Cambria AFS, CaliforniaAugust 1957

On the night of August 22-23, 1957, radar operators and pilots at Cambria Air Force Station in California detected multiple unidentified objects. The sighting lasted about an hour and a half. Ground radar equipment and visual observers, including military personnel using binoculars, tracked the objects as they moved across the night sky.

The first report described three round objects, each about the size of a pea held at arm's length, colored red and orange. They appeared stacked vertically and moved with rapid rises and lateral movement before fading as fog gradually covered them. The radar signal also slowly faded from the scope. The second report documented two objects, initially white then turning orange, that descended slowly over 47 minutes while remaining nearly stationary.

The most unusual detail in the file involves fighter aircraft that attempted to intercept the objects. When the fighters closed to within 50 miles, their IFF (Identification Friend or Foe) signal, which tells radar operators the aircraft is friendly, disappeared from the radar scope. The IFF did not reappear until the fighters were about 70 miles away. The radar officer who filed the report noted that other IFF signals remained visible on the scope during this time, suggesting the fighters' equipment was working properly.

The Air Force's analysis suggested meteorological disturbance, possibly a temperature inversion in the atmosphere, could have caused both the radar returns and the visual sightings. The file also notes the objects' positions roughly matched where the planet Venus appeared in the sky that night. The case was listed as "Anomalous Propagation" (radar signals bouncing off atmospheric layers in unusual ways) with a possible astronomical explanation. The full case file is reproduced below as held by the National Archives, containing 7 pages.