The Lubbock Lights
Lights in formation seen over Lubbock in 1951, first by three Texas Tech professors and later by a young photographer, Carl Hart.
Edward J. Ruppelt's 1956 book says that on the evening of August 25, four men were in Dr. Robinson's back yard, drinking tea and talking about micrometeorites, when a formation of lights crossed overhead at nine-twenty. It went by so fast that none of them got a good look, and they found they could recall only a few details. One of them joked that he had always scolded his students for being unobservant.
Wikipedia, citing Ruppelt, names the three professors as A. G. Oberg, a chemical engineer; W. L. Ducker, a petroleum engineer and department head; and W. I. Robinson, a geologist, who told the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal about the sighting. UFO author Jerome Clark adds that three women in Lubbock and Carl Hemminger, who taught German at Texas Tech, reported flashing lights the same night.
KDFW Fox 4 reported in 2012 that Carl Hart, then a college freshman aged 18 and a keen still photographer, saw the lights just before going to bed.
"On the evening of August 25 the four men were sitting in Dr. Robinson's back yard. They were discussing micrometeorites and drinking tea. They jokingly stressed this point. At nine-twenty a formation of lights streaked across the sky directly over their heads. It all happened so fast that none of them had a chance to get a good look. One of the men mentioned that he had always admonished his students for not being more observant; now he was in that spot. He and his colleagues realized they could remember only a few details of what they had seen."
- The Tex Files: Lubbock Lights, KDFW Fox 4 Dallas-Fort Worth (2012), via Internet Archive
- Lubbock Lights, Wikipedia