2245 MST
Witnesses: FAA (CAA) tower personnel, R.M. Kaser and E. G. Brink, reliable observers with 23 years of airport tower control experience between them.

Weather: Light rain.

A lighted object came down steeply at the east end of runway 26, left the flight line, crossed runways, taxiways, and unpaved areas at about a 30 degree angle, and proceeded southwest towards the control tower at an altitude of less than 100 feet. Observed through through 7x binoculars, the object appeared to be egg shaped, having no wings, tail, or fuselage, and was elongated vertically. It appeared to be fifteen to twenty feet tall, about the size of an automobile standing on its nose, and had a single white light at its base. Both Kaser and Brink emphatically stated that the object in no way resembled an aircraft.

When the object was about 3000 feet ENE of the tower, it stopped completely and hovered for about a minute. Then it began moving again, slowly at first, but then suddenly climbing at an extremely rapid rate of speed until it disappeared into the overcast sky. The object was in clear view at all time, with no intervening obstructions, according to the two men.

At this point Kaser and Brink phoned the CAA Radar Approach Control (RAPCON) unit to ask them if they could detect a fast target to the east. RAPCON was using CPN-18 surveillance radar at that time. Radar showed that the target moved eastward, then turned south at very high speed until it reached the vicinity of the Albuquerque Low Frequency Range Station, where it circled for several minutes. Then it came back towards Kirtland until it took up a position behind an Air Force C-46 that had just taken off. It stayed in position behind the C-46 until they both moved out of radar range.

Source Reference:
Statement on Unidentified Flying Objects submitted to the House Committee on Science and Astronautics at July 29, 1968, Symposium on Unidentified Flying Objects by James E. McDonald.