Rousens, Va (Lynchburg), [ILLEGIBLE] 1952Circa 1952

In June 1952, multiple witnesses near Lynchburg, Virginia reported seeing a shiny, round object moving at high altitude across the southern Virginia sky. The sighting sparked immediate attention from local military officials and investigators from the U.S. Air Force's Project Blue Book.

A resident at Virginia Episcopal School near Rousens, Virginia with experience in ordnance and anti-aircraft gunnery from World War II observed the object at approximately 1444 hours (2:44 p.m.) on 19 June 1952. The observer described a round, silver object with no exhaust trail, moving at very high speed in an easterly direction from the town of Reusens toward Madison Heights. The sky was clear with 30 miles of visibility and scattered cirrocumulus clouds. A Piedmont Airlines DC-3 commercial flight was over Lynchburg at the time but its crew made no report of the sighting. In response, the Air Force dispatched an F-51 fighter aircraft from Langley Air Force Base to search the area, but the pilot reported finding nothing unusual.

The case file documents an early exchange between Air Force officials attempting to determine whether a weather balloon released from Roanoke earlier that day might have been the object. One message clearly states that a balloon released at Roanoke at 1509 hours on 26 June 1952 was not over Lynchburg at 1444 hours on 19 June, ruling out that explanation. Weather conditions at the time of the sighting offered no obvious explanation. The file notes no meteorological activity that might account for the report.

This file contains 27 pages held by the National Archives.