April 24, 1949 — Arrey, NM
10:30 a.m. General Mills meteorologist Charles B. Moore and four Navy Skyhook balloon launch crewmen (Navy Chief Fire Controlman William Akers, Davidson, Fitzsimmons, Moorman) see a white, round object, shadowed yellowish on one side, cross the sky from the south to the east, three miles north of Arrey, New Mexico. Joseph Gordon Vaeth is present as the Navy representative in charge of ground handling. Moore tracks it for 60 seconds on a theodolite. The distance is unknown, but assuming the object is 57 miles away, it would have a velocity of 18,000 mph, a width of 40 feet, and a length of 100 feet; but this is speculative. [Eberhart]
Record Card:
Statement:
Misc Newsclips:
Sources:
R. B. McLaughlin, [Letter to J. A. VanAllen], May 12, 1949;
Brad Sparks, Blue Book Unknowns Catalogue, Case 202, pp. 56–57;
Robert McLaughlin, “How Scientists Tracked a Flying Saucer,” True, March 1950, pp. 25–27, 96–99;
“What! A Flying Saucer?,” Brantford (Ont.) Expositor, September 20, 1951, p. 4;
https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-expositor-theexpositor195109204/193189300/
“Navy Flier Reveals ‘True’ Flying Saucer,” Tacoma (Wash.) News Tribune, September 21, 1951, p. B-4;
https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-news-tribune-tacomanewstribune195/193189409/
J. Gordon Vaeth, 200 Miles Up: The Conquest of the Upper Air, Ronald Press, 1956 ed., pp. 114–116;
Richard Hall, The UFO Evidence, pp. 2–3;
James E. McDonald, “Statement on Unidentified Flying Objects,” in Symposium on Unidentified Flying Objects, Hearings, US House Committee on Science and Astronautics, 90th Cong., 2nd Sess., July 29, 1968, pp. 63–64;
J A Hynek, The UFO Experience, Ballantine ed., 1974, pp. 72–73; [63-64 in version I used]
Lawrence Fawcett and Barry Greenwood, “Clear intent : the government coverup of the UFO experience”, Prentice Hall, 1984, pp. 114–115;
Brad Sparks and Jerome Clark, “The Southwestern Lights, Part Three,” IUR 10, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1985): 8–9;
Kevin D. Randle, “Charles Moore, New Mexico UFOs, and the Air Force,” IUR 20, no. 5 (Winter 1995): 3–4, 32;
Michael D. Swords, “1952: Ruppelt’s Big Year,” IUR 28, no. 4 (Winter 2003–2004): 10;
Michael D. Swords, “Balloons, Missiles, and UFOs,” IUR 29, no. 1 (Spring 2004):16–17;
Michael Swords, et al., UFOs and Government, pp. 84–85;
Jerome Clark, The UFO Encyclopedia, 3rd Ed., pp. 376,541;
Jerome Clark, The UFO Encyclopedia, 4th Ed., pp. 420, 600;
NICAP, “White Sands Incident / C. B. Moore Case”;
“Arrey, NM Case of 4-24-1949 — Prof. Charles B. Moore,” Ufology: A Primer in Audio, 1938–1959, November 21. 2013;
Michael Swords File, 16D;