World UFO Watch

MUFON Special Assignment Team Case # 16MSAT08PGP-001The Pantex Plant Case, Panhandle Texas, November 7, 1957

El Paso, Texas, Times: "Some of the nation's top scientists are 'pretty shook up' about the mysterious flying objects sighted in New Mexico and West Texas skies this week, said Charles Capen (a scientist at White Sands). 'This is something that hasn't happened before,' (he said)."


Synopsis

Sometime after sunset on November 7, 1957 at the Pantex Nuclear Armaments Plant near Panhandle, Texas, fifteen miles northeast of Amarillo, Texas, between one and three disc shaped craft with bright colorful lights were seen to hover and perhaps land. One craft possibly landed within the facility within viewing distance of the Main Gate according to the witness named John Xxxxxxxs who initially contacted MUFON in August 2016 and a second report from a newspaper article indicated a disc landed on the road just outside the plant. The event possibly resulted in a highway (Route 60) being closed to traffic by State Police barricade and resulted in traffic jams of considerable length. The craft were seen in excess of 45 minutes by the two separate accounts we have of the incident.John Xxxxxxxs, who was in the Air Force at the time, investigated the case for decades on his own and in conjunction with mostly unnamed UFO investigators with the exception of Karen Lyster, a private UFOlogist from Australia in conjunction with Dr. Stephen Greer who only did perfunctory work on the case. Karen Lyster’s information has been given to the SAT Team through contact being made with SAT Team member James Clarkson. Mr. Xxxxxxxs believed the craft he saw was the result of a project of the United States Government called Project 1794 which sought to research and manufacture saucer shaped craft which could be stored in underground bunkers and achieve quick vertical lift off in case of enemy attack taking out conventional air fields. The reason for his theory stemmed from a mysterious purported meeting between Mr. Xxxxxxxs and Apollo 14 astronaut Stuart Roosa, a former test pilot, who according to the witness somehow sought him out in or around 1982 to inquire about the Pantex Plant incident. Mr. Roosa intimated, according to the witness, that he had some involvement in Project 1794 and may have flown the saucer shaped craft in question. Additionally, Mr. Xxxxxxxs, in An Air Force related visit to Pantex prior to the November 1957 sighting, saw mounds or circuklar buildings he believed were hangers for said saucer shaped craft from Project 1794.In August 2016 SAT Team member Robert Spearing conducted a 45-minute telephone interview with Mr. Xxxxxxxs.Approximately one week later Mr. Xxxxxxxs broke off all contact with MUFON.On September 2, 2016 it was decided that MUFON SAT would continue the investigation without the cooperation of Mr. Xxxxxxxs due to the strong preponderance of circumstantial evidence.In particular, there is a very detailed newspaper account of the event that was witnessed by reporters, state police and security guards.Additionally, one of the great UFO flaps of the modern era occurred in November peaking the week of the Pantex Plant sighting. A statistical analysis will be done to detail whether Pantex was part of a larger picture of sightings in November.While Mr. Xxxxxxxs “officially” broke off contact with MUFON in August, he continued to correspond with MUFON Executive Director Jan Harzan and in October 2016 provided documentation that he was indeed a member of the United States Air Force in 1957 and was honorably discharged in 1963.   SAT considers Mr. Xxxxxxxs as properly vetted at this point.

Pertinent Data for November 7, 1957

Weather on November 7, 1957 – Fair. High 57. Low 44. Per Amarillo Globe Times.

Latitude & Longitude of Pantex Plant: 35.3091° N, 101.5585° W

Lunar Phase on November 7, 1957: 100% full moon

Venus was at almost maximum brightness at magnitude -4.31. Maximum for Venus is magnitude -4.4. Minus numbers denote maximum brilliance. Brightest star Sirius is magnitude -1.44. The full moon is magnitude -12.6. 

Over two dozen sightings in the week of November 1 through November 7 were attributed to Venus low in the Southwestern sky in the USA.

Methodology

Since this is an historical case 59 years old, investigation will be carried out through:

a.)Interview with John Xxxxxxxs 

b.)A thorough check of historical newspapers in the Amarillo area in 1957

c.)Statistical analysis of UFO cases in Texas and New Mexico in 1957

d.)Review of historical records pertaining to Project 1794

e.)Historical records concerning the November 1957 UFO Flap

Overview of the Pantex Plant and its HistoryFrom Wikipedia:

The Pantex Plant, located 17 miles northeast of Amarillo, Texas, in Carson County, is charged with maintaining the safety, security and effectiveness of the nation's nuclear weapons stockpile.The Pantex Plant was originally constructed as a conventional bomb plant for the United States Army during the early days of World War II. The Pantex Ordnance Plant was authorized February 24, 1942. Construction was completed on November 15, 1942 and workers from all over the U.S. flocked to Amarillo for jobs.Pantex was abruptly deactivated when the war ended and remained vacant until 1949, when Texas Technological College in Lubbock (now) purchased the site for $1.[2] Texas Tech used the land for experimental cattle-feeding operations.In 1951, at the request of the Atomic Energy Commission (now the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)), the Army exercised a recapture clause in the sale contract and reclaimed the main plant and 10,000 acres (40 km2) of surrounding land for use as a nuclear weapons production facility. The Atomic Energy Commission refurbished and expanded the plant at a cost of $25 million. The remaining 6,000 acres (24 km2) of the original site were leased from Texas Tech in 1989.The Pantex Plant was operated by Procter & Gamble from 1951 to 1956, Mason & Hanger from 1956 to 2001, and Babcock & Wilcox from 2001 to 2014. 
From Pantex.com:...the Proctor & Gamble Defense Corporation served as managing and operating contractor from 1951 through 1956 working on Mark 6 and Mark 7 devices.   Mason & Hanger was awarded the operating contract in 1956 with the introduction of the "sealed pit" warhead.  


Mark 6 photo

Mark 6 nuclear devices manufactured at Pantex are as follows again from Wikipedia:
 

The Mark 6 was in production from 1951 to 1955 and saw service until 1962. Seven variants and versions were produced, with a total production run of all models of 1100 bombs.The basic Mark 6 design was 61 inches (150 cm) in diameter and 128 inches (330 cm) long, the same basic dimensions as the Mark 4 and close to the Mark 3. Various models of the Mark 6 were roughly 25% lighter than either the Mark 4 or Fat Man, and weighed 7,600 to 8,500 pounds (3,400–3,900 kg).Early models of the Mark 6 utilized the same 32-point implosion system design concept as the earlier Mark 4 and Mark 3; the Mark 6 Mod 2 and later used a different, 60-point implosion system.Various models and pit options gave nuclear yields of 8, 26, 80, 154, and 160 kilotons for Mark 6 models.



Mark 7 photo

Mark 7 nuclear devices manufactured at Pantex are as follows again from Wikipedia: 


Mark 7 "Thor" (or Mk-7') was the first tactical fission bomb adopted by US armed forces. It was also the first weapon to be delivered using the toss method with the help of the low-altitude bombing system (LABS). 

Mark 7 was in service from 1952 to 1967(8) with 1700-1800 having been built.The Mark 7 nuclear weapon weighed approximately 1,600 pounds (730 kg). It was fitted with one vertical retractable stabilizer fin that allowed it to fit better in or under some planes. This was unique and one of the first nuclear weapons to be streamlined enough to be carried on smaller planes. The bomb’s diameter is a total of 30 inches (760 mm). It used a 92-point HE detonation system to initiate implosion and nuclear fission.



Sealed warhead pit photo

Sealed Pit Warheads manufactured at Pantex are described in Wikipedia as follows: 


The pit, named after the hard core found in fruits such as peaches and apricots, is the core of an implosion nuclear weapon – the fissile material and any neutron reflector or tamper bonded to it. Some weapons tested during the 1950s used pits made with U-235 alone, or in composite with plutonium, but all-plutonium pits are the smallest in diameter and have been the standard since the early 1960s.A sealed pit means that a solid metal barrier is formed around the pit inside a nuclear weapon, with no openings. This protects the nuclear materials from environmental degradation and helps reduce the chances of their release in case of an accidental fire or minor explosion. The first US weapon employing a sealed pit was the W25 warhead. The metal is often stainless steel, but beryllium, aluminum, and possibly vanadium are also used. Beryllium is brittle, toxic and expensive, but is an attractive choice due to its role as a neutron reflector, lowering the needed critical mass of the pit.


Other important points about Pantex are that it is and always has been a no-fly zone. There are no landing strips at Pantex. In the 1950s, all shipments of materials in and out of Pantex were by rail car.

The plant currently has a 550-man security team. All guards are armed.  While no statistics are available from the 1950s on the size of the security detail at that time, it is safe to assume it was one of the most secure facilities within the continental United States at the time with extremely well trained para-military personnel. 

In 1956 Pantex built what are called Gravel Gerties or Cells. They were designed to minimize the spread of nuclear materials in the unlikely event of a high explosives detonation.  More will be forthcoming on Gravel Gerties in another part of this report.  


Gravel Gertie at PANTEX Plant 


Gravel Gertie Diagram


Modified Richmond Magazines a.k.a. igloos are another type of structure at Pantex similar to Gravel Gerties. When sealed pits were removed from warheads, they were placed in 55 gallon drums and put in underground chamberss called affectionately igloos. For our purposes, we will refer to them as Plutonium Storage Pits. 



Plutonium Storage Pits in rows at PANTEX Plant


Close up OF Plutonium Storage Pits at PANTEX Plant

Finally, the end customer for the nuclear bombs manufactured at Pantex and shipped across county via railcar were facilities such as Strategic Air Command (SAC) bases scattered around the country. SAC bases were home to nuclear bombers.  Two SAC Air Force Bases of particular note in this investigation are Kirtland AFB in New Mexico and Amarillo Army Air Field which was only 15 or so miles west of Pantex. Both bases were subject to sightings by unknown objects during the great November 1957 UFO flap. 


