UFOB Index Card AISS-UFOB-591-57

On November 7, 1957, at approximately 0550Z, multiple law enforcement officers in Las Cruces, New Mexico, reported observing unidentified aerial objects. The witnesses, including officers from the Las Cruces City Police, the Dona Ana County Sheriff's Department, and the New Mexico State Police, were in separate locations when they observed lights rising from the Organ Mountains. One witness, Officer Tarazon, initially mistook the light for a fire on the mountain. The objects were described as round, displaying red, green, blue, and white colors, and appearing to be the size of a quarter held at arm's length. The objects rose vertically at a slow rate, estimated at 1,000 feet per minute, until they disappeared into a cloud bank estimated at 20,000 feet. The total duration of the sighting was approximately ten minutes. Personnel from the 685th ACWRON, including T/Sgt Albro, A/1C Barnes, and A/2C Collard, were dispatched to interview the witnesses. The Air Force investigation concluded that the sightings were not anomalous. T/Sgt Albro determined that the objects were stars rising from behind the Organ Mountains. This conclusion was supported by the weather conditions at the time, which included 60 percent cloud coverage with broken clouds at 10,000 feet. The investigators posited that the movement of the clouds, combined with the stars appearing through breaks in the cloud cover, created an optical illusion of a moving light. Radar checks conducted by the 685th ACWRON returned negative results for any unidentified traffic in the area at the time of the incident.