September 10, 1951 — Fort Monmouth, N.J.
11:10 a.m. At the Army Signal Corps radar center at Fort Monmouth [now closed], New Jersey, a student operator demonstrating radar functions to a group of visiting officers picks up a target that is moving too fast to be tracked automatically.
The object seems to be following the coastline. He follows it off and on for 3 minutes, after which it disappears to the northeast, flying at 700 mph. At 11:35 a.m., a T-33 jet trainer piloted by Lt. Wilbert S. Rogers, with Maj. Edward Ballard as passenger, spots a “silver-colored object about the size of a fighter plane” flying at 900 mph at 5,000–8,000 feet over Sandy Hook. It makes a 90° banking turn and disappears out to sea. At 3:15 p.m., a second radar tracking occurs, but this slower object turns out to be a balloon. [Eberhart]
AF-112 / Air Intelligence Reports:
Blue Book Map:
OSI Special Inquiry / Press Information:
Sources:
“Air Force Pilots Report ‘Object’ Going 900 MPH,” Waukesha (Wis.) Daily Freeman, September 11, 1951, p. 3;
“Jet Loses Race With Mystery Object,” Melville (N.Y.) Newsday (Suffolk Edition), September 11, 1951, p. 3;
“Dash After Strange Object Proves Futile,” Melville (N.Y.) Newsday (Suffolk Edition), September 11, 1951, p. 78;
“‘Mystery Object’ Speeding Off Jersey Coast Reported by Flyer,” Bridgewater (N.J.) Courier-News, September 11, 1951, p. 1;
“Pair in Jet Chase 900-M.P.H. ‘Saucer’,” Boston (Mass.) Globe, September 11, 1951, p. 11;
“Experts’ Faces Red as Saucers Fly Again,” ," Melville (N.Y.) Newsday (Suffolk Edition), September 12, 1951, p. 9;
“Mystery ‘disc’ spotted over N.J.,” Newark (N.J.) Star-Ledger, September 12, 1951, p. 10;
Project Grudge, Special Report No. 1, 28 December 1951;
Edward J. Ruppelt, “What Our Air Force Found Out about Flying Saucers,” True, May 1954, p. 26;
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, p. 66;
Timothy Good, Above Top Secret, pp. 269, 487;
Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: Volume 8, 1951, The Author, 1983, pp. 61-70;
Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1951, Supplemental Notes, The Author, 2000, pp. 41-46;
Brad Sparks, Blue Books Unknowns Catalogue, Case 471, p. 110;
Thomas Tulien, ed., Proceedings of the Sign Historical Group UFO History Workshop, Sign Historical Group, November 2001, pp. 45–46;
Michael Swords and Robert Powell, UFOs and Government, pp. 124–127;
Jerome Clark, The UFO Encyclopedia, 3rd Ed., pp. 513–515;
Jerome Clark, The UFO Encyclopedia, 4th Ed., pp. 562-564;
Lacatski, James T., Colm A. Kelleher, and George Knapp. Inside the U.S. Government Covert UFO Program: Initial Revelations. RTMA, 2023, pp. 40–41;
Michael D. Hall and Wendy Connors, “Captain Edward J. Ruppelt: Summer of the Saucers — 1952,” Rose Press, 2000, pp. 40-61;
NICAP, “The Fort Monmouth Radar Incident”;
NICAP, “The Sandy Hook / T-33 Incident”;
Susan Thompson, “History Mystery from the Archives,” U.S. Army website, September 24, 2019;
https://www.army.mil/article/227612/history_mystery_from_the_archives
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