Owensboro, June 23, 1952.
THINK ABOUTIT UFO|UAP SIGHTINGS REPORT
Near Owensboro, Kentucky: A National Guard Lieutenant Colonel Sees Two “Giant Soap Bubbles”
At about ten o’clock on the bright, clear morning of June 23, 1952, a contractor walking north on U.S. Highway 60 east of Owensboro, Kentucky, heard a noise like a flight of aircraft at high altitude. Looking up, he saw two round objects, flying in trail, resembling giant soap bubbles that reflected the sun in a yellow-lavender light, and they passed out of sight in about five seconds.
The Owensboro, Kentucky UFO sighting of June 23, 1952 was reported by a man who was a former Corps of Engineers major and a lieutenant colonel in the Kentucky National Guard, and it was investigated by Army counterintelligence before reaching the Air Force. Blue Book carried it as Unidentified.
Date: June 23, 1952
Sighting Time: About 10:00 a.m.
Day/Night: Day
Location: U.S. Highway 60, east of Owensboro, Kentucky
Urban or Rural: Rural
No. of Entity(‘s): Not Applicable
Entity Type: Not Applicable
Entity Description: Not Applicable
Hynek Classification: Daylight Disc (DD)
Duration: About 5 seconds
No. of Object(s): 2
Description of the Object(s): Two round objects resembling giant soap bubbles that reflected the sun in a yellow-lavender light, flying in trail, one behind the other; a noise like a flight of aircraft at high altitude preceded them
Shape/Size/Color of Object(s): Round / size not stated / yellow-lavender
Distance to Object(s): Not stated
Height & Speed: Estimated at 15,000 to 20,000 feet, moving north; speed not stated
Number of Witnesses: 2 (one saw both objects, one saw one)
Special Features/Characteristics: Very bright, clear day; witness is a former Corps of Engineers major and a lieutenant colonel in the Kentucky National Guard; interviewed by the 109th CIC Detachment
Case Status: Unidentified (Project Blue Book)
Source: AFOSI report to ATIC from the 5th District OSI (Louisville) quoting the 109th CIC Detachment; Project Blue Book June 23–30 table (BBU)
Summary/Description: A contractor and Kentucky National Guard officer walking on U.S. 60 heard a high-altitude aircraft noise, looked up and saw two soap-bubble-like objects pass north in trail in five seconds.
Related Cases: Chicago, Illinois, June 25, 1952
Detailed Report
The Air Force Office of Special Investigations forwarded to the Air Technical Intelligence Center a report from its Louisville detachment. On June 27, 1952, Capt. Jack Webb of the 109th CIC Detachment, Louisville, advised that a special agent had interviewed Mr. Depp, an Owensboro contractor, on June 26 concerning the matter. Depp, a former major (engineer corps) and presently a lieutenant colonel in the Kentucky National Guard, said he saw his first “flying saucers” on June 23, 1952, at about 1000 hours.
The sighting took place east of Owensboro on U.S. Highway 60. Depp was walking north when he heard a noise similar to a flight of aircraft at high altitude. Looking up and ahead of the noise, he saw two round objects resembling giant soap bubbles that reflected the sun in a yellow-lavender light. The objects were proceeding north, flying in trail, and passed out of sight in about five seconds. He estimated them at 15 to 20 thousand feet. It was a very bright, clear day.
He was accompanied by C. C. Fryar, who saw only one of the objects. No further pertinent information was obtained, and OSI contemplated no further action unless ATIC requested it, noting that the information came from non-USAF sources and could not be disseminated outside USAF channels. Blue Book’s June 23–30 table lists “Near Owensboro, Kentucky” with the observer given as Depp and the evaluation Unidentified.
RESEARCHER’S NOTES
An Engineer Officer and Two Bubbles
- Witness: Depp’s military engineering background and National Guard rank are the strongest credibility points; the report says nothing negative about him.
- Second witness: C. C. Fryar saw only one of the two objects, a typical difference in what a walking companion catches in five seconds.
- Dates: The CIC interview is dated June 26 and the report June 27; the OCR copies in two of the files read June 25 and June 26 for the interview date.
- Sound: The pre-sighting noise like high-altitude aircraft is notable because jets at 15,000–20,000 feet would also have been audible; no aircraft was identified.
Two shining bubbles, a bright morning, an engineer officer and a five-second look: the Owensboro report is short, but its description is clean and its evaluation, Unidentified, stands.
“Two round objects resembling giant soap bubbles.”
— 109th CIC Detachment interview, quoted in the AFOSI report, June 1952
