Fort Bliss, TexasJune 1949

On the morning of June 22, 1949, a military officer at Fort Bliss, Texas, stood on the steps of Building 4100 and noticed several small, silvery objects moving through the air to the north. The observer, a battery commander, watched the objects for two minutes as they climbed and descended in a rocking motion. He saw four objects at first, then three, then two, describing them as roughly three inches wide and a foot long each, with silver undersides and a reddish tinge on top. They flew in a north direction at about 60 miles per hour, roughly a mile and a half away from his position. The objects made no sound, left no visible trail, and eventually disappeared in the distance. The observer, who had normal vision, appeared reasonable and reliable to the investigating officer.

The weather that morning was clear and bright. Military officials checked whether aircraft or testing devices had been released nearby. Biggs Air Force Base reported that target planes had been released around 10 a.m., which matches the sighting time. The Antiaircraft Artillery and Guided Missile Center at Fort Bliss submitted the report up the chain of command through Fourth Army headquarters, which sent it to Air Force headquarters at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio.

The Air Force's conclusion labeled the sighting as "unidentified," though the proximity in time to the target plane release raised the possibility of a conventional aircraft identification. The case file remains ambiguous on whether investigators believed the objects were the released planes or something else entirely.

The full case file, containing 17 scanned pages, is reproduced below as held by the National Archives.