FOIA: Tularosa NM Sighting 20FEB50 Classified Astro (Altair)

NM_FEB_20_1950.pdf
Tularosa NM Sighting 20FEB50
Investigation Report of Sighting at Tularosa NM 20FEB50
Document date: 1950-02-20
Department: USAF IG OSI
Author: Doyle Rees
Document type: Investigation Report
pages: 6


Archivist's Notes: Investigation Report of a sighting by two Airmen of a stationary bright white round object in the sky over Tularosa, NM. This was classified as ASTRO (Altair). The complete file is legible.

page 1 reports a white round object, the size of a dollar at arms length, seen for 5 minutes by an airman in a truck on 20 feb 1950 in tularosa new mexico. handwritten at the bottom is ASTRO (ALTAIR)

page 2 is a letter to the commanding general of air material command at wright-patterson airforce base regarding the sighting.

page 3 names the witness, discloses that he was interviewed for his information and states they are following orders given on 12th august 1949 to report all ufo sightings.

pages 4,5 & 6 detail the sighting, which occurred at 0630 hours. the witness was in a moving truck and stated that the stationary object was approx 1000 ft above sacramento mountains (altitude 9000 ft). witness said the object was roundish but due to the glare, couldn't be certain if it was perfectly round. it disappeared behind cloud after 5 minutes. he is classed as being reliable with average ability to determine. they finally list all the checks of things it couldn't have been and say that no radar was operational at the time.

page 5 bottom states there were two witnesses (boone and reigle) though there only appears to be paperwork regarding boone.

I have never seen a star that was the size of a dollar held at arms length. While this is another run-of-the-mill light in the sky, it seems that there was some interest in closing the case by claiming it was a star.

No matter where you look in the night sky, there are always fairly bright stars to claim as the object, and it's an easy way out of an investigation. I agree that there was likely no way to gain any more information on this sighting, but I see little reason to assume it was a star.

Personally, with just the information presented here, I would feel that on the basis of it being unusually bright, seeming to show a defined shape, and the size apparent to the observer(s), it should be listed as an "unknown".

Whenever I download one of these pdf's all I get is an oddly colored document informing me to go to stone.abovetopsectre.com

reply to post by skoalman88


you most likely need to get an up to date version of acrobat reader which can be downloaded from here.

be aware also that not all the documents/pages are legible but have been scanned in 'as is'. some of them are around 60 years old so they don't look or scan too well.