FOIA: Sighting by OSI Special Agent at Alamorgordo NM 06JAN50

NM_JAN_6_1950.pdf
Alamogordo, NM Sighting 06JAN50 Classified (ASTRO:Canopus)
This is a report on a 45 minute sighting of an object which appeared in the night sky. It had a fairly straight trajectory though the witness describes some erratic movement. It was described as white changing to green & red.
Document date: 1950-01-06
Department: OSI Kirtland AFB New Mexico
Author: Various
Document type: Report
pages: 6


Archivist's Notes: This file is in fairly good condition with most of the file legible. Attempts to view the object through a theodolite were unsuccessful as was an effort to capture the object on radar. An investigation reveals that White Sands had nothing experimental in the skies that evening which might have accounted for this sighting. One interesting point is the fact that this sighting was observed and reported by a special agent of the OSI office at Kirtland AFB.

Here is an interesting report in that the observation was made by a trained Special Agent from the Office of Special Investigations at Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico. This lends some credibility to the report not only because the individual was a trained investigator but also because these professional government types tend to be much more structured and conservative in their assessments and reporting procedures.

This report is no exception; it’s a straight-laced, matter-of-fact accounting of an aerial phenomenon that occurred late in the evening of January 6, 1950 over Alamogordo, New Mexico. You can read through the report yourself, but here are some of the more intriguing highlights:

The reporting individual, Mr. Russell Womack, observed the event for a full 45 minutes and when he finally left, the object was still going through its aerial aerobatics in the night sky. Further, Mr. Womack was a "Detachment Commander”, in a government leadership position, who reported the observation corroborated by six other witnesses whom he identified.

When describing the object’s appearance, Mr. Womack referred to it as “predominately white-bright, comparable to Venus” and “...with a star-like shape.” As we know, this typically elicits the familiar skeptics refrain that the observer was obviously merely watching a star or planet and was confused by atmospheric perturbations that altered its appearance or made it seem to change in other ways. As we read further into the report, however, we also learn that Mr. Womack described the movement of the object as, “…erratically up, down, to the right, and to the left” as it moved on a general path “…from East to West.” Celestial objects admittedly will change color or appear to be flickering depending on atmospheric conditions, but it can be argued that a trained investigator like Mr. Womack likely did not see a celestial object bouncing around in a highly erratic pattern as it crossed the sky over a 45-minute period.


[edit on 1/23/2008 by Outrageo]

It seems that the special agent had been forwarding reports of this nature prior to his own sighting. From this it would seem that at least a portion of his duties included the investigation of these UFOs. It would be interesting to note if his name comes up on other reports.

If he did investigate other reports of "lights in the sky", then one would expect that he had enough familiarity with the subject to be a better than average witness. And to make a report on his own sighting, he would have to be convinced beyond any reasonable doubt that this could not be explained as a normal phenomenon.

He seemed sure of the erratic movement of the object. This would indicate that he took careful note of the situation. After having investigated other reports, it would be natural for him to include all the information he and the other witnesses had.

Yet the very "matter of fact" sparseness of the report almost sounds like it was purposefully kept as lean as possible. I would bet, (personal gut feeling from the tone of the report) that there is somewhere a follow-up report in more detail, possibly with the agents personal opinions included. One can almost see a budding Fox Mulder writing this report.