FOIA: B29 Bombardier Observes Cigar Shaped UFO near Las Cruces NM

NM_SEP_19_1949.pdf
Report of 19SEP49 sighting near Las Cruces, NM
Inflight sighting of Silver cigar shaped object by B29 bombardier near Las Cruces, New Mexico 19SEP49
Document date: 1949-09-26
Department: HQ 97th Bombardment Wing- medium Biggs AFB TX
Author: Paul Johnson Jr, Maj USAF
Document type: report
pages: 4


Archivist's Notes: Document in very good condition all pages are legible. This is a report of a sighting made inflight by 1Lt James Eskridge, B29 Bombardier while flying near Las Cruces, NM on Sep 19, 1949. He describes a silver cigar shaped object moving towards the south at a slow speed. The object was observed for a period of four minutes. No incident number, no classification made that I can see from this four page report.

A solid, workman like report by a man the interviewer described as "dependable...steady and earnest". It seems that on the morning of September 19th, 1949, 1st Lt. James W. Eskridge was in the bombardier's compartment of a B-29flying at 35000 ft, somewhere west of Los Cruses, New Mexico, when he saw a UFO.

He described the object as "cigar shaped" and very bright. He estimated that it was about the size of a B-36, some 20-25 miles distant. The object was moving slowly southward :toward Mexico". After about four minutes of observation, the UFO "seemed to fade away".

Follow up investigation showed that neither military or civilian aircraft were reported in the area, and that no balloons had been launched by the military around that time frame. Wind directions seem to also rule out a balloon as being the object moving south.

As a side not, in many of these reports there is a question asked that sparks some interest as an investigator. The question of polarized glasses. Did the military have some reason to think that certain types of glasses were more often worn in these cases than others?

This report is spelled out pretty well by NGC2736, a cigar shaped UFO observed by an airmen while in flight. One problem I have with the description is that the witness described the object to be about the size of a B-36 at 20 miles out. That would be very small even for a large plane, but the apparent size is given as "About one foot long at an eye appearance". This is a bit confusing, because most apparent sizes are usually the length of the object at arms length. If you disregard this and assume it was a foot in length at arms length, it had to be much closer than 20 miles. I also noticed in the weather report the visibility was 20 miles, so if he was correct in the distance, the object was just on the edge of his visibility.

Originally posted by NGC2736
The question of polarized glasses. Did the military have some reason to think that certain types of glasses were more often worn in these cases than others?

I think when asking about polarized glasses, they are referring to sun glasses. If any glasses are worn, it may raise doubt about what the witness saw, but in this case he wasn't wearing any.