Southwest United States, July 1949July 1949

# Fireball Reports from the Southwest, July-August 1949

Between July 11 and August 10, 1949, military personnel in the Southwest reported seeing unusual objects in the night sky. The Air Force investigated these sightings under Project Blue Book, its official UFO study program.

The first report came on July 11, when a sergeant near Camp Hood, Texas, spotted a pale red ball with no tail, about twice the size of the evening star. It appeared 30 degrees above the horizon, moving west-southwest at high speed. The object vanished suddenly, like someone turning off a flashlight.

A week later, on July 28, three separate incidents occurred within minutes of each other in the Camp Hood area. One observer driving east on Highway 190 at 10:59 p.m. saw two bright objects moving north. The first had a blue-green trail. Another military officer in a car described a round object that turned white, appeared to glow with the brightness of the evening star, and blinked out like a light. A third witness reported a white object with a blue-green tint, also glowing brightly, that faded away.

Two more sightings took place on July 30. An officer in an open truck observed what he described as a rocket-shaped object with an extremely brilliant nucleus and a blue-white tail. It climbed in a slight arc across the sky before fading. A dismounted soldier saw a white object with a long tail moving south to southeast at very high speed, similar in brightness to a photographer's flash bulb.

By early August, the sightings had moved further south. On August 6, military personnel near Los Cruces, New Mexico, reported seeing a bluish-green ball with a short colored trail. It moved east to west in a straight path before disappearing behind a building. Another witness in the same general area saw a bright object move in a curve, then fall almost vertically, with sparks flying from the main body.

The Air Force evaluated most of these incidents as astronomical phenomena, specifically fireballs or meteors. This was the official explanation listed in the case file summary. No physical evidence was recovered from any of the sightings. The reports came from observers of varying reliability, including military officers, enlisted soldiers, and civilian witnesses. Most sightings lasted only a few seconds, though one incident involved observation for up to 30 minutes.

The 37-page case file is reproduced below as held by the National Archives.