Near Tremonton, Utah, Navy sailor Delbert Newhouse saw a group of bright objects in the sky. He filmed them with a movie camera and soon afterward turned the footage over to the US Air Force.
Now the old film has resurfaced in the sixth release of documents and videos about unidentified anomalous phenomena. The US Department of War released 75 records in the batch, including documents, videos, and an audio recording. One question in particular remains open more than 70 years later: What exactly does Newhouse’s film show?
The Film That Reached Air Force Investigators
The incident took place in 1952, and the Air Force examined it as part of a program that investigated unidentified objects. The released case file documents the investigation and the assessments that followed. Another document from the same case says investigators considered whether the objects in the footage were “pillow balloons”—large, broad balloons shaped like pillows.
The film was shot with a handheld movie camera, not a phone. A brief record of lights in the sky became material examined and documented by the Air Force. The latest release includes both the film and documents related to the investigation.
Red, Blue, and Green Lights
The Utah film is not the only footage in the release. A local police officer in Colorado submitted two videos he shot on his phone in October 2023. He described flashing red, blue, and green lights, and said the object was silent.
One video runs about a minute; the other, about 15 minutes. Both reports date to the same month, but the descriptions alone do not reveal what produced the lights. They present a striking contrast with the old film: flashing colors captured on a phone, versus a group of bright objects seen through a movie camera.
What Remains Unknown
The released material does not specify the investigators’ conclusion about the Utah film. The conventional explanation they examined was that the objects were pillow balloons. The source of the lights in the Colorado videos is also not identified in the published description. The Department of War announced the release, but the materials provided do not explain why they were published now.
