Blue Book, the U.S. Air Force investigation into UFOs closed its doors in 1970. As I have said in the past it certainly was no loss since its only reason for being was to provide excuses when people reported UFO sightings. It started looking at cases in 1947 and there are many cases listed in its investigations. I am going to list some from 1950. First I would like to say they investigated 259 cases between 1947 and 1949. The total amount of cases they cited was 1638. The last case was a sighting which took place in Thailand on March 14, 1969 and fittingly the sighting was by a United States Air Force crew who saw a cylindrical object which was larger than their tanker plane. Did they just give up after this, because it was like trying to fight the tide, did the government think they had sufficiently squelched the belief in alien UFOs or did the government shift to the disinformation program?

On January 7, 1950 near Corona, New Mexico at 10:15 in the morning a maintenance officer at Holloman Air Force Base saw something strange in the sky. It was a yellowish-white ball of light and the ball was continuously changing color. It had a trailing orange flame. It leveled off, proving it was not a meteor, but something using controlled flight. When it got above a mountain range it turned blue-green and very bright. The maintenance officer watched it until it dropped behind a mountain. When objects in the sky are reported by Air Force personnel I always have to give them the benefit of the doubt, because of their experience with identifying aircraft. One of the more interesting things about this sighting is the fact some UFO investigators have said Holloman Air Force Base is a place where UFOs routinely landed. It is even suggested President Eisenhower landed Air Force One there and met with aliens.

Another interesting sighting occurred on January 22, 1950 near Kodiak, Alaska. It occurred between 2:40 and 4:40 at night. It was reported again by military personnel. A U.S. Navy patrol plane picked up an object on radar. When the crew checked there was no report of air traffic in the area. When they went to track the radar signal they got strong interference which prevented this from happening. At 3:00 a.m. the watch officers on the USS Tillamook which was near Kodiak Island saw an orange ball of fire circling Kodiak. At 4:40 a.m. P2V3 radar picked up a fast moving target 5 miles away, but in 10 seconds it was overhead. It had been calculated this object had been moving 1,800 miles per hour at times and back then there was just nothing which could fly that fast. A report stated, "two orange lights rotating about a common center like two jet aircraft making slow rolls in tight formation." When a plane tried to pursue it, it had to break off because the object came at it in a threatening way. The pilot then turned off all the lights on his aircraft and the object flew away.

On January 24, 1950 Pentagon officials were flying in a C-45 transport plane. In the plane were two combat pilots and two other pilots plus the crew of the transport. The plane was near Blackstone Virginia and this sighting lasted from 4:50 p.m. to 5:05 p.m. The pilot of the transport reported seeing a dark 250 foot diameter hemispherical parachute-shaped or B-35 flying wing shaped object. It was about 5-10 miles away and looked like smoke was coming out from under it. Underneath it seemed to have another object suspended below it which was about three times bigger than the object itself. It moved at 300 miles per hour to the right then back again without making a turn. The plane climbed to the same height as the object and turned toward it. Everyone on the transport saw it when the object accelerated to a speed of about 6,000 miles per hour and disappeared.

UFOs have almost become synonymous with spying on nuclear facilities. This is nothing new. On February 24, 1950 between 1:15 p.m. and 2:00 p.m. Los Alamos, New Mexico became one of these targets. Two security people, two inspectors and two chemical operators saw something in the sky about the facility.  A saucer shaped object was seen hovering over the facility. It was either a shiny metallic or bright white, sliver white, saucer. Its altitude was estimated at 20,000 to 30,000 feet. If the height estimate was correct, the object’s size was somewhere around 100 feet. It was moving erratically and bright sunlight was flashing off of it at times. According to one witness as the object neared clouds they would disburse. He said the object left an intermittent vapor trail but was silent.

On February 24, 1950 at 1:55 p.m. at Albuquerque, New Mexico a weather observer was tracking a weather balloon. He was at the top of the TWA building at the Municipal Airport. It was then he saw a white object almost the shape of an egg flying in the sky. The size of the object was described as what size the moon looks like when viewing it through a 21 power telescope. The object was observed between 20-30 seconds and disappeared. The object seemed to be made of a brilliant white metal which reflected sunlight. Just a note here, many object which were viewed were described to be made of this bright white metal.

A sighting took place on April 18, 1950 near Memphis, Texas. It took place between 9 a.m. and 12:40 p.m. This is an interesting sighting, because two different sets of witnesses saw the object from two different locations. The first set were in Clarendon, Texas and saw the object in the South East part of the sky while the second set were in Childress, Texas and saw the object in the North West portion of the sky. It was described as a triangular object and was stationary. Pilots were told to intercept the object in an F-61C. This was a prop plane. The plane took off from Fort Worth, Texas to intercept the object. When it reached 20,000 feet the crew could see a translucent silver spherical shaped object in the distance at an altitude of about 30,000 feet. The object had no visible means of propulsion. It would tilt slightly then move. The object could only be seen when sunlight reflected off of it. As the plane closed the distance at 200 miles per hour, the object would accelerate just enough to gain space between them. The object then disappeared into the clouds. It reappeared closer to the plane. A B-36 was above the clouds at 46,000 feet, but they claimed they could see nothing. The object went into the clouds again and then briefly reappeared for about 30 seconds between clouds and then was gone. The F-61C was running out of oxygen and had to break off the search.