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Project Blue Book file: Trinidade Island, 16 Jan 1958

USAF via The Black Vault · 54 pages · text from the file's own layer

This Project Blue Book file from the USAF, released via The Black Vault, covers the 16 January 1958 sighting at Trindade Island. Its record card says two Rio de Janeiro newspapers printed photos of an alleged flying saucer taken from a Brazilian naval ship, and that ONI analysis judged them a hoax. The file also holds galley proofs from a Menzel book arguing the Barauna photographs were faked, plus APRO Bulletin and NICAP material.

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fhe A. P. II . O. Bvll,,';n is Ihe oHit;,,1 copyrighted public""ion of Ihe Aeri",l Phenomena Re~ear(h Organ.Zalion IA. P. R. 0.1. 1712 Van COurl, Alamogordo, New M"".eo, and i~
io<ued e ve,y o the . month 10 membefl only, The Aeria l Phenomena il:e~e.f(h Q 'g"niu1ion is II non-profit group dedicated 10 l h ~ eventUal ~oJuljon of Ihe my~lefy o f Ihe
un ident ified objects wh ich have been present in Ihe skies for hundreds of yea.s. Inquiries re9iHding membe rship may be mode 10 Ihe above .. dd'''$s.
I ALAMOGORDO, NEW MEXICO-MAY, 1960
_ ._-----_._---+)----- - - --------------------
THE PHYSICAL
EVIDENCE STORY
YE
Editor's Nolr: The follow ing is" cluono-
/fJf.:icl"Il rrco ,-r! of /iPRO's public r,{ea.f(;. of
ill/orma/ion concerning lhe n ow -famous
furl' fllflltlirsiwlI fragments from Ubalu lm.
lJmzil. Thry are, in our I.-rwwlrdgrl the
ouly indispulnblr phy.~ical r:videncr which
indicates the r.rlralprrrslrial nalure 01 lhe
uncollventional aerial ob;ecls. On 10
A1f1rr.!t 111(' loll o/l)in~ Irll e r was mailed (0
M,,;o/" T ackPr in Washington:
\Ve realize that it is unlikely th at any
positive action can be taken on the con+
tents of this letter at your level but
!I r e trusting that you will forward it to
the prope r agency. We feel , however,
thal it shou ld bc routcd through you si nce
it concerns dircctly a reccnt r cport issued
hy your office to the effect tha t the Air
F'orce ha s no physic al evid ence indicating
t hat any UFOs arc real and ex traterres +
tri al.
A relea se which you issued early this
YN !" , acc ordin g to UPI, states: " no
phys ical or material evidence, not eve n
a min u ~e fragment of a so-called flying
s3uccr, ha s ev er been found." This state-
mcnl, as it stands, is not tr ue ; however
it is not our intent or purpose to belabor
you concerning the accuracy of state-
m -:: nts is sued through your offi ce . I have
b~ en as sociated with Public Relati ons
work long enough to under stand that a
Public Information Office bears the
same rel ation ship to i ~s mili ta ry service
t h~t an adv erti sin g agency bears to its
sponsor. The {unction of a public rela-
tions org::ln is to bu il d the sponsor's
prestige and sell th e product.
APRO has in its possession the physical
evid en ce which the United States Air
Force denies having been able to acquire.
It is, in fact , a portion of an extra-
terrestrial vehi cle which met with dis-
<lster in the eart h' s atmosphere. The
cat3strophe was witnessed by numerous
human beings. The gra tifying asp2ct of
this c ase, ho wever, is that we do not
hav e to depend on the testimony of wit-
nesses to est\lblish the rea lity of th e
incident [or TIlE MOST ADVANCED
LABORATORY TESTS INDICATE THAT
THE RESIDUAL MATERIAL COULD
NOT H A V E BEE N PRODUCED
THROUGH THE APPLICATION OF ANY
KNOWN TERRESTRIAL TECHNIQUES.
II has been claim ed by some sources
th at the United Statcs Air Force has
pl·oof positi ve in its posscssion of the
sort outlined above, and is deliberately
withholding thi s evidence for r easons of
its own. It has been postulated by others
that the Un ited States Air Force, through
sheer bureaucratic incompetenc e, ha s
failed to acquire or recognize such evi-
dence even thou gh such exists. We do
not ha ve access to suffic ient information
to warrant support of either pos itio n,
