(1952) SECNAV Sees His Own UFO

"Somewhere out over the dark Pacific, the pilot came back to the cabin visibly excited."

Sep 26, 2023

Many people assume UFO sightings are the realm of the uneducated and uninformed. Some country bumpkin in a farmer’s field sees a shooting star and now we’re all expected to believe in flying saucers? In actual fact, UFO history is rife with very prominent and powerful people experiencing something extraordinary. In 1952, one of those people happened to be the Secretary of the United States Navy and his experience prompted policy changes that may still be with us today.

Who was Dan Kimball?

Dan Kimball was a key figure in the Truman administration, who, beginning in 1949, served in a variety of roles in the Department of the Navy. By July 1951, he was installed as the Secretary of the Navy (SECNAV), the highest position available in this key section of the Department of Defense.1

Kimball began his military career early when, as a 21-year-old, he fought in World War I with the U.S. “Army Air Service” (a precursor to what would eventually become the Air Force). Though he left the military at war’s end, he maintained an intense interest in aviation, obtaining a private pilot’s license and flying his own plane until he was asked to take the reigns of the largest Navy on Earth.2

By 1952, this job was getting increasingly complex. The Cold War was in full swing, and the United States was two years into the slowly deteriorating Korean War. It was against this backdrop that Kimball was asked to go on a tour of East Asia and demonstrate resolve to U.S. allies in the region. This 20-day affair would start on March 17^th and feature an inspection of key American military bases, coordination with foreign naval officials, and an eventual visit to U.S. forces in Korea.3456

On the Plane, in the Air

After a series of initial inspections at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, Kimball and another government official (Under Secretary of the Interior, Richard D. Searles) boarded a U.S. Navy “executive plane” on the evening of March 18^th.78 This night flight was headed toward the U.S. naval air station at Guam where the “inspection party” would continue with their East Asian tour the next day.9 A separate plane would be trailing close behind them, notably containing the Commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, Admiral Arthur Radford.10

As their respective flights hit the middle of the Pacific, two “disc-shaped craft” streaked in towards Kimball’s lead plane.11 The plane was being flown by two experienced pilots, in whom Kimball had “the utmost faith and confidence” and who had “flown him for thousands of miles over [many] years.”12 Both pilots were observing the same thing, and that “thing” happened to be two discs forming up with their plane and beginning to circle it.

At the conclusion of two circling maneuvers, the discs took off to their rear (heading east). After conferring with Kimball, the senior pilot asked if they should radio Pearl Harbor for assistance. Kimball instead suggested they contact the second plane and ordered them to keep a sharp lookout for any unusual air contacts.1314

Within 2 minutes, the second plane radioed in. They had picked up the same two discs which had “just come down” and were “[flying] alongside their wingtip.”15 Based on the time and distance travelled between each plane (approx. 50 miles in 2 min) the pilots calculated the discs had reached a rough speed of 1500 mph.16 At the time, the fastest aircraft in the U.S. inventory could reach a top speed of only 700 mph in absolutely ideal conditions.17 And there were no known aircraft that fit the shape or circular flight profile of the two discs in play.

As before, both discs began a circling motion of the second plane carrying Admiral Radford. After an indeterminate number of rotations, they left the plane and “raced up out of sight.”18 There were no further traces of the discs, leaving four pilots, a top U.S. Admiral, and two Cabinet officials with something very hard to explain. A situation made even more interesting by the fact that Dan Kimball and Arthur Radford were themselves experienced pilots.1920

On Landing, on the Radio

Beyond the personal interest sparked by the event, Kimball didn’t want to be negligent about their experience over the Pacific. On landing at Naval Air Station Agana, he had a report radioed out to the Air Force which, since 1948, had been the official service branch in charge of the American UFO investigation.21 March 1952 had seen this investigation evolve into a new program called “Project Blue Book” and as far as Kimball was concerned, the Air Force was going to do its job while he continued to do his. Kimball pressed on with his East Asian tour and put it all out of his mind for a time.

By April 6^th, he was back in the states and ready to talk about it.22 At Naval Air Station Pensacola, Kimball described the incident to a closed audience of naval officers and air cadets, expressing his growing belief that “flying saucers” were not a figment of the imagination. A short description of his remarks would leak out and be featured in a magazine called The Boston Traveler, but the story was not covered widely and none of the other participants were identified.23

The Air Force Forces his Hand

It wasn’t until he returned to Washington that Kimball had reason for concern. Still curious about his particular sighting, he sent an aide over to the Air Force to ask what actions had been taken since his report. This is when he was informed for the first time that it was “against orders” to discuss case analyses, even with the witnesses who made the reports.24

That prompted Kimball to ask his subordinates about the status of all the other reports coming from the Navy, where, he was then informed that the Air Force was blocking all naval investigations, taking their records, and refusing to answer any questions about them.25 And with Kimball, this was no longer limited to junior personnel, this was happening to the Secretary of the Navy, technically an Air Force veteran himself, who was now very, very pissed off.

In response, Kimball took two immediate actions. First, he ordered Rear Admiral Calvin Bolster, Chief of the Office of Naval Research (ONR) to go back and re-summarize all the previous incidents identified by the Navy. Bolster was to contact all internal witnesses and get copies of the material that had already been sent to the Air Force so the Navy could reach its own conclusions.26

Second, ONR was to conduct a full internal investigation of all Navy and Marine reports going forward. These would now be kept separate from whatever the Air Force was doing, and, from now on the Navy would only be sharing its final conclusions with the Air Force.27 Those results and the amount of detail provided would ultimately be up to Secretary Kimball.

