DOW-UAP-D157, Air Intelligence Information Report, Italy, 1952
WAR.gov / Department of War PURSUE Release 07
An Air Intelligence Information Report by the acting U.S. Air Attaché in Rome, dated December 15, 1953, forwarding a professor’s translated account of a luminous sphere he saw over Sassari, Sardinia, on the evening of August 27, 1952.
Document Highlights
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Short overview
An Air Intelligence Information Report by the acting U.S. Air Attaché in Rome, dated December 15, 1953, forwarding a professor’s translated account of a luminous sphere he saw over Sassari, Sardinia, on the evening of August 27, 1952.
Why this is interesting
The core of the file is the observer’s own text, first published in the local newspaper “Corriere dell’Isola”: at 2145 hours he saw a sphere slightly larger than the full moon, green-blue and silver bright, moving east to west at great speed, vanishing and reappearing several times and leaving a luminous ribbon; the whole event lasted three to five seconds. He reports that the director of the Vatican observatory at Castel Gandolfo calculated a distance of about 1,681 or 1,091 kilometres and an actual diameter of 14.67 or 9.25 kilometres, and concluded the object was too big to be a terrestrial “flying saucer.” The account then turns into religious and political reflections on America and a “heavenly intervention.” The attaché’s comments are notably reserved: he found the professor intelligent, pleasant and very eager to tell his story, but also a very intense individual who, while not exactly a fanatic, came close to the label. The source rating on the form is D-4.
Selected passages
- “The apparition lasted in total three to five seconds.”
- “phenomenon was super-natural or it was instituted by another government”
Background
This document is an Air Intelligence Information Report (AIIR), a standardized U.S. Air Force reporting form used to record raw information of potential intelligence value for later analysis. The form served as a primary vehicle for U.S. Air Force field intelligence collection throughout the early Cold War, until defense-wide reporting standards were established in the early 1960s. This AIIR records an August 27, 1952, incident near Sassari, Italy, that was reported in the local Italian press the following day. The U.S. Air Attaché in Rome relayed the translated newspaper account to the Air Force in November 1953 and later interviewed the individual who made the initial report, Professor Giovanni Battista Sias. Sias described observing a brilliantly luminous sphere, slightly larger in apparent size than the full moon, with a green-blue color, silvery brightness, and metallic streaking on its right side. He reported that it moved from east to west at very high speed, intermittently disappearing and reappearing while leaving behind a narrow luminous trail or ribbon. The preparing officer characterized Professor Sias as intelligent, pleasant, and eager to share his account. All descriptive and estimative language contained in this report reflects the reporter’s subjective interpretation at the time of the event. Such characterizations should not be interpreted as a conclusive indication of the presence or absence of any intrinsic object features or performance characteristics.