Santa Catalina Island: Three Boy Scouts report silver object that appears to disintegrate
On June 25, 1952, three Boy Scouts from a summer camp on Santa Catalina Island saw, during a hike up one of the island’s mountains, a silver object that flew faster than a conventional jet without sound and apparently made a climbing turn before disappearing “by disintegration.” The reporting officer attempted no estimate of their reliability.
Background
An Air Intelligence Information Report of August 28, 1952, from a U.S. Air Force air base group, with Southern California as the area reported on, records the sighting by three scouts from Camp Fox who were all in the same group at the time. The object was silver in color, its altitude uncertain and its speed estimated as faster than a conventional jet; the only maneuver observed was apparently a climbing turn immediately before its disappearance by disintegration, the length of the observation was not recorded, no instruments were available, and the sky was clear. The report was not sent by electrical means because the information reached the installation late, and the reporting officer wrote that no estimate of reliability could be attempted and that the observers’ experience was “probably meager at best.” Unlike the official description, which speaks of silver “flying saucers” climbing quickly, the body of the report refers to a single object and an apparent climbing turn; the rough sketches listed as enclosures are not part of the extracted text. The details are taken from records released by the U.S. Department of War in PURSUE Release 07 (record code DOW-UAP-D179) and do not represent an independent determination by From Beyond Space.