DOW-UAP-D104: The Navy Personnel Record of Delbert C. Newhouse, the Photographer Behind the Tremonton Film

Source file: DOW-UAP-D104_Final-Personnel-Record-for-Newhouse-Delbert-C-US-Navy-1957.pdf Originating agency: U.S. Navy, Bureau of Naval Personnel (file preserved by the National Archives and Records Administration) Document type: Officer personnel file in three jackets: correspondence and orders, selection board, and fitness reports Date: Documents from 1942 to 1964. The service it records runs from 1929 to his retirement on 1 April 1960. The "1957" in the title matches a letter of 2 May 1957 near the front of the file Classification: Unclassified personnel record with no overall classification marking; released 2026 Page count: 585 VIRIN: 260918-D-D0360-1093 PURSUE Release: 6

Summary

This is the Navy officer file of Delbert Clement Newhouse. On 2 July 1952 he filmed a group of bright objects near Tremonton, Utah, on 16mm Kodachrome. The Air Force files released alongside it, the Blue Book case file DOW-UAP-D102 and the Director of Intelligence file DOW-UAP-D105, lean heavily on his standing as a Navy photographer. An interview report in D105 says he graduated from the Naval Photographic School in 1935 and "CLAIMS OVER 1000 HOURS IN THE AIR" on aerial photographic missions. It concludes that he "COULD BE CLASSIFIED AS AN EXPERT PHOTOGRAPHER." This file lets a reader test those statements against the Navy's own paperwork.

For the most part they hold. The record confirms that he enlisted on 23 January 1933, trained at the photography school in Pensacola in 1935, and flew as a photographer with scouting, bombing and patrol squadrons. It shows him running the photographic laboratory at Guantanamo Bay, receiving a warrant as Photographer in 1942, and holding wartime commissions up to Lieutenant. The file also shows what the Air Force summaries leave out. The "1,000 hours" figure is his own claim, made in a 1943 letter. And by 1952 his job was photographic supply officer at an aviation supply depot in Oakland.

The file never mentions the film. Its routine paperwork, however, frames the date closely. Two leave reports put him on authorized leave from 19 June to 7 July 1952. A claim for moving his dependents from Silver Spring, Maryland, to El Cerrito, California, was paid on 18 July 1952.

Research Article

How the file is built

The 585 pages come from three Bureau of Naval Personnel jackets, and each has its printed cover. The first is an "Officer's Miscellaneous Correspondence and Orders Jacket" (pages 1-287), stamped "CLOSED" and topped by a National Archives key-punch sheet. The second is an "Officer's Selection Board Jacket" (pages 288-499). Its printed index covers photographs, commissions, oaths of office, physical examinations and applications for commission. The third is an "Officer Fitness Report Jacket" (pages 500-585). It holds fitness reports from 1942 to 1959 and his official photographs, one dated 14 January 1949.

Most of the file is routine: orders and endorsements, leave reports, travel vouchers, beneficiary slips and emergency-data forms. Pages 20-37 are dark photostats with no usable text layer, so they can only be read from the page images. The CSV date of 2 May 1957 matches a letter on page 5 that changed his home of record to Pensacola, Florida. The documents themselves run later than 1957. The last is an awards letter of November 1964, addressed to "LT Delbert C. NEWHOUSE, USN (RET)" (page 466).

No redactions appear in the pages examined for this article. The release still carries identification numbers, the names and street addresses of family members, and medical examination reports. This article does not reproduce any of them.

The enlisted years

His fullest account of his early service is in his sworn applications for a limited-duty commission from 1947 and 1949 (pages 387-388 and 368-369). A Bureau service statement (page 56) records National Guard service from March 1929 to January 1932. He then enlisted in the Navy on 23 January 1933; his 1952 biography sheet names Portland, Oregon (page 345).

