Although the episode had the underpinnings of the
Green Fireballs, the lights displayed on the screen bore little resemblance to
the real thing. The TV lights acted more like the Foo Fighters and other
displays of nocturnal lights. This was probably intension on the part of the
series creators.
 |
Some believed the Green Fireballs were
actually meteors. |
There is a thread developing in the show that began
with the Fuller (Gorman) dogfight, in which he was chased or chased an object
that was more fuzzy light than structured craft. The Lubbock Lights episode
kept that alive while the Flatwoods Monster concentrated more on the creature
than the object, which was not clearly defined.
We know, based on the previews, that we’re going to
be treated to the Florida Scoutmaster case. He saw an object, approached it and
was “attacked” by something from inside the craft. Three boy scouts were also
there and provided information for the Project Blue Book investigators. I suspect
that we’ll have another display of lights in the night sky like we have seen in
previous episodes.
We also know that coming up are the Washington
National sightings, which again, will deal with lights in the sky. During those
sightings, however, there were radar observations and intercept attempts by
scrambled jet fights. But these sightings took place at night and involved
lights rather than structured craft.
But, since they brought up the Green Fireballs, I
thought this would be a good time to explore this thoroughly. Following is part
of the information that appeared in The
Government UFO Files. That book also provides a deeper look at some of the
other cases that have been explored on Project
Blue Book.
It might be said that the story of the green
fireballs began in Albuquerque in November, 1948, when a number of people
reported flashes or streaks of green low on the eastern horizon. Or it might be
said that it began on December 20, 1948, with a sighting when four observers,
two each at separate locations reported a bright light falling slowly toward
the ground. But it seems the first sighting of a green fireball took place in
Phoenix on October 24, 1948 when Ellen Peterson watched a bright green object
cross the sky.
From the Project Blue Book files, and the subsequent
reports on Project Twinkle, the study to learn the identity of the green
fireballs, Peterson’s report is often the first one mentioned. She sent a
letter to Dr. J. Hugh Pruett who was a professor of astronomy at the University
of Oregon who eventually forwarded the information to Dr. Lincoln La Paz at the
University of New Mexico in Albuquerque.
In the letter, dated November 3, 1948, she wrote,
“On October 24th I noticed a very strange star or fireball in the
Eastern sky. It was green and my first impression was that it was a plane. It
moved very slowly South and slightly North as if it wasn’t certain of which way
to go… It took at least 75 minutes to cross over Phoenix. The star seemed to be
drawn to other stars, and when it came close to them, it would become very
bright… Every time the star would light up and leave the other star, it would
be dimmer. Finally, we could hardly see it. When I thought it had completely
disappeared, it suddenly became very bright and fell apart.”
This sighting would be of no importance, except that
it was the first mention of a green object and fireball in the same
communication. The Air Force, in the Project Blue Book files, though the
sighting took place when the project was known as Sign, reported, “This
incident as described is not amenable to any astronomical explanation. The
object took 75 minutes to cross the sky. The witness is not a very critical
observer (…there could be no possible connection between the object’s bright
and it apparent distance from a star) … The object could have been a lighted
balloon; speed and maneuvers check.”
In the world of Air Force investigation that meant
it was a balloon. The official explanation is “balloon,” but the evidence for
that seems thin. Had the original letter not ended up with La Paz, there
probably would be no sign of the case at all.
Ed Ruppelt, who was the chief of Project Blue Book
in the early 1950s, reported in his book, “The green fireballs streaked into
UFO history late in November 1948, when people around Albuquerque, New Mexico,
began to report seeing mysterious ‘green flares’ at night. The first reports mentioned only a ‘green
streak in the sky,’ low on the horizon. From the description the Air Force
Intelligence people at Kirkland AFB in Albuquerque and the Project Sign people
at ATIC wrote the objects off as flares.”
These sightings began to evolve. Another of the
reports found in the government files about the green fireballs, but seems to
have little to do with them came early in November. Colonel William P. Hayes
reported, “On November 3 or 4 1948 at approximately 2150 hours, I observed a
ball of light, reddish white in color, 1 foot in diameter, falling vertically.
The ball burst 100 – 300 feet from the ground in a spray of reddish color which
extinguished before reaching the ground… The location is approximately 10 miles
east of Vaughn, New Mexico, on Highway 60.”
About three weeks later, Hayes had another sighting
in about the same place. The description of the light or object was the same as
that seen earlier and it reacted in the same way. Hayes thought it might be
some sort of secret experiment but the Air Force wrote it off, again, as
“flares.”
