A Ground Observer's 35-minute Watch at Allen

David Kolb was a volunteer with the Ground Observer Corps. At about 21:30 on 12 September 1952 he and his wife at Allen, Maryland, picked up a round object with streamers. Through field glasses it flashed a greenish-white light with a red rim. It moved north-east at about 2,000 ft. They watched it for 35 minutes. The red rim grew larger, and then the object faded altogether. The sky was clear with ten miles of visibility.

What is on the record

Kolb reported it through the Baltimore Filter Center of the Ground Observer Corps to the 647th Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron. The squadron checked with all available electronic equipment and found no targets. Low-level missions were under way in the 26th Air Division area that night. The Project Blue Book record card reads "Greenish-white, red rim. Round shape." It comments that the sighting "does not coincide with regular releases in area", meaning balloon releases, and its evaluation is Unknown. The case is Blue Book #2077.

The file's text reads 23:00, but the squadron's time group of 0230Z on the 13th gives about 21:30 local, and Berliner agrees, so the 23:00 is probably a misread. Berliner and Sparks count the case among the Blue Book Unknowns, and NICAP and Johnson list it.

A bright star or planet low in the sky is a possible ordinary reading for a slow light watched this long. Blue Book did not consider it, and nothing in the file tests it.

Why it sits where it does

L4 · OFFICIAL RECORD — a released government record names who saw it. The record puts two people to the sighting: David Kolb, a trained volunteer observer, and his wife. Theirs is the only account in the file or the archive. A tier grades the sourcing and leaves the sky open. What faded over Allen is not resolved here.