CHICAGO, ILL., July 1952 - Incident Number: [ILLEGIBLE]July 1952

On July 28, 1952, multiple sightings of unidentified flying objects were reported at military bases and civilian areas across the United States, from Louisiana to South Carolina.

The first report came from Lake Charles Air Force Base in Louisiana. Two officers stationed on the taxiway near the civilian area saw a luminous, spherical object with a long trail of blue fire pass overhead at approximately 5,000 feet. They estimated the object was traveling from south to north at such high speed that no conventional aircraft could have flown it. The object appeared in view for only about five seconds before it seemed to burn out and vanish. There was no sound. The officers filed a formal report stating that in their judgment the speeds demonstrated ruled out any known aircraft.

A second sighting, recorded by an airman at another location, reported a cone-shaped light moving at high speed. This sighting lasted only three to four seconds, and the observer noted the object traveled so fast it was within visual range for that brief period.

A third sighting occurred in Florence, South Carolina, at 2113 (9:13 p.m.). Two civilian witnesses reported seeing a peculiar whitish-green light very high in the sky, moving due west in a straight line. There was no vertical movement. They said the object appeared faster than any aircraft they had ever seen. Weather conditions at the time were clear with good visibility.

The Air Force investigated all three reports. In the South Carolina case, the file notes that insufficient background information on the witnesses was available and that they were not interrogated in detail. No known military air traffic was recorded over Florence at the time. The file does not indicate a final conclusion about the objects, and the evaluation listed on the case metadata is marked unknown. The full case file is reproduced below as held by the National Archives, spanning 11 pages.