Presidential X-Files: Harry Truman and the 1952 Washington DC UFO Incident
The last year of Harry Truman's Presidency was a very difficult one. Despite his miraculous victory in 1948, he knew that he wasn't going to pull off that feat in the next election. By July of 1952, Truman had opted not to run for President again, even though he could have. His approval ratings were almost at their lowest point, and an election campaign was on in which it was almost a foregone conclusion that popular General Dwight Eisenhower would defeat the Democratic candidate Adlai Stevenson. On top of all of his other problems, the last thing Truman needed was to have UFOs buzzing the Capitol.

Five years earlier, at a press conference held on July 10, 1947, Truman had scoffed at the idea of "flying saucers." He had this exchange with a reporter:
Q. Mr. President, have you seen any flying saucers ?
THE PRESIDENT. Only in the newspapers. [Laughter]
Q. Any explanations of them from over here?
THE PRESIDENT. Only the explanations I have seen in the newspapers. Did you ever hear of the moon hoax ?
It was during the final days of Truman's watch that the nation's capitol was the sight of a well documented incident involving unidentified flying objects. At 11:40 p.m. on Saturday, July 19, 1952, Edward Nugent, an air traffic controller at Washington National Airport (now known as Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport), spotted seven objects on his radar that he couldn't identify. The objects were located 15 miles south-southwest of the city in a part of the sky where there were no known aircraft in the area. The objects were not following any established flight paths. Nugent's superior, Harry Barnes, a senior air-traffic controller at the airport, watched the objects on Nugent's radarscope. Nugent described what he was seeing thusly: "We knew immediately that a very strange situation existed, their movements were completely radical compared to those of ordinary aircraft." Barnes had two controllers check Nugent's radar and they found that it was working normally.
Barnes then called National Airport's radar-equipped control tower and he learned that; the controllers there also had unidentified blips on their radar screen. One of the controllers said that he had seen "a bright light hovering in the sky" which "took off, zooming away at incredible speed."
The objects moved over the White House and the United States Capitol. At this point, Barnes called Andrews Air Force Base, which is located 10 miles from National Airport. Andrews reported that they had no unusual objects on their radar, but moments later an airman called the base's control tower to report the sighting of a strange object. Airman William Brady, who was in the tower, reported seeing an "object which appeared to be like an orange ball of fire, trailing a tail, unlike anything I had ever seen before." Brady tried to alert the other personnel in the tower, but as he was doing this, he reported that the strange object "took off at an unbelievable speed."
Elsewhere in the District, on one of National Airport's runways, a Capital Airlines pilot named S.C. Pierman was waiting in the cockpit of his DC-4 for permission to take off. He spotted what he first believed to be a meteor. Learning that the control tower's radar had detected unknown objects closing in on his position, Pierman then observed six objects, which he described as "white, tailless, fast-moving lights". He observed them for a period of 14 minutes while he was in radio contact with Harry Barnes. According to Barnes, "each sighting coincided with a pip we could see near his plane. When he reported that the light streaked off at a high speed, it disappeared on our scope."
Meanwhile, at Andrews Air Force Base, the control tower there was tracking what were unknown objects. Some speculated that these were simply stars of meteors, but Staff Sgt. Charles Davenport observed an orange-red light to the south. According to Sgt. Davenport, the light "would appear to stand still, then make an abrupt change in direction and altitude." He said that this happened several times. Both radar centers at National Airport and the radar at Andrews Air Force Base were tracking an object hovering over a radio beacon, and the object vanished in all three radar centers at the same time.
At 3 a.m., two United States Air Force F-94 Starfire jet fighters from New Castle Air Force Base in Delaware arrived over Washington. It was at this time that all of the objects vanished from the radar at National Airport. Strangely, when the jets ran low on fuel and left, the objects returned. Barnes theorized that "the UFOs were monitoring radio traffic and behaving accordingly." The objects were last detected by radar at 5:30 a.m.
These sightings made front-page headlines in newspapers around the nation. One headline from the Cedar Rapids Gazette read "SAUCERS SWARM OVER CAPITAL". At the time, USAF Captain Edward J. Ruppelt was the supervisor of the Air Force's Project Blue Book, tasked with the investigation of UFO sightings. Ruppelt happened to be in Washington at the time, but did not learn about the sightings until Monday, July 21, when he read the headlines in a local newspaper. His efforts to get to the Pentagon to gather information were frustrated by his inability to get a staff car so he could travel around Washington to investigate the sightings. He was told that he could rent a taxicab with his own money by was frustrated by the lack of cooperation from the senior brass. He left Washington and flew back to Blue Book's headquarters at Wright-Patterson AFB in Dayton, Ohio.