After recruit training at San Diego he became a yeoman striker with the Flag Unit of Commander Aircraft Battle Force. From 1934 he was a photographic striker in Scouting Squadron THREE-B. He attended the Naval School of Photography at NAS Pensacola from June to December 1935, then served as photographer in Bombing Squadron ONE-B. At NAS San Diego (April 1936 to June 1939) he did aerial and ground photography and rose through the three classes of Photographer's Mate. He was senior photographer of Patrol Squadron VP-45, later redesignated VP-14, from June 1939.

From November 1940 to August 1942 he was "Chief in Charge of Photographic Laboratory" at NAS Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (page 387). His duties there included "production of aerial photographic maps and aerial and ground photography" (page 369). His highest enlisted rating was Chief Photographer's Mate. In 1943 he was authorized to wear the Air Crew Insignia. The grounds were that he had served "more than three months as a regularly assigned member of the crews of combatant aircraft" at Guantanamo in the first half of 1942 (page 54).

One line in the 1947 application bears directly on Tremonton. It lists his work as Chief Photographer's Mate as all aerial photographic operations, "including aerial mapping with single and multiple lens cameras and motion picture photography" (page 388).

There is a caveat. His enlisted service record itself is not in this file. A memo of 4 May 1948 to a selection sub-board says so plainly: "The enlisted record of NEWHOUSE, Delbert C., cannot be located. Consideration for selection will have to be based on his officer record only" (page 389). The story of his enlisted years therefore comes from his own sworn statements and from Bureau cards.

Warrant officer and wartime commissions

On 1 September 1942 the President appointed him to the warrant rank of Photographer for temporary service. He accepted on 15 October 1942 at the U.S. Naval Base at Santa Elena Bay, Ecuador (pages 169, 438-439). That acceptance letter gives his date of rank as 15 June 1942. His biography sheet and commission application give 25 June 1942, one of several small inconsistencies in the file.

Within weeks he applied for the permanent rank of Chief Photographer. His precedence card gives 28 October 1942 as the permanent date of rank (page 319). Temporary commissions followed: Ensign on 15 June 1943, Lieutenant (junior grade) on 1 September 1944 and Lieutenant on 1 April 1946 (pages 170-172, 345).

During and after the war he was gunnery and photographic officer in Ecuador, then coordinated photographic activities on the staff of the Fifteenth Naval District. He was photographic officer at NAS Coco Solo in the Canal Zone, photographic liaison officer at the aviation supply depots in Philadelphia and Pearl Harbor, and photographic officer on the staff of Commander Utility Wing, Pacific Fleet.

From August 1948 to September 1949 he was stationed at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, with the Bureau of Aeronautics representative for the Central District. There, according to Rear Admiral T. C. Lonnquest, he "served as Bureau of Aeronautics liaison officer with the Air Materiel Command in matters relating to procurement of photographic items." He was then brought to Washington to head the procurement branch of the Photographic Division "because of his exceptional qualifications" (page 356).

Postwar reductions ended his temporary lieutenancy on 31 December 1949. He appealed in a letter of 23 November 1949 (pages 354-361). He then reverted to his permanent rank of Chief Photographer. Orders sent him to the Naval Photographic Center at Anacostia (page 120), then to NAS Barbers Point, Hawaii, and in May 1951 to Fleet Activities, Yokosuka, Japan.

Summer 1952: what the file shows, and what it does not

He reported to the Naval Supply Center, Oakland, on 5 February 1952 (page 37). A fitness report from that period names his post as "Photographic Technical Officer at the Aviation Supply Depot, Naval Supply Center, Oakland" (page 547). This is the same unit that Air Force messages about the film give as his address.

Two leave reports, both dated 9 July 1952, both cite "Approved Leave Papers" of 1 May 1952. One records 12 days of leave, "6-19-52 to 6-30-52 Incl."; the other records 7 days, "7-1-52 to 7-7-52 Incl." (pages 82-83). The break falls on the first day of the fiscal year. His officer leave record lists the June period as well (pages 492-493). A third report covers 19 July to 1 August 1952 (page 81).