These sightings, all found in the Project Blue Book
files that deal with the green fireballs, would have gone virtually unnoticed
had it not been for a multiple witness sighting of something more than just a
streak of light in the distance. On December 5, 1948 a brilliant green object
flashed by a military C-47 transport enroute from Lowry AFB in Denver to
Williams AFB in Chandler, Arizona. The pilot of the military aircraft, Captain
William Goade, reported he, along with his crew including Major Roger Carter,
had seen a green flash just west of Las Vegas, New Mexico. They believed, at
that time, they had seen a meteor.
But, twenty-two minutes later, at 9:37 p.m. they
decided it was something else. Goade said he had seen an intense green light
rise from the east slope of Sandia Peak. It climbed to about 500 feet and
looked like the “flare” he had seen before. That would seem to rule out a
meteor as the answer.
 |
Some believed the Green Fireballs were lights in the
sky like the Foo Fighters of the Second World War. |
At 11:00 p.m., the pilot of a Pioneer Airlines
flight that was making its way from Tucumcari, New Mexico to Las Vegas, New
Mexico to Albuquerque and then onto Santa Fe and Alamogordo said that he had
seen a green “light” just west of Las Vegas. When they landed at Albuquerque,
they were interviewed by the Control Tower crew. The pilot, Captain van Lloyd,
said that he had seen a pale green light that seemed to be coming straight at
him. According to him, he jerked the aircraft to avoid a collision. The light
and its tail then curved down and away and disappeared a few seconds later.
The same evening, another report, this one from a
civilian, Harold M. Wright, who had been driving along Highway 60 near Blanca,
Colorado, (east of Alamosa, CO) spotted a green fireball. According to the
report in the Project Blue Book file, “… [It was] moving horizontally and
westerly, at a very fast rate of speed, it once more appeared to be a bright
green. Wright stated that the ‘fireball’ seemed closer and more brilliant than
previously.”
The comment referred to a sighting by Wright made on
September 12, 1948. Wright was with a teacher from the Moffat, Colorado, high
school who was identified only as Mr. Funk. Wright said that the object
“appeared to be a bright green falling star.”
But that wasn’t Wright’s last sighting. On December
12, while near Monte Vista, he saw another object he described as a bright
green falling star. He was with Charles Elliott. Wright was unable to give
precise details about the size, shape or location, but the Air Force
investigator noted, “…Wright was above-average in intelligence and that the
‘fireball’ was not a figment of his imagination.”
Wright, like Colonel Hayes, was a repeater, meaning
he saw the lights, the green fireballs, on more than one occasion. That might
have been enough for the Air Force to discount his sightings, except that there
were other witnesses to each of those events, and many of those who reported
the fireballs had more than one sighting of them.
None of the sightings were too spectacular except
for one fact. The lights, objects, fireballs, were all traveling through an
area where there were a number of secret research facilities and near bases
that had highly classified missions. Lt. Col. Doyle Rees, commander of the 17th
District of the Air Force Office of Special Investigation, decided that these
reports required additional investigation.
Rees assigned two officers, Captain Melvin E. Neef
and Captain John Stahl to interview those at every agency or operation who
might know something about the lights. The wanted to be sure that the lights
were not the result of a classified project. When that failed to produce
results, Neef and Stahl decided they needed to check the terrain. Both were
rated, meaning both were pilots and they took a T-7 out of Kirtland early one
evening.
According to his report, available through the
National Archives, Stahl said:
At an estimated altitude of 2,000 feet higher than
the airplane… a brilliant green light was observed coming toward the airplane
at a rapid rate of speed from approximately 30 degrees to the left of course,
from 60 degrees ENE, to 240 degrees WSW. The object was similar in appearance
to a burning green flare of commonly used in the Air Forces. However, the light
was much more intense and the object appeared to be considerably larger than a
normal flare. No estimate can be made of the distance or the size of the object
since no other object was visible upon which to base a comparison. The object
was definitely larger and more brilliant than a shooting star, meteor or flare.
The trajectory of the object when first sighted was almost flat and parallel to
the earth. The phenomenon lasted approximated two seconds at the end of which
the object seemed to burn out. The trajectory then dropped off rapidly and a
trail of glowing fragments reddish orange in color was observed falling toward
the ground. The fragments were visible less than a second before disappearing.
The phenomenon was of such intensity as to be visible from the very moment it
ignited and was observed a split second later.
The description sounds like a meteor, and if it was
coming toward the aircraft, would have seemed larger than it was. Military
pilots with combat experience should have been aware of this. Tracers, fired by
enemy gunners often looked larger and closer than they were.
