Today in UFO History

July 16, 1952 – Winter Island, Salem, Massachusetts, USA:

Coast Guard UFO Photograph

On the morning of July 16, 1952, one of the most enduring UFO photographs in American history was taken at the U.S. Coast Guard Air Station on Winter Island in Salem, Massachusetts. The incident occurred at 9:35 a.m., when 21-year-old Coast Guard seaman and photographer Shell R. Alpert noticed something extraordinary outside the window of the station's photographic laboratory. Four brilliant, roughly elliptical objects were flying in a distinct V-shaped formation across the sky.

Realizing he was witnessing something unusual, Alpert immediately called over fellow Coast Guardsman Thomas Flaherty, who also saw the mysterious lights. Acting quickly, Alpert grabbed his camera and managed to capture a single photograph through the laboratory's window screen before the objects disappeared.

That image, officially cataloged as U.S. Coast Guard Photo #5554, quickly became one of the most famous UFO photographs of the 1952 American UFO wave. More than seven decades later, it remains preserved in the Library of Congress, securing its place as one of the best-known historical government-associated UFO images.

The photograph attracted significant attention from the U.S. Air Force through Project Blue Book, the government's official UFO investigation program. Over the years, investigators repeatedly changed their conclusions. Their first assessment dismissed the photograph as a double-exposure hoax. Later, they abandoned that explanation and instead argued that the bright objects were probably street lamps reflected in the laboratory window. However, after additional analysis and testing, the Air Force found that the reflection theory could not adequately explain the image. With no satisfactory conventional explanation remaining, Project Blue Book officially classified the case as "Unexplained."

Today, the 1952 Salem Coast Guard Sighting remains one of the most intriguing UFO cases of the early Cold War era. Not only was it witnessed by multiple Coast Guard personnel, but it also produced one of the earliest daylight photographs of an alleged UFO ever taken by a U.S. government serviceman. The image's survival in the Library of Congress, combined with Project Blue Book's final "Unexplained" classification, has ensured that the Salem photograph continues to be studied and debated by UFO researchers and historians alike.