http://www.nicap.org/docs/MAXW-PBB5-1508-1516.pdf

 

 

Page ID (PID) : MAXW-PBB5-1508
Collection : Maxwell AFB Microfilm
Roll Description : Project Blue Book Roll 5

 

The focus of UFO activity, however, remained in the U.S. southwest, Camp Hood had twelve reports of strange lights between 11:20 p.m. April 27th, to 11:30 p.m. April 28th. All of the sightings were made by guards in the dead of the night. Nothing unusual was noted during the daylight hours. Colonel Eustis Poland, GSC, AC of S, G-2, alerted Air Force Intelligence. The dates and times as given by Colonel Poland are listed below:

1-Rpt dtd 27 Apr, 2120 hours

2-Rpt dtd 27 Apr, 2135 hours

3-Rpt dtd 27 Apr, 2137 hours

4-Rpt dtd 28 Apr, 2030 hours, at Outpost No.

5-Rpt dtd 28 Apr, 2030 hours, at 914.8 856.1

6-Rpt dtd 28 Apr, 2037 hours

7-Rpt dtd 28 Apr, 2040 hours

8-Rpt dtd 28 Apr, 2100 hours

9-Rpt dtd 28 Apr, 2110 hours

10-Rpt dtd 28 Apr, 2110 hours

11-Rpt dtd 28 Apr, 2130 hours

12-Rpt dtd 28 Apr, 2130 hours

Some of the descriptions:

One account mentions light, going on and off at regular intervals, that moved horizontally close to the ground, even passing through fork of tree. Another Army guard saw bright, white cone-shaped affair, three to four inches long, that moved in one direction and then made 180 degree turn before going out. Still another guard said he witnessed round, bright, white light 200 yards away and about seven feet above the ground. It approached him within 50 yards. He thought it to be the size of baseball. It was in sight some 30 to 40 seconds. Standing guard, yet another Army guard was surprised to see light come on, dull violet, glareless glow about the size of 50 cent piece. The light was stationary at first but then moved passed the guard, approaching within 12 feet. It quickly picked up speed and darted off down nearby road (Route 203) at an altitude of an estimated seven feet.

For five to six seconds another guard watched as light, he believed to be some 10 to 15 inches long and about 100 to 150 feet in the air, jumped up and down. It appeared to be mile away. After while it shot off to the south, changing color all the time from white, to red, and then green. At one guard post soldier glanced toward the camp and suddnly noticed light he thought to be the dimensions of baseball, two miles off just above the tree tops. The round light drifted slowly west. The soldier remarked that the light was visible for about three minutes, vanished for two, and then came on again.

In the center of the bivouac area one enlisted man had learned of the lights being reported by the guard posts around the perimeter and walked out to the road to see for himself He wasn't disappointed. Something chalk white about mile away to the north sped pass, baseball-sized object that traversed part of the dark sky in two to three seconds and then went out like light bulb being turned off. private in "C" Company spotted baseball-sized light some 300 yards from the camp that bounced around for ten minutes blinking on and off Alerted by phone call, outpost number checked the sky and immediately sighted four round lights the size, they guessed, of tennis balls. The four lights were at an azimuth of 45 degrees. One of the lights changed color. First it was white, and then it turned red, and finally it became green. The other three lights remained white in color. Duration of the sighting was about minute.

Two guards were watching the night sky when one yelledThere it goes!" The other guard turned in time to also see the phenomenon, bunch of lights some eight to ten in number, at an angle of 40 degrees up into the vault of the heavens. The flock of lights traveled slowly toward the southeast. The lights all followed the same pattern. About the size of softball, the two guards said, the round lights first appeared white and then reddish, and finally green color. Another large group o± lights fact the largest reported, was seen the night of April 28th when some 18 white and red, round, glowing points appeared just above the treetops about mile and half away from the observer. The lights moved slowly and through binoculars appeared to be 10 inches in diamter. They were visible for 10 to 15 minutes.

The Air Force may have felt that the foregoing was some sort of.natural phenomenon, but to the Army personnel at Camp Hood the lights were spooky and something they could do without.

The dry official reports of the strange lights seen about Camp Hood lack the essentials of drama, but drama can be imagined and even an ordinary writer could come up with screenplay that could do justice to the ghostly experience. All of the lights flashed by the dark and it can be guessed there were many trigger-happy Army sharp-shooters that would have given months pay to get one of the sky spooks in their gun sights in broad daylight.

Meanwhile, Wright Field was struggling with the Arrey, New Mexico monster. The height and speed estimates of the object reported were enormous. At their desks at Intelligence headquarters, the Air Force experts zeroed in the witnesses' admission he did not get clear focus on the object in question. To them it boiled down to matter of proper depth perception: "We therefore conclude that the observer could not estimate the distance of the object from him. Since he could not estimate the distance, then any assumption as to linear speed and/or elevation is without reason."

(1949 UFO History, pgs 66-68)