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Project Blue Book Socorro file

The Black Vault · 167 pages · text by OCR

This Black Vault release compiles 1964 newspaper and wire service clippings plus a Project Blue Book summary on the Socorro, New Mexico sighting by policeman Lonnie Zamora on April 24, 1964, when an egg-shaped object left four depressions and burned brush. It covers J. Allen Hynek's site visit, APRO and NICAP comment, and related New Mexico reports at La Madera, Edgewood and Albuquerque. The Air Force summary reports that soil and brush analysis found no radiation or propellant, and the case remained open.

  • p. 3 …UPI) - New Mexico's perennial addiction to flying saucers has taken hold of the state again…
  • p. 4 …Sam Chavez of the New Mexico State Police. They took six other men to the spot…
  • p. 6 …sent to New Mexico after a rash of reports of sightings in the state. He planned…
  • p. 7 …shots at one of New Mexico's unidentified flying objects. State Policeman Tommy Richardson of Moriarty…
  • p. 11 …of unidentified flying object sightings had New Mexico State Police, local law enforcement agencies and military…
  • p. 13 …UPI) - New Mexico's perennial addiction to flying saucers has taken hold of the state again…
  • p. 15 …New Mexico's perennial addiction to flying saucers took hold of thae state again Monday. More…
  • p. 22 …Around State A rash of unidentified flying object sightings had New Mexico State Police, local law…
  • p. 23 …Within moments afterward, Sgt Chavez of the New Mexico State Police arrived on the scene in…
  • p. 26 …in a state loaded with radar installations. "It is my understanding that New Mexico has more…
  • p. 28 …Inhabited Since 1540 Home of the Famed New Mexico VOL. 98 NO.34 Published Tuesdays & Thursdays…
  • p. 30 …State Police Sgt. Sam Chavez, State Policeman Ted Jordan, and Undersheriff James Luckie responded. Chavez and…
  • p. 34 …The sighting was reported to Sgt Chavez of the New Mexico State Police. The object sighted…
  • p. 45 …April 1964 Sgt Chavez of the New Mexico State Police accompanied by Agent Burns of the…
  • p. 56 …Socorro, New Mexico. The object or vehicle displayed flight characteristics well within the State-of-the…
  • p. 77 …his call was monitored by Sgt Chavez of the New Mexico State Police. Sgt Zamora attempted
  • p. 79 …The FBI was informed of the sighting by the New Mexico State Police. The New Mexico…
  • p. 81 Sgt Sam Charez of the New Mexico State Police was interviewed by Major Connor and Sgt…
  • p. 82 …Sawde Darnore interviewed by Sgt Chavez, New Mexico State Police Kes
  • p. 153 …New Mexico after a rash of reports of sightings of unidentified flying objects in the state…
  • p. 156 …A rash of unidentified flying object sightings had New Mexico State Police, local law enforcement agencies…
  • p. 158 …85 and New Mexico 180 and the object appeared to be about a quarter of a…
  • p. 163 …Lincoln LaPaz of the University of New Mexico who has an international reputation in running down…
  • p. 164 …Hynek said he had not been told by the government whether sending him to New Mexico…
  • p. 167 …UPI) - New Mexico's perennial addiction to flying saucers has taken hold of the state again…
Although LaPaz was impressed with Vallee's book, he felt that his impressive list of references was padded with too many references to unpublished articles or statements. He feels that it is not really a scientific book on the subject (I guess that about in the year 1980 I will have to write a really scientific book on the subject).

Coming now to the Menzel letter, I will consolidate the opinions of LaPaz, Cahves, and of Raynor. I did not show the letter to Zamora because I think it would merely have upset him.

Page 1. I asked Zamora about the reported fall me when he first heard the explosion, when he was still on the highway. He denies ever having said anything about a flame at that time, only at the time when he saw it rise from the ground. As a matter of fact, he never mentioned anything like that to me, originally, but this did appear in Captain Holder's original report, and he purportedly got this in conversation with Zamora. However, I think this was in the original newspaper writeup. I will have to agree with Menzel that this part of Zamora's evidence is very mixed up and suggests some embroidery of the original sighting either by Zamora or by Captain Holder when excitement was running high.

Page 2. I can't agree with Menzel here. When he wears his glasses, his vision is okay. He had the glasses on when he saw the flame at the time the object was preparing to rise. Now this whole question of the "burning bush": I visited the site again on Saturday, with Raynor and Shrode, the owner of the radio station, and at no time was any bush no grass seen to be burning, and nobody seems to confirm any actual smoke. All that seem definitely to agree on is that the green snakeweed and the green greasewood, which are notoriously hard materials to ignite, showed evidence of having been charred, as though they have been seared by a hot flame and not burned in an ordinary fashion.

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Document, cited by the archive. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. The text was read from the page images by an OCR model; expect the odd misread word. 167 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.