At 8:15 p.m. on Saturday, July 26, 1952, a pilot and stewardess on a National Airlines flight into Washington observed some lights above their plane. Within minutes, both radar centers at National Airport, and the radar at Andrews AFB, were tracking more unknown objects. USAF master sergeant Charles E. Cummings saw the objects at Andrews, and later said, "these lights did not have the characteristics of shooting stars," adding, "they traveled faster than any shooting star I have ever seen."
By 9:30 p.m. the radar center was detecting unknown objects in every sector. Some of the objects traveled slowly, at other times they reversed direction and moved across the radarscope at speeds estimated as up to 7,000 mph. At 11:30 p.m., two U.S. Air Force F-94 Starfire jet fighters from New Castle Air Force Base in Delaware arrived over Washington. Captain John McHugo, the flight leader, was vectored towards the radar blips but saw nothing, despite repeated attempts. His wingman, Lieutenant William Patterson, did see four white "glows" and chased them. Patterson said, "I tried to make contact with the bogies below 1,000 feet. I was at my maximum speed. I ceased chasing them because I saw no chance of overtaking them." Patterson told ground control during the incident, "I see them now and they're all around me. What should I do?" No one at ground control could give him any helpful advice.
After midnight on July 27, USAF Major Dewey Fournet, Project Blue Book's liaison at the Pentagon, and Lt. John Holcomb, a United States Navy radar specialist, arrived at the radar center at National Airport. Holcomb had learned from the Washington National Weather Station that a slight temperature inversion was present over the city, but Holcomb opined that the inversion was not "nearly strong enough to explain" what was being seen on the radar scopes. According to Fournet, all of those present in the radar room were convinced that the targets were most likely solid metallic objects. Two more F-94s from New Castle Air Force Base were scrambled during the night. One pilot saw nothing unusual; the other pilot reported seeing a white light which "vanished" when he moved towards it. A number of non-military planes flying into Washington also reported seeing strange glowing objects in places where the radar was getting blips. These sightings and unknown radar returns ended at sunrise.
The sightings of July 26–27 once again made front-page headlines. President Harry Truman to have his air force aide call Ruppelt and ask for an explanation of the sightings and unknown radar returns. Truman listened to the conversation between the two men on a separate phone, but did not ask questions himself. Ruppelt told the president's assistant that the sightings might have been caused by a temperature inversion, in which a layer of warm, moist air covers a layer of cool, dry air closer to the ground. This condition can cause radar signals to bend and give false returns. But Ruppelt said that he had not yet interviewed any of the witnesses or conducted a formal investigation.

The number of sightings over the United States in July of 1952 was said to have alarmed Truman administration. The CIA would reacted to the 1952 sightings by forming a special study group within the Office of Scientific Intelligence (OSI) and Office of Current Intelligence (OCI) to review the situation.
The military tried to explain away what has happened. Air Force Major Generals John Samford, USAF Director of Intelligence, and Roger Ramey, USAF Director of Operations, held a press conference at the Pentagon on July 29, 1952, in which Samford told those attending that the visual sightings over Washington could be explained as misidentified aerial phenomena such as stars or meteors. He added that unknown radar targets could be explained by temperature inversion, which was present in the air over Washington on both nights the radar returns were reported. He said that the unknown radar contacts were not caused by solid material objects, and therefore posed no threat to national security. This was said to be the largest Pentagon press conference since World War II.
At the request of the Air Force, the CAA's Technical Development and Evaluation Center did an analysis of the radar sightings. Their conclusion was that "a temperature inversion had been indicated in almost every instance when the unidentified radar targets or visual objects had been reported." Project Blue Book concluded that the unknown Washington radar blips as false images caused by temperature inversion, and the visual sightings as misidentified meteors, stars, and city lights. Privately however, Edward Ruppelt disbelieved this explanation. He later wrote that radar and control tower personnel he spoke to, as well as some Air Force officers, disagreed with the Air Force's explanation. Howard Cocklin told a Washington Post reporter in 2002 that he was still convinced that he saw an object over Washington. He said, "I saw it on the screen and out the window. It was a whitish-blue object. Not a light, a solid form, a saucer-shaped object."
The extremely high numbers of UFO reports in 1952 disturbed both the Air Force and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Both groups were concerned that an enemy nation could deliberately flood the U.S. with false UFO reports, causing mass panic, creating optimal conditions for a surprise attach. On September 24, 1952, the CIA's Office of Scientific Intelligence (OSI) sent a memorandum to Walter Bedell Smith, the CIA's Director, staing that the situation had national security implications because of its potential to create "mass hysteria and panic." In January 1953, the "Robertson Panel" was created in response. Dr. Howard P. Robertson, a physicist, chaired the panel, which consisted of other prominent scientists. The group spent four days examining the "best" UFO cases collected by Project Blue Book. The panel dismissed nearly all of the UFO cases it examined and concluded that the Air Force and Project Blue Book needed to spend less time analyzing and studying UFO reports and more time publicly debunking them. Following the panel's recommendation, Project Blue Book decided that it would no longer publicize any UFO case that it had not labeled as "solved".