The Amarillo Globe Times story of November 8, 1957, front page headline story 



Headline of Amarillo Globe-Times November 8, 1957 

MYSTERY OBJECTS SIGHTED AT PANTEX (IN WIDESPREAD WHATNIK SEARCH)

White light, blinding light in Texas skies Thursday night left watchers in awe and fright. From one tip of the lone star state to the other came reports of sightings of a bright light on the western horizon.  Some viewers said it was a bright white light. Others said it was red, blue and green at times. The light spotted in Texas Thursday night appeared in areas generally to the west of Brownsville. San Antonia, Waco, Brownwood, Paris – and Amarillo.  Bright, flashing objects hovered for over half an hour over the Pantex Atomic Energy Commission Ordnance Plant,15 miles east of Amarillo Thursday night according to plant guards. The brilliant objects were reported to the State Highway Patrol Office by plant guards at 7:46 p.m.  A patrolman dispatched to the plant arrived at 8:15 p.m. and reported that he too saw a strange light.  The patrolman at the plant said that the guards were “all shook up.” Guards said three objects had been floating over the plant 50 feet above the ground “for some time.”  “When I got there” the patrolman said “the guards said one of the objects had landed on Farm Road 2373 three miles north of highway 60. We drove to the area but nothing was there but I am convinced the guards saw something land. “The patrolman said the guards told him they tried to slip up on the objects by turning off their lights but the things would just “slip away from them when they got near.”  Guards were unable to estimate the size of the objects. The patrolman also said the guards seem positive” they saw more than just lights – that objects were in the sky.”  Three strange lights attracted the attention of two Amarillo Daily News reporters en route to Pantex at 8:30 pm. First light was sighted in the city limits at 8:34 p.m. Another light, with a soft red glow, was seen in an almost northerly direction.  Minutes later the reporters saw a third light green in color low on the northern horizon and, like the first two, soon disappearing into the clouds.  The unidentified objects were larger than planes in the area and were much higher and farther away the reporters said.  These strange lights were sighted in Amarillo by several people including a press photographer who successfully shot the object as it hovered.  The cameraman said”. It looked like a big bright star except it was orange. It would be bright, then dim, then bright again.  I used a telephoto lens and a time exposure keeping my camera on it for about a minute before it dropped below the treetop level”.  Clay Angelo, Hereford fire marshal and supervisor of the Ground Observer Corps said he kept high powered binoculars trained an object in the sky from 7 p.m. to 8:30 pm when it disappeared on the western horizon. Angelo described the object as “brighter than any star I have ever seen – it gave off color similar to an arc weld and seemed to dwarf the other stars”.  At Dimmitt, Sheriff Jack Cartwright said may people watched the lights from about 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Dimmitt residents described the light as blueish-green in color when it was first sighted and said it turned to a deep red glow as the object sank toward the western horizon. An Amarillo accountant volunteered that the solution to the whatniks in the sky could be St. Elmo’s Fire.  The accountant, Lewis Gilbert, 1906 Crockett said the characteristics of St. Elmo’s Fire match those of strange objects seen by people in Texas and elsewhere. “I remember when I was about 15 years old living with my family near Buffalo, Oklahoma. One night we saw a blob of St. Elmo’s Fire shining right in the corner of the yard.  First it was blue but then it turned flame-colored or reddish before it disappeared” he said.  Encyclopedia Britannica define St. Elmo’s Fire as “the glow accompanying the brush discharge of atmospheric electricity, commonly accompanied by a crackling or fizzing noise”. And it is” the nature of a brush discharge of electricity, reddish when positive, bluish when negative” according to Webster’s New International Dictionary. “This is just a natural phenomenon, but when people see it their imagination starts working and St. Elmo’s Fire turns into a ‘flying saucer’” Gilbert Said. Raymond Villandry, 1328 Dulhin (or Dulia) sighted a bright pink object at 11 p.m., moving southwest to northeast over his home and at about 11:30 p.m. it was making a third trip back west, he said. Using 7-power binoculars Villandry estimated the object to be about three feet in diameter. It would travel a distance, lights would go out, and would then come on again about a half a mile away, he said.  Nelson Burrow, 4406 Ong, a driver for New Mexico Transportation Company, said he saw the strange light about 8;30 pm, a few minutes after he pulled into Hereford on his run from the west. He described the object as cigar-shaped with bright lights beaming from both ends, moving fairly slowly in a straight line.  “It was not like a star in any shape, form or fashion” Burrow said.  A whatnik apparently paid a return visit to the South Plains Thursday night at about the same time residents of at least five Panhandle communities reported seeing strange lights in the sky.  The phenomenon near Levelland was described as looking like “two eggs connected by an arrow-like device”. Some observers said the light seen to the Southwest of Hereford, Dimmitt and Hart may have been the planet Venus.  Another phantom light seen on the highway near Dreamland Cemetery south of Canyon failed to match the descriptions of any of the other phenomena sighted by the sky watchers.  Several calls were received at the Globe-Times this morning telling of a fireball in the east. Investigation revealed it was sun-shine reflecting on a high-flying jet and its vapor trail. The Amarillo Globe Times story of November 14, 1957, page 2 column 1 in a recurring piece called Turnstiles detailing local gossip states:A man who works at Pantex revealed a military secret yesterday. Asked what the Atomic Energy Commission is making at the plant northeast of the city, he looked about him furtively and said in a hush-hush voice “We are not supposed to say but the truth is we are making the cups for the flying saucers”. 


Analysis of the Amarillo Globe-Times newspaper stories


Foremost in this main article is the fact that highly trained or highly responsible and socially respectable witnesses gave accounts of their sightings.  At least two highly skilled armed quasi-military security guards surveilled at least one object and followed it to an off -site highway location. The article suggests the guards saw up to 3 objects.   At least one Texas State Trooper called to the scene recounted seeing what the guards saw and was positive it was an object of unknown shape behind the light source. Finally, we have two reporters from the Amarillo Globe Times going to investigate the Pantex Plant incident and seeing lights in the sky within the same timeframe as the plant sighting that were multi-colored. One reporter photographed the object but attempts to retrieve it from the Amarillo Globe-Times Photography Editor were met with silence in 2016. In all we have at least 5 highly credible witnesses that would be beyond reproach in a court of law if they gave testimony.  It cannot be overstated how important and credible reports become when highly trained educated multi-witness accounts emerge. The second point to be made is that many reports have been well documented from November 1957. The NICAP chronology, MUFON CMS, NUFORC .ORG chronology and in particular THE CID UFO chronology website all detail an astounding number of cases in the Western Texas and New Mexico areas in November 1957 but this news article contains sightings never before listed. For example, we have the two newspaper reporters seeing colored lights over Amarillo. We have additional accounts from Hereford, Dimmitt and Hart Texas. We even have a possible orange orb case as well as an additional cigar (torpedo) case. These accounts enhance an already existing well investigated cluster. These additional sightings, especially the Levelland sighting five days after its famous cluster of Nov. 2/3, add even more egg -shaped objects to the mix! We also see in this first newspaper account that already a classic “debunking” campaign has begun. In an effort to discredit UFO accounts outright or perhaps a genuine desire to find a rational explanation to a possible arcane problem, we are told of St. Elmo’s Fire, a natural phenomenon, or the planet Venus being the likely causes of the sightings.   While many of the sightings noted in the report are vague enough to allow such possibilities, we should note planets usually display as white star-like objects and not blue red or green objects moving directionally. Additionally, the planet Venus or St. Elmo’s Fire will not seek to elude security personnel who are trailing it apparently near ground level.  It if were Venus, there would be almost daily occurrences of reports by security guards given the usually clear weather conditions of the Texas panhandle at that time of year. Yet we have nothing on a regular base- just this particular day.  See Appendix #1 Item #9 Albuquerque Tribune November 16, 1957, page 1for an article on how the Air Force attempted to debunk many now famous sightings during November 1957.A sky chart analysis was done of the planet Venus on November 7, 1957 for 7:30 p.m. Indeed, Venus was low on the southwestern horizon. It was a brilliant -4.32 magnitude, almost maximum brightness.  The Hereford, Dimmitt and Hart Texas sightings in the Amarillo Globe article could be suspect.  Other reports such as Pantex and Raymond Villandry’s and the newspaper reporters’ stories are more sound. In the Pantex case, the reporters were looking north and Venus would have been to their backs.Additionally, the moon was full that night and it is conceivable though doubtful the moon could have been misconstrued as a UFO. The majority of reports suggest that there is a definite timeframe to the sightings beginning at 7:30 p.m. and concluding about 9 p.m. with an additional sighting at 11 p.m.Additionally, there is no mention of electromagnetic interference with vehicles in the news account as had been happening that week all over. Finally, no shape was given to the object over PANTEX. In John Xxxxxxx’s story he considers the object a disc at less than 100 yards. In the new account, it was only suggested by the State Trooper that there was a dark solid object behind the lights of an unknown shape. We can safely conclude from the article that something artificial and technological with an ability to hover for long periods and with a lighting pattern betraying its presence in a most obvious way was seen over the Plant that night. 

The second short article appeared in a gossip column a couple of weeks after the November 7th incident.  While no stock can be put in its veracity, it is compelling in that it appeared so short a time after the November 7th occurrence and that it concerned the cuppolas of supposed man-made flying discs which certainly existed in various proto-type forms. One must conclude that if projects like 1794 did exist, the saucers and their components needed to be manufactured somewhere. Why not PANTEX?


John Xxxxxxxs’ Story including his MUFON Interview

John Xxxxxxxs is an 84year old Air Force veteran now residing just outside Orlando, Florida in 2016. He feels he is close to death and wishes to get this story told.  He states that in 1957 he was stationed at Amarillo Army Airfield (now a private airport for the city of Amarillo) as an investigator for the Air Force’s Office of Special Investigations. He was required to carry a firearm in the performance of his duties. His primary function was to investigate and evaluate air craft incidents and crashes.  He states that he was part of the 3320th Air Police Squadron operating out of the Office of Special Investigations (OSI).His story is in three parts.Part one concerns two times in 1957 that he was at the Pantex Plant. The second time concerns the UFO report of November 7, 1957.Part two concerns his purported meeting with Apollo 14 astronaut Stuart Roosa sometime in the 1980s most likely in 1982. The meeting centered around the Pantex Case and possible connections to the U.S. Government’s Project 1794.Part three concerns his interactions with an unnamed Air Force Major who was arrested and placed in Mr. Xxxxxxxs’ custody in either 1956 or 1957. He (the unnamed Major allegedly told the witness about  a secret U.S. flying disc project, retrieved alien bodies and a propulsion system based on Element 115.  The flying disc part of the story syncs with Mr. Xxxxxxxs’ narrative about Apollo 14 astronaut Stuart Roosa.  The basic sighting story is culled from four documents dumps and a SAT Team phone interview with MUFON SAT Team member Robert Spearing. Document Dumps #2 & 4 detail Mr. Xxxxxxxs relating his story to MUFON Executive Director Jan Harzan in August and September 2016 respectively.  They can be found in their entirety in Appendix #2 &4. Appendix #1 consists or relevant newspaper articles.Document Dump # 3 pertains to recovered documents Mr. Xxxxxxxs sent to UFO Investigator Karen Lyster of Australia in 2006. James Clarkson retrieved the documents for MUFON SAT from Ms. Lyster. These recovered documents can be found in Appendix #3. Dump #5, known as Appendix #5 contains credentials for Mr. Xxxxxxxs including his discharge certificate in 1963 from the Air Force, lengthy resumes from 1999 and newspaper articles pertaining to his qualifications as a law enforcement professional of considerable quality. His story begins several months prior to his November 7, 1957 visit to PANTEX.  One morning, on an unknown date in either 1956 or 1957, he and a bus load of other Air Force personnel were sent for target practice at PANTEX possibly because the range they had for training their para-military security force was superior to one that the Air Force provided their personnel required to carry fire arms such as an investigator like John Xxxxxxxs.. Mr. Xxxxxxxs commented on two points at this juncture.1.)Why would Air Force personnel be sent to a private nuke facility for weapons training and2.)Why would a nuke facility such as PANTEX be operated by a “soap suds manufacturer company such as Proctor & Gamble?These seem like reasonable questions. In Mr. Xxxxxxxs capacity as an Air Force Investigator he was required to carry a fire arm. Occasionally he must need shooting practice. It is not unreasonable to assume that the amazing modern firing range he eventually was sent to at PANTEX probably existed and was used in some sort of military exchange program with various nearby military branches. PANTEX having a modern firing range is not absurd. Currently PANTEX employs over 550 well trained, armed, quasi-military personnel at this highly sensitive installation operated via private contractor.  It is obvious that back in 1957, especially given the chilling technological achievements of the Soviet Union, that a similar amount of highly trained quasi-military personnel were employed at the facility and also needed target practice from time to time to keep their skills honed.Thus a firing range.Secondly, the soap suds manufacturer was Proctor & Gamble.They actually were connected to the U.S. Military since WWII through a subsidiary of theirs called the P&G Defense Corporation which operated the plant until 1956. So when John Xxxxxxxs actually attended his fire arms training session there it had already passed to another corporation’s contracted agreement and was no longer operated by Proctor & Gamble. When Mr. Xxxxxxxs’ bus arrived at the plant they were subjected to special scrutiny and their bus driver was relieved of his duties and a security guard took over driving the Air Force personnel to the target range.As the bus proceeded through the plant for what seemed like miles, Mr. Xxxxxxxs encountered what he described as row after row of low round mounds. He would later equate these mounds as aircraft hangers, circular in design, and made for disc shaped air craft utilized under the U.S. Military’s Project 1794.  His theory seems not to pan out however after significant research into what the mounds may have been. (See analysis of John Xxxxxxxs case below).

