Project Blue Book file: Trinidade Island, 16 Jan 1958

ROB MERCER-. ',\ , ,
May, 1960
Physical Evidence
'l Continued from piq:;e 2)
CO:ltc nts of you r letter ,apparently stand
in direct contradiction to AFR 200-2.
A copy of the Regulations upon which
yOH base your premise would be appre-
ciated here.
This letter was answered by another
il'om Tacker dated 5 April, which read:
Dear Mrs. Lorenzen: This is to acknowl-
c:lgc your letter of 2 April 1960 concern·
ing AFR 200-2. For your information I
am enclosing a copy of this regulation.
You will note that paragraph 7b therein
provides for releasing information on
UfO sightings and results of investiga ·
tions. Paragr aph 8 therein also provides
that 2li information concerning UFOs,
regardless of origin, will be released to
the public by this Office. Nowhere in the
regulation does it preclude providing the
public with infor mation on sightings and
evaluations. Sincerely, Lawrence J. Tack-
er, ctc.
On the 18th of April, the following text
of a lctter of the same date, was sent
Lo Tacker: Dear Sir: Your letter of 5
April 1960 with AFR 200-2 inclosed serves
to clarify a point of confusion on our
part. We were not aware that the new
regulation (of 4 September 1959) differed
so much from the old where public rela-
tio;"\$ policies are concerned. The differ-
ences arc !'eassuring indeed and we shall
take immcdiate steps to establish liaison
with ATIC with the aim of submitting
our physical evidence for examination.
It is noted that contact with any other
p~rsons or organizations that may have
flc~ual data on a UFO or can offer
co:-roborating cvidence is recommended
u:lrtcr Paragraph 5d and that direct com-
munication with liS by ATIC can be
<lu'horizcd under Paragraph 6a.
C'1rbon copies of communications to
J\TIC from this office will be currently
forwarded to you if you so request.
Consider lhis letter also as a formal
reCJu ~st for release of information in con-
formance with AFR 200-2, Para graph 8---
specifically: the details of a UFO incident
at Biggs AFB, EI Paso, Texas which
prompted a 7-linc alert on the morning
of 25 March 1960 and the conclusions of
ATIC concerning this incident. Sincerely,
Coral E. Lorenzen, Director. On the 20th
a letter pertaining to the physical evi·
dence was sent to ATIC. The following
is Major Tacker's answer (he had stress-
ed that we would receive information
through his office); Dear Mrs; Lorenzen:
This is to ;Icknowlcdgc your letters of
18 and 29 April 1960 addressed to thi s
office and Aerospace Technical Intelli-
gence Center respectively.
Oil 25 March 1960, at 1050Z (0350 10c(1),
three airmen standing guard duty on
the ramp at Biggs Air Force Base. sight-
ed an unidentified flying object. The wit-
nesses described the object as flowing:
THE A. P. R. O. BULLETIN
blue-white, approximately the size of a
half·dollar held al arm's length , round,
and moving at very high speed. The
witnesses all agree that the object left
no tailor trail, but did make a sound
like a child's top with holes. The object
was repor ted as moving generally from
WEW to ENE and was in .sight approxi-
mately four seconds, The nuthorities at
Biggs conducted an investigation in ac-
cordance with AFR 200-2, but were un -
able to determine the cause. Analysis of
all the available information points to·
ward this object as being a bolide . The
early hour which the sighting took place
is probably why there were no other
witnesses to the incident.
The Aerospace Technical Intelligence
Center is interested in any physical evi-
dence or data which will assist in deter-
mining the cause of a UFO sighting.
Therefore, will you please forward a
sample of the material and technical
report concerning thc Ubatuba Beach
case to ATIC for analysis and /or evalua-
tion. Names and specific qualifications
of persons involved should accompany
the report.
-A search of reference material in the
AMC technical library failed to reveal
the name of Mr. Ibrahim Sued, Dr,
Olavo T. Fontes, or any of the persons
mentioned in the article on thc incident
carried in Lhe APRO Bulletin.
