Barrel shaped object, slow speed, daylight sighting and possible search for said object.

My father & I were traveling down I-10 between Balmorhea and Ft. Stockton, TX, in the mid-1970's and at approximately 14:00 or 15:00 we saw off to our left a barrel shaped object just hanging in the sky.  It was at a tilted angle, not horizontal or vertical.  
We had been stopped at a rest area when first seen.   When we left the rest area the object paralleled our car all the way into Ft. Stockton, TX.  We were traveling at 55 mph.  This was in bright daylight in perfectly clear skies. 
As we came into Ft. Stockton we noticed two fighter jets approaching.  The object went into the only cloud in the sky. The jets also entered the cloud and appeared to search the area for about 10 minutes.  I watched the search and cloud while my father entered a store to do his sales call.  
After the jets left the area the barrel shaped object came out of the cloud.   As we continued out of town on I-10 the object started to veer off to our left.  It continued in that directtion until we could no longer see it as we continued on HWY 67.
Source of report indicates that the date of the incident is approximate.  PD