Mr. Xxxxxxxs second excursion to PANTEX is as follows.  Early in the evening of November 7, 1957, Mr. Xxxxxxxs was off duty relaxing in his apartment watching T.V. when there was a news bulletin. It stated that unknown aircraft were being observed over the PANTEX Nuclear Armaments Plant 15 miles east of Amarillo. Several minutes later Mr. Xxxxxxxs received a phone call from Master Sargent Ficklin who was manning the Amarillo Air Field phones that night. Sargent Ficklin told Mr. Xxxxxxxs that he was getting flooded with calls asking what was going on out at PANTEX. Sargent Ficklin asked John Xxxxxxxs if he would take a drive out to PANTEX to see what was going on. It would have been logical for Sargent Ficklin to call John Xxxxxxxs as he was an air craft incident investigator. Mr. Xxxxxxxs complied with the request and drove out to PANTEX.On the way he encountered a State Police Road closure on Route 60 heading east. PANTEX was only 15 miles east of the air base and should have taken about 15 minutes to get there. However, with the road closure it took almost 45 minutes. Mr. Xxxxxxxs, in plain clothes, showed his military I.D. to Texas State Police who allowed him through the roadblock. Still, the trip was 45 minutes in all. Whether the roadblock was due to activity at PANTEX or for something else could not be determined.  SAT Investigator Robert Spearing wrote to Texas State Archives and Texas Department of Public Safety and received the following replies, first from the Texas State Archives:

RE: INFORMATION ON TEXAS PUBLIC SAFETY RECORDS FROM 1957Sent By:Archives Info   On:Sep 09/20/16 4:58 PM
To:robertspearing@comcast.net

Message
Your request for information was received by the staff of the Texas State Library and Archives Commission. Although our collection Texas Department of Public Safety records includes Criminal Law Enforcement Division investigation files, we were unable to locate a file within our holdings related to your request.  For additional information concerning these records, the finding aid may be found on online at:

www.lib.utexas.edu/taro/tslac/30100/tsl-30100.html 

If you have not already done so, you may wish to continue your research with local law enforcement.  Contact information for the Panhandle Police Department and the Carson County Sheriff may be found online at:

www.panhandletx.govoffice2.com/index.asp?SEC=FFC7CA0E-9781-462D-B376-063B0E7C6F18&Type=B_LIST   

 www.co.carson.tx.us/default.aspx?Carson_County/Sheriff 

We hope this information will be helpful to you. 

Archives Staff Texas State Library and Archives Commission 512-463-5455 archinfo@tsl.texas.govwww.tsl.texas.govkjd 


And Secondly, from The Texas Department of Public Safety as follows: 



So while there seems to be good circumstantial evidence for road closures pertaining to PANTEX, we cannot be sure they are related.When Mr. Xxxxxxxs arrived at the plant, he showed his I.D. to guards at the front gate and was denied entry. However, the guards did not chase him away. Instead he recalls that for between 30 to 45 minutes he witnessed an aerial object hovering over the plant. It possessed brilliant white or multi-colored lights or both. It was no more than 100 yards away low on the horizon.  He described it as a disc.At one point a security guard at the gate said to him “The other one was late but this one is right on time.”This suggests the objects were anticipated. However, in the newspaper account, the opposite is suggested in that the guards out on Farm to Market highway 2373 (AKA FM2373) were frightened and attempted to close in secretly on the object which moved away at their advances. The two accounts (Mr. Xxxxxxxs and the news account) are irreconcilable at this point 59 years later.   John Xxxxxxxs concludes his story by saying that he returned to his base and was told by superiors not to mention it again. This contradicts what he told Robert Spearing in his interview. He told Mr. Spearing” I submitted a report but never heard anything else about it.” This will be addressed in the analysis of his story below.

Analysis of John Xxxxxxxs’ Story

SAT feels that facets of Mr. Xxxxxxxs story are true but his theories and conclusions differ greatly from what MUFON SAT uncovered. In addition, in Mr. Xxxxxxxs’ last August correspondence with Jan Harzan he began bringing up details never brought up before with Karen Lyster or Robert Spearing that surely he would have previously had had he truly had access to such information. In particular, in his final correspondence, he alleged that the unnamed Major in his custody informed him of alien bodies in U.S. Military possession and of an alien propulsion system based on Element 115 -a somewhat vague and unsubstantiated claim of Robert Lazar to journalist George Knapp based on his alleged experiences at Area 51 in the 1970s.  While Element 115 has since been discovered it was really a foregone conclusion that it would be regardless of Mr. Lazar’s take on it. It also has yet to be determined if Element 115 is actually something that could be used as a form of propulsion or if it was all a lucky guess by Mr. Lazar. What is most suspicious about Mr. Xxxxxxxs’ claim is that he waited so long (to the last minute really) in 2016 to introduce it to his narrative along with alien bodies.  MUFON SAT is under the impression he could be deliberately sabotaging his story as to discredit it to a point where we would no longer be interested in it.   It should be noted that in his interview with Bob Spearing he was forced to recuse himself to his bedroom during the phone interview to elude his wife who was, according to Mr. Xxxxxxxs, against the whole affair and fearing for their safety. Perhaps Mr. Xxxxxxxs, realizing MUFON might actually investigate his claims, got cold feet.  Adding fuel to this theory is that in 2006, Karen Lyster said she simply lost contact with Mr. Xxxxxxxs. This is in direct contradiction to Mr. Xxxxxxxs’ account. His view is that Ms. Lyster got “scared off by someone and dropped his case like a hot potato.” MUFON SAT believes no unseen diabolical forces scared off Karen Lyster. As such, we find that there is a germ of truth in Mr. Xxxxxxxs’ story however it must be picked out from rumor, innuendo, conspiracy theory and possible self-sabotage.In one of his document dumps, Mr. Xxxxxxxs has a photo with rows of circular mounds in it. He highlights these mounds by drawing a red circle around them.  These are the mounds he reportedly passed on his way to the firing range and came to believe were circular aircraft hangers.MUFON SAT has identified these mounds. In 1956, Plutonium Storage Facilities were built for the purpose of temporarily storing spent plutonium fuel from nuclear weapons. Given the significant number of mounds we can conclude an enormous amount of plutonium was being or was going to be stored in these underground facilities. In effect, they were underground rooms with large round dirt berms above them. Should there be a plutonium leak the berms would, in effect, soak up the radiation. These were affectionately called igloos as referenced earlier in this report.However, adding to the mystery of what the mounds were, we have other mounds of interest.  These had two names -Gravel Gerties and Cells.  Gravel Gertie was a female character from the comic strip Dick Tracey. They were 35 foot in diameter berms of a circular nature constructed of gravel.  They covered underground rooms where nuclear weapons were either assembled or deconstructed.  The purpose of a cell was that if a secondary nuclear explosion occurred called a “fizzle” the berm would absorb the radiation and the explosion. Should a primary nuke explosion occur the berms of course would be useless.  These cells were often covered with a white rubber-like material and looked like landed flying saucers. Given Mr. Xxxxxxxs’ experience, it is easy to see why he developed a theory that these mounds were aircraft hangers for disc shaped craft. They approximated the size of Project 1794 craft at 35 and a half feet and were located on a secure facility where possible disc shaped craft were seen. Mr. Xxxxxxxs’ first discrepancy occurs here. He gave three totally contradictory accounts of the size of the craft. He says that he was 100 yards from the hovering craft seen near the front gate guard booth.  He informed Robert Spearing at first that he could not gauge their size. Later he changed his guess to no smaller than 35 feet in diameter which was in conjunction with the size of the Gravel Gerties. However, in his final email to Jan Harzan he explicitly states the size of the craft was 63 feet in diameter. The most important question here is how did Mr. Xxxxxxxs, standing helpless at a front gate post being denied entry, manage to figure out that the craft was precisely 63 feet in diameter probably without any sort of measurement tools?The 63 or the 35 foot estimates cannot be taken seriously. It is virtually impossible to come to a conclusion about size other than a good guess. Mr. Xxxxxxxs also informed Mr. Spearing the lights were flashing white. This contradicts his story in Appendix 1 where he states they were multi-colored. Indeed, the newspaper account from the Amarillo Globe-Times suggests colored lights at Pantex and in other areas around Amarillo that evening. Mr. Xxxxxxxs also told Mr. Spearing he was told to write a report and say nothing more about it and that he did not know what happened to the report. However, in his written story he did not write a report. James Clarkson of SAT went as far as to suggest that maybe Mr. Xxxxxxxs did not even witness the event but saw it on TV and read the newspaper article and created a mythology about it.  However, there are several reasons this is probably not the case.There are certain details in his story that would be considered unique and hard to “make up.”First, there is the roadblock on Highway 60. There would be no purpose to making up a detail like this in a manufactured story. Second, he saw security vehicles with flashing lights form a circle on the ground around where the object was hovering about 100 yards from him and about 50 feet off the ground.If true, this is a very important detail. First, it would suggest several things:1.Possibly the vehicle was having engine trouble as Mr. Xxxxxxxs believed and they were preparing for the crash landing of a known aerial vehicle of the U.S. Government2.Possibly the vehicle was having engine trouble and they were preparing for the crash of an UNKNOWN aerial vehicle. In this scenario they would have been preparing to quarantine the object to possibly take control of it and capture its crew. 3.An unknown aerial vehicle was intentionally attracting attention, possibly baiting the security patrol and assessing their capabilities4.Possible contact was being established between parties at PANTEX and a craft of unknown origin. 5.All that week, particularly in Levelland, Texas on November 2/3, variously shaped UFOs were alighting on highways. The object seen by Mr. Xxxxxxxs as well as the one seen to land on the highway just outside the plant were following an apparently well-established pattern of being seen by people at this point late in the week. This would negate the engine trouble theory as it would be unbelievable that such an invasion of unknown objects in Texas and New Mexico should all suddenly suffer engine failure and need to land on highways.   The desire to be seen is a much stronger case. The craft eventually went down behind some buildings near the guard station at the front gate and Mr. Xxxxxxxs lost sight of it.  Then the security vehicles turned off their lights and slowly drove away.   This suggested the vehicle landed AND STAYED at PANTEX!This of course brings up the possibility that the disc was indeed American and possibly part of Project 1794.  Mr. Xxxxxxxs did not stay and all attempts to get the Texas State Trooper Reports have been futile so we don’t know what happened if indeed the disc did land.One interesting note. SAT attempted an analysis of the number of security vehicles possibly involved considering that a Project 1794 craft was 35 and a half feet in diameter.  


