Bakersfield, Calif, March 1948 - Incident Number: 107March 1948

On March 8, 1948, residents of Bakersfield, California reported seeing two objects falling from the sky toward the southwest. One witness, a Pacific General Electric Company employee, observed the objects fall to earth north of Bakersfield. According to the witness, one object appeared to be on fire, with red and black smoke trailing behind it.

A second sighting came from another observer near Bakersfield who saw similar objects falling between 3:10 p.m. and 4:55 p.m. the same day. This witness described the objects as resembling falling aircraft with smoke and debris trailing behind them. The objects were reported moving southwestward toward Buena Vista Lake.

The Air Force investigated the incident promptly after receiving a report from the Kern County Sheriff's Office on March 9. Despite search efforts involving aircraft and rescue units, no one located the reported objects on the ground.

The case file documents that the Air Force did not consider the sightings to be of astronomical origin. However, the file's final evaluation suggests the objects may have been "rockets, flares or falling bodies," though the OCR text becomes unclear in places, making a definitive conclusion difficult to extract. The full case file, comprising 7 pages as held by the National Archives, is reproduced below.