Guantánamo Bay UFO Report: USS Barry, USS La Salle and a Satellite

What this record is

This one-page record is a Defense Intelligence Agency microfilm copy of an unclassified intelligence report. It was originated by the Commander, U.S. Naval Base Guantánamo (COMNAVBASE GTMO), prepared by Lieutenant Commander J. Giacomuzzi, and approved by the base Chief of Staff. Its subject line is “UFO (Unidentified Flying Object)” and its report number is 5-366-0524-68. The National Archives catalog dates it 10 August 1964, and the date-of-information field on the scan is hard to read. However, the rest of the form gives 1968. The date the information was acquired reads 10 August 1968, the report was dated 13 August 1968, both referenced messages carry “Aug 68” date-time groups, and the report number ends in -68. The sources listed are the destroyer USS Barry (DD 933) and the amphibious transport dock USS La Salle (LPD 3).

What it says

The summary is short and cautious: “This report describes the sighting of a UFO. The possibility exists that it may be a decaying satellite as indicated in reference A.” Reference A was a message from the Commander in Chief, U.S. Atlantic Fleet. According to the report, it described a satellite of the Cosmos series that was decaying (the number reads 234, but it is partly obscured) and gave various track positions for possible sightings. Reference B, from the Naval Air Station at Guantánamo, reported a probable sighting.

The report states that the object was seen at 110028Z, which is 0028 GMT on 11 August, or the evening of 10 August local time. It was seen “by numerous personnel aboard ship in the GTMO area and by others aboard the naval base.” The object was to the north of the base, about 60 degrees above the horizon, moving on a course of 130 degrees true. It “was glowing brightly and emitted what appeared to be a spiral trail of smoke or vapor.”

Crew members aboard Barry and La Salle photographed the object. The report forwarded a 36-exposure roll of 35mm Kodachrome II colour film and a cartridge of the same film for developing. A later handwritten annotation records that neither item arrived as such, but that ten colour photographs were received, and it directs requests for the photos to a DIA office. The photographs are not in the released file.

Context

The Navy’s own suggestion is the most likely explanation. A re-entering satellite or rocket body looks like a bright, slow, glowing object with a trail, and it can be seen by many people over a wide area at the same moment. That fits a sighting reported both by ships at sea and by people ashore. The Atlantic Fleet had already sent out predicted track positions for a decaying Cosmos satellite before the sighting, which shows the Navy was expecting something of the kind. What the file cannot show is whether the observed track matched the predicted one, since the referenced messages are not included.

Guantánamo appears elsewhere in the NSA series. In August 1969, a year later, a Navy intelligence ship north of Havana and an Air Force RC-135 reported a very different light display, described on the USNS Muller page. The Naval Security Group activity at Guantánamo was on that report’s distribution list.

Status

Probably explained: the originating command itself proposed satellite decay, and nothing in the report argues against it. The report was unclassified when written. It reached the National Archives in 2025 as part of the NSA transfer, which consists of documents the agency had already released. The catalog’s 1964 date looks like a misreading of the date field.

Sources

• National Archives catalog entry: https://catalog.archives.gov/id/596347935
• PDF of the record: https://catalog.archives.gov/medialz/electronic-records/rg-615/580103959/457UAP00025_released.pdf
• Series: Records from the National Security Agency Relating to Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: https://catalog.archives.gov/id/580103959
• National Archives, Record Group 615 UAP records: https://www.archives.gov/research/topics/uaps/rg-615