I was a USAF Air Traffic Controller at Laughlin AFB in Del Rio, Texas. Myself and my supervisor were working the 4-12 shift in the control tower. The base was a pilot training base and the airport area was closed for the holidays. The radar unit was also closed and the tower was manned by a skeleton crew for emergencies only. At approximately 7:35 p.m., I looked up to surveil the immediate airport area and I noticed lighted portals and a metallic glint from a huge metallic object just off the approach end of runways 31 left, center and right. (3 parallel runways) I immediatly alerted my supervisor and we peered at this object through binoculars for some time. The runway centerlines from left to right are 3,100 feet apart and the apparent cylindrical shape with 13 evenly spaced portals was made to be approx. 3,800 feet in length and/or diameter. There were rotating lights on top and, oddly, they were red, green and white, the same color combination as you would see on the average aircraft. We observed this object from appox. 4,400 feet as the tower was about at the center of the airport and the longest runway was 8,800 feet. Since the airbase was essentially deserted, I suggested we call the air police to ride out the perimeter road and investigate. My supervisor refused to take that couse of action. We continued to observe this object tranfixedly as we discussed the reporting of the object. Finally, I expressed my intention to take my own car out via hangar row out to the perimeter road and drive up underneath the object. My supervisor was vehemently opposed and said he would use physical force if necessary to keep me in the tower until midnight. We continued to observe and during the course of the evening, very bright lights would come on underneath the huge object as if doors were opening and a much smaller object very similar in shape with only 3 lighted portals would emerge only to whisk away so fast that it appeared to disappear. Reappearance was similar as the lights would come on and the smaller object would reappear just as quickly as it left. During this period of cooldown from previous tension, my supervisor explained that he was adamantly opposed to reporting this sighting to anyone as he had previously reported a detailed sighting and because of it he spent 7 MONTHS being debriefed by personnel who did NOT wear uniforms and 7 years of required psychological counseling. He called it brainwashing... We observed the comings and goings of the smaller objects through the rest of the shift. At exactly midnight, the shift was over and I sprinted down the tower stairs across the lawn to my car. I raced down hangar road and turned by the last hangar to join the perimeter road and the object was gone. Who would believe me when my supervisor would swear he saw nothing??