Shell Alpert

Shell R. Alpert served as a U.S. Coast Guard photographer stationed at the Salem Coast Guard Air Station in Massachusetts. At the time of the incident, he had been a member of the Coast Guard for one and one-half years. He had previously attended the Art Center School in Los Angeles, California, and had also served in the U.S. Navy for two years and seven months.

On July 16, 1952, at 9:35 a.m., during the 1952 Washington D.C. UFO wave, Alpert photographed a group of bright lights over Salem Harbor. He noticed several brilliant lights arranged in a V formation in the sky west of the station and took the photograph through a screened open window of the air station's photo laboratory. He called Thomas E. Flaherty, HM1, USCG, who also witnessed the lights. The lights dimmed somewhat, then brightened before the photo was snapped.

Alpert's photograph became one of the most widely published UFO images of the era. Designated as Official Coast Guard photo 5554, it represented the first daylight photo of unidentified flying objects. Alpert was questioned for hours by naval intelligence officers but held to his story. Commander McCue described him as an excellent photographer who is very stable and reliable.