OCTAGON PERIMETER





A ring of at least 36 feet (side A in the illustration) would be necessary to contain a Project 1794 disc. The most utilized police car in active duty in 1957 was the Chevrolet Bel Air.  This was 16.6 feet in length.  This would be slightly larger than side B at 15 feet. So we could reasonably estimate that to encircle the hovering disc we would need eight Bel Airs. If the object was closer to 63 feet we would need about 16 vehicles. Both of these numbers seem reasonable in that if there were any more than 16 John Xxxxxxxs may not have been able to perceive a circle below the hovering object. So we can conjecture that while Mr. Xxxxxxxs had no measuring tools and was taking a guess, the object may have been within the parameters of a 35 to 63-foot object and no bigger or smaller. Mr. Xxxxxxxs is the only account of a disc shaped object that week of any importance.  The newspaper account fails to discern the shape although the gossip column article suggests discs. Most of the other sighting that week in the November 1957 flap were either ovoid, torpedo or egg shaped objects when the shape was discerned. The timeframe which Mr. Xxxxxxxs suggests also makes sense as being valid. The newspaper account gives the impression that between 7:30 pm and 9 pm the object was sighted. Several witnesses quote the time seen as 45 minutes but it is likely that the object was seen longer and the people claiming 45 minutes like John Xxxxxxxs were witnesses coming into an “already in progress” situation. The earliest newspaper account is about 7:30 pm. The state trooper arrived at 8:15 P.M.John Xxxxxxxs was watching TV when the news broke. If we theorize that it took 15 minutes from 7:30 for the news of the unidentified craft to make it to the news media it would be about 7:45 pm when Mr. Xxxxxxxs saw it on his TV. Give another 10 minutes for Sargent Ficklin to call him and we are at 7:55 pm. Five minutes to dress and go to the car and we are at 8 pm. The drive took 45 minutes which places us at 8:45 pm. Mr. Xxxxxxxs saw the object for 30 to 45 minutes which gives us a finishing time for his sighting as between 9:15 and 9:30 pm. This helps to enhance the validity of Mr. Xxxxxxxs actually having been there. Unfortunately, this is where Mr. Xxxxxxxs story becomes more diffuse.Mr. Xxxxxxxs became obsessed with the story and in his spare time he pursued it as a hobby. He tracked down Sargent Ficklin after their service in the military ended. Mr. Ficklin was apparently in ill health and did not wish to relive the story. Mr. Xxxxxxxs suggests that Mr. Ficklin was targeted as a homosexual as he was unmarried. The targeting was the result of his dispatching Mr. Xxxxxxxs to the scene of the UFO incident. All poor Mr. Ficklin did was dispatch Mr. Xxxxxxxs. If anyone should have been retaliated against it should have been Mr. Xxxxxxxs. Mr. Xxxxxxxs persisted in his investigation contacting long absent from the UFOlogy field investigators of the time period. Then in the early 1980s, somewhere around 1982, Mr. Xxxxxxxs received a phone call from a person claiming to be Stuart Roosa, the Apollo 14 pilot. Mr. Xxxxxxxs, in his interview with Bob Spearing, could not explain how Stuart Roosa found him. He felt that some UFOlogists he had sent info too had contacted Mr. Roosa who in turn contacted Mr. Xxxxxxxs. Mr. Roosa allegedly travelled to Florida to meet John Xxxxxxxs and according to Mr. Xxxxxxxs, Mr. Roosa had a particular interest in the 1957 PANTEX sighting and suggested to Mr. Xxxxxxxs that the craft were American made and part of Project 1794. It should be noted at this juncture the public relations ploy of the Navy was the creation of the flying disc known as the Avro saucer conceived and developed by a Canadian concern. It was never more than a gimmick but there is evidence that a true flying disc was produced capable of speeds up to Mach 3. This disc would have been stored in hangers below ground or in space saving areas of air craft carriers and would be capable of quick vertical lift off in the event of an attack by the Soviet Union.  While vertical take-off discs called VTOLs had initial issues, the use of circular wings showed promise as aerodynamically sound.  Since discs were seen in American skies since 1947, it is not outlandish to consider that if there had been recovered Nazi technology, that by 1957 some of it may have proved useful and proto-types of disc shaped objects may have been flying in American skies. One notable UFO sighting occurred in May 1957 that suggests an earthly explanation for a disc encounter. It goes as follows:UFOlogist Coral Lorenzen reported that she found in the December 19, 1957, Pennsylvania Dispatch, of Milford, an article about a sighting by Miss Francis Stichler in May that year.The newspaper told that Miss Stichler lived on a farm near Milford, and was doing chores in her barn at 06:00 a.m., when she heard a whirring sound and looked up, to see a flat, bowl-shaped object about 20 feet in diameter with a rim 3 to 4 feet wide, coming into her view over the barn about 15 feet above the ground.When the craft stopped with one side tilted toward her, she saw a man clothed in a light-gray tight-fitting helmet and loose shiny gray suit, perched on the broad rim of the object. His feet and legs seemed to be concealed from view in the lower portion. His position was on the rim opposite Miss Stichler so that he was facing her.The man seemed to be of average size, had deep-set eyes, a long face with a "quizzical expression," and looked quite tan.Just when Miss Stichler recovered for the initial shock, the craft left toward the southeast, making a "spinning sound," and streaked out of sight.She explained that she said nothing about that as she had no corroborating witnesses, and didn't think anyone would believe her. She eventually told about it after many UFO sightings of the 1957 flap in November-December 1957 were in the Press. Nothing more seems to be known on this case.All that is missing from this report is that the pilot was within a glass bubble or cockpit. Otherwise it strongly suggests a human piloting a disc shaped craft capable of hovering and departing at great speed. Mr. Roosa allegedly went on to suggest to Mr. Xxxxxxxs that he himself may have piloted these disc shaped craft early in his career. A thorough review of Mr. Roosa’s military and piloting recording as a test pilot suggest that he was nowhere near any sort of experimental air craft until 1962 which does not bode well for Mr. Xxxxxxxs account of his alleged meeting with Mr. Roosa.Finally, we have the unnamed Major that Mr. Xxxxxxxs dealt with sometime around 1957. The unknown major filled Mr. Xxxxxxxs’ head with innuendo about Project 1794 and in Mr. Xxxxxxxs final report to Jan Harzan has increased the major’s importance to the point of telling him about alien bodies and propulsion systems utilizing Element 115. Why in 59 years of research did Mr. Xxxxxxxs hold back on Element 115 and alien bodies until now when it is already common knowledge in UFOlogy circles? What shred of evidence does he have for these revelations? The truth is none.
However, it should be noted that in 1958, circular disc aircraft were certainly on the minds of periodicals such as Aeronautics which believed disc shaped craft were sound and totally capable of delivering what was expected of them.  It makes one pause to wonder that if they were so efficient, what has not the military or civilian corporations used the structure until today? Perhaps they have! And we just don’t know it!Aeronautics Magazine listed in 1958, ten advantages of disc shaped craft that make one wonder. They are as follows:1.It has been found that a wing so constructed offers a vastly superior strength – weight ratio to more conventional types.2.The design inherently advocates the employment of vertical take-off and landing3.Because of the extremely light structure plus VTOL characteristics the aircraft offers its crew greater chances of survival than those now accepted4.It has now been established that the disc type aircraft offers the best compromise for re-entry into the earth’s atmosphere.5.It is suggested that5 by rotating the disc wing , leading edge aerodynamic heating may be considerably delayed6.Dur to the extremely lightweight structure, the aircraft would have a greater payload and/or greater range.7.Does not require a conventional fin rudder and tailpipe assembly which again offers a considerable weight and drag saving.8.As practically the whole craft contributes to lift in forward flight, most of the dead weight of a conventional fuselage is largely eliminated as in a normal flight wing9.Being a VTOL aircraft, a conventional type undercarriage is unnecessary – Small castering- type shock absorbers would suffice. This, together with a greatly reduced hydraulic system, also represents a considerable savings in weight.10.Due to the total wing area being formed into a circle, obviating the need for fuselage and tail plane, this type of aircraft would greatly facilitate stowage in restricted spaces for instance, air carrier hangar decks. These ten point are intriguing. If circular craft are so efficient why are they not travelling our skies today in obvious fashion?  Or are they as secret craft?It is the conclusion of SAT that Mr. Xxxxxxxs testimony is wanting but there are valuable tidbits from his actual experience that may further the investigation. Therefore, were feel that Mr. Xxxxxxxs story must be picked through for historical fact with all innuendo and conspiracy theory eliminated as not credible. 


The Flap of November 1957

Overview

Yet another aspect of this case involves the November 1957 flap which primarily affected the southern United States and South America.  The flap peaked during the first week of November specifically from November 1 through November 7, 1957.MUFON SAT researched two aspects of this flap. The larger more generic total caseload and then specifically the sightings at sensitive installations such as military bases and nuclear sites. The reason that the flap is investigated here is that on the final day of the flap peak (November 7th) PANTEX was visited by an unknown aerial vehicle (perhaps three). PANTEX is a quasi-military facility under the jurisdiction of the Atomic Energy Commission at the time. Thus it was one of many sensitive nuclear sites visited that week. This makes the sighting important as it fit a larger pattern going on at the time especially in the first week of November in the southern half of the United States. 

Statistical Analysis of the Pantex Plant Case

PART ONE-Statistical Breakdown of Sightings

Purpose: To investigate statistical evidence linking the Pantex Plant case to a larger “UFO Flap” during the first week (1st to the 7th) of November 1957and its possible implications.

Introduction: The late John Keel lamented that the November 1957 UFO Flap was never adequately investigated in depth in order to discern patterns in the sightings that may have led to larger discoveries of purpose in the “antics” of the UFOs. NICAP did a cursory investigation of the flap which was less than enthusiastic. In 1956, November saw approximately 150 reports of “Flying Saucers.” In 1958, similarly there were over 100 reports. However, in 1957, in the month of November there were well over 500 reports. This report is limited in its scope in that for the most part it deals with the flap as it relates to New Mexico and Texas where the Pantex Plant was located. However, included in this report is a breakdown of UFO sightings worldwide in relation to cases over or near Army Bases, Air Force Bases and Nuclear Facilities. A definite pattern will be shown to exist. In additional to military and nuclear facilities, this analysis will cover spikes in electromagnetic effects cases and radar cases. It should be noted that during this flap, the famous Levelland Cases occurred beginning on the night of November 2nd and going into the early morning hours of November 3rd. As mentioned in another section of this report, geopolitical considerations play heavily into this report.  Sputnik I was launched by the Soviet Union on October 4th, 1957. On November 3rd, 1957, they again launched Sputnik II which contained as a passenger a dog named Laika. NICAP makes a salient point that there was no hysteria outbreak of UFO reports following the launch of Sputnik I.  The wave of reports of sightings around the world began on November 1, 1957 two days before the launch of Sputnik II.Additionally, on November 7, 1957, the Amarillo Globe Times headline for that day described the Soviet Union’s announcement that they had perfected a new type of missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead across oceans to their target effectively eliminating America’s advantage of distance. The new missile was called the Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM). Within a month of initiating the space age, the Soviet Union altered the balance of power on earth. It is therefore no surprise in our findings that a spike in UFO sightings occurred in the U.S. and more specifically in many cases at nuclear and military facilities of which Pantex was one. Finally, on November 16, 1957 the Amarillo Globe Times ran a front page story that the U.S. Government was initiating a program investigating the use of nuclear weapons detonated in space to thwart an ICBM attack from the Soviet Union. It is possibly no coincidence that Kirtland Air Force Base, a nuclear bomb recipient of missiles from the Pantex Plant and the HQ of this space based weapons initiative, was visited by UFOs in the first week of November. 