To make matters worse, if possible, on December 6, a
security officer with the Atomic Energy Security Service, Joseph Toulouse, saw
a “greenish flare” on the Sandia Base at Kirtland. He said the light was about
one-third the size of the moon, was visible for three seconds before it arced
downward and vanished. Given the nature of the base and the highly classified
work being done there, Rees thought there was a possibility that some sort of
sabotage or espionage was going on.
Now there was some confirmation the events with two
of the intelligence officers spotting a green fireball themselves and the
report from the security officer at Sandia. But there was also the possibility,
however remote it might have seemed that the green fireballs were meteors. On
December 9, Neef contacted Dr. Lincoln La Paz, at the time one of the foremost
experts on meteors. As a bonus, La Paz already held a top secret clearance and
had been consulted by the Air Force on other matters relating to unidentified
flying objects.
Neef said, during a March 1949 classified meeting
called “Conference on Aerial Phenomena:
It all started back in December, 1948, when we first
received some reports from some airline pilots that these green fireballs were
sighted. At this stage we had no idea what to do with it or what it was. We
approached Dr. La Paz who has been assisting us, gratis, since that date.
Almost over two months now that he has been assisting us, so in order to have
you get the facts as they are to a scientist.
La Paz, then, began to study the green fireballs. On
December 12, 1948, La Paz, along with several companions, was driving near
Bernal, New Mexico, when they spotted one of the green fireballs heading from
east to west, low on the horizon. The others, identified in the Blue Book files
were Major C. L. Phillips, an Air Force – CAP liaison officer; Lieutenant Allan
Clark with the New Mexico Wing of the CAP, and Inspectors Jeffers and McGuigan,
AEC Security Service at Los Alamos.
La Paz, having been introduced at the March
conference by Neff, then went on to describe the December 12 event for the others
there. He said:
It is the only one of the incidents that I am in a
position to vouch for on the basis of experience… was not a conventional
meteorite fall. It was the so-called Starvation Peak incident [Bernal, New
Mexico] on the night of December 12, 1948. Time of observation around 9:02
p.m., plus or minus thirty second. The fireball appeared in full intensity
instantly – there was no increase in light. Its color, estimated to be
somewhere about wave length 5200 angstroms, was a hue green, or yellow green
such as I have never observed in meteor falls before. The path was as nearly
horizontal as one could determine by visual observation. We have a photograph
which might be some liters of departure from horizontal. The trajectory was
traverse at, I am inclined to believe, constant angular velocity. Just before
the end of the path there saw the very slightest drooping of the path, that is
the green fireball broke into fragments, still bright green.”
La Paz was asked questions and told the others that
on December 12, he had been on an investigation into the sightings of the week
before and was therefore somewhat prepared. He had a stop watch and a transit.
He used his equipment to make various measurements so that he was not relying
solely on his perceptions.
The sightings continued after December 12. What is
interesting is that many of them were made by those who were tasked with
investigating the green fireballs. The agents, from a variety of services
including the AFOSI and the Atomic Energy Security Service, saw the green fireballs.
Inspector William D. Wilson, who was with Inspector Buford G. Truett, both of
the AESS, saw something. In an official report, the incident was described this
way:
At 2054 [hours], 20 Dec 48, we saw the object
described below making a path thru the sky. It was travelling in an almost flat
trajectory and its decline formed an angle with the horizon of approximately 20
[degrees]. The angle of elevation from our point of observation was
approximately thirty [degrees]. The object was moving at a very fast rate of
speed and disappeared behind the mountain directly northeast of Ft. Eagle.
Total time of visibility was about one and one-half seconds.
Description:
An intense blue-white light about the size of a
basketball. As the object traversed the sky, there was a faint trail of light
behind it and two objects about the size of a baseball separated from the main
body. These objects were the same color and intensity of the main body, and
trailed directly in its path at even intervals of distance equal to approximately
three times the diameter of the main body. The size of the main body was
approximately one quarter the size of the moon.
Although this is part of the green fireball files,
it seems to be of a bright meteor that broke up as it fell. It is important
because it is contained in the Blue Book files and suggests the importance of
this small part of the overall UFO investigation was in late 1948 and early
1949.
A similar report by Inspector John D. Hardie was
made just days later. He wrote, “At approximately 0431, this date [December 28,
1948], while looking east from Station 108 towards Station 101 I noticed high
in the sky what appeared to be a falling star, while in color, descending in a
vertical path. My attention remained with the object when I noticed the rate of
descent seemed to be slower than that of falling star. After watching it lose
altitude for several seconds, I saw it suddenly disappear with a
greenish-tinged flash which momentarily illuminated a small cloud between the
object and myself.”
