UFO. United States

New York, New York, TIMES, 5 November 1957, page 22

FLYING OBJECTS BRING ON INQUIRY
Air Force Acts on Sightings in Texas and New Mexico Atom Testing Site

WASHINGTON, Nov. 4 (AP) - The Air Force said today it was investigating reports of a lighted object said by witnesses to have flown over West Texas and touched ground with strange results.

Reports of the object flying with a "great sound and rush of wind," and of such incidents as auto engines stopping as they approached it on the ground, came from several places over the week-end.

An Air Force spokesman said a preliminary investigation had been ordered. In reply to questions as to the significance of such an order, he said: "We don't investigate all of them, after all."

Preliminary investigations are made by available Air Force personnel in the area. General jurisdiction over reports of flying saucers and the like belongs to the Air Technical Intelligence Center at Wright-Patterson Base in Ohio, which orders more detailed investigations if preliminary check-ups indicate such a need.

An object reported yesterday near Levelland, Tex., was described variously as a burning mass, a big light and a red, egg-shaped mass 200 feet long. Among those who said they had seen it were a sheriff and one of his deputies.

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Spotted by Patrols

WHITE SANDS PROVING GROUNDS, N. M., Nov. 4 (AP) - The Army said today that a huge, oval object "nearly as bright as the sun" was spotted yesterday above bunkers used in the first atomic explosions.

The sightings were made seventeen hours apart by two military police patrols on this missile testing range. The first atomic bomb was touched off on the northern edge of the area in 1945.

The commanding officer of the M. P.'s said none had heard radio reports or seen newspaper accounts of similar sightings in Texas.

Both sightings were in the area of abandoned bunkers used by technicians who observed the first atomic explosion. The bunkers are of reinforced concrete and dirt, and contain no equipment or personnel. The explosion site, leveled and filled in, is several miles away.

One patrol saw a bright light that took off at a 45-degree angle and started blinking. Then it disappeared.

An earlier sighting was made by two soldiers in a jeep. They noticed a "very bright object" high in the sky. It descended until it was about fifty yards above the bunkers when it went out, they reported.

A few minutes later, they said, "the object became real bright, like the sun, then fell in an angle to the ground and went out." It was described as seventy-five to 100 yards in diameter and shaped like an egg. An officer accompanied some M. P.'s to the site but found nothing.

Neither patrol had had motor trouble with their jeeps.

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Incident in Chicago

CHICAGO, Nov. 4 (UP) - Three suburban policemen said today they had seen an aerial phenomenon similar to one reported in West Texas and New Mexico.

They said a bright, cigar-shaped cylinder had appeared in the early morning, and had dimmed the headlights and spotlight of their squad car. They chased it until it rose out of sight, they added.