Documents / Official release
This 1952 file of U.S. Air Force intelligence correspondence on flying objects comes from the Directorate of Intelligence at Headquarters USAF. It records the return to the Coast Guard of a negative of objects photographed at Salem Air Station on 16 July 1952, and requests to Naval Intelligence to analyze the Tremonton film by Delbert Newhouse and the Great Falls film by Nicholas Mariana. It also holds Strategic Air Command report transmittals, letters from members of the public, and an Okinawa object said to have fallen into the sea.
From the source:Release of 2026-09-18 Incident: September - December 1952, Various. This file is an archival collection of U.S. Air Force Director of Intelligence records relating to reported “flying disc” incidents during the period from September through December 1952. Drawn from multiple governmental and non-governmental sources, it compiles a wide range of material associated with reported sightings and official handling of those observations, rather than presenting a single analytical conclusion on the nature or origin of “flying discs.” The contents include correspondence, memoranda, reporting forms, case summaries, distribution and routing material, and other administrative or intelligence-related documentation tied to flying-disc reporting and review during that period. Pages 26-36 of the file refer to an incident reported near Tremonton, Utah, in July 1952, in which a U.S. Navy Warrant Officer recorded film of unidentified objects that the Air Force later assessed were likely seabirds. Overall, the file is a broad documentary collection reflecting how such reports were recorded, circulated, and evaluated in late 1952.
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AVIATION SUPPLY DEPOT
NAVAL SUPPLY CEN'.1.:ER
OAKIAm) 4, CALIFOO.NIA
NT 4- 28/83,10/177283 ll August 1952
From: Chier Photographer Delbert c. Newhouse, 177283, U.S.N.
To: Commanding Officer, Hill Air Force Base, Ogden, Utah
Subj : Motion Pictures ot Unidentified Objects in Air
Encl: (1) One {1) fifty-foot roll of processed 16mm color motion
picture film
1. Enclosure (1) is forwarded herewith tor whatever value it may have in con
nection with your investiption of the so- cal.led "Flying Saucers11 Pertinent•
data follows:
Place: About 7 miles north of Tremonton, Utah on U.S. Highway No. 30S.
Time: lllO Wednesday 2 July 1952.
Camera.: B&H Automaster, magazine load, 3" telephotolens, 16 f'rames per
second. Handheld.
Exposure : First few feet - f :8. l3ala.nce - f : 16. Clear sun, cl.oudless sky.
EKCo Kodachrome film - Da.ylight. Exposure was changed with the
mistaken idea of darkening the sky to gain greater contrast . The
result was merely general. under exposures.
General Background: Driving f'rom Washington, D.C. to Portland, Oregon, on
the morning of 2 July my -wife noticed a group of objects in the
sky that she could not identify. She asked me to stop the car and
look. There was a group of about ten or twelve objects - that bore
no relation to anything I had seen before - milling about in a
rought formation and proceeding in a westerly direction. I opened
the luggage compartment of the car and got my camera out of a suit
ease. Loa.ding it hurriedly, I exposed approximately thirty feet of
film. There va.s no reference point in the sky and it was impossible
for me to make a:ny estimate of speed, size, altitude or distance.
Toward the end one of the objects reversed course and proceeded away
fran the group. I held the camera still and al.loved this single
one to cross the field o~ view, picking it up again and repeating
for three or four such passes. By this time all of the objects
had disappeared. I expended the balance of the f'ilm late that
afternoon on a mountain somewhere in Idaho.
/s/
Delbert C. Newhouse Official release, from the pursue collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 253 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.