This all resulted in a report dated December 29,
1948 by Major Godsoe, who was an intelligence officer at the Fourth Army
Headquarters. The first few paragraphs contain the most interesting
information. Godsoe wrote:
Since the initial report of unidentified objects,
described as flares or moving lights in the vicinity of Las Vegas, New Mexico,
on 5 December 1948, there have been 23 reports from observers up to and
including 28 December 1948. Of these reports 21 have been in New Mexico and 1
in Oregon…
The appearance of the lights are of a definite
pattern. All have been of an intense white or greenish white. The trajectory or
path of flight has been north to east or west to east. Altitude has been
reported from 3000 to 20,000 feet above the terrain, which in this area is 5000
to 7000 feet above sea level. Speed has been undetermined except that it seems
to be about the supersonic range…
It is of interest to note that at least two of the
objects have been sighted over the Los Alamos AEC project. One person who
observed one of the objects at Los Alamos has stated that it looked exactly the
same as V2 Rockets he had seen over England during the war.
All that was interesting, and the letters being
passed around at the time suggested that the various intelligence agencies,
those in charge of the secret research projects, and the military were stumped
by the sightings. They were during everything they could think of to identify
the green fireballs, but all that was about to change.
On February 11, 1949, Paul L. Ryan, in the AFOSI 17th
District at Kirtland AFB in Albuquerque wrote a report about “Aerial Phenomena,
that had been observed on January 30. He wrote, “…Mr. Charles Naffziger,
Administrative Supervisor, advised that a peculiar light or aerial phenomena
had been objected at 1755 hours, 30 January 1949, in the vicinity of Walker
AFB, Roswell, New Mexico, and that Sgt. Edward P. McCrary, a tower control
operator of Walker AFB be contacted.”
I interviewed one of those witnesses, Sergeant
Raymond D. Platt, more than forty years later. He told me he, “didn’t believe
it was a flying saucer. He believed it to be a meteor.” Back in 1949, he was
“interrogated by base personnel, the CIC and the FBI.”
He said it was flying very slow, was very bright and
it exploded into six or seven pieces. It was travelling at a very shallow
angle, going from north to south and was bright white and blue. It burned out
after it exploded, which is why he lost sight of it.
There were other reports of this object from other
areas around Roswell. In Alamogordo, Major James C. Petersen, said that he had
sighted a single bright green object looking to the east. He said it was a
bright green fireball of flame travelling in a southerly direction, without
evidence of smoke or trail of any kind. He lost sight of it when it, according
to him, seemed “to fizzle out.”
Also, in Alamogordo, Wilfred T. Martin, who worked
as a technician for the Boeing Aircraft Company, said that about six in the
evening, he saw a single green fireball to the east and travelling to the
south. He saw no signs of an exhaust; he watched for about ten seconds and said
that it did not explode.
Martin was with Sergeant Maurice C. Anthon at the
time and who was also interviewed about the sighting. He said, “I observed an
object that appeared to be travelling diagonally across in front of me… Its
distance seemed very close and appeared to be travelling very slowly… Gentle
downward glide, bright burning (Green and yellowish light) a fizzling out and
then a bright burning, and then appeared to die out. This could have been the
effects of its passing beyond my view.”
PFC Ira W. Vail, assigned to the weather detachment
at Holloman AFB in Alamogordo told investigators that he had “seen a green ball
of flame with a trail of some kind in an Easterly direction. Vail described the
object as traveling in a Southerly direction and added that the object was
visible for approximately six seconds. Vail described the object as bright
green and disappeared without exploding.”
South of Alamogordo, near the White Sands National
Monument, two women identified in the official report as Mrs. Edgar J. Bethart
and Mrs. Robert R. Johns, reported they had seen an object just a few minutes
before six on January 30. It was a bright burning green and had a gentle
downward glide and seemed to “fizzle out with the light becoming less intense
and finally disappearing altogether.”
There were other, similar reports coming from other
parts of New Mexico and west Texas. The track of the object, or the green
fireball, could be plotted based on the observations of all these witnesses,
and the investigators took many of them to the places where they had seen the
fireball to get accurate measurements suggesting height and direction. Using
the information gathered from more than 100 witnesses, Dr. Lincoln La Paz set
out in an attempt to find where the object came to earth, if it was an ordinary
meteor.
According to the report, “Special Agent [Lewis]
Rickett] a member of the Counter Intelligence Corps stationed in Roswell]
continued the search throughout Southeast New Mexico and West Texas from 1400
hours, 2 February 1949, to 2400 hours 8 February 1949, in the company of Dr.
Lincoln La Paz of the University of New Mexico. All information obtained during
this part of the investigation was retained by Dr. La Paz and will be
incorporated into his report.”