The three graphs below detail the spike in UFO sightings in November 1957 as opposed to 1956 and 1958.    




The following two graphs depict spikes in electromagnetic effects cases and radar cases in 1957.
 
 There are clear abnormalities worldwide in the number of electromagnetic effects cases and radar cases. 

The next two graphs show a spike in cases in New Mexico and Texas in 1957 where we are limiting our study area!
 
 
The final graph of interest is a worldwide accounting of sightings at or near air force bases in 1957

 It is without doubt that in November 1957, incredibly high spikes occurred in Texas and New Mexico and air force bases around the world. In addition, spikes registered in radar cases and particularly in electromagnetic effects cases on such a severe curve that chance can be ruled out. The results are indicative of a concerted effort on the part of unknown parties to infiltrate and surveil American Military installations and Nuclear sites in a one-week period from November 1, 1957 to November 7, 1957 corresponding with the Soviet Union’s launching of Sputnik II with a live animal and their announcement of their invention of the Intercontinental Ballistic Missile on November 7th. Was an interested 3rd party attempting to evaluate a possible American response to the Soviet juggernaut?  If so, who? The remainder of this analysis will seek to uncover more minute details of this “incursion” during the peak week of November 1st through November 7th  using geographical maps.

PART TWO-Geographical Representations of Sightings on Maps

The first map shows all military and nuclear site sightings either within the boundaries of the facility or in close proximity to it in the continental United States during the week of November 1 through November 7, 1957. In all 33 sightings were reported in the U.S.A. and one at an air base in Japan (not shown).Of the 33 locations shown on the map, twenty were nuclear sites, and five cases occurred with electro-magnetic effects.

The legend is as follows:

-dark green markers with atomic nuclei symbols represent military nuclear facilities or the areas nearby

-dark green markers with lightning bolts represent military bases where cases of electro-magnetic effects occurred

-dark green tear drop markers were military bases of a non-nuclear nature with no electro-magnetic effects occurring

-lime green tear drop markers were radar cases mostly involving navy or coast guard ships

-purple markers with a lightning bolt represented cases with electro-magnetic effects at nuclear facilities.

-lime green markers with an atomic nuclei symbols were radar cases involving a nuclear facility 



MAP

The thing that is immediately apparent is that of the 33 sightings in the United States, 30 occurred in the southern half of the States. This cannot be a statistical anomaly. It appears the region was targeted. Coupled with the fact that a majority of the locations were at or near nuclear military installations a pattern begins to emerge. Also when looking at lime green markers with the exception of Whiteman AFB in Missouri, seven radar cases straddle the Gulf of Mexico and Texas.There are relatively few cases in Texas but three occur in close proximity to Amarillo Army Air Field which was a Strategic Air Command Facility with nuclear bomb equipped bombers in 1957 and our main case at the Pantex Nuclear Armaments Plant was only 15 miles east of Amarillo Air Field. This SAC base is, of course, where John Xxxxxxxs was allegedly stationed. One noteworthy case from Texas took place on November 5, 1957 near Lackland AFB near San Antonio.

The NICAP Chronology records the following:Night. Near Lackland Air Force Base, civil service employee Lon Yarborough was driving along U.S. 81 from Devine to San Antonio when he saw an extremely bright object settle down in a ravine about 200 yards from him. He. said he was a mile and a half from San Antonio at the time. The egg-shaped object was approximately 60-feet-long and caused the lights and engine of his 1957 car to fail. He said his car was in perfect mechanical condition. The object, he said, rested a few minutes and finally took off in the direction of San Antonio. The sighting happened at night. (Dan Wilson, BB docs)

The report is important for three reasons. First, it yet another example of an egg shaped object. Secondly, the size of the object was 60 feet. Other reports of torpedo (possibly ovoid egg like objects by another person’s description) shaped objects especially from Levelland on the night of October 2/3 suggest these objects were not small but rather between 60 and 200 feet in length. One of their critical behaviors is that they settled down on highways.  Lastly, we again have the electro-magnetic effect prevalent that week. 

NOTE: Considering that one theory about PANTEX is that the vehicle was having mechanical difficulty and thus had to land on a highway outside PANTEX does not make sense when one looks at the larger flap. Many of the sightings involved landings on highways. This suggests that many vehicles over a one-week period were suffering malfunctions in an unprecedented way OR that wanted to be seen instead. Of course, we cannot anticipate the behavior of unknown aerial vehicles from 59 years ago but patterns suggest they were not having mechanical difficulty. The other two noteworthy cases that week in Texas are electro-magnetic effects cases relatively close to each other at Camp Bullis and Fort Hood respectively and both were non-nuclear facilities.However, the greatest concentration of nuclear cases occurred in New Mexico between November 1 and November 7.


See map #2 below of New Mexico.
 
There are two clusters of cases. The large grey area in the lower center of the map is White Sands Missile Test Proving Grounds. The first cluster to be discussed took place at its southern tip and along its lower eastern edge.  There were nine cases in seven days. White Sands is important for several reasons. It was, in 1945, the test site for the Trinity Atomic Blast above ground. It had a long cold war history in the development of various kinds of missiles and in particular the Nike Hercules.Wikipedia states :“The Nike Hercules (initially designated SAM-A-25, and later MIM-14), was a solid fuel propelled two-stage surface-to-air missile, used by U.S. and NATO armed forces for medium- and high-altitude long-range air defense. It was normally armed with the W31nuclear warhead, but could also be fitted with a conventional warhead for export use.” 


NIKE Hercules missiles

This alone makes White Sands an interesting surveillance target as the first Nike Hercules was launched from White Sands in March of 1957, eight months before the November 1957 UFO flap.The second New Mexico cluster took place north of White Sands around Albuquerque.  One sighting took place near Kirtland Air Force base just southwest of Albuquerque. Kirtland was a regular recipient of nuclear weaponry from the Pantex Nuclear Armaments Facility in 1957. Additionally, one week after the Pantex Plant incident of November 7th, Kirtland was tagged as the HQ for a Russian ICBM intercept “Star Wars” type program where the U.S. would investigate launching nuclear missiles into space to explode and destroy incoming Russian nuclear missiles. In addition to Kirtland, an area in close proximity to Sandia National Laboratories was visited. Along with Los Alamos, Sandia was a premier nuclear testing laboratory in 1957.Three additional Albuquerque sightings were given nuclear ratings in this report due to their close proximity to Sandia and Kirtland although they did not specifically occur over bases.  

Three specific encounters of importance occurred at White Sands. 

First, the NICAP Chronology lists the following:Three MPs Report Object Over White Sands BaseNov. 3, 1957White Sands Proving Ground, New MexicoNov. 3, 1957; White Sands Proving Ground, New Mexico (BBU)3 a.m. [1 p.m. MST ?] Army patrol at Stallion Site in a jeep saw an orange, "apparently controlled," luminous object on the ground near the site of the first A- bomb explosion [Trinity Site] first seen as a sun-like source 150 ft. above ground, descending to ground level after 3 mins,landing a few miles away at the N end of the test grounds. (Vallée Magonia 420; FUFOR Index) 3 mins +

The presence of some form of controlled device was also verified by another incident at the base on the same day. Two other MPs reported the same or similar object 17 hours later at 8 PM. The MPs were on a routine patrol in a jeep when they observed an object 50 yards from the ground that rose up into the sky until it was like a star. The men had not discussed the sightings and had reported them and then found that they apparently had witnessed the same object. This taped radio broadcast recording from the Public Information Officer provided by Wendy Connors of Faded Disc Archive is extremely interesting and is yet another case listed as a possible nuclear connection. This military police incident occurred the same day as the Levelland, TX sightings of Nov. 2,3, the day before the Kirtland & Stokes cases of Nov 4th, and three days prior to Radium Springs, NM case Nov. 6.
The MP case was written off as two young vulnerable MPs hallucinating in a lonely remote area due to their fear and loneliness associated with their job. See Appendix #1 for debunking newspaper account.

Secondly, what is referred to as the James Stokes Case, occurred the next day (Nov. 4th) at 1:10 p.m.  

NICAP’s chronology reads as follows:Nov. 4, 1957.  About 8-10 [4?] miles SSW of Orogrande, New Mexico (BBU)1:10 p.m. (MST).  James Stokes, electronics instrumentation technician, Rocketsonde Branch, High Altitude Test Division, AF Missile Development Center, Holloman AFB, NM, a Mr. Duncan of Las Cruces, NM, and Allan Baker of Holloman AFB.  Stokes was driving S down Hwy 54 when his radio faded and the car slowed [stopped?] as if the battery was failing then he noticed 6-12 cars ahead of him had stopped and drivers were out looking at the sky (looking behind him to the NE), including Duncan and Baker.  Stokes stopped and got out, saw pearl-white oval or egg-shaped object about 500 ft. wide with slight purplish tinge heading S at high speed estimated 1500-2000 mph from the NE below elevation angle of Sacramento Mtns ridgeline, descending from about 5,000 ft. above ground level in shallow dive to about 1,500-2,500 ft. altitude as it swerved to the W to pass to the S of Stokes and the other stopped cars about 2 or 3-5 miles at closest, then circling around headed W and disappearing.   The same or another object appeared in the NE (as if the object had completely circled) and performed same rounded course but passing farther to the S of the parked cars [about 5 miles?] and disappeared in the W.  Duncan took 35 mm film of the object.  Stokes noticed a wave of heat from the object at closest approach, later that evening was sunburned, but it cleared up the next day.  (Sparks;  APRO;  BB files;  McDonald list;  Saunders/FUFOR Index;  etc.,)

The Stokes Case was written off as a hoax perpetrated by someone trying to cash in on the Levelland sightings the day before. Mr. Stokes had a long unblemished 20-year career and some believe it is doubtful that he was hoaxing. This case is important as it describes not only electro-magnetic effects common that week but the witness also describes the egg shape of the object which we see more than once especially at Kirtland that week. The Kirtland Air Force Base Case is also exceptional. It also is an egg but the egg is vertical with the wider end on top. It also displays a white light at its bottom. It moves with abandon over an airstrip at the base and appears to have no fear of being seen. In effect, its behavior is audacious. And it is at a military base closely aligned with PANTEX and the early Star Wars initiative to counter Russian ICBMs. 

