CINCINNATI OHIO, July 1952July 1952

On July 25, 1952, a man in Cincinnati, Ohio spotted an unusual object in the sky while walking near the homes of friends. He described it as elliptical in shape, brilliant orange, and roughly the size of a dime held at arm's length. The object appeared to be glowing with an incandescent orange light. According to his account, he watched it for about three minutes as it traveled at an estimated 1,000 miles per hour. He noted that it did not travel in a straight line but seemed to move without a clear trajectory. The object eventually disappeared suddenly from his sight.

The witness took his observation seriously enough to file a detailed report with the Air Force. In his written account, he stated that the object was not a meteor, bolide, or fireball. He noted that he had seen many meteors in recent years, and this object behaved differently from any meteor he had encountered. He emphasized that it appeared to be artificial and controlled, particularly based on its flight behavior. He also mentioned that a second woman had witnessed the same object from the grounds of Bethesda Hospital in a nearby area of Cincinnati. That second witness reported seeing a golden, iridescent light traveling in a steady, northerly course that seemed stationary for a moment before disappearing quickly from sight. Her sighting occurred between 10:45 p.m. and 11:00 p.m.

The witness submitted the report to the Air Technical Intelligence Center at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio on August 21, 1952. Along with his main account, he included descriptions of two additional sightings he had made on August 13 and August 16, 1952, both of which he considered anomalous and worthy of investigation. He stated that he had been actively watching the skies for several months and had developed strong personal opinions about the nature of these sightings. Based on historical patterns, he concluded that the objects appeared to be controlled, artificial devices that were either part of undisclosed U.S. research or of extraterrestrial origin.

The case file also includes several military intelligence reports forwarded through Air Force channels. These reports describe unusual objects reported by groups of people at locations in or near Cincinnati, characterized as gray-white, spherical in shape, moving at jet speed or faster, and performing erratic maneuvers. One report noted that radar attempts to track an object with that sighting were unsuccessful. A jet aircraft was airborne over the area at the time of at least one report, flying at 12,054 feet and 399 knots. The Air Force's evaluation of this case is listed as "unknown."

The full case file is reproduced below as held by the National Archives, comprising 17 pages of scanned documents.