Monday, 30 March 2020

UFO News Article:
“Flying Object Seen On Desert”


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.

http://www.nicap.org/articles/571104orogrande_article.htm

Wikipedia article: “Air Force Missile Development Center”:


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 OrograndeNew Mexico
(Google photo)






















Satellite photo of OrograndeNew Mexico (tageo.com)
(tageo.com photo)























Map of White Sands Missile Range and Tularosa Basin
New Mexico (2004)
(wikimedia.org) (wikimedia.org image)

UFO Case Directory (EMCAT):
“Stokes Incident
Nov. 4, 1957
Orogrande, New Mexico”


(NICAP.org)

The whole UFO case report:
Brad Sparks:
Nov. 4, 1957.  About 8-10 [4?] miles SSW of Orogrande, New Mexico (BBU)
1:10 p.m. (MST). James Stokes, electronics instrumentation technician, Rocketsonde Branch, High Altitude Test Division, AF Missile Development Center, Holloman AFB, NM, a Mr. Duncan of Las Cruces, NM, and Allan Baker of Holloman AFB. Stokes was driving S down Hwy 54 when his radio faded and the car slowed [stopped?] as if the battery was failing then he noticed 6-12 cars ahead of him had stopped and drivers were out looking at the sky (looking behind him to the NE), including Duncan and Baker. Stokes stopped and got out, saw pearl-white oval or egg-shaped object about 500 ft wide with slight purplish tinge heading S at high speed estimated 1500-2000 mph from the NE below elevation angle of Sacramento Mtns ridgeline, descending from about 5,000 ft above ground level in shallow dive to about 1,500-2,500 ft altitude as it swerved to the W to pass to the S of Stokes and the other stopped cars about 2 or 3-5 miles at closest, then circling around headed W and disappearing. The same or another object appeared in the NE (as if the object had completely circled) and performed same rounded course but passing farther to the S of the parked cars [about 5 miles?] and disappeared in the W. Duncan took 35 mm film of the object. Stokes noticed a wave of heat from the object at closest approach, later that evening was sunburned, but it cleared up the next day. (Sparks; APRO;  BB files; McDonald list; Saunders/FUFOR Index; etc,)”

NICAP.org presents a U.S. government (Project Blue Book, U.S. Air Force) document that pertains to the UFO case.


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)

UFO Case Report:
“The James Stokes Story
Near Orogrande, NM
Nov. 4, 1957”


By Loren Gross, Francis Ridge, Jan Aldrich and Larry Hatch
(NICAP.org)

James Stokes sighted a UFO 16 kilometres (10 miles) to the south of Orogrande, New Mexico.

People from six other cars also observed the UFO incident, according to a 5 November 1957 Alamogordo Daily News article (see below link).

Quote from the Alamogordo Daily News article:
“It must have been about 300 to 500 feet long and was of material—would have been something like 100-200 feet in thickness. There were no windows, or observation platforms visible on the object,’ he [James Stokes] continued.”

Stokes guessed that the UFO (which had the colour of an egg) travelled at a rate of Mach 1 or Mach 2.

A Mr. Duncan of Las Cruces, New Mexico, photographed the UFO, according to Stokes.

This is an electromagnetic (EM) interference (stalled cars and radio signal interference)/medical incident (sunburn) UFO case.

Orogrande, New Mexico, is located 51 kilometres (32 miles) to the south of Holloman Air Force Base and White Sands Missile Range.


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)

Friday, 27 March 2020

UFO News Article:
“Egg-Shaped UFO Stalls Cars On Highway – AFMDC Engineer Reports Strange Experience – ‘Frankly, I Was Scared,’ Says Stokes Of Experience With UFO”


5 November 1957
(Alamogordo Daily News, New Mexico)

Source: NewspaperArchive.com

The whole article:
“ ‘It all happened so fast that I don’t know whether I can give you the answers you want or not,’ was the way that James Stokes, Alamogordo, opened an interview this morning relative to the unidentified flying object he saw yesterday afternoon near Orogrande. ‘The whole experience is weird, and very frankly I was scared to death, but I’ll tell you what I can,’ he said.

Stokes reported that while driving on Highway 54 about 10 miles south of Orogrande yesterday afternoon [4 November 1957], at 1:10, he noticed that his car radio began to fade out, and then the engine of his car slowed, and finally quit.

‘There It Was’

‘I thought it very strange, but did notice that other cars had pulled off, so I did, too, and the motor of my car quit entirely. I got out of the car and noticed another fellow pointing toward the sky, so I had a good look myself. There it was. Coming in from the northeast was the object. It swooped on toward Orogrande and headed out north. It disappeared quickly. We watched skyward, and it came in once more on the same path, and headed out north once more. We watched it until it disappeared, and that is all there is to it.

‘The object was rather egg-shaped, the color of an egg or perhaps ‘mother of pearl’ color, it was definitely a solid, material thing, but there was no noise, no smoke nor vapor trail.’

Extremely High Speed

Stokes, a veteran of 24 years with the U. S. Navy and now retired from Naval service, is employed on a classified experimental project at Holloman. He said that he had lived in Alamogordo and had been employed at AFMDC for the past 18 months, and that this is the first time he had ever had such an experience.

‘Judging from the distance the object covered and the extremely short time it took to cover it, I’d judge that it must have been traveling at a rate of Mach 1 or Mach 2,’ he said. ‘Again I must point out that these are purely guesses, and that I was scared, that time was so short, but there were people from six other cars watching the same thing. The object appeared to be about 1,500 to 3,000 feet in altitude. I made this guess based on the heights of the cloud formations that were floating overhead, and that the object flew into now and then. It must have been about 300 to 500 feet long and was of material—would have been something like 100-200 feet in thickness. There were no windows, or observation platforms visible on the object,’ he continued.

Stokes was reported to have been ‘sunburned’ by the object. He said that he felt the rising of temperature and that his face was ‘slightly burned.’ However the burns were not serious and were not painful today. Outside of the heat from the object, Stokes said there was no pain from the burns.

He also pointed out again that there was no noise from the object. ‘When it changed directions it didn’t turn, nor bank. It just went the other way,’ he said. ‘We were able to view it only about two or three minutes at the most,’ Stokes continued.

Stokes made notes on what he had seen, and even made a diagram of its location in relation to the mountains to the east and Highway 54. He said he talked with a Mr. Duncan of Las Cruces, who took pictures on a 35 [millimeter] camera. He also talked with an Allan Baker from White Sands Proving Ground, whose auto had also been stalled by the appearance of the object.

‘I couldn’t give any opinion as to what it was. I just don’t know. First thought that came to mind was that it was St. Elmo’s fire, but I had seen that before and never in so large a form as this. I am convinced that its color was egg-white, that no other colors were visible, and that it was a very fast-flying object,’ he said.”

My comment:
This is an electromagnetic (EM) interference (stalled cars and radio signal interference)/medical incident (sunburn) UFO case.

Orogrande, New Mexico, is located 51 kilometres (32 miles) to the south of Holloman Air Force Base and White Sands Missile Range.


Wikipedia article: “Holloman Air Force Base”:

Wikipedia article: “White Sands Missile Range”:


Related posts:



realtvufos.blogspot.com/search?q=1957























The front page of the 5 November 1957 issue of Alamogordo Daily News, New Mexico/Photo: James Stokes tells U.S. Air Force officers of his UFO experience on Highway 54, south of Orogrande, New Mexico
(Alamogordo Daily News/newspaperarchive.com image)






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)