The NICAP chronology is as follows:November 4, 1957 10:45 p.m. (MST). CAA air traffic controllers R. M. Kaser and E. G. Brink saw a highly maneuverable 15-20 ft. egg-shaped object with a white light at its base circle over the W [E?] end of the base at 150-200 mph and come down in a steep 30° dive as if landing on Runway 26, to the N or NW of the tower at about 1500 ft. Radar tracked part of this maneuver. Object then crossed flight line, runways and taxiways heading towards the tower at about 50 mph and 20-30 ft. above ground, observed through 7x binoculars till it reached about 3,000 ft. to the ENE near the NE corner of the floodlit restricted nuclear Weapons Storage Area / Area D/Drumhead Area, and a B-58 bomber service site, where it hovered for 20 secs-1 min then headed E again, at about 200-300 ft. height, then suddenly shot up at a steep climb at about 45,000 [4,500?] ft./min. Controllers contacted RAPCON which tracked object on CPN-18 radar traveling E then turning S, circling the Albuquerque Low Frequency Range Station then headed N [disappearing at 10 miles and reappearing 20 mins later to circle around ?] to follow 1/2 mile behind a USAF C-46 that had just taken off to the S for 14 miles until both went off scope. Hovering radar target then appeared to the N over outer marker for 1-1/2 mins before fading. (McDonald 1968, 1972; Hynek UFO Exp ch. 7, case RV-3) 25 mins This sighting is extremely troublesome for two reasons. First, it was a visual and radar sighting making it an almost certainty that something physical infiltrated the nuclear base. Second, it encroached upon a delicate nuclear bomb area within the facility.  With this in mind, and considering other sightings that week, we can theorize that these objects had nuclear weapons surveillance ambitions. Next up, we have an extraordinary series of cases in the Gulf of Mexico involving radar sightings. This is a solidifying factor that the peak of the wave from November 1 through November 7, 1957 was not primarily due to hysteria due to the launching of Sputnik II but solid physical evidence of some sort of sky anomaly. The Navy discounted all of these sightings. See Appendix #1.

We present three of the cases here.

The NICAP Chronology reads as follow on Case #1:5:16-5:23? a.m. US Coast Guard cutter Sebago heading NNE at 23° azimuth tracked radar target to the S at 188° azimuth range 22 miles traveling at 650 mph disappearing at 190° azimuth at 55 miles range. Visual object like a brilliant planet was seen at 5:21 for 5 secs traveling left to right from W to NW from 270° to 310° azimuth at about 31° elevation. A radar target seemingly stationary for 1 min at 5:20-21 to the N at 350° azimuth range 7 miles moved slowly towards the NE then accelerated rapidly off the scope at 15° azimuth (about NNE) at 175 miles. 3 USAF pilots at Selma saw a bright object flash from S to N, time uncertain. (UFOE, VIII; Hynek-CUFOS-Willy Smith files; cf. CR p. 165) 7 mins ?

The NICAP Chronology reads as follows on Case #2:November 6, 1957 Starting at 3:05 p.m. CST, and over a period of 41 minutes, seven or more objects were observed on a GCA Surveillance scope. The objects appeared as large as a T-33 to a C-47 and their speed was estimated at 3600 mph. The location of the objects from the observer was 170 to 350 degrees. (McDonald, Sparks, Wilson)

The next case comes from Harlingen AFB IN Texas.

The NICAP summary reads as follows:
November 7, 1957 9:38 a.m. CST. Faint radar target similar to a T-29 aircraft was picked up at 10 miles northeast going west to about 14 miles when target disappeared 14 miles northwest. A target reappeared 10 miles southwest going east for 10 miles and then turned west and disappeared at 15 miles. The speed of the target was estimated in excess of 1,900 mph. The length of the observation was 2 to 3 minutes. (McDonald list; FUFOR Index, Dan Wilson)

Case 4 from NICAP reads as follows:
Nov. 6, 1957; Cannon AFB, New Mexico (BB)At 8:15 p.m. MST, there occurred a radar sighting of slow moving objects the apparent size of an aircraft. Seventeen targets were tracked at various bearings over a period of 9 minutes. 07/0315Z (Dan Wilson)
In addition to the military sightings in the United States, South America had a mini-wave that week. The most startling account bore a similarity to the Stokes Case of November 4th near Orogrande, New Mexico when James Stokes, an employee of White Sands Missile Testing Grounds was sunburned by a UFO near a nuke test site facility. 


From the website http://www.prufon-news.com/2012/02/two-sentinels-were-burnt-by-ufo-at-fort.html

One of the most common types of injuries caused by UFOs occurred at Fort Itaipu, on the south coast of São Paulo (Praia Grande), Brazil. Whether these two Brazilian soldiers were deliberately attacked or just heat waves radiated from the UFO, it’s hard to tell. But there have been several other innocent bystanders who just happened to be where a UFO had landed and were burned by it at close proximity. Cases like "The Cash-Landrum UFO Case", and "The UFO Incident of Falcon Lake, Canada" etc., (you can read about them on this blog) are just some of the most popular cases when this has occurred. 


FORT Itaipu photo

At 2 o'clock in the morning of November 4, 1957, at Fort Itaipu, located near Santos, São Paulo, Brazil, two guards were stationed atop of the highest observation tower facing the ocean when they observed a very intense bright orange light in the sky.
At first, they thought it was a star with increased brightness for some unknown reason.  Then they realized it was an object coming down at high speed, directly over the fort. At about 1,000 feet (305 meters) above them, the object reduced speed and slowly continued to descend noiselessly until it suddenly stopped and hovered at about 50 meters over the guards.
At this altitude, the sentinels were able see the shape of the UFO, which was circular, with an apparent diameter of 100 feet and with an orange glow. The guards were afraid, and did not react. Each was armed with a submachine gun, but no thoughts came to their minds to shoot at the UFO or to sound the alarm.
At this time, they could hear a strong buzzing sound, like that of a generator, which emitted from inside the UFO. Suddenly, it shot downward a strong heat wave hitting the two soldiers. It came with great intensity, but no flame or beam of light was visible.
The heat wave set their uniforms on fire and one of them, overcome by the intense heat, was knocked down unconscious. The other soldier, screaming in pain and fear, threw himself on the floor and crawled under a canyon for shelter. The cries awoke the garrison, but before any of the soldiers could respond to the area, all of the lights and electricity went out. Only a moderate heat penetrated the interior of the fort, but this, along with total darkness, was enough to cause panic.
 After three minutes or so, the heat subsided and moments later, the electricity came back on. Some soldiers came out running to their battle stations and many reported seeing the bright UFO moving away and disappearing up high in the night sky.
The two men, in shock, were brought into the fort with first and 2nd degrees burns on more than 10% of their bodies and received medical treatment. Next, the commander of the fort sent an urgent message to the headquarters of the Brazilian Army. Shortly thereafter, the Brazilian Air Force was put on full alert and patrolled the area. After the incident, the fort is closed and put under investigation by the Brazilian government.
Since the United States was known to possess more knowledge about UFOs, high-ranking Brazilian authorities requested assistance from the American Embassy in their investigations. Almost immediately, officers of the Brazilian Army and U.S. Air Force flew to the fort, accompanied by researchers from the Brazilian Air Force. The result of the investigation was not made public.
The sentries were burned still in serious condition, but were able to talk from time to time. After hearing their description of the incident, with details of the approach of the UFO and the alien heat, left the researchers wondering why the guards were attacked.The case of Fort Itaipu was kept secret for a long time and yet, the episode continues to this day without an explanation.
Since there is no possible way James Stokes could have possibly known about the Brazil incident earlier that morning with its similar burning of witnesses and electromagnetic effects, we suggest Mr. Stokes story has all the earmarks of being legitimate regardless of what picture of him was painted by the U.S. military. 
Also the Brazil story was kept secret for a number of years and was not on any radio broadcast or in any newspaper account that day for Mr. Stokes to know about.  However, there is a suggestion that the primary APRO investigator embellished the story for his own purposes and that the burns, if they occurred at all, were minor. 


NON-Military Sightings

Now we will look at non-military related occurrences that may directly tie-in to events surrounding PANTED during the first week of November 1957. 

Levelland, Texas November 2/3, 1957

We will not go into tremendous detail on what happened in Levelland Texas on the night of November 2nd going into November 3rd but we will zero in on aspects of the phenomenon. There is a tremendous amount of data available on Levelland on the internet for the student of that affair. 
There were 15 reports in all from various locations in and around Levelland. What is significant is that many of them depicted large torpedo or egg shaped objects landing in roads surrounded by variously colored halos of light. 
To what purpose.  These were not military and non-nuclear facility related sightings. What could be the possible purpose?

Attempted Dog Kidnappings

Two cases that week far removed from Texas may shed light on their proceedings.  They both involved dogs. The connection between these two dog-napping cases and Sputnik II’s solo passenger Laika the dog was made as early as 1966 in UFO books.
The two accounts here are drawn from the website
 http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/cienciareal/cienciareal10c.htm
but can be found in numerous other locations. They read as follows:

At 6.30 am on 6 November 1957, 12-year-old Everett Clark of Dante, Tennessee, opened the door to let out his dog, Frisky, and saw a peculiar oblong object in a field about 100 yards from the house. He thought he was dreaming and went back inside. When he called the dog 20 minutes later, the object was still there, and Frisky was standing near it, along with several dogs from the neighborhood. Also near the object were 2 men and 2 women in ordinary clothing. One of the men made several attempts to catch Frisky, and later another dog, but had to give up for fear of being bitten. The strange people talked like German soldiers the boy had seen in movies. He watched them walk right into the wall of the object, which then took off straight up without a sound. 
Another attempt to steal a dog was made at dusk the same day, this time in Everittstown, New Jersey. By some weird coincidence, the name of this town resembles the boy’s name in the above case. A man named John Trasco went outside to feed his dog and saw a brilliant egg-shaped object hovering in front of his barn. In his path he met a 3-ft-tall being ’with putty-colored face and large frog-like eyes’, who said in broken English: ’We are peaceful people, we only want your dog’ (this sort of absurd dialogue is typical of close encounters). The strange being was told in no uncertain terms to go back where he belonged. He ran away and his machine was seen to take off straight up moments later. The being wore a green suit with shining buttons, a green cap, and gloves.

Were unknown parties, in addition to surveilling military and nuclear sites attempting to assess the importance of Russia sending a dog into space?  If so, it shows these unknown parties were quite taken by surprise and had no concept of what a dog was. An interesting possibility. 

Next from NICAP’s chronology we have:

Nov. 4,1957; U.S., near Amarillo, Texas (E-M)After midnight. A young couple saw a glowing object on the road while returning to Amarillo. The object was surrounded by fog. The engine of their car died as they approached it and entered this fog. The battery also went dead. The car had to be pushed into Amarillo to have the battery replaced. [Shopick] (Rullan; UFO Reports Involving Vehicle Interference by Mark Rodeghier, p. 10, © 1981)
This case is interesting in that it is near Amarillo AFB, it occurred at the peak of the flap, there was a haze around the object and there were electro-magnetic effects. 

From NICAP:
Nov. 5, 1957; Playa del Rey, California (E-M)5:40 a.m. Richard Keyhoe, while driving to work along Vista del Mar at the beach, experienced engine failure, as did drivers of two other cars in the area. All drivers got out and saw an egg-shaped object in a blue haze on the beach. Two humanoids got out of it and asked the men questions such as "Where are you going?" and "What time is it?" The humanoids, who had yellow-green skin, then got back in the craft which quickly departed. The witnesses' cars could be restarted. (Rodeghier, Flying Saucer Occupants, Coral and Jim Lorenzen) 
Again we have a blue haze, an egg, electro-magnetic effects but in this case we also have humanoid entities as in the dog-napping cases. 

From NICAP:
Nov. 5, 1957; El Paso, Texas (E-M)7:30 p.m. A single witness saw an egg-shaped object, which was glowing with a blue color, approach his car. This occurred after his engine and headlights had failed. The object gave off a whirring sound and passed overhead at a 100-foot altitude. It moved off into the distance in a straight line, but changed altitude erratically. (Rodeghier, The Hynek UFO Report) 
As noted in many other cases so far this week, we have an egg, we have a blue glow (haze?) and we have electro-magnetic effects. 

