Shell Alpert

Shell R. Alpert was a U.S. Coast Guard photographer stationed at the Salem Coast Guard Air Station in Massachusetts, with one and a half years of Coast Guard service, prior training at the Art Center School in Los Angeles and two years and seven months of U.S. Navy service. On 16 July 1952 at 9:35 a.m., during the Washington, D.C. UFO wave, he photographed several brilliant lights in V formation west of the station through a screened open window of the air station's photo laboratory and called Thomas E. Flaherty, HM1, USCG, who confirmed the lights.

• U.S. Coast Guard photographer
• Stationed at the Salem Coast Guard Air Station in Massachusetts
• One and a half years of U.S. Coast Guard service
• Prior training at the Art Center School, Los Angeles; previously two years and seven months in the U.S. Navy
• 16 July 1952 at 9:35 a.m., during the Washington, D.C. UFO wave, photographed brilliant lights in V formation west of the station
• Photo taken through a screened open window of the air station's photo laboratory; confirmed by Thomas E. Flaherty, HM1, USCG
• Official Coast Guard photo 5554, first daylight photograph of a UAP; Alpert questioned for hours by naval intelligence officers but held to his account

For the UAP timeline, Alpert is the first serious daylight photographer of modern American ufology: a trained military photographer, official Coast Guard photo 5554, a second on-site witness and stubborn resilience against naval-intelligence questioning — the combination makes the Salem photograph a reference image of the Washington, D.C. UFO wave to this day.