A verbal report of that activity was made to the
Scientific Advisory Board Conference of February 16, 1949. La Paz said:
In the case of the January 30th fall, due
to the fact that there had been a large number of military personnel alerted,
we were able to obtain observations within a minute after the fall occurred and
pursued the investigation over a distance of 1,000 miles – in Texas mud
primarily – in some ten days’ time interviewing literally hundreds of people,
we saw not one substantial account of noise produced by the meteorite fall…
These lines are drawn [on a map of observers’
sightings, giving direction of the object from the observer and the direction
of travel] from the points of observation. The center… of the points of
appearance is somewhere Southwest of Amarillo. The disappearance point is in
the vicinity of Lubbock, Texas.
La Paz explained that his plots suggested that the
meteorite, if that was what it was, should have struck the ground near Lamesa,
Texas, which is to the south of Lubbock. Working with a team, including
military men such as Rickett, Platt and Neef, they searched the area for
several days without results. La Paz was puzzled because in similar cases of
large, bright meteorites, he had had great success in recovering fragments.
Or, in other words, using the techniques that had
worked in the past, interviewing the witnesses, getting their directions of
flight, La Paz, with his crews, were able to follow the meteorite fall to its
impact location. This wasn’t the only time that La Paz had had success in
tracking down the remnants of a meteoric impact. His methods had been tested
over time.
Toward the end of the Advisory Board conference, La
Paz was asked about the locations of the sightings. They were only being
reported over the southwest, and most of the sightings were made in New Mexico.
Some believed that this was an usual circumstance. Why would people in New
Mexico or the desert southwest see these usual green meteors if they weren’t
being seen by others around the country?
In fact, one of the participants, Dr. Holloway of
the University of California, asked, “How much interest would the military have
if they found out these things were landing all over the country, Canada,
Hawaii…”
La Paz then said, “Most of them [others interested
in meteors such as the President of the American Meteor Society]… I think that
if anyone at UCLA Institute Geophysics had been observing, it would have gotten
to Kaplan’s ears [Joseph Kaplan at UCLA].”
La Paz goes on to say that they have had clear skies
over the southwest in the previous weeks. He was not suggesting that this was a
reason that the green fireballs seemed to be seen only in that area. It was
just an observation about the weather conditions.
Commander Mandelkorn, representing the Naval
interests, asked, “Well, wouldn’t the phenomena of this nature have been reported
to the Society, no matter where they occurred?”
La Paz said that he had been through the records
carefully and that he had found just a single case of a fireball in which the
observers mentioned a green color, but not the green that was mentioned by so
many other observers in New Mexico.
He also said that the observing conditions around
the country were such that if green fireballs were falling in those regions,
then they would have been seen. He said, “To my knowledge… these were nothing
out of the normal in the East, and in the South, shall we say as far up as
White Sands.”
Toward the end of the conference, La Paz had
explained that the green fireballs seemed to be regional in nature, that the
sound associated with them, when reported was unlike that reported in other
meteor falls, and that La Paz had been unable to find any fragments, even when
he had more than a hundred witnesses to the event. He said, “You see why I’m
puzzled… Nothing like this, to my knowledge, has ever been observed in the case
of meteorite drops.”
Doyle Rees prepared a transcript of the meeting and
with a cover letter dated March 29, 1949, forwarded it to the commanding
general at the Air Materiel Command. The letter gave away little, other than to
warn that “There are numerous errors in the minutes, due to the fact that they
were transcribed from a recording of the conference. The combination of a jack
hammer outside the window and the number of persons speaking made accurate
transcription impossible.”
He asked didn’t ask for help or guidance, and said
that the investigation would continue. There was no real response from AMC
about the reports of the fireballs, or the effort by AFOSI to investigate them.
On April 23, Captain Roger Groseclose and Lieutenant
Howard Smith were sent from AMC in Ohio to Kirtland. On April 24, there was a
meeting held with Neef, La Paz, Jack Boling and Godsoe in an AFOSI office.
Godsoe suggested that the AFOSI was wasting its time investigating the
fireballs because AMC was ungrateful for the effort. The AMC officers shot back
that it wasn’t the business of Army officers to worry about fireballs.
That argument escalated with Godsoe storming out of
the room, which left La Paz exposed. The AMC officers had a list of complaints
including that La Paz had sent them raw data rather than his finished analyses.
This seemed to annoy La Paz who said that he had been working on this as a
volunteer and he had to return to his regular job. Any further request for his
assistance had better come with a contract.
