A Secret Base in New Mexico - 1957

While working on something else, I stumbled across a short article from the United Press which has escaped notice by many people. It was published in a number of newspapers on November 6, 1957. It said:

A United Press story also told of a Fort Worth chemical engineer, Arthur P. Ticknor, who said he and two companions had happened onto a secret American airfield which on a hunting trip in the vicinity of Clovis, N.M. in1953.

They were suddenly surrounded by U.S. Soldiers, carrying drawn weapons. Then, Ticknor said, the first thing he knew a flying object “so enormous it blotted out the stars” took off.

“Almost immediately another went up,” he said. “there was no noise, only a swish of air.”

The engineer said that he was sure the objects seen in Levelland were American inventions.

As far as I know, there was never any follow up on this story. I do know that Cannon Air Force Base is in the Clovis area so it is quite possible that Ticknor and his pals stumbled onto the airfield, which might explain his tale. I’m not sure what aircraft might have been seen that would fly with no noise other than a swish of air and that would blot out the stars, which, BTW, doesn’t really tell us much. A low flying B-52 would blot out stars but would make more noise than a swish of air.

At any rate, I have found no follow up to this, though I haven’t looked very far. Taking a page from Len Stringfield, I just repeat the information without endorsement nor critical comment. If someone happens to know about this, here is the place to report it. I suspect that it only made the news wires because it followed the national splash of the Levelland sightings by a couple of days.