Dept. of DefenseUnresolvedAmbiguous
Spherical dirty-gray objects — Pablo/Pinole, California, September 1948
~Sep 23, 1948Pablo and Pinole, California30,000 ft
Analysis — our summary
Two civilian witnesses near Pablo and Pinole, California reported observing spherical objects of dirty gray color at approximately 30,000 ft altitude around September 23, 1948. One witness observed what appeared to be a globe-like shape with interior movement while the outer portion remained stationary. The objects disappeared from sight in a very short time.
As reported — verbatim from the document
“"Spherical with the shape and depth similar to a globe — [observer] saw many bodies [with] dirty gray color"; inner portion appeared to snap or oscillate while outer portion remained stationary.”
Analyst notes — caveats & confidence
Incidents 175a and 175b. OCR quality is extremely poor. Date partially recoverable. Two separate observers at Pablo (~4 miles NE of Pinole) and Pinole, CA. Altitude figure partially readable. Confidence very low due to OCR degradation; most details reconstructed from fragmentary text.
Provenance
Source document38_143685_box7_Incident_Summaries_173-233.pdf
Document typeincident summary compilation
Reporting agencyDept. of Defense
Source pages144
DeclassifiedFirst public at this release (2026)
Held classified~78 years (≥, to this release)
Extraction confidence LowHow cleanly this record could be parsed from the source — driven by legibility & redaction. It is not a measure of how credible or anomalous the sighting is.