January 8, 1953 — Larson AFB, Moses Lake, WA
7:15–7:30 a.m. USAF ADC 82nd Fighter Interceptor Squadron personnel at Larson AFB [now Grant County International Airport], Moses Lake, Washington, all on the ground, see a green, disc-shaped object about the size of large weather balloon flying to the southwest. It has a vertical bobbing motion and makes sideways movements at about 8,000 feet below scattered clouds. It moves away against the wind until it disappears in the distance. The object is also observed by base personnel at Ephrata, Washington. An F-94 is scrambled at 7:43 a.m. and searches for 30 minutes, but the UFO is gone. [Eberhart]
Joint Message Form / AF-112 Report:
Sources:
Brad Sparks, BB Unknowns File, Case #910, p. 188;
Project Blue Book Status Report No. 10, 27 February 1953;
James E. McDonald, “Statement on Unidentified Flying Objects,” in Symposium on Unidentified Flying Objects, Hearings, US House Committee on Science and Astronautics, 90th Cong., 2nd Sess., July 29, 1968, pp. 50–51;
Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1953 January–February, The Author, 1988, p. 8;
NICAP, “The 1953 UFO Chronology”;
