Project Blue Book desk file, Socorro (217 pages)

INFORMATION RELATIVE TO THE SOCORRO SIGHTING OF UFO BY LONNIE z.A.'.iORA
At 0530, Sunday 26 April 1964, I received a call from Captain Hector
Quintanilla requesting that the Socorro sighting be investigated
immediately and that he be advised as soon as possible of the results
of an initial investigation. This action was dictated by a call from
the Command Post at 330, a call from the Emergency Action Group at
430 and another call from the Command Post just prior to my notifica-
tion of the event. The contacts for data already collected were Lt
Col King (268-2107) and Capt R T Holder (Scan White Sands 835-1385) •
. At 06oo I contacted the Base Duty officer· and was informed that Major
Conner was the Kirtland Investigator for UFO reports. I contacted
Major Conner and requested permission to accompany him to Socorro. I
contacted Col King and a meeting was arranged for o830. The only
information that Col King had was in the form of an FBI report made by
agent Barnes on Friday night following the sighting. This report was
. forwarded to Washington and Col King tad /J•T •; •c !) . the Command Post. (This _
FBI,....to be included as an attachment in Major Conner's report.
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A geiger counter was obtained and Major Conner and I departed for
Socorro at 1030 arriving 1200 in Socorro. We contacted Sgt Chavez, the
State Police officer Who was the first to reach Lonnie Zamora (Only
witness) and during the interview the following information was obtained.
Shortly after 1700 Lonnie Zamora was on patrol and radioed in to the
city Police that there was a 10-74 {auto accident) and he was proceeding
to investigate. It appeared as if an auto had turned over and two people
were standing by it's side. From the ensuing activity monitored on the
radio Sgt Chavez immediately made an effort to reach patrolman Zamora
and arrived about 3 minutes after the object under observation by
Lonnie Zamora had disappeared. Sgt Chavez then went to the area where
the craft or thing was supposedly sighted and found four fresh inden-
tations in the ground and several charred or burned bushes. Smoke
appeared to come from the bush and he assumed that it was burning, how-
ever no coals were visible and the charred portions of the bush were
cold to the touch. Sgt Chavez contacted the FBI, who in turn contacted
White Sands and Agent Barnes and Lt R T Holder of the latter organiza-
tion arrived to conduct an investigation and obtain various samples of
the soil and charred bush. Sgt Chavez secured the ~~r~d made an
investigation of the ground surrounding the scene:C ~e- aetermined that
the only tire marks were those of Patrolman Zamora's vehicle and the
State Police car Soo yares and found no prints or track activity of any
kind other than that noted in the FBI report. Further he stated that
the marks were defnitely "fresh", and the dirt showed evidence of "dew"
or moisture. Sgt Chavez is firm in that no track activity was evident.
At no time did he observe the craft or object described by Patrolman
5'
)3Rob Mercer