Pasadena, TexasMarch 1953

On the night of March 23, 1953, military personnel at a radar station in Pasadena, Texas reported seeing an unidentified object that made unusual maneuvers in the sky. The sighting involved both visual observation and radar detection, making it one of the more thoroughly documented cases from that era.

At approximately 0355 (3:55 a.m.) on March 24, Lieutenant Robert K. Smith called the base operations center to report a flying object over Pasadena. Word quickly spread to the 747th Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron, whose staff immediately began investigating. Radar operator Technical Sergeant Patrick D. Liggett detected a blip on his scope at 0412 (4:12 a.m.), and it remained visible for about 25 seconds. At roughly the same time, Liggett and two other airmen, Airman First Class C.A. Graves and Airman First Class C.W. Olden, went outside and spotted the object visually. According to their account, it displayed a steady reddish light that never changed color. The object moved in a heading between roughly north and northeast, traveling at an estimated 12 to 35 miles from the base. Most notably, witnesses reported the object made five complete circles over Pasadena before heading northwest and disappearing from view.

The Air Force quickly investigated possible conventional explanations. Weather balloons had been released from nearby Ellington Air Force Base around the same time as the sighting, and the file includes detailed technical analysis of the balloons' trajectories and lighting properties. Investigators also noted that weather balloons released after dark carry a small six-volt light that is invisible to the naked eye above approximately 12,000 feet. The file suggests that the oscillating motion of a radiosonde (a weather instrument suspended beneath a balloon) moving through rough air and illuminated at night might potentially be mistaken for circular movements of an unknown object.

However, the timing and altitude estimates did not align cleanly with the balloon releases, and multiple witnesses on the ground corroborated the sighting with independent observations. Airman Third Class Leonard Duresea Jr., on duty at the gate house, reported seeing an oval object that appeared to flash and move at an unstable speed, though he speculated it might be related to weather balloon activity.

The official U.S. Air Force conclusion in the file is listed as unidentified. The complete case file, consisting of 14 pages as held by the National Archives, is reproduced below.