From NICAP:
Nov. 6, 1957; Merom (25 miles south of Terre Haute), IndianaEarly evening, Rene Gilham, a young ironworker Haute witnessed a 30 to 40-foot diameter, circular object hovering 200-300 feet overhead. It was also observed by his family and neighbors across the street. Mr. Gilham stood under the object for about ten minutes in the recurrent blue light beams being projected down. The effects of the encounter put him in the hospital. (Frank Edwards, NICAP files)
Here again we have blue light but this time in the form of beams. These exposed a witness to them and he landed in a hospital. There is no mention if he received burns however. 

Perhaps the most interesting case is that of Olden Moore who claimed that after his sighting he was taken to Washington D.C. to a government building and interrogated for three days by persons who could be considered “Men in Black".

NICAP summarizes his story as follows:
Nov. 6, 1957; Montville, Ohio (BBU)11:30 [11:20] p.m. (EST). Olden J. Moore, 28, a plasterer, while driving home suddenly saw an object like a bright meteor split into two pieces, one going straight up, the other getting larger while color changing from bright white to blue-green. Object hovered 200 ft. above a field close to ground, 500 ft. away, with a soft whirring sound. After 15 mins, Moore walked to the object, which was shaped like "a covered dish" 50 ft. in diameter, 15 ft. high, with a cone on top about 10 ft. high, surrounded by haze or fog, pulsating slowly. Holes, footprints and decaying radioactivity found at the site by Civil Defense Director Kenneth Locke. (UFOE, XII; Vallée Magonia 433) 15 mins

This is a particularly disturbing case if true. First, it is one of the few cases where the object resembles the disc shape of the PANTEX witness’s description (Xxxxxxxs). It also has the soft whirring sound. We see the color blue yet again. We have the fog or haze surrounding the object.  And most intriguingly, we have trace evidence of radiation which could tie into the Brazilian fort incident and the James Stokes incident where they may have received radiation burns.  Additionally, there is a correlating case from Montville Ohio on that same day which includes electro-magnetic interference bolstering Mr. Moore’s case even further. 

Cases on November 7th, 1957 on the same day as PANTEX

For the sake of brevity, we will list all important cases nationwide occurring in the NICAP Chronology on November 7th (the same day as PANTEX), military and non-military alike.

From NICAP:
Nov. 7, 1957; White sands Proving Ground, New MexicoMorning. A family driving on Route 54 near the proving grounds area, saw a large silvery cylindrical or oval shaped object traveling out of the northeast at about 10,000 feet. They watched it for approximately 3 minutes before the object disappeared over the Organ Mountains to the southwest. The object was traveling at "tremendous" speed. (Source: Albuquerque Tribune and Reno Evening Gazette, November 8, 1957)

Nov. 7, 1957; Orogrande, New Mexico (near White Sands)9:20 a.m. The speedometer of a car began suddenly jumping wildly back and forth, from the top to the bottom of its range. It then stopped just as suddenly. The three witnesses later saw a metallic-appearing UFO high in the sky to the southwest. It continued moving away into the south-west for three minutes until it was lost from view. The speedo-meter continued to function normally after the UFO was gone. (Rodeghier, Flying Saucers: The Startling Evidence of the Invasion from Outer Space, Coral Lorenzen) 

Nov. 7, 1957; Harlingen AFB, Texas (BBU)9:38 a.m. CST. Faint radar target similar to a T-29 aircraft was picked up at 10 miles northeast going west to about 14 miles when target disappeared 14 miles northwest. A target reappeared 10 miles southwest going east for 10 miles and then turned west and disappeared at 15 miles. The speed of the target was estimated in excess of 1,900 mph. The length of the observation was 2 to 3 minutes. (McDonald list; FUFOR Index, Dan Wilson)

Nov. 7, 1957; Walker AFB (Roswell, New Mexico) (BB)7:45 p.m. MST. Several long black flat objects with a light blue tail approximately 200 to 300 yards in length were observed at Walker AFB by two military personnel in the control tower. The flight of the objects was wavering with a slight variation in altitude. The objects were seen through 7x5 power binoculars for about 20 seconds, and 30 seconds without binoculars. A second sighting took place of a long round object that looked like a large stovepipe 8 to 10 feet in diameter with a long trail 200-300 yards long and was seen for 60 to 90 seconds. The object made a complete 360degree turn described as horseshoe-shaped. During the period 08/ 0140 - 0250Z (6:14 p.m. to 7:50 p.m.) like objects were reported from civilian air control personnel at Carlsbad and Hobbs, New Mexico, Wink, Texas, and a pilot of a Continental Airline Flight 184 near Hobbs, New Mexico. (Dan Wilson, BB files) 

And thus concludes our investigation of the NICAP files for the period November 1st through the 7th. The majority of UFO reports on the 7th occurred in the states of New Mexico and Texas.  We can call this ground zero. While the greater range of reports was for the southern United States which in and of itself seems to be a targeted area, the greater target was essentially New Mexico and Texas and whatever was going on there that attracted this third party interloper. 

For those interested in reading further about the other cases not listed here, they are advised to go to the NICAP summary at  http://www.nicap.org/waves/1957fullrep.htm

UFO Profiles

At this point we can create a profile of what the UFOs were like and what they were doing during the first week of November 1957.

Characteristics

1.Many objects were egg or torpedo shaped ovoid objects
2.Many objects were between 60 and 200 feet long
3.Many objects had blue green or red hazes about them
4.There were several objects that were red or orange orb like in nature
5.Many objects made a whirring or humming noise
6.Radar picked up objects travelling between 650 mph and an extraordinary 3,600 mph
7.Gave off possible radiation

Behaviors

1.Many objects landed in roads
2.Many objects wanted to be seen
3.Many objects visited nuclear sites.
4.Many objects had no fear of being seen or carrying out maneuvers over restricted airspace
5.In at least 3 cases, the close encounter with the UFO produced physical harm to the witnesses in the form of possible radiation burns in at least 2 of the 3 cases. 

This series of sightings, although 59 years ago, display more than your typical nocturnal light or disc profile. There was intent in these reports still evident 6 decades later. 
As a matter of fact, we have a newspaper account on November 7th from the NICAP chronology that they list as follows:

EI Paso, Texas, Times: "Some of the nation's top scientists are 'pretty shook up' about the mysterious flying objects sighted in New Mexico and West Texas skies this week, said Charles Capen (a scientist at White Sands). 'This is something that hasn't happened before,' (he said)." (UFOE)

Project 1794

Next we will investigate Project 1794.What is unique about the Pantex sighting is that we have only one witness that actually describes the shape of the unknown aerial vehicles. He believes they are 63-foot disc shaped objects. The majority of reports we have seen from New Mexico, Texas and the greater United States suggest an invasion of torpedo, ovoid or egg shaped objects possibly all referring to a similar shaped object between 60 and 200 feet in length. The same witness, John Xxxxxxxs, in his story, alludes to the fact that Astronaut Stuart Roosa contacted him sometime around 1982 to discuss the PANTEX Plant sighting, which, by the way, was nothing more than an obscure mention in the NICAP Chronology based on a short news blurb. How Mr. Roosa found Mr. Xxxxxxxs, if indeed the meeting ever really took place, is still a matter of conjecture. Attempts to contact Rosemary Roosa, Stuart Roosa’s daughter, in order to validate parts or all of the story have proved unproductive by MUFON investigator Robert Spearing. Mr. Xxxxxxxs alleges that Stuart Roosa, Apollo 14 pilot, came to Florida to discuss the PANTEX sighting with him. According to Mr. Xxxxxxxs, Mr. Roosa alluded to the fact that he may have flown disc shaped aircraft under Project 1794. Mr. Xxxxxxxs also alleges to know the identity of one of the pilots of the PANTEX craft and that his name was Janusz Żurakowski.Mr. Zurakowski was a highly qualified and well decorated Canadian test pilot in the 1950s who worked for Avro Corporation, the makers of the Avro disc so well known as the saucer built for the U.S. military which was a complete failure and probably media gimmick.Mr. Xxxxxxxs offers zero documentation that either Mr. Roosa or Mr. Zurakowski ever flew circular craft. It is doubtful Mr. Roosa ever flew one of the PANTEX craft as he did not become a test pilot until 1962.  Mr. Zurakowski retired from test piloting in 1958 and therefore it is within the realm of possibility that he could have flown the PANTEX craft. The official line on Project 1794 comes from Wikipedia.  It details the Avro Corporation’s VZ-9 Avrocar which was a complete failure.The Wikipedia entry states:The Avro Canada VZ-9 Avrocar was a VTOL aircraft developed by Avro Aircraft Ltd. (Canada) as part of a secret U.S. military project carried out in the early years of the Cold War.[2] The Avrocar intended to exploit the Coandă effect to provide lift and thrust from a single "turborotor" blowing exhaust out the rim of the disk-shaped aircraft to provide anticipated VTOL-like performance. In the air, it would have resembled a flying saucer.Originally designed as a fighter-like aircraft capable of very high speeds and altitudes, the project was repeatedly scaled back over time and the U.S. Air Force eventually abandoned it. Development was then taken up by the U.S. Army for a tactical combat aircraft requirement, a sort of high-performance helicopter.[3] In flight testing, the Avrocar proved to have unresolved thrust and stability problems that limited it to a degraded, low-performance flight envelope; subsequently, the project was cancelled in September 1961.Through the history of the program, the project was referred to by a number of different names. Avro referred to the efforts as Project Y, with individual vehicles known as Spade and Omega. Project Y-2 was later funded by the U.S. Air Force, who referred to it as WS-606A, Project 1794 and Project Silver Bug. When the U.S. Army joined the efforts it took on its final name "Avrocar", and the designation "VZ-9", part of the U.S. Army's VTOL projects in the VZ series.  


AVRO Car VZ 9 diagram
 


Avro Car VZ 9 photo

VTOL is an acronym for Vertical Take Off Landing.However, when we look up Project Silverbug we find hints that what Mr. Xxxxxxxs theorizes is true.  Perhaps there was a successful model flying in the skies of the United States in the 1950s and 1960s. The Wikipedia official entry for Project 1794 reads as follows:In late 1953, a group of U.S. defense experts visited Avro Canada to view the new CF-100 fighter jet Somewhere along the way, Frost co-opted the tour and rerouted it to the Special Projects area where he proceeded to show off the Project Y mock-up and models and drawings (some never before seen by senior company officials) for a completely circular disk-shaped aircraft known as "Project Y-2." The USAF agreed to take over funding for Frost's Special Projects Group, and a contract for US$750,000 followed in 1955. By 1956, Avro management was interested enough to commit $2.5 million to build a "private venture" prototype. In March 1957, the Air Force added additional funding, and the aircraft became Weapons System 606A.A wide variety of designs were studied for a VTOL fighter aircraft,[3] all revolved around the disk shape, leading to the Project 1794 involving a supersonic large disk fighter aircraft. The concept proceeded to wind tunnel testing with a variety of scale models. It featured a raised section in the middle over the engine, the intake covered with a series of louvers that would be closed in forward flight. Frost's performance estimates for the concept were for a potential of Mach 3.5 at 100,000 ft. (30,000 m) altitudes.There was some debate about the concept within the USAF, as many groups were attempting to gain funding for their own pet projects, like nuclear powered bombers. In a repeat of the earlier Toronto Star release, in 1955 an extensive article appeared in Look magazine that, among other claims, speculated that current UFO sightings were Soviet-built saucers. The article went on to describe such an aircraft with diagrams that were clearly influenced by the Avro design.[12]For testing purposes, a new engine consisting of six Armstrong Siddeley Viper jet engines blowing across the outer rim of an impeller was designed under the name PV-704, PV stood for Private Venture. The PV-704 was a stop-gap design built into a bunker-like building behind the Avro Experimental Test facility. It was intended to test various Project 1794 concepts and provide the USAF with test data to show the viability of the concept. The original plan to initially test the Viper Engine Rig was to have continued into free flight testing. Unfortunately, testing was anything but smooth; the test model suffered from hazardous oil leaks, resulting in three fires.[13] It eventually got to the point that staff were afraid of the machine, even when safely ensconced in a booth constructed of bullet-proof glass and quarter-inch-thick steel. A final, disastrous and nearly lethal engine test in 1956 which involved a Viper jet engine running wild, convinced Frost that a less dangerous test vehicle was necessary.

