Documents / Case file
This U.S. Air Force Project Blue Book file compiles 1952 and 1953 messages, memos and reports on the movie film Navy Chief Photographer Delbert C. Newhouse shot on 2 July 1952 near Tremonton, Utah. It records interviews with Newhouse's family, requests about the film, and Navy and General Mills balloon experts judging that the objects closely resembled pillow balloons. It also covers internal debate about releasing the film to the press. Unrelated reports from Phoenix, Lexington and Highland Park sightings are included too.
From the source:Release of 2026-09-18 Incident: 7/2/52, Tremonton, Utah. This document records the Project Blue Book investigation and subsequent assessments of an incident near Tremonton, Utah, on July 2, 1952. Project Blue Book was a 1952-1969 U.S. Air Force program to investigate the nature and origin of unidentified flying objects (UFOs). The file describes the Air Force’s assessment of the principal witness, Delbert C. Newhouse, a U.S. Navy Warrant Officer specializing in photography, as honest and reliable, and as an expert with more than 1,000 hours of aerial-photography experience. Newhouse reported observing 12 to 14 reflective objects and recorded the event on color motion-picture film using a handheld Bell & Howell Auto Master camera. The file reflects an evolving Air Force assessment of the imagery over several years. Early documentation considered several possible explanations, including sunlight reflecting from birds or balloons, and a mirage effect, and did not identify the objects conclusively. Later assessments became more confident that the objects were seabirds reflecting sunlight, citing identifiable seabirds and similar films showing seabirds as bright points of light under comparable conditions. However, the film’s limited detail and lack of fixed reference points prevented reliable determination of the objects’ distance, size, altitude, or linear speed from the film alone. AARO Comment: The file contains conflicting references to the film format. Several documents describe a 35mm film, while contemporaneous submission documentation identifies the original as a 50-foot roll of processed 16mm Kodachrome color motion-picture film recorded with a handheld Bell & Howell Auto Master camera. Newhouse reported exposing approximately 30 feet of the roll during the incident and using the remaining film later that day to record unrelated mountain scenery in Idaho. Other records show that 35mm positive and negative duplicate blowups were produced from the original 16mm material. The file also indicates that the original film was duplicated for preservation, citing its deteriorating condition. The footage retained by the National Archives and Records Administration and presented in this collection as DOW-UAP-PR159 is a digitization of a 16mm print.
• •UNCLASSIFIED COPY CSAF ITEM 2/; TT-27 26 Feb 1953 ATI OLOUl, YOUNG Reference Item 2 ATIC Telecon 15, 5 Feb 53 the following statement is for ATIC coordination prior to release to PIO: I- This color film provides an instance of a sighting being substantiated by motion pictures and confirms the faith of the USAF in the veracity of the many citizens who have reported sightings of unidentified objects or phenomena in the air. ' The film was forwarded to the USAF by Warrant Officer Delbert c. Newhouse , Aviation Supply Depot, Naval Supply Center, Oakland, California.1 Warrent Officer Newhouse stated that the film was exposed 7 miles North of Tremonton, Utah, on the U.S. Highway 30 at 11:00 a.m. MST, 2 July 52: and that he was using a Bell and Howell Auto Master(hand-held) with a three inch telephoto lens at F/8 for the first few feet of the film and the balance at F/16 all at sixteen frames per second. Examination of the film to date allows a deduction that the images were caused by surfaces having good reflective qualities, (:mch as seagulls o~ balloon~., or by bodies or substances possessing high intensity light sources. Images appearing on the film are nonsufficiently defined to permit identification or determination of form or substance and should have been caused by unknown objects or undetermined known obJects. The absence of any reference ooints, even clouds, in the bac·ground has made it impossible to estimate the distance of the obJects from the camera, thus precluding a I determination of aiz.e 'and linear speed. Measurements of angular UNCLASSIFIED DECLASSIFIED Authority NND 923007
Case file, from the pursue collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 156 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.