Grays Harbor UAP Sighting, 1948 - USAAF Box 7 #199
Two USAAF pilots in an F-82 reported 10 to 20 yellow then white objects off Grays Harbor, Washington, on 30 October 1948. Sheet 199 of the file records it.
Incident 199 in the U.S. Army Air Forces Incident Summary Sheets (Box 7 of file 38_143685) is not a Crescent City case. It records a sighting by two pilots at 1430 PST on 30 October 1948, 15 miles northwest of Grays Harbor, Washington, and 10 miles off the coast. An earlier version of this page wrongly gave Crescent City, 1947, and used details from the separate Crescent City sheets numbered 200 to 200c. The page address still carries the old name. The Crescent City sighting is described at Incident 200.
What the Sheet Records
The observers were Major Morris, the pilot, and Lt Kunsman of the 318th All Weather Fighter Squadron, 325th Fighter Group, at McChord Air Force Base, Washington. They were flying an F-82 type aircraft on a northerly course at 240 mph. Lt Kunsman saw from 10 to 20 objects, at first yellow and then white, which he thought were egg-shaped. The sheet gives an altitude of about 8,000 feet, no sound and no exhaust. The objects were in sight for 20 seconds. They flew horizontally, went west for about 17 seconds, then turned north and disappeared. They seemed translucent and seemed to dissolve instead of fading from view. Weather was five miles visibility with fog and smoke.
According to the summary, Kunsman first saw a very small compact group, which later strung out in a line. At first he could not identify anything. At one point he thought they were sea gulls. At no time did he identify any object. Major Morris was busy flying and did not see them. The summary notes the fog and smoke reported near Grays Harbor and says there was no evidence of aggressive or evasive behaviour.
Assessment
Only one of the two pilots saw the objects, for 20 seconds, through fog and smoke. Birds are a reasonable explanation, and the observer himself suggested gulls. The record offers no analysis or conclusion. All PURSUE records are listed by AARO as unresolved, which is not a finding that they were anomalous.
Sources
- Original release on war.gov - the scanned Incident Summary Sheets, Box 7, incidents 173 to 233
- Department of War UFO Disclosure Portal
- AARO (All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office)