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Kirtland AFB Sightings, Part 1 glossary - "Uncle Phaed's UFO Investigator's Handbook" Area 51 and Wright-Patterson AFB are perhaps the best known Air Force installations with connections to the subject of UFOs. but they are by no means the only ones. The UFO incidents that have occurred at or near Kirtland AFB, near Albuquerque, New Mexico, seem to have been ignored by mainstream UFOlogy. In 1945, in southern New Mexico, at Los Alamos Laboratories, scientists were developing and testing the first nuclear weapons in great secrecy. The need for extensive flight support and test facilities reasonably near Los Alamos became apparent, and during September 1945, units of the Z Division of Los Alamos Laboratory were moved to Sandia Base at Albuquerque. The unit was the predecessor of Sandia Corporation, which was organized in 1949. It became, and (as Sandia National Laboratories) remains, the largest resident unit on Kirtland and has consistently been involved with development and testing of special weapons and energy sources and systems. Today this includes LASER weapons, particle beams, and plasma weapons - "Star Wars" weapons. Other nuclear-related units were formed at Sandia Base and nearby Kirtland AFB, as the west side was redesignated in 1947. The Armed Forces Special Weapons Project (later the Defense Atomic Support Agency, then the Defense Nuclear Agency) operated Sandia Base and provided support to the Secretary of Defense, Joint Chiefs of Staff, and military departments in matters concerning nuclear weapons, nuclear effects, and testing. In addition, the Air Force Special Weapons Command was established at Kirtland in 1949 and was redesignated the Air Force Special Weapons Center in 1952 to help develop advanced nuclear weapons. During the 1940s and 1950s, air defense, weather, and atomic test squadrons operated form Kirtland, and people from both bases took part in the 12 nuclear test series conducted in Nevada and the Pacific. Special Weapons Center biophysicists flew through nuclear clouds to determine radiation hazards, and its engineers launched sounding rockets to study the effects of high altitude nuclear explosions and to explore the Van Allen radiation belts surrounding the earth. The Project Bluebook "unexplained" list compiled by Don Berliner from the Project files themselves contains several UFO sightings made in and around Albuquerque - Kirtland/Sandia in the early 1950's: Albuquerque, New Mexico Albuquerque, New Mexico Albuquerque, New Mexico Albuquerque, New Mexico Albuquerque, New Mexico Albuquerque, New Mexico Kirtland AFB, New Mexico Albuquerque, New Mexico This famous sighting occurred in 1957: Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico Witnesses: FAA(CAA) tower personnel, R.M. Kaser and E. G. Brink, reliable observers with 23 years of airport tower control experience between them. Weather: Light rain. A lighted object came down steeply at the east end of runway 26, left the flight line, crossed runways, taxiways, and unpaved areas at about a 30 degree angle, and proceeded southwest towards the control tower at an altitude of less than 100 feet. Observed through through 7x binoculars, the object appeared to be eggshaped, having no wings, tail, or fuselage, and was elongated vertically. It appeared to be fifteen to twenty feet tall, about the size of an automobile standing on its nose, and had a single white light at its base. Both Kaser and Brink emphatically stated that the object in no way resembled an aircraft. When the object was about 3000 feet ENE of the tower, it stopped completely and hovered for about a minute. Then it began moving again, slowly at first, but then suddenly climbing at an extremely rapid rate of speed until it disappeared into the overcast sky. The object was in clear view at all time, with no intervening obstructions, according to the two men. At this point Kaser and Brink phoned the CAA Radar Approach Control (RAPCON)
unit to ask them if they could detect a fast target to the east. RAPCON was
using CPN-18 surveillance radar at that time. Radar showed that the target
moved eastward, then turned south at very high speed until it reached the
vicinity of the Albuquerque Low Frequency Range Station, where it circled
for several minutes. Then it came back towards Kirtland until it took up a
position behind an Air Force C-46 that had just taken off. It stayed in position
behind the C-46 until they both moved out of radar range. NICAP Home Page |