5 November 1957
(Las Vegas Daily Optic, Las Vegas, New Mexico)
Source:
NICAP.org
The whole
article:
“An electronics
engineer reported seeing an unidentified flying object on an isolated desert
highway near Alamogordo in southern New Mexico Monday
afternoon [4 November 1957].
James Stokes,
42-year-old engineer in an upper air research project at the Air Force Missile Development
Center near Alamogordo,
said 10 automobiles stopped or were stopped on U.S. Highway 54, between White
Sands Proving [Ground] and the Air
Force Development
Center, when the flying
object appeared.
Earlier in the
day, officials at White Sands Proving [Ground] said two army patrols reported seeing a
similar object or objects on Sunday [3 November 1957].
Object
Stops Cars
Similar reports
came Sunday from Levelland, Tex.
Stokes, in a
taped interview for Terry Clark news director of station KALG in Alamogordo, reported that object approached from the
northeast over the Sacramento mountains. He
said the first indication that something out of the ordinary was happening was
a gradual fading of the radio in his automobile.
Then, he said
the car engine died, and he noticed that several other cars on the highway had
stopped. He said he noticed that the occupants were getting out of their cars
and pointing toward the sky.
Passed
At Highway
‘Looking up,’
Stokes said in the interview, ‘I saw a light-colored egg-shaped object making a
shallow dive across the sky to the northeast.
‘Then it wheeled
and made a pass at the highway, across the road not more than two miles ahead.
‘It then moved
away toward the Organ mountains near White Sands Proving [Ground] to the southwest.
‘As it passed at
its closest point I could feel a kind of a heat wave but there was no sound.
No
Visible Portholes
‘It had no
visible portholes and there was no vapor trail, smoke of flame visible.’
(Stokes said he
remembered the details precisely because he pulled out a notebook and jotted
down everything he saw.)
‘When I got back
to my car and checked the engine, I found it intact, but the battery was
steaming. But it started with no trouble and I headed for a phone to notify
officials at the Air Force Missile development Center at Alamogordo.’
(An Air Force
public information officer told United Press Monday night he had no information
to report.).
Severe
Sunburn
Stokes said that
he noticed later, after he reached home, that he had a severe sunburn.
He said most of
the motorists who saw the object were engineers or technicians who work on
rocket projects at White Sands. He identified two others at the scene as Allan
D. Baker of Las Cruces, N.M.,
and a Mr. Duncan, also of Las Cruces.
Stokes said it
appeared to be 500 feet
in length, with a shiny surface like the mother of pearl.
He said it
remained visible for about three minutes—from 1:10 p.m., m.s.t. to 1:13
p.m.
Seen By
Patrols
Otero county’s
sheriff’s office had no reports on the object.
Officials at
White Sands Proving [Ground], where missiles are tested, said two separate military patrols reported
seeing an unidentified flying object [or] objects Sunday over an isolated area of the proving grounds near
‘Trinity’ site where the first atomic bomb was exploded in 1945.
They
investigated the site, but found no markings.”
My comment:
It is very interesting
to note that the 3 November 1957 UFO incident at White Sands Proving Ground
occurred just two months after the
activities at the Air Force Missile Development Center (Holloman AFB) started.
Anyone
researching the UFO phenomenon will sooner or later discover that UFOs apparently
are very interested in military bases and military technology.
Quote from the above Wikipedia article:
“The Air Force Missile Development Center and its predecessors were
Cold War units that conducted and supported numerous missile tests using
facilities at Holloman Air Force Base, where the center was the host unit (‘Holloman’
and ‘Development Center’ were sometimes colloquially used to identify military
installations in the Tularosa Basin.)
Active: 1 September 1957[2]-1 August
1970[3]”
Wikipedia article: “White Sands Missile Range”:
Quote from the Wikipedia article:
“White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) is a military testing
area operated by the United States Army. The range was originally established
as the White Sands Proving Ground on July 9, 1945.
Significant events
* The first atomic bomb (code named Trinity) was test detonated at
Trinity Site near the northern boundary of the range on July 16, 1945; seven
days after the White Sands Proving Ground was established.[7]
* White Sands V-2 Launching Site. (This was followed by the testing of
American rockets, which continues to this day, along with testing other
technologies.)
* NASA’s Space Shuttle Columbia landed on the Northrup Strip at WSMR on
March 30, 1982 as the conclusion to mission STS-3.[8] This was the only time
that NASA used WSMR as a landing site for the space shuttle.”
Related posts:
realtvufos.blogspot.com/search?q=1957
James Stokes, AFMDC Engineer
(nicap.org photo)
The yellow line indicates where James Stokes saw the UFO,
16 kilometres (10 miles) to the south of Orogrande, New Mexico
(Google photo)
Satellite photo of Orogrande, New Mexico (tageo.com)
(tageo.com photo)
Map of White Sands Missile
Range and Tularosa Basin,
New Mexico
(2004)