Unknown
Summary: A lozenge-shaped object collided with a Piper Cub piloted by Fred Reagan; as the damaged plane began to fall, an unseen force pulled him upward and into the object instead. Inside were beings resembling metallic stalks of asparagus, about three feet tall, who communicated in apparently fluent English, apologized for the collision, then gave him a medical examination and claimed to have healed him of cancer. He was set down unconscious beside the wreckage of his plane without a scratch on him. In May 1952 the witness reportedly died of brain deterioration attributed to radiation exposure. See the Full Report.
Source: Gordon Creighton, Flying Saucer Review Vol. 15 #5
Source Status: A single magazine account; no text of the original, record of the collision or record of the pilot’s death has been located.
Date: July 1951 (exact date not recorded)
Location: Mountain Home AFB, near Boise, Idaho
Time: Shortly after dawn
Summary: Several military men in their barracks, including informant Walter De Young, were part of a detachment reactivating the base ahead of deployment to Korea. When a soldier ran in shouting that a UFO was hovering over the road, De Young initially assumed it was a joke and stayed in bed, until colleagues started a C-45 aircraft and he ran outside to see a disc-shaped craft, roughly 20-25 feet wide, hovering 400-500 feet up with lighted windows and figures visible inside. The aircraft took off and approached the object, which departed silently at very high speed. Witnesses reported watching as if in a hypnotic trance; a colonel reportedly suffered a nervous breakdown afterward. Following the incident, all the soldiers involved were dispersed to different bases worldwide and never saw one another again.
Source: Dispatch, Saint Paul, Minnesota, November 1, 1979; MUFON UFO Journal #279, July 1991
Source Status: First published 28 years after the event, from a single informant; no military record of the sighting has been located.
Date: July 1951 (exact date not recorded)
Location: Near Orange, France
Time: Late evening
Summary: Nineteen-year-old Pierre Monnet, traveling by moped, reached a crossroads and saw an extremely bright object hovering a few meters off the ground, with several figures visible moving within the light around it. Four very tall men with long blond hair emerged, wearing metallic light-combination suits with epaulets; one spoke in a loud, reassuring, apparently telepathic voice. Monnet stood roughly three meters from the group during the exchange but could not recall its duration or how the beings departed, though he felt he had been given a message to reveal gradually over time. They claimed to originate from a planet called “Vega,” part of a 14-planet star system with nine inhabited worlds, and said they maintained a base on one of Saturn’s rings.
Source: Guy Tarade, Ovni, Terre Planète Sous Contrôle
Source Status: A single account in a book; no contemporary report or second witness has been located, and the message content is of the contactee type.
Date: July 1, 1951
Location: Seoul, Korea
Time: 10:50 p.m. (2250 local; 1420Z)
Summary: Four night-fighter pilots of the 1st Marine Air Wing, in different areas around Seoul, simultaneously reported a large, very bright green ball trailing streaks of red that soon turned blue, passing overhead at 10,000 to 15,000 feet on a north-northeast heading. Three were flying F4U-5N Corsairs and one an F7F-3N Tigercat, and all agreed it was moving with tremendous velocity.
Source: Project Blue Book record card; Air Intelligence Information Report IR-33-52, FEAF (July 16, 1952), extracted from the 1st Marine Air Wing operations summary; Project 1947; FUFOR Index
Source Status: Blue Book evaluation: Was Astronomical (Meteor), with the comment “Meteor sighting.” The report says it is not known whether a detailed report was submitted. The report gives the local time as 2250 and the card gives 1420Z, 30 minutes off a simple 9-hour offset.
Date: July 3, 1951
Location: Near Ukiah, California
Time: 03:00
Summary: A young witness at a Catholic school camp, who had cut his foot hiking earlier that day, woke startled to find himself lying on a cement serving area roughly six blocks from his cabin. A weird blue-green light he could perceive even with his eyes closed hovered about two telephone poles above him, slowly rising with a low buzzing sound. He saw a huge, city-block-wide black disk edged with silver, the bluish-green light at its center, which rose over him and departed rapidly. Despite his injured foot he walked back to camp and tried to report what he’d seen but was rebuked by counselors. His memory of the intervening period later returned: he recalled being confronted by a small, large-headed female entity with shiny black cat-like eyes and dull white skin, who communicated by telepathy and identified herself as “Nane,” the leader of a security force protecting her planet. He recalled being instantly transported to a gray, ash-colored world she identified as the moon, and being told of an ancient lunar civilization destroyed by a war that had left the moon’s visible craters, along with various claims about the nature of the universe, other UFOs and aliens, and a skeptical framing of religious belief. The being told him she had visited him three times before.
