Kirtland AFB, N. Mex, January 1949 - Incident Number: 244January 1949

On January 6, 1949, Private First Class Meredith Everitt spotted a bright white diamond-shaped object traveling across the sky near Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico. Everitt, who was guarding an aircraft near the Ordnance Area, estimated the object was about two feet long and traveling roughly 1,500 to 2,000 feet above ground. The object moved rapidly from the southeast toward the northwest, covering approximately 500 feet before disappearing from view. Everitt said the object was much faster than any jet aircraft he had observed, and that it appeared brighter in the center than at its edges. The sky was clear at the time. Two other guards were on duty nearby, but neither saw the object, though Everitt called out to one of them after the sighting had ended.

Investigators noted that Everitt had attended flight school in 1947 and had some experience observing aircraft. The file also mentions a possible connection to other reports in the region. A separate incident the same night, reported by an AEC security inspector at Los Alamos, described a brilliant green incandescent light seen low in the northwestern sky for about two seconds, moving from east to west at high speed. The file additionally documents unexplained sounds heard at multiple security stations around Los Alamos between 2010 and 2050 hours on December 30, 1948, which investigators struggled to classify as either conventional aircraft, trucks on nearby roads, or something altogether different.

The Air Force evaluation of the Kirtland sighting itself was listed as "unknown," meaning the investigators could not determine what Everitt had seen. The case file is reproduced below as held by the National Archives, 27 pages total.