Yaak, Montana, September 1, 1952, 4:45 a.m.
THINK ABOUTIT UFO|UAP SIGHTINGS REPORT
1952: Yaak, Montana, the Radar-Visual Silhouette
At 4:45 a.m. on September 1, 1952, two USAF enlisted men at Yaak, Montana saw two small varicolored lights that became black silhouettes at dawn, possibly of a dark, cigar-shaped object, moving erratically. A three-man crew on an FPS-3 radar set tracked it at the same time.
The sighting lasted about one hour. It appears in Berliner’s catalog and is mentioned by Ruppelt, and Blue Book lists it as BBU 2023, one of the unexplained cases of the month.
Date: September 1, 1952
Sighting Time: 4:45 a.m.
Day/Night: Night to dawn
Location: Yaak, Montana
Urban or Rural: Rural, mountainous radar site
No. of Entity(‘s): None reported
Entity Type: Not applicable
Entity Description: Not applicable
Hynek Classification: RV (Radar-Visual)
Duration: About 1 hour
No. of Object(s): 1 (possibly two lights that became one silhouette)
Description of the Object(s): Two small varicolored lights that became black silhouettes at dawn, possibly of a dark cigar-shaped object, flying erratically
Shape of Object(s): Possibly cigar-shaped
Size of Object(s): Small lights; silhouette size not recorded
Color of Object(s): Varicolored lights; black silhouette at dawn
Distance to Object(s): Not recorded
Height & Speed: Not recorded; erratic flight
Number of Witnesses: 5 (two USAF enlisted men visually and three radar operators)
Special Features/Characteristics: Simultaneous radar tracking on an FPS-3 set; the lights turned into dark silhouettes in dawn light; erratic flight over about an hour
Case Status: Unexplained (Blue Book Unknown)
Source: Berliner; cf. Ruppelt p. 194 (BBU 2023)
Summary/Description: Two USAF enlisted men at Yaak, Montana saw two small varicolored lights that became black silhouettes at dawn and flew erratically, while three radar operators tracked it on an FPS-3 set for about an hour.
Related Cases: the other September 1 reports on the September 1st–16th page
DETAILED REPORT
The Yaak sighting is the radar-visual case that opens the Blue Book Unknown list for September 1952. Two Air Force enlisted men saw two small varicolored lights at 4:45 a.m. A three-man crew on an FPS-3 radar set tracked the target while the visual observers watched.
As dawn came the lights became black silhouettes, possibly those of a dark, cigar-shaped object, still flying erratically. The sighting lasted about an hour. Ruppelt mentions the case on page 194 of his book, and Berliner catalogs it. The upload set did not include a Yaak file, so the account rests on those two sources.
RESEARCHER’S NOTES
Yaak 1952: Radar and Eyes on the Same Target for an Hour
- Why it matters: Radar-visual cases with agreement between instrument and observers are the ones that proved hardest for Blue Book to dismiss.
- Source limits: No Blue Book file for Yaak was in the upload set, so the entry relies on Berliner and Ruppelt. The BBU number comes from Berliner.
- The silhouettes: The change from lights to silhouettes at dawn is a detail that matters because it suggests a solid object lit from within or reflecting light.
- Questions: Whether the radar and visual observations were consistent in position is not recorded in the sources cited.
Yaak is a sustained, two-method observation of an erratic object that changed appearance as the dawn arrived, and Blue Book left it Unknown.
