Documents / Report
This U.S. Department of War release compiles 1949 records tied to Sandia Base, New Mexico. It includes a Sandia Base security inspection reply and a W. D. Crozier letter to Lincoln LaPaz. It also contains Crozier and Seely's report on collecting airborne copper particles after the July 24, 1949 fireball near Socorro, which they judged negative or inconclusive. LaPaz's sixth report on green fireballs disputes parts of that finding, and a Fourth Army report describes unusual lights around the Q Area at Camp Hood, Texas, in March 1949.
From the source:Release of 2026-05-22 Incident: 1948-1950, New Mexico. This file contains 116 pages of documentation from the Armed Forces Special Weapons Program (AFSWP) – the direct, post-World War II successor to the Manhattan Project – and from the U.S. Air Force – relating to a series of sightings and investigations in Sandia, New Mexico, from 1948-1950. This file contains 209 sightings of “green orbs,” “discs,” and “fireballs” reported near the military base. Witnesses reported unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) maneuvering, flying out of sight, disappearing, or exploding. The documents also include the results of contemporary investigations into residual copper powder found in some areas where sightings were reported. A few of these investigations became the basis for Project Grudge, which collected reports of unidentified flying objects from various other military installations – also included in this collection.
“Edwards Air Force Base”1 page
Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.
3. Dr. LaPaz stated that he had been assisting the Military for the past two months at their request in the investigation of the subject problem, and went on with the general discussion of phenomena attending normal meteorite fall, postulating the following important characteristics: a. Random path of fall. b. Color and intensity variations in light emitted. c. Sound. d. Frightened animals. 4. Dr. LaPaz then went on to discuss the number of observers reporting the subject phenomena and the diversity of their backgrounds, including commercial airlines' pilots, military pilots, special intelligence agents, Los Alamos personnel (Mr. Hoyt), and himself, as well as various and sundry previously uninformed citizens. 5. Dr. LaPaz then described the "Starvation Peak Incident" which he observed himself, detailing the following characteristics which indicate that the phenomenon can not be classified as a normal meteorite fail: a. Initial bright light (no period of intensity increase) and constant intensity during the duration of the phenomenon. b. Yellow-green color (about 5,200 angstroms). c. Essentially horizontal path. d. Trajectory traversed at constant angular velocity. e. Duration about two seconds. f. No accompanying noise. 6. Since about 5 December 1948, there have been more than ten incidents analogous to the "green fireball" described, and some twenty more presenting minor deviations to the above, which should be considerod in connection with them. In addition, there have been a number of normal shooting stars and meteors observed. 7. There ensued a general discussion in which it was brought up that the majority of the observers whose reports were here under consideration were not subject to previous psychological influences or prior knowledge as to what they should look for. Furthermore, "seeing" conditions for meteor observation throughout the continental United States were at least
Report, from the pursue collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. The text was read from the page images by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word. 116 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.