nor do we wish to enter this controversy.
Instead, we humbly su bmit thi s pro po·
sition : Th e evidence which we have is
available to the United States Air Force
-not to be buried-not to bc bickered
aboul-bu t rather to be examined by
scientific authorities acceptable to nil
parties concerned.
The press carried excer pts from the
letter on the 11th, 12t h and 13th, and
on the 15th, one day afte r the elate of
the letter s ubsequently received by the
Director, the press carri ed parts of Major
Tacker's answer to APRO. The following
is the answer which was dated the 14th,
and rec eived on Thu rsday, 17 Ma rc h:
Department of the Air Force, Washing-
ton, Office of the Sec r etary, ].I March,
1960: Dear Mrs. Lorenzen : This is to
acknowledge you r letter of fJ Ma rch 1960
in closi ng a photograph of fragments
whi ch arc purported to be pa rt of a
"flying sauce,·" whi ch explodcd wi thin
the earth's atmospher e. Th e proper office
to which this ev id e nce sho uld b e sub-
mitted is the Aerospace Technical In -
tellige nce Center at Wrigh t-P a tterson Ail'
Force Base, Ohio. I am referrin g your
letter to them immediately and would
s uggest that in the inter est of time you
subm it these fra gm ents to them at once
with a cove rin g letter. I would a lso sug-
gest that you register these items and
obtain a U. S. Post Offi ce return receipt
for them. Sincerely, signed Ltlwrence J.
Tack er , M<ljor, USAF, Public Informa+
tion Division, Office of In fo r mation.
On the 17th , Mrs. Lorenzen se nt the
following: telegram to Major Tacr.:cr:
Your proposal that APRO sC'1d the UF O
residua ls to ATIC · for study must be
respectfully d cclined s ince AFR 200-2
(S~e Physical Euidl'nCr., page 2)
Edilor·s !Volc: l·V{.' will prr·ccdc illr call ·
elusion 01 Dr. FOlllrs' arlicle on dIP ICY
photographs wit h tIl(' /ollowinf:Z film/pis
0/ Ihl' p/z lJ/ogmplu which was pmlormpr/
lor APRO by 011/· Ph010 Analysl, Mr. Joh"
T. !fopl. COllplrd w ith lhl' docwnrnil'd
"hy,~ic({1 r"I ,ir/rflcl' casr. ill our (iII'S, w e
Irrl Ihal 011 ,. case lor the r.rtratprrr.{frirrf
nrrl/lrf' 01 Ihl' V A O is cOlI/plrtc_ The all-
alysis lollows:
The four photographs taken by Almiro
Ba raull a on January 16, 1958 are with-
out a doubt th e fine st record of a UAO
to come into my hands. Althou gh there
ca n be no question of their authenticity
due to the circum sta nces und er which
they were taken, I have made a carefu l
s tudy of the 8 x 10 enlargements se nt to
me. I alll sat isfied that these enlarged
prin ts and the blo w-ups from th e m whi ch
I made for pUblication in the Bulletin
sh ow all or nearly all the detail that wa s
visible in the nega tiv es. ( APRO could not
obtain the neg atives. )
The data as previously published in
t.he Bulletin is as follows- Camera: Rol-
leiflex, Model E, F2.8 lens _- Exposure:
F8, 1/ 125 second . Kind of fi!m: Not stated .
Time of day: 12:20 p.m. Weather: Bright
overCast.
Six exposu res were made in 14 sec-
onds as deter mincd by su bsequent tests
with the same camera and photog r apher.
Two of these (Nos. 4 and 5 ) did nol show .
the ob.iec t as the photographer's aim was
upset by the confus ion on dec k. (See dia-
gram in the l\Iarch Bulletin.)
I have carciull y weighed this data
against the actual appear a nce of the
photographs and have reached these con-
clusions:
L The ge neral appearance of lh e sky,
water, rock deta il, clc., indicates that
they were take n on an overcast day.
2. The de nsily and contrast of the
UAO is t ha t of a solid object at a con-
siderable d istancc from the ca mera under
s llch lig hting condit ion s. This wa s check-
ed by comparison with many si mila r
dista nt photographs of conve ntion a l air-
craft taken under overcast conditions.
This compa ri son a lso indicates a likely
si ze of 120 x 24 fee t as dedu ced from the
studies and tests mad e by the Brazilian
government.
(See IGY Pln io, r 'gc 4)
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