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GI0YEW > UFO 02.12.02 02:07l 162 Lines 8219 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 1E2810GI0YEW
Read: DG2NBN GUEST
Subj: UFO - April 1964
Path: DB0MRW<DB0PV<DB0ZKA<DB0SAA<DB0GPP<DB0LX<DB0RBS<DB0SEL<DB0ZDF<DB0AIS<
DB0SIF<DB0FHK<DB0ACC<ON0RAT<ON0DXC<WA7V<RZ6HXA<IK1ZNW<GB7CRV<EI3DIB<
EI6EH<GB7TED<GB7HMI
Sent: 021127/1736Z @:GB7HMI.#63.GBR.EU #:11524 [Newtownards] FBB7.00g25 $:1E281
From: GI0YEW@GB7HMI.#63.GBR.EU
To : UFO@WW
Ellipse Leaves Landing MarksEllipse Leaves Landing Marks
Socorro, New Mexico, April 24, 1964
While chasing a speeding car at about 5:45 p.m., Officer Lonnie Zamora of
the
Socorro Police Department heard a roar and saw flame in the sky to the
southwest. Thinking that a dynamite shack in that area must have blown up,
he
abandoned the chase and went to investigate. As he approached the arroyo on
unpaved roads he saw an elliptical object resting on legs in a gully. A red
"insignia" or emblem was visible on the side toward him, and standing near
it
were two humanoid figures.
Zamora did not comprehend what he was seeing, so he reported in to the
dispatcher that he would be out of his car "checking the car down in the
arroyo." As he got out of his car he heard two or three loud "thumps," like
someone slamming a door. The beings were no longer visible. The craft took
off with a loud roar and blast of flames, and when it cleared the ground,
rising straight up, it became silent, levelled off and flew away
horizontally. Then it rose at a slight angle and accelerated until it
disappeared in the distance over the mountains, just clearing Six Mile
Canyon Mountain.
After Zamora called the dispatcher to report the incident, Sergeant M.S.
Chavez of the State Police was directed to the site as back-up. While
waiting for Chavez, Zamora noticed that the underbrush was burning in
several places. In his later report to Army investigators, Zamora described
what happened next: "Then Sergeant Chavez came up, asked me what the trouble
was, because I was sweating and he told me I was white, very pale. I asked
the sergeant to see what I saw, and that was the burning brush. Then
Sergeant Chavez and I went to the spot, and Sergeant Chavez pointed out the
tracks."
Socorro Deputy Sheriff James Luckie arrived a few minutes after Chavez, and
he also confirmed the imprints and the still-smoking foliage.
Zamora had not paid much attention to the "legs" on the object at the time,
but now they took on new significance. Four squarish indentations arranged
in a trapezoidal pattern were visible. Four burned areas, three of them
within the pattern of imprints, also were noted. Several small, shallow
circular
indentations adjacent to the other markings are labelled "footprints" in the
Air Force case file.
The first military investigator on the scene, on April 25, was Army Captain
Richard T. Holder, Up-Range Commander of White Sands Proving Grounds, along
with an FBI agent, D. Arthur Byrnes, Jr., from the Albuquerque office. Major
William Connor from Kirtland AFB and Sgt. David Moody, who was in the area
on TDY, investigated for Air Force Project Blue Book on April 26. Dr. J.
Allen Hynek arrived on April 28. Hynek also conducted a follow-up
investigation on August 15, 1964. Following is an excerpt from Capt.
Holder's report:
"Present when we arrived were Officer Zamora, Officer Melvin Katzlaff, [and]
Bill Pyland, all of the Socorro Police Department, who assisted in making
the
measurements. When we had completed examination of the area, Mr. Byrnes,
Officer Zamora, and I returned to the State Police Office [at] Socorro, then
completed these reports. Upon arrival at the office location in the Socorro
County Building, we were informed by Nep Lopez, Sheriff's Office radio
operator, that approximately three reports had been called in by telephone
of a blue flame of light in the area...the dispatcher indicated that the
times were roughly similar...."