Source: NUFORC
Source Status: A single NUFORC report filed long afterward; the intervening memory is described as returning later.
Date: July 4, 1951
Location: Newport News, Virginia
Time: 11:05 p.m. EST (2305; 0405Z on July 5)
Summary: Two soldiers of the 110th Transportation Harbor Craft Company at Fort Eustis, watching from a park near the Greyhound bus station, reported an unidentified spherical lighted object in the northwest sky at about 45 to 50 degrees elevation. It stayed lit with a gaseous glow until about 11:30 p.m., when it disappeared toward the northwestern horizon, appearing to black out suddenly and plunge earthward. Their G-2 officer found both men truthful, reliable and intelligent.
Source: Project Blue Book record card; Headquarters, Transportation Center and Fort Eustis G-2 report of July 5, 1951, forwarded through Second Army and First Air Force
Source Status: Blue Book evaluation: Was Astronomical (Arcturus). The card puts Arcturus at 30 degrees elevation and azimuth 280 degrees, against the witnesses’ 45 to 50 degrees northwest, and attributes the disappearance to probable cloud. Witness names are redacted in the released file.
Date: July 9, 1951
Location: Near Dearing, Georgia (25 miles west of Augusta)
Time: 1:40-1:50 p.m. EST
Summary: 1st Lt. George H. Kinmon, Jr., flying an F-51 fighter, saw a fast white oval disc approach head-on from the direction of the sun, then dive beneath his aircraft, narrowly missing it. The object made repeated head-on diving passes over several minutes before finally climbing away out of sight. See the Full Report.
Source: Weinstein; NICAP; Loren Gross, UFOs: A History — 1951
Source Status: A UAP Discovery forum post lists the case among Blue Book unknowns citing Brad Sparks’ catalogue (case 458); the Blue Book documents themselves have not been located. Kinmon’s own accounts differ on the object’s size and the encounter’s structure, as set out in the Full Report.
Date: July 9, 1951
Location: Tarrytown, New York (letter writer’s home; the claim concerns Madagascar)
Time: Not applicable
Summary: A Tarrytown civilian wrote to an Air Force officer claiming that flying saucers were being manufactured at a plant in Madagascar, and enclosed a map and hand sketches of a “flying disque” with four power plants and sixteen jets, intended as a bomber or passenger craft, of 32,000 horsepower in total. An internal Air Force evaluation of Madagascar’s economy, communications and geography concluded only a low possibility, and Blue Book found no manufacturing site there.
Source: Project Blue Book record card and file correspondence
Source Status: Blue Book evaluation: Other (Hoax). The card comments that the sketches show a configuration which could probably fly. The writer’s name is redacted in the released file.
Date: July 9, 1951
Location: Corona Experimental Radar Site, New Mexico
Time: 10:30 p.m.
Summary: USAF Sgt. Meadows, a security guard at the site, saw a red, glowing ball about the size of a full moon to the west, descending into the tree line over roughly 30 seconds with an afterglow lasting another 10 seconds. A crescent moon was setting in roughly the same direction and time frame, offering a plausible, though not certain, mundane explanation depending on local terrain height.
Source: Project Twinkle report; McDonald files; Jan Aldrich; FUFOR Index
Source Status: The Project Twinkle report lists a “red glowing ball” at Corona on July 9, 1951. No Blue Book card or Blue Book evaluation has been located for this case.
Date: July 14, 1951
Location: White Sands, New Mexico (some lists give Holloman AFB)
Time: Morning
Summary: Donald Keyhoe’s Flying Saucers from Outer Space (1953) describes two radar operators catching a fast-moving object on their scope while a tracker watching a B-29 with binoculars saw a large UFO near the bomber, and an observer who lined it up with his 35-mm camera and shot 200 feet of film.
