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Project Blue Book Socorro file

Internet Archive · 168 pages · text by OCR

This Project Blue Book file on the Socorro, New Mexico sighting, held by the Internet Archive, collects Air Force records and 1964 press clippings. It covers policeman Lonnie Zamora's April 24, 1964 report of an egg-shaped object with four legs, the scorched brush and ground depressions, and Dr. J. Allen Hynek's investigation. An Air Force summary says soil and brush analysis found no radiation or propellant and the case stayed open. Later New Mexico reports were judged known objects or hoaxes.

thoroughly tired of going into details. It is clear that he turned tail at this time and ran for cover, thinking the object was about to explode. He banged his leg against the rear fender of the car as he tried to round it, at which time his glasses, and his sunglasses fell off into the ground, but he did not stop to retrieve them. This is an indication of the state of panic he was in. He ran some distance behind the car, as indicated in photograph No 3, which shows him crouching down, but not as he had done that Friday evening. At that time, he had crouched quite close to the ground, covering his eyes with his arm. It was at this time that he saw the object rise to essentially the level of his car and proceed in the direction of the dynamite shack, shown in figure 4 which shows the small dynamite shack about 7 or 8 feet high, off to the right and shows Zamora's arms extended, his left arm pointing to the direction in which he had seen the object originally, its takeoff position, and the right arm pointing in the general direction in which the object had disappeared. A shadow cast by Zamora in this picture, which was taken approximately at 10 am, at which time the sun was in the south-east quatrin of the sky, indicates that Zamora is facing southwest, with the shack somewhat to southwest by west. The dynamite shack is also shown in figure five, which shows the car parked as it was on the evening of the sighting. Zamora was looking out of the left hand drivers' window at the object when he parked the car. Photograph No 6 shows the position from which Zamora first saw the object whose location was approximately under the X mark on the photograph. It was from this distance that he thought that the object looked like an overturned car. Photograph 7 is the position Zamora was in, looking at the object disappearing, said object having missed the dynamite shack by some 3 feet, according to Zamora. Photography No 8 is approximately the position Chaves and Zamora were in, on their way down from the rise toward the place where the object had been, when Chaves first saw the markings the object had left. Photograph No 9 is 180 degrees, approximately, from that of No 6. No 9 shows the town of Socorro in the distance, looking down longitudinally through the gulley toward the "road" along which Zamora was stationed when he first saw the object, looking inthe direction Socorro to the spot from which Photograph 9 was taken.

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From all of the above and from my personal observations, I would conclude the following: That Zamora, although not overly bright or articulate, is basically sincere, honest, and reliable. He would not be capable of contriving a complex hoax, nor would his temperment indicate that he would have the slightest interest insuch. He was simply a copy on duty, relinquished one discharge of that duty (chasing a speeding car) for another which he thought was of more immediate importance. (Investigating the possible explosion of a dynamite shack). His fright was genuine,

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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. 168 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.