When the Air Force got wind of this policy change, it posed a serious problem. UFO incidents were increasing rapidly and the July 1952 incident over Washington D.C. had the public demanding answers. A competing Navy UFO program gave the appearance of internal chaos. There was serious discussion among key figures in the CIA and the Air Force about approaching Truman to get rid of Kimball.28

In the end, they decided to go for one of the most tried and true methods of replacing an unruly bureaucrat – they were going to wait him out. In November 1952, Dwight D. Eisenhower won a Presidential election that switched party control of the White House for the first time in 20 years. That meant that all Presidential appointments would be replaced, ending Kimball’s tenure as SECNAV in January 1953 as the administration switched over.29

Smooth Sailing from There?

What continued? And what didn’t? Here we enter into some competing claims about the state of the Navy’s rival UFO program. The first version of events is that it didn’t survive 1952, dying with Kimball’s tenure and reverting to an entirely Air Force-dominated effort. The second version suggests that a very limited effort continued through 1955, where a Lt CDR Fred Thomas (now working through the Office of Naval Intelligence) operated something like a “one man desk” that collected information and reported it to the Air Force.30

The third version is the most intriguing because as many readers will note, the Navy’s interaction with UFOs would only increase from here. As the 1950s continued, UFOs were now being seen under the water, emerging from the water, and trailing Navy vessels.31 In the late 1980s when an alleged whistleblower would claim to have been involved in a UFO reverse-engineering program, his paycheck was not said to be coming from the Army or the Air Force or any of the intelligence services, it was coming from the so-called “Department of Naval Intelligence.”32

Is there any reason to entertain the possibility that a Navy UFO program continued well past 1952? Yes. Because unlike his colleagues Dan Kimball and Calvin Bolster, Admiral Arthur Radford’s career would only get better. In 1953, President Eisenhower promoted him to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the most senior rank in the United States military. Radford would go on to hold this top position for four years at a time when interest in the UFO problem was only growing.33 It is a surprisingly overlooked fact that the man in charge of all military forces during this period, including the Army, the Navy, and the Air Force, had been in the unusual position to personally see a UFO. Would this “man in the second plane” want his guys to lead the response? An answer that depends entirely on the character of the man, the organization he worked for, and our basic understanding of human nature. All that can be said for sure is that Dan Kimball and Calvin Bolster became very comfortable talking about their involvement in the UFO portfolio.34 Arthur Radford never said a word.

P.S. This article adds some very important updates to this “classic case.” Until now, researchers have struggled to pinpoint the exact date, destination, and crew manifest for this flight (which notably contains a second Cabinet official, Richard D. Searles). If you think this new information might be helpful, please:

Office of SECNAV. “Dan A. Kimball 1 March 1896 - 30 July 1970.” Naval History and Heritage Command, January 31, 2020. https://www.history.navy.mil/research/library/research-guides/z-files/zb-files/zb-files-k/kimball-dan-a.html.

Office of SECNAV. “Dan A. Kimball 1 March 1896 - 30 July 1970.”

Special to the New York Times. “Philippine-Formosa Region Transferred From Ridgway.” The New York Times, March 14, 1952. https://nyti.ms/405f9CK.

Office of the President of the Philippines. “Official Month in Review: March 1952.” Official Gazette of the Republic of the Philippines, March 1952. https://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/1952/03/01/official-month-in-review-march-1952/.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Republic of China (Taiwan). “Chronology April 1952.” Taiwan Today, May 1, 1952. https://taiwantoday.tw/news.php?unit=4&post=6446.

Hermes, Walter G. Truce Tent and Fighting Front. U.S. Army Center of Military History. Washington, D.C.: Center of Military History United States Army, 1965. https://history.army.mil/books/korea/truce/ch10.htm.

Special to the New York Times. “Kimball at Pearl Harbor.” The New York Times, March 18, 1952. https://nyti.ms/3JjgIGa.

Note: This article indicates that Kimball will be engaging in a “two-day visit” at Pearl Harbor. We can be confident of the timing of this flight as this article indicates he arrives in Pearl Harbor on March 17^th and this article outlines his full schedule during the day of the 18^th.

Special to the New York Times. “Philippine-Formosa Region Transferred From Ridgway.”

Note: This article indicates that Under Secretary of the Interior, Richard D. Searles was a “member of the inspection party” on this East Asia tour. Subsequent coverage of the tour suggests Searles accompanied Kimball on every major leg of this trip.

Schofield, Bill. “Have You Heard.” Boston Traveler Magazine, May 5, 1952. http://www.nicap.org/articles/520314hawaii_article.htm.

Note: Prominent UFO author, Donald Keyhoe, would later describe this flight as going “to Hawaii” but this does not fit the timeline or the other key details of the event. Per The New York Times, Kimball picked up Adm. Arthur Radford at Pearl Harbor and flew with him further East on the evening of March 18th. Kimball was still in East Asia at the beginning of April 1952 but Radford was no longer traveling with the party by this point. That leaves this flight from Hawaii to Guam as the most likely candidate, which is supported by the citation above.

Keyhoe, Donald E. Aliens from Space: The Real Story of Unidentified Flying Objects. Internet Archive. New York City, NY: Signet Books, 1973. https://archive.org/details/aliensfromspacer00keyh/aliensfromspacer00keyh. Pg 65.