This description was from what appears to be a news article by Bill Schofield, May 5, 1952 from the editorial page of the Boston Traveler. This article recounts the famous 1952 Pacific UFO incident involving two Navy aircraft crews who witnessed unusual “disc-shaped” or ring-like objects exhibiting extraordinary flight behavior between Guam and Hawaii. The story was told by Charles T. Earley, a 35-year old tap and dye worker who was startled “half out of his wits” on the afternoon of March 30, 1952 by a visit from a pair of flying rings.
“It came down fast and stopped about 1500 feet overhead. It was like a big whirling ring 30 feet across and I could see the blue sky through its middle. It hovered overhead for a second or two and then turned up on edge and I could see there were two rings instead of one. They looked to be about five feet apart and were not joined.” The rings, Earley says, then raced across the sky about one mile to the southwest.”
via 2000MPH UFO Incident Sparks U.S. Navy UFO Investigation., page 1.
In 1952, during a period of intense Cold War tensions, two U.S. Navy aircraft crews witnessed two disc-shaped objects over the Pacific Ocean between Guam and Hawaii. The objects reportedly circled their planes twice at speeds estimated between 1,500 and 2,000 mph. High-ranking officials, including Admiral Arthur Radford and Naval Secretary Dan Kimball, were aboard, prompting a conference with Chief of Naval Research Admiral Calvin Bolster to investigate Navy and Marine UFO reports. Despite this, official Navy records relating to the incident remain classified, fueling ongoing mystery.
At the same time, the U.S. Air Force launched Project Blue Book, the longest-running official UFO investigation from 1952 to 1969. Blue Book collected and analyzed thousands of UFO reports, aiming to assess any potential threats to national security. During the summer of 1952, the project dealt with a surge of sightings, including the well-known Washington, D.C. radar-visual incidents. While many cases were explained as natural or man-made phenomena, some remained unresolved.
Unlike the Air Force’s relatively public investigations, the Navy maintained secrecy over its UFO-related activities for decades. Only in recent years, following numerous reports by naval aviators and advanced sensor detections, has the Navy begun systematic data collection and investigation of unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP). However, the 1952 Pacific event’s records remain classified, portraying a long history of limited disclosure.
The 1952 Pacific sighting stands out due to credible witnesses and extraordinary object behavior, yet it remains unresolved publicly. The incident, alongside the broader 1952 UFO surge examined by Project Blue Book, highlights how government agencies historically grappled with unexplained aerial phenomena amid Cold War uncertainty.
Today, while Project Blue Book concluded without confirming extraterrestrial involvement, the Navy’s evolving UAP policies reflect a continuing commitment to understanding and addressing these unknown phenomena—a legacy that traces back to pivotal incidents like the 1952 Pacific encounter.