But not all of the meeting was quite that
acrimonious. Everyone agreed with Godsoe’s recommendations that there should be
a network of observation posts with cameras, surveyor’s transits and trained
observers. There should be another search, both on the ground and in the air,
for fragments from the green fireballs. All this was necessary because it
seemed that the fireballs were seen only in a limited area of the southwest,
and they were seen over some of the most sensitive installations in the
country.
Had the green fireballs evaporated at that point,
nothing would have been done about them. They would have been seen as an
anomaly, and probably written off as meteors. But the sightings continued, and
while few were as spectacular as the January 20 fall, the others fit into the
category of “green fireball.”
On February 27, 1949, Lieutenant H. E. Dey, in an
official report, wrote, “I was returning from station 101 to station 100. While
on the straight strip of road adjacent to the airstrip I happened to glance
toward the north at which time I observed a greenish colored light moving
across the northern sky toward the east. It was visible for approximately two
seconds. It did not appear to travel beyond my range of vision, but suddenly
disappeared as I was watching it. It did not leave a trail in the sky nor did
it appear to have a tail like a meteor.”
On March 3, D. M. Rickard, who was a sergeant with
the Atomic Energy Security Service reported, “I was sitting in a chair facing
East and talking to Lt. Buckley. A bright green light fell almost straight
down, East-North-East of Station 101. This light was bright all the time that I
observed same.”
From Albuquerque, on April 30, an observer reported
a “round blue-green object. It was very bright and heading West. It simply went
out after about two seconds.”
Even with the sightings continuing, and La Paz
providing reasons that the green fireballs were not natural, in Washington,
that was the conclusion. These were not meteors, but some sort of “auroral
effect,” although he acknowledged that the distances so far from the magnetic
poles and their rapid, horizontal motion was difficult to explain. Air Force
intelligence “tentatively accepted” the explanation and Air Force Headquarters
began a review of the reports.
On June 2, again at Los Alamos, “Observers saw a
‘ball of light’ descending East to North. Had a long unbroken trail same width
of object. Green color.” And, according to the information was only in sight
for about one second.
A few days later, on June 11, there was another
sighting. According to the Blue Book file, “Object appeared as a star or light.
Object green, then red at end of flight, with short red tail. Appeared to climb
then fell almost straight down.”
And on June 20, at Los Alamos, it was reported that
“Object was round, turning green to orange before vanishing. Object went
through 90 deg [sic] of arc and disappeared as though it was extinguished.”
This sighting lasted for three seconds.
These, and more than a dozen additional sightings
were reported in New Mexico, many from around the secret laboratories at Los
Alamos, which worried the security people, and all were eventually written off
as “Astro (METEOR).” But that answer was applied later, when the Air Force
began to push for solutions to sightings. In fact, on September 1, 1949,
Colonel John W. Schweizer, of Air Force intelligence wrote, “…reports that fall
in the ‘fireball’ category will no longer be included in Hq. Air Materiel
Command and Directorate of Intelligence, Hq. USAF, investigative activity on
unidentified aerial incidents.”
Early in 1949, the green fireballs had alarmed those
responsible for the security of the secret installations but by the middle of
the year, they seemed to be of no consequence. They weren’t paying much attention
to the reports even though La Paz had suggested the fireballs might be some
kind of controlled craft or probe.
On July 24, one of the green fireballs was seen
falling near Socorro, New Mexico. The next morning Dr. W. D. Crozier, of the
New Mexico School of Mines collected dust samples from around the campus in
Socorro. Crozier relayed his findings to La Paz who wrote to Rees on August 17,
1949, “These collections, to Dr. Crozier’s evident surprise, were found to
contain not only the first copper particles he had found in air dust
collections but these particles were of unusually large size – up to 100
microns in maximum dimensions.”
It wasn’t quite that simple, of course. Crozier
thought that the copper might have come from the roofs and the gutters of the
buildings on campus. If the copper was
found away from the campus, then the finding would be significant, but when the
copper turned up far from the campus, Crozier seemed to be unimpressed, calling
the results, “unimpressive.”
La Paz, again, disagreed. He wrote to Rees, “I wish
to emphasize most emphatically that if future more detailed work shows that the
numerous copper particles found by Dr. Crozier and Mr. [Ben] Seely [Crozier’s
assistant] are indeed floating down from green fireballs, then the fireballs
are not conventional meteorites. Copper is one of [the] rarest of the elements
found in meteorites… In fact, I know of no case in which even the tiniest
particle of copper has been reported in a dust collection supposedly of
meteoritic origin.”
To understand this, it is important to note that
Crozier had been collecting the dust samples over a period of time so that when
the copper appeared in the samples after the July 24 fireball, it could be
suggested that the particles were from the fireball. When copper was found over
a large area that added to the belief. La Paz was saying that if the copper
came from a fireball, that made it unique as a meteorite. Copper is not found
in meteorites. Therefore, the fireballs were not meteorites and deserved further
investigation.