On 18 July 1952 the disbursing office at NSC Oakland paid $452.85 on a claim for moving his dependents "from Silver Springs, Md. to El Cerrito, Calif.": 3,019 miles at 15 cents per mile, two full fares and one half fare (pages 21, 29, 33).

The Blue Book file D102 says that on 2 July he, his wife and their two children were driving from Washington, D.C., to Portland, Oregon. Nothing in this file contradicts that. He was on leave, and his family was moving west from the Washington area that summer. But the personnel file records no route and no leave destination, and it places him nowhere in Utah. The words Tremonton, Utah, film, UFO and Blue Book do not appear in the text of any of the 585 pages, and none of the photostats reviewed mentions them. His fitness reports for February-June and July-December 1952 praise his supply work and say nothing about the film.

Two other 1952 items are simply routine in the file. On 25-29 August he made a three-day trip to the Naval Ordnance Test Station at Inyokern, California, "in connection with photographic matters" (pages 79-80). On 22 September he received a final Secret clearance, based on a National Agency Check completed on 8 September (page 38). The file does not link either one to Tremonton.

What his superiors wrote

Seventeen years of fitness reports are mostly favorable, but they are not uniform. In Ecuador (September 1942 to February 1943) he was marked "Average." That report says he performed "his major duties as Photographer in an entirely satisfactory manner," but that other duties were "accomplished with rather indifferent results" (page 583). The Coco Solo reports of 1943-44 speak of "wide experience in photography of all types" (page 576). One adds that "a long acquaintance with photographic problems both in naval service and civilian life makes him fully able to handle all photographic responsibilities" (page 578).

In February 1948 Captain J. C. Cronin checked "unfavorable." He wrote that Newhouse was "judged competent in the technical aspects of photography," but that his administrative performance was "below average" (page 359). That transcript is in the file only because Newhouse submitted it himself, along with more favorable extracts, when he appealed his reversion in 1949.

Later reports are warmer:

• At Yokosuka in 1951, Captain F. J. Grandfield found "a thorough background of all phases of the photographic field" (page 553).
• At Oakland in 1952, Rear Admiral T. Earle Hipp rated him "Excellent" and then "Outstanding," with a mark of 4.0 for technical competence in photographic materiel (pages 543, 545).
• From 1954 to 1956 he was assistant officer in charge of the Fleet Air Photo Lab of Utility Squadron FIVE on Guam. His report there credits "a high degree of competency in the technical field of Photography," though "he at times tends to be argumentative" (page 529).
• At the Naval Air Technical Training Unit, Pensacola, he ran the ground phase of the PH(A) school. His 1957 report calls him "an experienced and well-qualified photographic specialist," and also notes that he "gives the impression of not having sufficient enthusiasm and drive" (page 521).
• Aboard USS Essex in 1958, his photographic group processed thousands of aerial prints during the Lebanon operations (page 508).
• In 1959 his commanding officer on the Essex, Captain T. W. South II, wrote simply: "He is an excellant [sic] photographer" (page 505).

The flight hours and the "expert" label

The interview report in D105 (pages 31-32) says he had been in naval service "FOR OVER 19 YEARS," had served as a commissioned officer in the Second World War, and had graduated from photographic school in 1935. The personnel file confirms all three: nineteen years and seven months of service by September 1952, the school in 1935, and a warrant in 1942 followed by commissions from 1943.

The flight hours are another matter. The only source for them in this file is his own letter of 20 October 1943 from Coco Solo, asking for duty as an aviation technical observer. In it he wrote: "I have had approximately one thousand hours experience in the air on photographic aerial missions during eleven years active duty in the Navy" (page 422). The request was turned down. An endorsement from the Chief of Naval Operations states that such orders "are not required in the proper performance of subject officer's regular duties" (pages 417-418). The file contains no flight log that could confirm the number. The figure he gave the Air Force in 1952 is essentially the one he gave in 1943. After 1943 his posts were mostly ashore, in photographic supply, liaison, procurement and laboratory management. That fits with little further flying, though the file does not say so directly. It also neither supports nor refutes the figure of 2,200 hours that appears elsewhere in D102.