Source: Donald E. Keyhoe, Flying Saucers from Outer Space (1953); McDonald list; FUFOR Index
Source Status: The Air Force replied to a 1961 letter asking about this passage that the sighting was evidently not reported to the Air Force, and that a thorough search of the Aerospace Technical Intelligence Center files found no such report.
Date: July 14, 1951
Location: Rensselaer, New York
Time: 2:00 p.m. (1900Z)
Summary: A woman and members of her family reported two silver objects southwest of Rensselaer that maneuvered in the sky for about five minutes, came down quite low and then disappeared high into the sky. She could not describe them except to say they did not appear to be airplanes.
Source: Project Blue Book record card; Air Force Office of Special Investigations letter of August 6, 1951, quoting a report to the FBI at Albany
Source Status: Blue Book evaluation: Possibly Aircraft (“Possible a/c”). The OSI district contemplated no investigation, and the witness’s name is redacted in the released file.
Date: July 16, 1951
Location: Near Murmansk, Russia
Time: Morning
Summary: Soviet fighter pilot Capt. Peter Vusov, on coastal patrol near Murmansk, reportedly spotted a dark, unmarked, cannon-armed disc roughly 20 meters across and fired on it across two strafing runs with no visible effect, then was ordered mid-engagement to cease fire, hold radio silence and return to base, where NKVD officers and a plainclothes official awaited him and his wingman. Both pilots were reportedly transferred to opposite ends of the Soviet Union that same day and promoted, apparently to buy their silence. See the Full Report.
Source: Unattributed (vik.clan.su and subsequent informal online circulation)
Source Status: No primary Soviet record or established catalogue entry has been located; the story circulates online and traces to no verifiable source.
Date: July 16, 1951
Location: Fairborn, Ohio
Time: 9:00-9:15 p.m. (0200Z on July 17)
Summary: A civilian public-information official wrote to Lt. Col. Ray W. Taylor that he and his wife saw a bluish-white, star-like object at extreme altitude that moved toward the southeast, hovered like a helicopter, moved from side to side as a free balloon would, and dimmed as it entered a haze around the moon over about five minutes. He wrote that its movements were unorthodox for any airplane, that there was no sound, and that a star on the eastern horizon served as his reference point.
Source: Project Blue Book record card; office memorandum of July 17, 1951 to Lt. Col. Ray W. Taylor
Source Status: Blue Book evaluation: Was Balloon. The writer first took the object for a star. His name is redacted in the released file, and a hand sketch of the track in the file is not reproduced here.
Date: July 19, 1951
Location: Iberia, Madre de Dios, Peru (filed under Lima on the card)
Time: 4:50 p.m. (1650; 2150Z)
Summary: A telegram from the Hacienda Iberia, published with a photograph in the Lima daily El Comercio on August 15, 1951, reported a luminous disc seen in broad daylight traveling south to north at 2,500 to 3,000 feet, visible for one to two minutes and leaving a thick vaporous trail that floated for more than 15 minutes, while the radio of the Peruvian Corporation of the Amazon went dead. The paper said it was seen at Maldonado, 80 miles away, at 4:55 p.m., and that 300 people had seen it. The U.S. Air Attaché reported that the Peruvian Air Force had examined three photographs supposedly taken by three people and found a fairly clever attempt at trick photography, made for commercial reasons, since El Comercio had bought the picture and story.
Source: Project Blue Book record card; Air Intelligence Information Report IR-46-51, Air Attaché, Lima (August 24, 1951), translating El Comercio, August 15, 1951
Source Status: Blue Book evaluation: Other (Hoax), on the Peruvian Air Force’s finding. The attaché’s translation gives the disc’s head as intense orange; the Spanish clipping in the file gives an intense electric-blue head and a trail running from yellow to orange.
Date: July 23, 1951 (date correction; see September 23, 1951)
Location: March Field, California
Time: Unknown
Summary: A radar-visual sighting of a silvery object circling high above an aircraft was recorded under this date in some compilations, but the original UFO Evidence (UFOE) source lists the date in error. The correct date is September 23, 1951, where this case’s full detail is documented instead.
