July 16, 1952 — Beverly, MA
9:35 a.m. US Coast Guard photographer Seaman Shell R. Alpert sees several bright lights through a window screen (no glass) from his position inside the photo lab at Coast Guard Air Station Salem [now Winter Island Marine Park], Massachusetts, while cleaning a camera. He watches them for 5–6 seconds, calls out to Hospitalman 1st Class Thomas E. Flaherty from sick bay to see them. The objects dim then brighten suddenly. Alpert grabs a camera and films 4 roughly elliptical irregular blobs of light in formation through the screen, on super XX cut film 4-by-5-inch format. The lights disappear suddenly in a flash. The photo is explained as showing reflections of light sources from inside the building, but this ignores the fact that the window is open, and the camera is not pointed through glass. [Eberhart]
Blue Book Record Card:
Blue Book Sighting Summary:
Witness Statements:
Photo Analysis:
Blue Book News Clips:
Sources:
Brad Sparks, Blue Book Unknowns Catalogue, Case 684, p. 151;
“Where Better to See,” Nexus, no. 8 (February 1955): 3;
Richard Hall, The UFO Evidence, p. 88, 91;
Coral Lorenzen, The Great Flying Saucer Hoax, p. 32;
Mike Swords Files, 19F; [Time-Life Books The UFO Phenomenon, p. 97]
Joe Nyman and Barry Greenwood, “The July 1952 Coast Guard Photo Revisited,” IUR 26, no. 4 (Winter 2001–2002): 3–5, 25–30;
Michael D. Lampen, “Mystery Alpert Objects,” IUR 27, no. 2 (Summer 2002): 27;
“The Photographer’s Tale,” Saturday Night Uforia, December 3, 2012;
The two Blue Book folders for this case zipped up. Includes the rest of his photos.
Charlie Wiser, “Bright Lights of Salem, 1952,” How Many Dollars, July 21, 2023;