His rank is another detail the file corrects. Air Force messages call him "CPO," a chief petty officer, which is an enlisted grade. In July 1952 he was in fact a commissioned warrant officer, a Chief Photographer, and had been a temporary Lieutenant until 31 December 1949. The title "Chief Warrant Officer W-4" came later. His appointment took effect on 15 June 1955 under the Warrant Officer Act of 1954 (pages 310-311).

Retirement

His next assignments were Utility Squadron FIVE at Agana, Guam (1954-1956), and the training unit at Pensacola, where the work was "Training Navy aerial and ground photographers and photographic officers" (page 517). From 10 January 1958 he served in USS Essex. A commendation of 13 November 1958 records the carrier's Mediterranean deployment, her air support for the Lebanon landings of July 1958, and her emergency move to the Far East during the Formosa crisis (pages 474-478). In 1959 Senator Wayne Morse of Oregon passed on a family request for West Coast duty (pages 445-446). From 18 August 1959 he served with the Pacific Fleet Photo-Triangulation Group in San Diego.

On 5 January 1960 he asked to retire, writing: "I will complete 30 years service during March 1960" (page 302). That count matches the National Guard entry of March 1929. He was placed on the retired list on 1 April 1960.

The official blurb says he "left naval service as a Chief Warrant Officer 4." That is correct as far as it goes: his orders placed him on the retired list "with the rank of Chief Photographer, W-4." But on 12 February 1960 the Secretary of the Navy determined that the highest rank he had satisfactorily held was lieutenant. He was therefore "advanced" to "the rank of lieutenant on the retired list," with retired pay based on the W-4 grade (pages 295, 299).

Significance

This file adds nothing about what the objects over Tremonton were. Its value lies in what it says about the witness, in three ways.

First, it independently confirms the facts about his career on which the Air Force judged him credible. He had more than nineteen years of service, graduated from photographic school in 1935, was commissioned in wartime, and had a long record in naval aviation photography that explicitly included motion picture work.

Second, it shows where that picture falls short. The thousand-hour figure rests on his own word. By 1952 his daily work was managing photographic supplies rather than flying photography. And his evaluations range from "Average" and one "unfavorable" to "Outstanding."

Third, it fixes the administrative facts around 2 July 1952: authorized leave from 19 June to 7 July, and a family move from Maryland to California. These are consistent with the accounts in D102 and D105, even though the film itself is never mentioned. The file is best read together with D102, D103 (the pillow-balloon review), D105, the Release 5 Navy film analysis DOW-UAP-D098, and the film itself, DOW-UAP-PR159.

Key People

Locations

Incidents

Notable Quotes

"Chief Photographer's Mate, Aviation, all aerial photographic operations including aerial mapping with single and multiple lens cameras and motion picture photography." -- page 388

"I have had approximately one thousand hours experience in the air on photographic aerial missions during eleven years active duty in the Navy." -- page 422

"This officer has wide experience in photography of all types, much of it while he has been in the Navy but with additional background from civil life." -- page 576

"He is judged competent in the technical aspects of photography, but his performance of his administrative duties in both the photographic and operational departments is below average." -- page 359

"He has a thorough background of all phases of the photographic field; and seems to be fully capable of performing all duties assigned him." -- page 553

"His thorough knowledge of the technical aspects of photographic material and his understanding of the inventory control procedures involved in its storage and distribution has materially aided this Depot in the performance of its mission." -- page 545

"Thousands of aerial photographic prints were expeditiously developed in order to support intelligence requirements. He can be depended upon to complete any photographic assignment with speed and expertness." -- page 508

"The enlisted record of NEWHOUSE, Delbert C., cannot be located. Consideration for selection will have to be based on his officer record only." -- page 389