Source: Cross-reference correction, per the original compiler’s note
Date: July 24, 1951
Location: Kelly AFB, San Antonio, Texas
Time: 9:00-9:30 p.m. CST (0300Z on July 25)
Summary: Two control tower operators at Kelly saw a yellow “blob of light” due west near Hondo, slightly larger than a red obstruction light, lemon-yellow to orange-yellow in one account and amber in the other. Watching through binoculars for about five minutes, they saw it make a slow, gradual descent toward the horizon until it disappeared. The sighting followed a call from the Brooks AFB tower, where a controller alerted by a civilian policeman about 8:45 p.m. saw an orange-white round light 20 to 30 miles east of the base and estimated its speed at 600 to 700 mph at 5,000 to 7,000 feet in straight and level flight. The Randolph AFB tower could not see it.
Source: Project Blue Book record card; Office of Special Investigations spot intelligence report of August 1, 1951, 10th District, Kelly AFB
Source Status: Blue Book evaluation: Probably Aircraft, with the comment “No information presented conflicting with this analysis.” The 600 to 700 mph and 5,000 to 7,000 foot figures on the card are the Brooks controller’s estimates; the Kelly operators could not estimate distance.
Date: July 24, 1951
Location: Portsmouth, New Hampshire
Time: 7:10 p.m. EST (1910)
Summary: The assistant base operations officer at Hanscom AFB, a captain, and a corporal, driving north on U.S. Route 1 toward the Portsmouth toll bridge, saw a grayish, almost transparent tube-shaped object resembling fused glass, 100 to 200 feet long with a fin at one end and black spots along its entire length, pass over the bridge from east to west at an estimated 800 to 1,000 mph and 1,000 to 2,000 feet. It made no sound, left only a swath like a very weak rainbow, and vanished in about 20 seconds as though into a cloud bank, though the sky was clear. See the Full Report.
Source: BBU; Project Blue Book record card; Office of Special Investigations report of August 21, 1951; 6520th Air Base Group report of September 13, 1951
Source Status: Blue Book evaluation: Other (Unidentified). The corporal gave 500 to 1,000 feet and no speed, and the OSI agent noted his experience with aircraft was negligible. Both witnesses’ names are redacted in the released file.
Date: July 30, 1951
Location: Empire, Michigan (reported by the 30th Air Division, Selfridge AFB)
Time: 7:14 a.m. EDT (1114Z)
Summary: An officer and four airmen radar operators at the 752nd Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron saw an oblong blip with a tail on the scopes of an AN/CPS-6B radar between 1114Z and 1132Z, first at about 130 miles on azimuth 215 degrees, tracked for two minutes toward the southwest and fading 115 miles out. Its apparent speed varied from 3,000 to 28,000 mph, and similar blips appeared at 1128Z and 1132Z. University of Michigan and Yerkes observatories reported no unusual meteor activity.
Source: Project Blue Book record card; Air Intelligence Information Report RIUA 1-51 30AD (30th Air Division, August 3, 1951); McDonald list; FUFOR Index; Dan Wilson
Source Status: Blue Book evaluation: Other (Anomalous Propagation). The 30th Air Division concluded the returns were very probably interference from the radar at Elkhorn, Wisconsin, 195 miles away, which uses the same type of set.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Nine Files, One Unidentified, and Six Stories With No Paper Trail
July 1951 holds eighteen entries, and nine come with Project Blue Book cards and Air Force reports. Only one remains Unidentified: the Portsmouth tube, seen by a Hanscom AFB captain and corporal and investigated by the Office of Special Investigations. The others were explained at the time: the Seoul pilots’ green ball as a meteor, the Newport News light as Arcturus, the Fairborn object as a balloon, the Kelly AFB light as a probable aircraft, the Rensselaer objects as a possible aircraft and the Empire, Michigan radar returns as interference from another radar. The Peru photographs and the Madagascar saucer-factory letter were judged hoaxes.
Six entries rest on a single late or unverified source: the Reagan collision in one magazine account, the Mountain Home sighting first published in 1979, the Orange contact in a book, the Ukiah recollection filed with NUFORC, the Murmansk story with no primary record, and the White Sands B-29 film claim that the Air Force said it never received. Kinmon’s Dearing encounter rests on a named pilot’s own accounts, which differ on the object’s size and structure. One entry is a cross-reference to September 23, where a misdated March Field case is documented.
“The object resembled fused glass, being grayish to invisible in color.”
— Office of Special Investigations report of August 21, 1951, on the July 24, 1951 Portsmouth, New Hampshire sighting