Five years earlier, at a press conference held on July 10, 1947, Truman had scoffed at the idea of "flying saucers." He had this exchange with a reporter:
Q. Mr. President, have you seen any flying saucers ?
THE PRESIDENT. Only in the newspapers. [Laughter]
Q. Any explanations of them from over here?
THE PRESIDENT. Only the explanations I have seen in the newspapers. Did you ever hear of the moon hoax ?
It was during the final days of Truman's watch that the nation's capitol was the sight of a well documented incident involving unidentified flying objects. At 11:40 p.m. on Saturday, July 19, 1952, Edward Nugent, an air traffic controller at Washington National Airport (now known as Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport), spotted seven objects on his radar that he couldn't identify. The objects were located 15 miles south-southwest of the city in a part of the sky where there were no known aircraft in the area. The objects were not following any established flight paths. Nugent's superior, Harry Barnes, a senior air-traffic controller at the airport, watched the objects on Nugent's radarscope. Nugent described what he was seeing thusly: "We knew immediately that a very strange situation existed, their movements were completely radical compared to those of ordinary aircraft." Barnes had two controllers check Nugent's radar and they found that it was working normally.
Barnes then called National Airport's radar-equipped control tower and he learned that; the controllers there also had unidentified blips on their radar screen. One of the controllers said that he had seen "a bright light hovering in the sky" which "took off, zooming away at incredible speed."
The objects moved over the White House and the United States Capitol. At this point, Barnes called Andrews Air Force Base, which is located 10 miles from National Airport. Andrews reported that they had no unusual objects on their radar, but moments later an airman called the base's control tower to report the sighting of a strange object. Airman William Brady, who was in the tower, reported seeing an "object which appeared to be like an orange ball of fire, trailing a tail, unlike anything I had ever seen before." Brady tried to alert the other personnel in the tower, but as he was doing this, he reported that the strange object "took off at an unbelievable speed."
Elsewhere in the District, on one of National Airport's runways, a Capital Airlines pilot named S.C. Pierman was waiting in the cockpit of his DC-4 for permission to take off. He spotted what he first believed to be a meteor. Learning that the control tower's radar had detected unknown objects closing in on his position, Pierman then observed six objects, which he described as "white, tailless, fast-moving lights". He observed them for a period of 14 minutes while he was in radio contact with Harry Barnes. According to Barnes, "each sighting coincided with a pip we could see near his plane. When he reported that the light streaked off at a high speed, it disappeared on our scope."
Meanwhile, at Andrews Air Force Base, the control tower there was tracking what were unknown objects. Some speculated that these were simply stars of meteors, but Staff Sgt. Charles Davenport observed an orange-red light to the south. According to Sgt. Davenport, the light "would appear to stand still, then make an abrupt change in direction and altitude." He said that this happened several times. Both radar centers at National Airport and the radar at Andrews Air Force Base were tracking an object hovering over a radio beacon, and the object vanished in all three radar centers at the same time.
At 3 a.m., two United States Air Force F-94 Starfire jet fighters from New Castle Air Force Base in Delaware arrived over Washington. It was at this time that all of the objects vanished from the radar at National Airport. Strangely, when the jets ran low on fuel and left, the objects returned. Barnes theorized that "the UFOs were monitoring radio traffic and behaving accordingly." The objects were last detected by radar at 5:30 a.m.
These sightings made front-page headlines in newspapers around the nation. One headline from the Cedar Rapids Gazette read "SAUCERS SWARM OVER CAPITAL". At the time, USAF Captain Edward J. Ruppelt was the supervisor of the Air Force's Project Blue Book, tasked with the investigation of UFO sightings. Ruppelt happened to be in Washington at the time, but did not learn about the sightings until Monday, July 21, when he read the headlines in a local newspaper. His efforts to get to the Pentagon to gather information were frustrated by his inability to get a staff car so he could travel around Washington to investigate the sightings. He was told that he could rent a taxicab with his own money by was frustrated by the lack of cooperation from the senior brass. He left Washington and flew back to Blue Book's headquarters at Wright-Patterson AFB in Dayton, Ohio.
At 8:15 p.m. on Saturday, July 26, 1952, a pilot and stewardess on a National Airlines flight into Washington observed some lights above their plane. Within minutes, both radar centers at National Airport, and the radar at Andrews AFB, were tracking more unknown objects. USAF master sergeant Charles E. Cummings saw the objects at Andrews, and later said, "these lights did not have the characteristics of shooting stars," adding, "they traveled faster than any shooting star I have ever seen."