ATIC files reveal no r ecord of the New
Haven, Connecticut case refcren ced in
your letter. This case is approximately
seven years old and any information
which cou ld be derived at this late date
would not be reliabl e. However, I would
suggest that you forward the residual
material fo r this case to ATI C and ask
them to analyze it. Sincercly, Lawrence
J. Tacker.
It is obvious at this time that the Air
Force wants those fr agments. There is
no doubt, also, that they would find somc
way of burying their findings or finding
some way to clutter up the evide nce
with extraneous comments and evalu a-
tions which would tend to discredit or
cast doubt upon thc conclusions of Dr.
Fontes and the APRO staff.
Our informants at Biggs Air Force Base
and in E1 Paso indicate that the object
mentioned in our letter to Tacker, had
maneuvered over the El Paso a r ea; that
it had hovered over the alert facility,
and stayed long enough to badly frighten
several individuals. The sound was not
that of a bolide or any other kind of
meteor. Even the description of the object
in l\'Iajor Tacker's lette r docs not fit a
meteor. Yet the evidence has bcen "in-
teipreted" to indicate that the object
was a meteor! On the basis of this , can
we entrust our precious bits of pure mag-
nesium to the U. S. mails? Can we afford ,
after the years of work we ha ve put
into the physical evidence, to entrust it
to the men who would label the Biggs
Page 3
AFB object a bolide meteor?
The Director, Mrs. Lorenzen, held a
Secret clearance when she was employed
by the Air Force at HoUoman. If thc
Air Force wants the magnesium badly
eno ugh, they might try an offer to furnish
transportation for the Director and two
other APRO scientific people to ATIC
OJ" any testing lab for an analysis. The
Air Force claims it spends $10,000 on each
investigation-here is one well worth the
money, Reputable scientists have already
paved the way.
During the foregoing ehain of events.
the Lorenzen home telephone, which is a
private line, was r epeatedly under sur-
veillance. Calls between Mr. Lorenzen
at his place of employment <1t Holloman
a nd Mrs. Lorenzen at the APRO office,
\'~'-ere monitored. When the final physical
evidence release went out to the press'
wires on the 18th of Marc h, an editor
at Kan sas City "killed" it, and it went
out without the AP byline. UP! waited
until the 22nd (probably checking wilh
science editors ), then released it world-
wide. The physical evidence story was
accepted well abroad, but in the U. S.,
editors refrained from too wide a use
of it, and it fell flat. We have labeled
this attitude "Bl'inksterism" because peo-
ple have a tendency to want the facts
until they a re confron ted with them-
they come to the brink of the truth and ~
then tUrn their backs.
1\'[ost researchers would scream "cen-
sorship"-we have said in the past and
will reiterate at this time-there could
have been censorship, but we just don't
know. A ccrtain fear of confirmation of
the unknown element seems to play a
big part in this; perhaps we will never
know just how mu~h.
We do know this: On thc 22nd of l\'Ia r eh,
JHrs. Lorenzen was informed by a friend
that her "201" file at Holloman had been
opened. A "201" is thc pcrsonal, confi-
dential file of civil service employees
which contains the results of information
gath ered by intelligencc and security offi-
cers pertaining to person ality, morality,
political convictions, police record, if
any. etc., and it is upon the basis of this
informiltion that a security clearance is
issued.
Someone was vitally interested in per-
sona l information about the Director,
and that person had to be in the mili-
tary, because only a qualified officer or
security ag~nt has access to that file. ~
Was someone trying to find something
to use as a we<lpon against Mrs. Lorenzen
<wd APRO? H is highly unlikely that
we shall ever have the answer to that
one, either. We cnn deduce, however,
that we will not receive any large amount
of cooperation from Major Tacker-his
hands arc tied. Wc will have to "go it
aJone," as it were, for several reasons.
The members arc invited to draw their
(See Physical Evidence, poge 8)
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