Giant Rock (Near Josha Tree) California, January 1953January 1953

On Thursday, January 22, 1953, at about 1:35 p.m., a man retired from aircraft flight testing observed what he believed to be a B-26 bomber flying over Giant Rock Airport near Joshua Tree, California in an easterly direction. The bomber made a wide turn to the north and then headed west, leaving behind a heavy vapor trail at approximately 20,000 feet altitude. A single-engine jet fighter appeared to be escorting the bomber from the right side and slightly behind it, also at the same altitude with its own smaller vapor trail.

The key part of the sighting was a round, fluorescent object positioned about one mile to the left of the bomber and trailing it about seven miles behind. According to the witness, this object matched the bomber's speed and held its position relative to the two military aircraft for about seven minutes before gradually disappearing from view. Unlike the bomber and fighter, the fluorescent object left no visible vapor trail, though the witness believed it was at the same altitude as the other aircraft.

The witness reported that he had recently retired after twenty years of aviation work and had his observation independently verified by two other reliable witnesses. One was a friend named James, who saw the same event from about eight miles north of the main witness's position. The second was another friend, a former Civil Aeronautics Administration pilot, who observed it from seventeen miles south near Yucca Valley, California. The primary witness estimated the fluorescent object to be about 150 feet in diameter and believed both the bomber crew and the jet pilot must have seen it as well. The witness drew sketches and provided additional details on the Air Force questionnaire, noting that the object would have appeared about 120 to 140 feet in diameter and suggested it might have resembled a disk seen edge-on, appearing to emit an even fluorescent glow from its entire surface.

On January 24, 1953, the witness sent a detailed letter to Air Force Intelligence at Patterson Field in Ohio reporting the sighting. The Air Force responded on February 11, 1953, by requesting a completed questionnaire and offering additional forms for the other two witnesses. The Air Force's official evaluation of the case was listed as "unreliable report." The full case file, consisting of 18 pages as held by the National Archives, is reproduced below.