The National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (Nicap)

# Approved For Release 2001/04/02 : CIA-RDP81R00560R000100010001-0

## White Sands Military Police Patrols

At 3:00 a.m. (MST) - 4:00 a.m. Levelland time - November 3, two military policemen on routine patrol at the White Sands missile range, reported an egg-shaped UFO which descended over the base. A report on this case, and a similar sighting next evening, was issued to the press November 4 by 1st Lt. Miles F. Penney, Commanding Officer of the Stallion Site Camp north of the base headquarters.

Cpl. Glenn H. Toy and Pfc. James Wilbanks, patrolling in a jeep, noticed a "very bright object" high in the sky. The object descended to a point about 50 yards above a bunker which was used during the first atomic bomb explosion. Then its light blinked out. A few minutes later the light flared up again, becoming bright "like the sun," dropped toward the ground on a slant about 3 miles away and disappeared. According to Lt. Penney, the M.P.'s described the UFO as egg-shaped, and about 75-100 yards in diameter. A search party later was unable to find any trace of the object.

[On November 5, in an open session with Public Information Officer William Haggard and newsmen (reported by International News Service), Cpl. Toy stated: "It looked like a completely controlled landing."]

That evening, about 8:00 p.m., Sp. 3/C Forest R. Oakes and Sp. 3/C Barlow, on another two-man jeep patrol, reported seeing an unidentified light hanging above the old A-bombbunker. Oakes described it as "200 or 300 feet long. . . very bright." The patrol was about 2-3 miles west of the bunker. As the M.P.'s watched, the UFO took off climbing at a 45 degree angle, its light pulsating on and off. Moving slowly, sometimes stopping, the UFO gradually diminished to a point of light "like a big star," and finally disappeared.

## White Sands Engineer

About 17 hours after the second jeep patrol sighting at White Sands, James Stokes, a high altitude research engineer at the base, watched an elliptical UFO maneuver over the area. While driving toward El Paso, Texas, on Highway 54, near Orogrande, N.M. (at the southeast corner of the Proving Grounds, about 15

miles from the Missile Test Center), strokes began experiencing motor trouble. As the motor failed and he coasted to a stop, he noticed other cars ahead of him stopped on the roadside with people looking up and pointing to the sky.

Climbing out of his car, Stokes also looked up and saw a large, whitish egg-shaped object moving in and out of clouds to the northeast, in the direction of the Sacramento Mountains. The UFO made a shallow dive, turned and crossed the highway a few miles ahead. As the UFO flashed by, Stokes felt a wave of heat. (His face later appeared "sunburned.")

Moving at fantastic speed, the featureless object turned sharply and disappeared over the Organ Pass west of the base. In a taped interview broadcast on station KALG, Stokes estimated the speed at 2500 mph. It was "definitely a solid object," he said.

Declining to speculate on what the object was, Stokes said, "I just hope we're ready for whatever it is." [27]

Next day sightings reached a peak with numerous reports from all over the country. Included was the radar-visual sighting by the Coast Guard Cutter Sebago, south of New Orleans. [Section VIII; Radar.] Stories of alleged encounters with "spacemen" began to be reported, including a claim by a grain salesman in Nebraska who said he had met German-speaking beings in a landed spaceship. The story was subsequently discredited when it was learned that the "witness" had a prison record. (Later, he was convicted of two counts of swindling elderly women out of large sums of money in California).

On the 6th, a similar report came from Dante, Tennessee, where a young boy reported a landed "spaceship" at 6:30 a.m. Human-like figures were walking near the ship, he said, and their voices sounded like German which he had heard on television. (About the same time, a few reports of "little men" associated with landed craft also began to circulate). NICAP was unable to investigate the Tennessee report sufficiently to pass judgment on it. Some of the story is plausible, but lacking concrete proof and substantiation by other witnesses, we cannot accept it as authentic. [See Section XIV.]

A more thoroughly investigated case (without the "spacemen" aspect) occurred on the night of the 6th. The case also includes the implication of high-level knowledge of UFOs, which is kept secret from the public.

## The Olden Moore Case

About 11:20 p.m., Olden Moore, a plasterer, was returning to his home in Huntsburg, Ohio, from Painesville, driving on Route 86. He noticed a bright star-like light approaching, apparently following the course of the road. As the light got brighter and brighter, Moore pulled to the side of the road to watch, and switched off his ignition. (When his story was first publicized, some erroneous news reports were circulated that his motor had failed.) Moore was later interviewed by NICAP member C. W. Fitch in Cleveland, and gave a detailed statement:

"In a matter of seconds from the time I first saw the object it was over a large field at the intersection of Hart Road and Route 86. While it was still high in the air, it [the light] seemed to split apart and one section moved upward out of my range of vision. The other descended slowly and silently into the field adjoining the road, where it loomed big like a house in front of me. In the darkness I could not discern whether it was actually resting on the ground or hovering just above it.

"It appeared to be perhaps 50 feet across and 20 feet from the top to the bottom. It was round and shaped like a saucer with another inverted one resting on top of the lower saucer. It had an inverted cone-shaped dome in the center of the top part. It was mirror-like. . . surrounded by a bluish-green mist or haze, through which it glowed like the dial of a luminous watch. It began to pulsate, first glowing brightly and then dimming with rythmic repetition.

"I sat in my car and watched the strange object for about 15 minutes, then got out and walked toward it to get a closer look. My feelings at the time were more of curiosity than of anything else, in fact, I do not recall having any feeling of fear. I was so amazed at what I was seeing that I was filled with a sensation of wonderment and curiosity which occupied my mind completely.