Look Up: The 800,000 Americans Who Watched the Sky

Part 18 of a series reassessing the documentary record behind the 1933 Magenta narrative. TL;DR More than 800,000 volunteers reportedly served over the program’s Cold War years. They were not all watching simultaneously, and the total includes filter-center work. Operation Skywatch began July 14, 1952, in 27 states. Later regional expansion means that date cannot be treated as a single nationwide increase in observation. UFO reporting was an explicit secondary duty: a December 1952 Blue Book...