By 9:30 p.m. the radar center was detecting unknown objects in every sector. Some of the objects traveled slowly, at other times they reversed direction and moved across the radarscope at speeds estimated as up to 7,000 mph. At 11:30 p.m., two U.S. Air Force F-94 Starfire jet fighters from New Castle Air Force Base in Delaware arrived over Washington. Captain John McHugo, the flight leader, was vectored towards the radar blips but saw nothing, despite repeated attempts. His wingman, Lieutenant William Patterson, did see four white "glows" and chased them. Patterson said, "I tried to make contact with the bogies below 1,000 feet. I was at my maximum speed. I ceased chasing them because I saw no chance of overtaking them." Patterson told ground control during the incident, "I see them now and they're all around me. What should I do?" No one at ground control could give him any helpful advice.
After midnight on July 27, USAF Major Dewey Fournet, Project Blue Book's liaison at the Pentagon, and Lt. John Holcomb, a United States Navy radar specialist, arrived at the radar center at National Airport. Holcomb had learned from the Washington National Weather Station that a slight temperature inversion was present over the city, but Holcomb opined that the inversion was not "nearly strong enough to explain" what was being seen on the radar scopes. According to Fournet, all of those present in the radar room were convinced that the targets were most likely solid metallic objects. Two more F-94s from New Castle Air Force Base were scrambled during the night. One pilot saw nothing unusual; the other pilot reported seeing a white light which "vanished" when he moved towards it. A number of non-military planes flying into Washington also reported seeing strange glowing objects in places where the radar was getting blips. These sightings and unknown radar returns ended at sunrise.
The sightings of July 26–27 once again made front-page headlines. President Harry Truman to have his air force aide call Ruppelt and ask for an explanation of the sightings and unknown radar returns. Truman listened to the conversation between the two men on a separate phone, but did not ask questions himself. Ruppelt told the president's assistant that the sightings might have been caused by a temperature inversion, in which a layer of warm, moist air covers a layer of cool, dry air closer to the ground. This condition can cause radar signals to bend and give false returns. But Ruppelt said that he had not yet interviewed any of the witnesses or conducted a formal investigation.

The number of sightings over the United States in July of 1952 was said to have alarmed Truman administration. The CIA would reacted to the 1952 sightings by forming a special study group within the Office of Scientific Intelligence (OSI) and Office of Current Intelligence (OCI) to review the situation.
The military tried to explain away what has happened. Air Force Major Generals John Samford, USAF Director of Intelligence, and Roger Ramey, USAF Director of Operations, held a press conference at the Pentagon on July 29, 1952, in which Samford told those attending that the visual sightings over Washington could be explained as misidentified aerial phenomena such as stars or meteors. He added that unknown radar targets could be explained by temperature inversion, which was present in the air over Washington on both nights the radar returns were reported. He said that the unknown radar contacts were not caused by solid material objects, and therefore posed no threat to national security. This was said to be the largest Pentagon press conference since World War II.
At the request of the Air Force, the CAA's Technical Development and Evaluation Center did an analysis of the radar sightings. Their conclusion was that "a temperature inversion had been indicated in almost every instance when the unidentified radar targets or visual objects had been reported." Project Blue Book concluded that the unknown Washington radar blips as false images caused by temperature inversion, and the visual sightings as misidentified meteors, stars, and city lights. Privately however, Edward Ruppelt disbelieved this explanation. He later wrote that radar and control tower personnel he spoke to, as well as some Air Force officers, disagreed with the Air Force's explanation. Howard Cocklin told a Washington Post reporter in 2002 that he was still convinced that he saw an object over Washington. He said, "I saw it on the screen and out the window. It was a whitish-blue object. Not a light, a solid form, a saucer-shaped object."
The extremely high numbers of UFO reports in 1952 disturbed both the Air Force and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Both groups were concerned that an enemy nation could deliberately flood the U.S. with false UFO reports, causing mass panic, creating optimal conditions for a surprise attach. On September 24, 1952, the CIA's Office of Scientific Intelligence (OSI) sent a memorandum to Walter Bedell Smith, the CIA's Director, staing that the situation had national security implications because of its potential to create "mass hysteria and panic." In January 1953, the "Robertson Panel" was created in response. Dr. Howard P. Robertson, a physicist, chaired the panel, which consisted of other prominent scientists. The group spent four days examining the "best" UFO cases collected by Project Blue Book. The panel dismissed nearly all of the UFO cases it examined and concluded that the Air Force and Project Blue Book needed to spend less time analyzing and studying UFO reports and more time publicly debunking them. Following the panel's recommendation, Project Blue Book decided that it would no longer publicize any UFO case that it had not labeled as "solved".