Fairfield-Suisun AFB, CaliforniaJuly 1949

Early on the morning of July 16, 1949, several Air Force personnel stationed at Fairfield-Suisun Air Force Base in California observed a strange glowing sphere in the sky. At approximately 5:00 a.m. (0500), tower operator T/Sergeant A. A. Vita called Captain Robert F. McCabe, the Assistant Station Weather Officer, to come to the control tower and look through binoculars at an unusual object. The sphere was positioned roughly southwest, about 3 to 5 degrees above the horizon, at an estimated distance of more than 100 miles away and an altitude of between 20,000 and 40,000 feet.

The object resembled reflected sunlight bouncing off an aluminum aircraft skin. It appeared perfectly round, and witnesses described it as shiny, metallic, and glow-like, similar to a ping pong ball suspended in air. During the observation period, which lasted approximately one and a half hours, the sphere showed no motion whatsoever. This detail troubled observers because winds at that altitude are typically quite strong and westerly. The object eventually faded from view around 5:20 a.m. as it was obscured by a layer of haze above the Vallejo area. The weather was clear at the time, with twenty miles visibility.

Captain McCabe and three other military weather personnel, T/Sergeant A. A. Vita, Private First Class Troy Chapman, and Sergeant Eugene Zimmerman, each filed reports describing the sighting. No photographs were taken. A separate notation in the control tower log indicates that a similar sighting occurred two days earlier, on July 13, 1949.

Project Blue Book investigators suggested the object was probably the planet Jupiter, which was positioned about 180 degrees ahead of the sun on that date. However, the case file notes a significant problem with this conclusion: if the object were actually Jupiter, there should have been a noticeable shift in its apparent position of about 22.5 degrees during the one and a half hours it was under observation. The observers saw no such movement. The Air Force's official evaluation remained unidentified. This case file contains 12 pages as preserved in the National Archives.