SAN ANTONIO TEX, July 1952 - Incident Number: [ILLEGIBLE]July 1952

On the night of July 16, 1952, a woman and her daughter in San Antonio, Texas, watched an unusual object in the sky for more than an hour. According to the observers, the round object appeared enormous, bright white like burning magnesium, and as large as the Briscoe Tower visible from their location roughly ten miles away. The sighting began at 0315 hours (3:15 a.m.) when the object approached from the south and moved northward until hovering almost directly overhead.

The object displayed several striking features. When first spotted, it appeared spherical with a pendulum like apparatus hanging from its underside. As the object moved, it flipped and rotated, taking on a more flattened shape similar to the planet Saturn but longer and more spread out. Two bulb like knobs were attached to the pendulum apparatus, and explosions described as balls of fire appeared to emit from these knobs, especially when the object performed its flipping maneuvers. The observers also noted faint vapor trails forming on the south side of the object. Throughout the sighting, no noise was heard.

The daughter watched the object through eight power binoculars and noticed it shift direction briefly, moving east then west for a short distance before resuming northward. The object hovered nearly motionless for approximately twenty minutes when positioned overhead. It then began a gradual ascent until it disappeared from view, even when viewed through binoculars. One significant detail from the observers was that a jet aircraft flew beneath the object during the sighting, appearing much smaller despite flying at an estimated thirty five to forty thousand feet altitude.

The Air Force investigators noted fair weather conditions at the time and concluded there was no meteorological explanation for the sighting. No radar confirmation, physical evidence, or interception attempts were documented in the file. The reliability of the observers was marked as unknown.

A second sighting in San Antonio on July 18, 1952, involved additional witnesses. A Navy officer observed a circular, iridescent object with a smooth surface and breaks or seams in the surface. This object was first spotted moving west to east at an approximately 45 degree angle of elevation, then remained directly overhead for nine minutes before disappearing. No exhaust, contrails, or sound accompanied this sighting either.

A third observation occurred over Hawaii on July 14 to 16, 1952. Approximately twelve to fifteen officers and crew members aboard the submarine USS Bugara observed an object between 1905 and 1920 hours. The object first appeared round and white like the planet Venus, then changed to an oval or saucer like shape and turned reddish about ten minutes into the observation. The object moved from a bearing of approximately 250 degrees to 250 to 300 degrees, positioned between 30 and 50 degrees above the horizon. Cloud formations at the time appeared to enhance the object's visibility, changing its apparent color from white to reddish depending on whether it was silhouetted against dark or light clouds. The Air Almanac indicated that Venus was actually positioned at 40 degrees or lower on the horizon at the time, suggesting it was not the object under observation.

The complete case file, comprising 30 pages, is reproduced below as held by the National Archives.