Although those in Washington seemed to have answered
the questions about the green fireballs to their own satisfaction, those in New
Mexico weren’t happy. Sightings of the fireballs continued, though now,
according to Rees, they seemed to be falling vertically and he noticed that
there were more reports on the weekends, especially on Sunday. It was also
around this time, summer 1949, that Joseph Kaplan met with Norris Bradbury, who
had been at the February conference. Bradbury thought that a classified
scientific study of these aerial phenomena should be made and suggested a
conference to discuss it.
Kaplan suggested to the AFOIN director, General
Charles P. Cabell that they should attempt a scientific study of the green
fireballs, but Cabell could not support it, meaning he didn’t have the budget
to do it. Kaplan, during a visit with the AMC’s Cambridge Research Laboratories
in Boston tried to learn what could be done to facilitate the research.
Finally, on September 14, 1949, the Air Force Chief of Staff, General Hoyt S.
Vandenberg ordered the then commander of AMC Lieutenant General Benjamin
Chidlaw to evaluate the sightings in New Mexico and Texas.
The meeting that Kaplan wanted was held on October
16, 1949 and included representatives of AFOSI, the Air Materiel Command, the
AESS, the Fourth Army, the FBI and representatives from Los Alamos including
Edward Teller. Unlike other conferences held about UFOs, in this case, everyone
agreed there was a real phenomenon out there. They just couldn’t agree on what
it was.
Kaplan took his plan to AFSAB, and after review by
the Defense Department’s Research and Development Board, it was approved. By
February 21, 1950, Project Twinkle began with an outpost manned by two
observers who scanned the sky. They had a theodolite, a telescope and a camera.
As Ed Ruppelt noted, “If two or more of the cameras photograph the same object,
it is possible to obtain a very accurate measurement of the photographed
object’s altitude, speed and size.”
Ruppelt then wrote, “Project Twinkle was a bust.
Absolutely nothing was photographed. Of the three cameras that were planned for
the project, only one was available.”
It had been noted by the Houston Chronicle, when talking about Ruppelt’s book, “Others who
have written on this subject have intimated they were conferring with officials
in the inner sanctum. This book, which may well become the bible of the UFO
devotees, makes it clear that Ruppelt is the inner sanctum.” But it is not
clear if Ruppelt was in on everything that was happening, especially those
other projects that were not directly part of Blue Book.
But the Project Twinkle Final Report, written by P.
H. Wyckoff, Chief, Atmospheric Physics Laboratory wrote, “Some photographic
activity occurred on 27 April and 24 May [1950], but simultaneous sightings by
both cameras were not made.”
According to the Blue Book files, there is very
little information about these two cases. The April 27 case has no project
card. There is a letter dated May 31, 1950 that said:
Per request of Dr. A. C. Mirarchi, during recent
visit to this base [Holloman], the following information is submitted.
Sightings were made on 27 April and 24 May 1950 of
aerial phenomena during morning daylight hours at this station. The sightings
were made by LAND-AIR, Inc., personnel while engaged in tracking regular
projects with Askania Photo theodolites. It has been reported that objects are
sighted in some number, as many as eight have been visible at one time. The
individuals making these sightings are professional observers there I would
rate their reliability superior. In both cases photos were taken with
Aaskanias.
The Holloman AF Base Data Reduction Unit analyzed
the 27 April pictures and made a report, a copy of which I am enclosing with
the film for your information. It was believed that triangulation could be
effected from pictures taken on 24 May because pictures were taken from two
stations. The films were rapidly processed and examined by Data Reduction.
However, it was determined that sightings were made on two different objects
and triangulation could not be effected. A report from Data reduction and the
films from the sighting are enclosed.
The same letter appears in the May 24 file, but
there is a project card for it. That says, “Photos taken by two stations on
Videon Camera. Two different objects and triangulation could not be effected
[sic]. Photos sent to Dr. Marichi at Cambridge. File incomplete.”
The enclosures with the letter included a number of films of
the objects. Both files were labeled as “Insufficient Data.” That label was
used when the officers at Blue Book didn’t want to call a case “Unidentified,”
but were required to put some kind of label on it.
What this means here is that either Ruppelt paid no
attention to the final report on Project Twinkle, which mentions these two
cases, or he knew about them and for some reason ignored them. No matter which
explanation is correct, Ruppelt was wrong when he suggested that “Project
Twinkle was a bust. Absolutely nothing was photographed. Of the three cameras
that were planned for the project, only one was available.” The evidence in the
Blue Book files, to which he had access, suggests otherwise.
