Ft. Eustis, VirginiaApril 1952

On the evening of April 17, 1952, five military personnel and a family member at Fort Eustis, Virginia, observed an unusual luminous object in the sky around 9:25 p.m. (2125 hours). The witnesses, who included a lieutenant colonel and several sergeants, were near the base's baseball field when they spotted the object approximately 45 degrees above the horizon to the northeast.

The object appeared slightly elliptical or spherical in shape and glowed with a bright white light tinged with greenish-blue. It had a prominent tail or exhaust trail that was roughly ten times longer than the object itself, colored in greenish hues. The witnesses described the object's contours as smooth and noted that it made no sound. The object traveled in a straight, level path from northeast to northwest, covering ninety degrees of the horizon in approximately two to two and a half seconds, suggesting very fast movement. After traversing this distance, the object disappeared suddenly, as though it had gone behind an obstacle, although none of the witnesses could identify any physical barrier between themselves and the object.

The investigating officers from the 21st District Office of Special Investigations interviewed all five witnesses between April 18 and April 21, 1952. The witnesses were found to be credible, including the lieutenant colonel, who had prior experience with the U.S. Secret Service and New York State Police. Langley Air Force Base confirmed that no aircraft were operating in the area at the time. The Navy also reported that no jet aircraft equipped with afterburners were in the vicinity. Weather conditions at the time were clear with eight miles of visibility.

The Air Force ultimately rated this sighting as unidentified. The full case file, consisting of 18 pages, is reproduced below as held by the National Archives.