Zamora told Capt. Holder and Major Connor, according to their notes:
"Noise was a roar, not a blast. Not like a jet. Changed from high frequency
to low frequency and then stopped. Roar lasted possibly 10 seconds--was
going
towards it at that time on the rough gravel road....At same time as roar,
saw
flame. Flame was under the object. Object was starting to go straight
up--slowly up.....Flame was light blue and at bottom was sort of orange
color....Thought, from roar, it might blow up...."
When the roar stopped, he heard a whining sound going from high tone to low
tone, which lasted about a second. "Then," he said, "there was complete
silence....It appeared to go in [a] straight line and at same [constant]
height--possibly 10 to 15 feet from ground, and it cleared the dynamite
shack by about three feet....Object was traveling very fast. It seemed to
rise up, and take off immediately across country."
In 1968, Dr. James E. McDonald, an atmospheric physicist at the University
of
Arizona, said that he had learned of an alleged patch of "fused sand" at the
Socorro landing site:
"A woman who is now a radiological chemist with the Public Health Service in
Las Vegas was involved in some special analyses of materials collected at
the
Socorro site, and when she was there, the morning after [Apr. 25, 1964], she
claims that there was a patch of melted and resolidified sand right under
the
landing area. I have talked to her both by telephone and in person here in
Tucson recently."
She had analyzed plant fluids exuded from the scorched greasewood and
mesquite plants, and told McDonald, "There were a few organic materials they
couldn't identify," but most of the sample was just sap. "Shortly after she
finished her work," she told him, "Air Force personnel came and took all her
notes and materials and told her she wasn't to talk about it any more."
Analysis reports of physical evidence at the site have never been released
to the public.
Two additional witnesses, Paul Kies and Larry Kratzer of Dubuque, Iowa,
submitted statements to Dr. Hynek on May 29, 1968. In May of 1978 Ralph C.
DeGraw, an Iowa investigator, interviewed them. They were driving just
southwest of Socorro at about 6:00 p.m. that day when they noticed something
shiny and a cloud of smoke near the ground in the vicinity of the town.
Later they heard a newscast about Zamora's sighting and the significance of
what they had seen became apparent.
Kratzer said he watched as "a round, saucer or egg-shaped object ascended
vertically from the black smoke....After climbing vertically out of the
smoke, the object leveled off and moved in a southwest direction." He said
the object was silvery and had a row of apparent portholes across the side
and a "red Z" marking toward one end. At the time he thought it might have
been an experimental vertical-lift aircraft. Kies saw only a shiny spot and
the smoke. An FBI report dated May 8, 1964, notes that Zamora has been
personally known for about 5 years and is "well regarded as a sober,
industrious, and conscientious officer and not given to fantasy." The report
also confirms the scorched foliage and the imprints, noting that, "Each
depression seemed to have been made by an object going into the earth at an
angle from a center line [and each] pushed some earth to the far side."
Two years after the sighting, Major Hector Quintanilla, Air Force Chief of
Project Blue Book at the time of the sighting, confided to intelligence
specialists in a classified CIA publication that the Socorro case remained
"puzzling." With the help of many other agencies, he had conducted an
exhaustive check of military activities looking for an explanation, but none
could be found.
"There is no doubt," he reported, "that Lonnie Zamora saw an object which
left quite an impression on him. There is also no question about Zamora's
reliability. He is a serious police officer, a pillar of his church, and a
man well versed in recognizing airborne vehicles in his area. He is puzzled
by what he saw, and frankly, so are we. This is the best-documented case on
record, and still we have been unable, in spite of thorough investigation,
to find the vehicle or other stimulus that scared Zamora to the point of
panic."
73 - Ken, GI0YEW @ GB7HMI
Remote Sysop - GB7HMI.#63.GBR.EU
GB7HMI BBS is a working memorial
to
the late Hugh Irvine - GI3TLT
original Sysop of GB7HMI
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Message timed: 17:44 UTC on 28 Nov 2002
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