Project Blue Book Case File
NEW YORK - NY, July 1952July 1952
Summary
Four witnesses in the East Bronx saw a formation of reddish-orange objects speed across the sky on the night of Friday, July 25, 1952. Rita Acuna, age 16, was outside with her mother Marie, a neighbor named Sylvia Finkelstein, and her younger sister Yvonne when they noticed the phenomenon. Rather than rely on memory alone, Rita drew a watercolor sketch of what she had seen and sent it to Air Force officials for investigation.
According to the witnesses, the objects appeared in a formation that resembled an upside-down "J" and were visible for about 10 seconds. Despite the brief sighting, the group counted 17 separate objects in the group. Rita described them as moving quickly through the sky. The witnesses were certain enough in their observations that Rita's drawing was forwarded through official channels to the Air Technical Intelligence Center at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio.
The file shows the Air Force took the report seriously. On August 1, 1952, the Air Technical Intelligence Center sent a formal questionnaire to the witnesses to collect standardized details about the sighting. The case also notes that a similar sighting had been reported elsewhere in the Bronx just weeks earlier, on June 26, at 1555 Boston Road, where six people reported seeing what they described as a twirling object.
The full case file, comprising 26 pages as held by the National Archives, is reproduced below.
Reported location
NEW YORK - NY, July 1952
Date of incident
July 1952
State / country
? / XX
Page count
26 scanned pages
USAF evaluation
unknown
Microfilm
T1206, Roll 12