Report of Trip to Holloman Air Force Base, 5-6 May 1948

This document is a collection of intelligence reports and teletype communications from the Air Materiel Command regarding Project SIGN and investigations into unidentified aerial phenomena at Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico. The records span from late 1947 to June 1948. The primary focus of the investigation was to interview personnel at Watson Laboratories and Holloman AFB who had reported sightings of unidentified objects. One report details a radar technician's observation of a motionless object at an altitude of 200 miles. Another account involves a civilian witness who observed a white, round object that performed violent maneuvers at a high rate of speed, which the witness insisted was not a balloon. The investigators, Lt. Col. James C. Beam and Alfred C. Loedding, conducted interviews and reviewed photographs provided by witnesses. While some radar returns were officially dismissed as 'ghost' images caused by equipment or atmospheric conditions—specifically white gypsum sand in the area—other observations made by trained balloon observers were treated with greater credibility. The investigators concluded that the objects observed were not balloons and, given the violent maneuvers and high speeds, were likely not manned aircraft. The document concludes with recommendations to alert radio sonde stations and other military units to maintain a lookout for similar phenomena, though it notes that current evidence did not yet warrant the permanent placement of a dedicated observation team at Holloman AFB.