This event took place in early fall around 1949-50. It occurred after a Boy Scout meeting in the Baptist Church. The Baptist Church sits on a knoll with the parking lot below. The Church is a square building that rises about 100 feet above the floor of the parking lot and faces due South. There is a sidewalk in the middle of the parking lot that leads up a broad set of stairs to the front of the Church.
In Texas in the early Fall the days can be warm and then it cools down pretty good in the evening. After the Scout meeting my friends and I went outside and laid down of the sidewalk looking up into the clear star filled sky. Since the sidewalk holds its heat it provided warmth and permitted us to talk, look at the sky and be warm at the same time. We were talking about the sky and the stars and then one of us noticed a V formation moving from the top of the Church due South. There was no sound and our immediate reaction was that it was geese flying south for the winter. The formations kept coming at irregular intervals when suddenly one of us realized that the formation was moving across the sky at a rather fast pace and for it to be geese we would have heard them honking if they were low enough to be picking up the lights from the city. San Marcos in the late forties was a sleeply little college town and we didn't have a lot of city lights in those days. The Baptist Church was about two blocks from the city center. Another observation was that if they were high enough for us not to hear them then they were moving at a tremendous speed because they were clearing the sky from the Church front to the horizon in about 10-15 seconds. We had some pretty smart boys in that group who grew up to be doctors and lawyers, and scientist and we quickly concluded that what we were seeing was not geese, ducks, or airplanes. We had seen plenty of airplanes with the airbase in town and with the big bases in San Antonio. These were not airplanes. The formations were usually v shaped and sometimes there would be an outrider apart from the formation. They would enter our field of view from different tracks always coming from ourhead over the Church heading due south. Puzzled by the whole thing we went across the street from the Church and knocked on Mr ((name #1 deleted)) door and asked him to come out and see what he thought. Mr. ((name #1 deleted)) owned a grocery store in the neighborhood and we all knew him. He agreed to walk across the street and take a look. As usually happens the formations seemed to stop. Just as Mr. ((name #1 deleted)) started to leave a formation came over and we pointed it out. He studied it and another one that came over and then exclaimed - " I think those are what they call Cosmic Rays". We really didn't know much about cosmic rays and since the objects were luminous the "ray" idea seem plausible so we just said --Oh. We went back and casually watched the formations for a while and when they started to become less frequent we all went home.
Years later when we were much wiser we realized that what we saw that night was not cosmic rays. The ojects as I remember them were cylindrical and luminous. There was no blinking and the objects maintained even spacing and did not wander around like geese and ducks in formation. The light seemed to be reflected but since there really wasn't that much light to cast a reflection it is hard to say where the light was coming from. If they were low enough to pick up the lights of the town then the objects must have been very small and would give the appearance of geese/ducks in size at the lower altitude. Since there was absolutely no sound and the formation did not act like birds, my memory want to say that they were probably larger objects at a much higher altitude and were emitting their own light. Whatever altitude they were at they were moving very fast, even by todays standards of flight. To be at high altitude and move as fast as they were in clearing the night sky from Church to horizon would put them in the SR-71 catagory and we never had too many of those during their era. I don't even think an SR-71 going flat out at altitude could have cleared the sky as fast as these objects.
I am a retired Air Force General Officer. I am not a pilot but I have been around airplanes and high tech all my life and I cannot account for what we saw on that cool fall night in Texas. I would say that the IQ level in the group of boys there that night was in the top five percent and as I said earlier they all grew up to be very accomplished professionals. We were young but we weren't stupid.
I happened to hear Peter Davenport on the radio talking about not getting enough reports especially from the late forties and early fifties and decided to make my contribution. I would be interested in knowing what you folks make of it.
((NUFORC Note: Date is approximate. PD))
In Texas in the early Fall the days can be warm and then it cools down pretty good in the evening. After the Scout meeting my friends and I went outside and laid down of the sidewalk looking up into the clear star filled sky. Since the sidewalk holds its heat it provided warmth and permitted us to talk, look at the sky and be warm at the same time. We were talking about the sky and the stars and then one of us noticed a V formation moving from the top of the Church due South. There was no sound and our immediate reaction was that it was geese flying south for the winter. The formations kept coming at irregular intervals when suddenly one of us realized that the formation was moving across the sky at a rather fast pace and for it to be geese we would have heard them honking if they were low enough to be picking up the lights from the city. San Marcos in the late forties was a sleeply little college town and we didn't have a lot of city lights in those days. The Baptist Church was about two blocks from the city center. Another observation was that if they were high enough for us not to hear them then they were moving at a tremendous speed because they were clearing the sky from the Church front to the horizon in about 10-15 seconds. We had some pretty smart boys in that group who grew up to be doctors and lawyers, and scientist and we quickly concluded that what we were seeing was not geese, ducks, or airplanes. We had seen plenty of airplanes with the airbase in town and with the big bases in San Antonio. These were not airplanes. The formations were usually v shaped and sometimes there would be an outrider apart from the formation. They would enter our field of view from different tracks always coming from ourhead over the Church heading due south. Puzzled by the whole thing we went across the street from the Church and knocked on Mr ((name #1 deleted)) door and asked him to come out and see what he thought. Mr. ((name #1 deleted)) owned a grocery store in the neighborhood and we all knew him. He agreed to walk across the street and take a look. As usually happens the formations seemed to stop. Just as Mr. ((name #1 deleted)) started to leave a formation came over and we pointed it out. He studied it and another one that came over and then exclaimed - " I think those are what they call Cosmic Rays". We really didn't know much about cosmic rays and since the objects were luminous the "ray" idea seem plausible so we just said --Oh. We went back and casually watched the formations for a while and when they started to become less frequent we all went home.
Years later when we were much wiser we realized that what we saw that night was not cosmic rays. The ojects as I remember them were cylindrical and luminous. There was no blinking and the objects maintained even spacing and did not wander around like geese and ducks in formation. The light seemed to be reflected but since there really wasn't that much light to cast a reflection it is hard to say where the light was coming from. If they were low enough to pick up the lights of the town then the objects must have been very small and would give the appearance of geese/ducks in size at the lower altitude. Since there was absolutely no sound and the formation did not act like birds, my memory want to say that they were probably larger objects at a much higher altitude and were emitting their own light. Whatever altitude they were at they were moving very fast, even by todays standards of flight. To be at high altitude and move as fast as they were in clearing the night sky from Church to horizon would put them in the SR-71 catagory and we never had too many of those during their era. I don't even think an SR-71 going flat out at altitude could have cleared the sky as fast as these objects.
I am a retired Air Force General Officer. I am not a pilot but I have been around airplanes and high tech all my life and I cannot account for what we saw on that cool fall night in Texas. I would say that the IQ level in the group of boys there that night was in the top five percent and as I said earlier they all grew up to be very accomplished professionals. We were young but we weren't stupid.
I happened to hear Peter Davenport on the radio talking about not getting enough reports especially from the late forties and early fifties and decided to make my contribution. I would be interested in knowing what you folks make of it.
((NUFORC Note: Date is approximate. PD))
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San Marcos
USA
45 minutes
45 minutes
29.87
-97.94
cylinder
TX
Occurred : 10/10/1949 20:30 (Entered as : 10/10/1949 20:30) Reported: 4/10/2004 5:53:44 AM 05:53 Posted: 4/27/2004 Location: San Marcos, TX Shape: Cylinder Duration: 45 minutes
This event took place in early fall around 1949-50. It occurred after a Boy Scout meeting in the Baptist Church. The Baptist Church sit