UNCLASSIFIED // PUBLIC RELEASERELEASE 06 · SEPTEMBER 18, 2026
PENTAGON UFO FILE · VIDEO · DOW-UAP-PR159Historical Film of Reported UFOs, Utah, 1952
This is the footage at the center of the Tremonton case: color film that Delbert C. Newhouse, a U.S. Navy chief warrant officer, shot on July 2, 1952, close to Tremonton, Utah, after seeing a group of bright objects in the sky. He filmed with a Bell & Howell Auto Master held in his hands, and what is published here is a digitized 16mm Kodachrome print of the film, running a little over a minute.
What survives and what doesn’t
Only the first 55 seconds or so relate to the sighting. After that the print cuts to unrelated footage that seems to show sewing equipment being demonstrated, which suggests the surviving reel is a reused or composite print; the record does not say how or when the pieces were joined. Meanwhile the Idaho mountain scenery that, according to the paperwork submitted with the film, originally accompanied the sighting footage is missing from this copy.
How investigators judged it
Newhouse soon sent the film to the Air Force, and it became one of the visual cases examined by Project Blue Book. The Air Force’s case file, DOW-UAP-D102, traces how its assessment moved from inconclusive toward seabirds, while a companion photo file weighs pillow balloons. The release’s own judgment is that the film’s limited detail and the absence of fixed reference points in the frame ruled out a firm conclusion. For the full story, see The Tremonton Film.
The official description
From war.gov/UFO, released September 18, 2026, quoted in full
This archival footage is a digitization of a 16mm print of Kodachrome color motion-picture film shot on a handheld Bell & Howell Auto Master camera near Tremonton, Utah, on July 2, 1952. U.S. Navy Chief Warrant Officer Delbert C. Newhouse reported observing and filming a group of bright airborne objects and shortly thereafter submitted the footage to the U.S. Air Force. The film later became one of the visual cases reviewed by Project Blue Book, the 1952–1969 U.S. Air Force program that investigated the nature and origin of unidentified flying objects (UFOs). The film’s limited detail and lack of fixed reference points prevented a conclusive resolution. From the 55-second mark onward, the film transitions to unrelated footage appearing to show a demonstration of sewing equipment. The presence of unrelated sewing-equipment footage suggests that the surviving footage may be a composite or reused print, though the available record does not establish how or when the materials came to be combined. As documented in records submitted with the film, contained in this collection under the title DOW-UAP-D102, the footage originally was paired with mountain scenery from Idaho, which is not preserved in this digitization.