Quantico, VADecember 1959

On New Year's Eve and New Year's Day 1953-1954, military sentries at Quantico Marine Base near Quantico, Virginia, reported seeing strange flashing red lights in the night sky. The sightings began on December 30 around 9:05 p.m., when a private on guard duty at the Tank Park spotted what he described as a big, flashing red light. He thought it might be an airplane, but heard no motor noise. Over the next few nights, other sentries saw similar lights at roughly the same time each evening. Some witnesses reported seeing two lights that seemed to hover together before one disappeared.

The lights were described as dome-shaped and about the size of a grapefruit held at arm's length. They appeared in the north or northeast, traveled in a relatively straight and level path, and disappeared over the horizon after five to six minutes of visibility. The sightings alarmed base personnel enough that a helicopter was scrambled to investigate, though by the time it arrived, the object was gone. An Air Force officer from the Technical Intelligence Center visited Quantico on January 7, 1954, to investigate the reports. Intelligence officers armed with binoculars observed the lights and tracked their movements. They also consulted with nearby radar facilities and the Civil Aeronautics Authority about aircraft in the area.

The investigation revealed that an American Airlines Convair passenger aircraft was in the vicinity during the sightings. The breakthrough came when officials learned that commercial airlines had recently installed powerful anti-collision lights called Grimes Beacons on their aircraft. These lights, with a brightness of 50,000 candlepower, were designed to improve safety on modern high-speed airplanes. The Air Force officer concluded that the reported lights were indeed the Grimes Beacon from the commercial airliner, which explained why the witnesses saw only a bright red flashing light without hearing engine noise or detecting other expected signs of an aircraft.

The full case file is reproduced below as held by the National Archives, spanning 15 pages.