July 19-20, 1952 — Washington D.C
11:40 p.m. Air traffic controller Edward Nugent at Washington National [now Ronald Reagan National] Airport’s Air Route Traffic Control (ARTC) in D.C. picks up a formation of seven objects on his long-range radar. They are southeast of Andrews AFB [now Joint Base Andrews] in Prince George’s County, Maryland, moving along at 100–130 mph. Two of the targets suddenly accelerate and vanish off the scope within seconds. One apparently reaches a speed of 7,000 mph. A second, shorter-range radar in the airport control tower (operated by Howard Cocklin and Joseph Zacko Jr.) and another at Andrews AFB has also tracked the objects. For 6 hours, between 8 and 10 UFOs are tracked on radar. Senior Air Traffic Controller Harry G. Barnes says that “They followed no set course, were not in any formation, and we only seemed to be able to track them for about three miles at a time…. I can safely deduce that they performed gyrations which no known aircraft could perform.” Several Capitol Airlines pilots (one of them Capt. S. C. “Casey” Pierman) see the objects visually as white or orange lights in restricted air space over the White House and Capitol. Ground observers at Andrews (Capt. Harold C. May, Staff/Sgt Charles Davenport) watch red or orange lights. Radar and visual sightings are also taking place at Bolling AFB [now Joint Base Anaconda-Bolling] in Washington, D.C. By 3:00 a.m., the UFOs are all gone, just as two F-94 interceptors arrive belatedly from New Castle AFB [now New Castle Air National Guard Base] in Delaware, because the runways at both Andrews and Bolling are closed for repairs. The jets depart, and the UFOs return, observed by Capt. Howard Dermott, a Capitol Airlines pilot, and Sgt. Davenport at Andrews. Radar trackings continue, the last at 5:30 a.m. Civilian radio engineer E. W. Chambers sees five huge discs circling in a loose formation; they tilt upward and leave in a steep ascent. Blips appear on radar for at least another day, until the evening of July 20. [Eberhart]
Resume of Sightings:
ATIC Report:
Harry G. Barnes Statement/Report:
Sources:
Weird Science-Fantasy (EC, 1954 series) #26 (December 1954); [Reprint in #004, 1993], pp. 27-28;
“Flying Objects near Washington Spotted by Both Pilots and Radar,” New York Times, July 22, 1952, p. 27;
“Radar Spots ‘Objects’ Near Washington,” Port Huron (Mich.) Times Herald, July 22, 1952, p. 1;
“Radar Spots Mysterious Sky Objects,” Birmingham (Ala.) News, July 22, 1952, pp. 1–2;
“Saucers Swarm over Capital: Radar Picks Up Scores in Early Hours,” Cedar Rapids (Iowa) Gazette, July 29, 1952, p. 1;
“It’s Hard to Brush off Latest ‘Saucers’,” Albuquerque (N.Mex.) Tribune, July 31, 1952, p. 11;
Harry G. Barnes, “Radar Man Tells How He Tracked Flying Saucers over Washington,” Kingsport (Tenn.) Times, July 31, 1952, p. 18;
“Washington’s Blips: ‘Somethings’ over the Capital Are Traced on Radar,” Life, August 4, 1952, pp. 39–40;
Edward Ruppelt, The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects, pp. 158–161;
Donald H. Menzel and Lyle G. Boyd, The World of Flying Saucers, Doubleday, 1963, pp. 155–160;
Brad Sparks, Blue Book Unknowns Catalogue, Case 693, p. 151;
Edward Condon, Final report of the scientific study of unidentified flying objects conducted by the University of Colorado, pp. 153–157, 862–867;
Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: 1952, June–July 20th, The Author, 1986, pp. 69-72, 75–84;
Kevin D. Randle, Invasion Washington: UFOs over the Capitol, HarperTorch, 2001, pp. 32–58;
“The 1952 Sighting Wave, Radar-Visual Sightings Establish UFOs As A Serious Mystery: Part 2, The Flap Begins,” Journal of UFO History 2. no. 2 (May-June 2005): 5-6;
Michael D. Swords, GrassRoots UFOs: Case Reports from the Timmerman Files, Fund for UFO Research, 2005, p. 139;
Frank C. Feschino Jr., Shoot Them Down! The Flying Saucer Air Wars of 1952. Lulu.com, 2007, pp. 28–34;
Jerome Clark, The UFO Encyclopedia, 3rd Ed., pp. 1250–1252;
Jerome Clark, The UFO Encyclopedia, 4th Ed., pp. 1430–1432;
Michael Swords and Richard Powell, UFOs and Government, pp. 154–155;
Greg Eghigian, After the Flying Saucers Came: A Global History of the UFO Phenomenon. Oxford University, 2024, pp. 69–70;
Powell, Linda. Against the Odds: Major Donald E. Keyhoe and His Battle to End UFO Secrecy. Anomalist Press, 2023, pp. 84–86;
Graff, Garrett M. UFO: The Inside Story of the US Government’s Search for Alien Life Here—and Out There. Avid Reader Press, 2023, pp. 79–81;
Wikipedia, “1952 Washington, D.C. UFO incident”;
NICAP, “The Washington National Sightings”;
NICAP, “Andrews Tower Radar Confirms Washington Target”;
Harry G. Barnes to Chief, Facility Operations, “Unidentified Targets,” July 20, 1952;
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. 71–72;
“Washington’s Blips: ‘Somethings’ over the Capital Are Traced on Radar,” Life, August 4, 1952, pp. 39–40;
Peter Carlson, “50 Years Ago, Unidentified Flying Objects from Way Beyond the Beltway Seized the Capital’s Imagination,” Washington Post, July 21, 2002;
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/2002/07/21/50-years-ago-unidentified-flying-objects-from-way-beyond-the-beltway-seized-the-capitals-imagination/59f74156-51f4-4204-96df-e12be061d3f8/
Sianna Boschetti, “In the Early 1950s, D.C. Was Obsessed with UFOs: Here’s Why,” dcist, December 9, 2019;
UFO’s (It Has Begun) Past, Present, and Future Documentary [Robert Emmenegger film] cued up to Washington National sighting:
NICAP, “Famous Photo of Objects Over Capitol - July 19, 1952 (Actually 1965)”