The internet and print magazine WIRED, has an article based on recently declassified documents concerning Project 1794. The article can be seen at https://www.wired.com/2012/10/the-airforce/

And reads as follows:

"Officially, aliens have never existed but flying saucers very nearly did. The National Archives has recently published never-before-seen schematics and details of a 1950s military venture, called Project 1794, which aimed to build a supersonic flying saucer.
The newly declassified materials show the U.S. Air Force had a contract with a now-defunct Canadian company to build an aircraft unlike anything seen before. Project 1794 got as far as the initial rounds of product development and into prototype design. In a memo dating from 1956 the results from pre-prototype testing are summarized and reveal exactly what the developers had hoped to create.
The saucer was supposed to reach a top speed of “between Mach 3 and Mach 4, a ceiling of over 100,000 ft. and a maximum range with allowances of about 1,000 nautical miles,” according to the document.If the plans had followed through to completion they would have created a saucer, which could spin through the Earth’s stratosphere at an average top speed of about 2,600 miles per hour. Wow. It was also designed to take off and land vertically (VTOL), using propulsion jets to control and stabilize the aircraft. Admittedly the range of 1,000 nautical miles seems limited in comparison to the other specifications – but if you’d hopped on the disk in New York it could’ve had you in Miami within about 24 minutes.The document also hints that the product development seemed to be going better than planned; “the present design will provide a much superior performance to that estimated at the start of contract negotiations.”It begs the question – why was the project dropped? Why aren’t wars being fought with flying saucers? The cost of continuing to prototype was estimated at $3,168,000, which roughly translates to about $26.6 million in today’s money and wouldn’t have been an insane price for such advanced technology. The problem with the other flying saucers developed under the same program (see video) is pretty clear. They didn’t get anywhere near 100,000 feet in altitude, more like five or six if you were lucky – so the military finally pulled the plug in 1960."

The article “begs the question” as to why the project was dropped. The real question was “Was it dropped?” There is circumstantial evidence that an actual project was successful and that the Avrocar VZ-9 was just a disc with a lawn mower motor. Could the sighting in Milford Pennsylvania in February 1957 be a sighting of a functional Project 1794 craft?

An article in the online magazine ExtremeTech goes into even more detail that perhaps America had a functional Project 1794 craft in operation in the 1950s.The article reads as follows:

"Tighten the strap on your tinfoil hat: Recently declassified documents show that the US Air Force was working on, and perhaps had already built, a supersonic flying saucer in 1956.The aircraft, which had the code name Project 1794, was developed by the USAF and Avro Canada in the 1950s. One declassified memo, which seems to be the conclusion of initial research and prototyping, says that Project 1794 is a flying saucer capable of “between Mach 3 and Mach 4,” (2,300-3,000 mph) a service ceiling of over 100,000 feet (30,500m), and a range of around 1,000 nautical miles (1,150mi, 1850km).As far as we can tell, the supersonic flying saucer would propel itself by rotating an outer disk at very high speed, taking advantage of the Coandă effect. Maneuvering would be accomplished by using small shutters on the edge of the disc (similar to ailerons on a winged aircraft). Power would be provided by jet turbines. According to the cutaway diagrams, the entire thing would even be capable of vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL).It isn’t clear why it has taken some 64 years for Project 1794 to be declassified, though it does follow on from the declassified news in 2008 that the US government has been monitoring UFO activity for more than 30 years. There are apparently two whole boxes of Project 1794 documents — but only the four images shown here have been digitized.Without a deeper look inside those boxes, we can’t be sure that Project 1794 ever made it off the ground. It’s worth noting that Avro Canada also worked on the VZ-9 Avrocar, though — which is basically the same as Project 1794, but a lot smaller. The Avrocar was originally specified for a max speed of 300 mph and a service ceiling of 10,000 feet — but in practice, it never got more than three feet off the ground or flew faster than 35mph."

Much has not been released on Project 1794 as of 2016.Despite the Avrocar’s failures, it is clear that the US government was indeed working on aircraft in the 1950s that resembled flying saucers. Suffice it to say, the US might also have been working on flying saucers back in the ’40s, around the same time as the Roswell UFO incident.Ultimately, though, the fact that we use fixed-wing aircraft today is a good indicator that flying saucers, while cool, just aren’t that functional. If flying saucers were somehow faster or more efficient or capable of lifting heavier loads, we would almost certainly see them in a commercial setting. Sadly, while some UFO sightings may have indeed been Project 1794, it’s unlikely that they were anything more than experiments carried out by humans, not aliens.According to scientist Leonard G. Cramp who wrote two interesting and highly technical UFO propulsion theory works in the 1950s and 1960s, the circular disc was a very stable bird contrary to what has been published about them. As mentioned earlier, the magazine Aerodynamics in 1958 postulated that the flying disc was a very sound stable technological pursuit and it is remarkable that discs do not permeate our skies today. If the U.S. did have a successful program, it is highly unlikely we would venture abroad with the vehicle but would use it within the confines of the United States but would we use it over Milford Pa. and the PANTEX Plant? Would the military risk discovery? Actual declassified Project 1794 design
Many scientists were working on disc shaped vehicles including scientists in France in the 1950s. If the shape was so dangerous, why so much work?The bottom line is that the U.S. theoretically could have had a working model of a disc shaped craft operational in 1957. But then the questions arise: Why fly it over PANTEX? Why fly it over PANTEX at the height of a UFO wave? Why fly it over PANTEX at the height of cold war tensions concerning Sputnik and ICBM development?On the surface it doesn’t seem rational.However, the only plausible explanation would seem that a top secret U.S. aircraft was “testing” U.S. ground response to a possible Soviet attack.Remember that the sole purpose of the Avrocar project was to develop a VTOL craft that could emerge from underground hangers and take off vertically in the event air strips were lost in a Soviet attack.  If we follow Leonard Cramp’s argument, these VTOLs were highly efficient unlike the Avrocar VZ-9 failure. That the U.S. pursued this design into the 1960s is evidence that they were working on a good design premise in the 1950s!Even if we go with the hypothesis that a super-secret American aircraft was testing WITH IMPUNITY by the way, the defenses of the US military and nuclear sites being surveilled, it does not explain the egg shaped and torpedo shaped objects quite dissimilar from the flying discs. It does not explain the blue haloes, the highway landings, the attempted dog kidnappings, the entity visitations to some witnesses and the electro-magnetic effects. If PANTEX was visited by an American craft, it was a minority affair.  And thus the odds of it being American diminish greatly for the week of November 1st to the 7th. Mr., Xxxxxxxs is the only known surviving witness to the PANTEX plant sighting and he has proven somewhat unreliable in his theories and conclusions. Could his account of the craft design also be unreliable?He was 100 yards away from the craft. He did not see it from all angles. It had blinding lights which made the hull indistinct.SAT feels that it is just as possible the object in front of Mr. Xxxxxxxs could have been egg, ovoid or torpedo shape shaped and not discernable from his vantage point. 

FINAL CONCLUSION

There are many conclusions that can be drawn from this account. We will begin with Mr. Xxxxxxxs.

1.Mr. Roosa and Mr. Zurakowski were probably not test pilots for a disc shaped craft in America in 1957. This is baseless theorizing by Mr. Xxxxxxxs.
2.It is suspect that Mr. Xxxxxxxs ever met Mr. Roosa. 
3.The unnamed Major telling Mr. Xxxxxxxs of Element 115 and Alien bodies is totally rumor and can never be substantiated
4.The mounds Mr. Xxxxxxxs saw in the PANTEX Plant were not circular disc aircraft hangers but Plutonium Storage Pits and Gravel Gertie mounds designed to contain minor nuclear blasts in the bomb construction areas located below the mounds.  The company building these hangers did not come into existence until the 1983.  
5.Mr. Xxxxxxxs probably was called to PANTEX by his Sargent. He did encounter a traffic jam and road closure possibly related to the PANTEX Plant event. He probably did see an object of indistinct shape with multi-colored lights or white colored lights that were blinding. He probably did see the object sink behind buildings within the plant near the guard post at the front gate. He probably did see security vehicles surround the craft as it landed. 

The newspaper account
1.Up to 3 vehicles were seen over PANTEX
2.Objects were seen all over Texas, New Mexico and other important locations on November 7th and all that prior week
3.Credible witnesses were on hand including state troopers, armed security guards, and newspaper reporters at PANTEX
4.Venus can be ruled out in the reporter’s case
5.Security guards tried to sneak up on the objects but the objects just moved away
6.Object may have landed on road outside PANTEX prompting the road closure
7.Object shape was impossible to discern

The November 1957 flap, November 1st to 7th
1.       Military bases were visited by objects during the week of November 1st to the 7th.
2.       Military sites were mostly nuclear in designation
3.       Most military and nuclear facility sightings centered around the southern United States        from California to Florida but centered in New Mexico and Texas
4.      Electro-magnetic effects were prevalent in numerous cases
5.      The predominant shapes of objects were ovoid, egg or torpedo shaped
6.      Many objects landed in roads
7.      Many objects had a glow or haze about them
8. Many sightings were highly reliable in that multiple witnesses were involved and many     witnesses were military personnel, reporters, state troopers and scientists. 

While nothing can ever be positively determined after 59 years, one set of facts stands out from these conclusions.In all the military sightings including nuclear installations, we see a clear pattern.

First, in the case of PANTEX, a manufacturing entity was targeted

Second, in the case of White Sands, a testing facility was targeted

Third, in the case of Kirtland and Amarillo Air Base, an end user of nuclear weaponry was targeted

All links in a chain from manufacture to testing to delivery were surveilled in one week. This suggests a highly concentrated effort to understand and infiltrate U.S. weapons capability in light of the grave geo-political happenings at the time.Additionally, non-military sightings may have had several purposesFirst, to act as camouflage to dilute the number of military sightings in the pressSecond, in an attempt to be seen by a great number of people especially with road landing incidents with the purpose of either creating news, creating fear or creating camouflage to cover military incursions. Did unknown third parties show themselves all over the U.S. to display a message to our leaders that we WERE being monitored?Third, to capture dogs as silly as that may sound in order to evaluate their importance in space flight in lieu of the Sputnik II passenger Laika the dog. This would suggest the Russians were not behind the numerous UFO sightings that month. It would also suggest that the “third party” involved was having trouble assessing U.S. and possibly Russian intent and capability.


APPENDIX ONE