In fact, the final report on Project Twinkle was
less a scientific document than it was a public relations tool. It was created
to explain the green fireballs in the mundane and ignore the data recovered
during the various studies, investigations and searches.
Elterman, the author of the report that in early
1950, had been told to investigate “peculiar light phenomena” and that Project
Twinkle was established to do so. Like Ruppelt, Elterman wrote, “The gist of
the findings is essentially negative… There has been no indication that even
the somewhat strange observations often called ‘Green Fireballs’ are anything
but natural phenomena.”
He broke the report down in what he labeled
“Contractual periods,” the first from April 1, 1950 to September 15, 1950. In
addition to the sightings on April 27 and May 24, he noted that “On 31 August
1950, the phenomena were again observed after a V-2 launching. Although much
film was expended, proper triangulation was not effected [sic], so that again
no information was acquired.”
Although they had the photographic theodolites, the
“grating cameras” functioned only periodically, the military personnel who
operated them had been reassigned because of the Korean War. He was offering
excuses for the failure.
He did note that the “phenomena activity over
Holloman AFB 150 miles south of Vaughn, N. Mexico during the latter part of
August 1950 was considered sufficiently significant so that the contract with
Land-Air (Askania cameras only) was extended for six months.”
And when the extended contract expired, so did the
research. Elterman wrote, “In summary, the results during this period were
negative.”
Also important was a note in the “Post Contractual
Inquiry,” that the 17th OSI District, now under Colonel Cox, had
been “diligent” in forwarding copies of their reports to Elterman and his group
until March 15, 1951, but after that “little attention was being given this
matter. Most of the reports originated from personnel at Los Alamos.”
In an attempt to prove there was nothing strange
going on in New Mexico, Elterman wrote:
Mr. D. Guildenberg, who is an assistant to Major
Doty and an active amateur astronomer, commented that he has been spending
several hours at his telescope almost every night for the past few years and
never once observed an unexplainable object; that on one occasion, an excited
acquaintance was pacified when a “strange object” showed up as an eagle in the
telescope; that Clyde Tombaugh, discoverer of the planet Pluto and now engaged
in activities at White Sands, never observed an unexplainable aerial object
despite his continuous and extensive observations of the sky…
The problem with this statement is that it is simply
not true. While Guildenberg might not have ever seen anything he couldn’t
explain, La Paz, who was called into the investigation, did see a green
fireball. La Paz, a leading expert on meteors didn’t believe what he had seen
was a meteor, and was unsure of the nature of it.
Even worse, Clyde Tombaugh had seen something unexplainable
on August 20, 1949. It is listed as case 536 in the Blue Book index, but it is
not clear when the information was gathered. Although it predates Elterman’s
report, the data might not have been added until later. And even if it was
present, there is no indication that Elterman would have known about it. The
strange thing is that he would mention Tombaugh in the report.
To be fair to Elterman, he did note that “On 28
August 1951, the subject was discussed with Dr. Lincoln La Paz, who expressed
disbelief in all aerial phenomena except for the green fire-balls. The red
fire-ball occasionally reported he believed was the visual after-effect of the
green. Their recent origin (1947) and peculiar trajectories did not permit,
according to Dr. La Paz, them to be classified as natural phenomena… Dr. La Paz
expressed the opinion that the fireballs may be of our own military origin, but
if not, they are a matter of serious concern.”
The conclusions are interesting in that Wyckoff
suggests that many of the sightings can be explained as mundane objects such as
balloons or by natural phenomena. He noted, interestingly, that photographs had
been taken on 35 nights when observations were made, but none “of the
photographs revealed the presence of unusual sky phenomena.”
Under recommendations, Elterman wrote:
No further fiscal expenditure be made pursuing the
problem. This opinion is prompted partly by the fruitless expenditure during
the past year, the uncertainty of existence of unexplainable aerial objects,
and by the inactive position currently taken by Holloman AFB as indicated by
the ‘stand-by status’ of the project. The arrangements by HAFB for continued
vigilance by Land-Air, the weather station as well as the briefing of pilots on
the problem in part relieves the need for a systematic instrumentation program.
Within the next few months, Dr. Whipple will have
completed the installation of two 18-inch Schmidt cameras for meteor studies.
The cameras will be stationed about 20 miles apart in the vicinity of Las
Cruces, New Mexico. Since these studies will be sponsored by the GRD,
arrangements can be made for examining the film for evidence of aerial object
phenomena.
And with that, Project Twinkle faded away. It was
caught in the crossfire between those who thought the green fireballs were
meteors and those who though they were not. La Paz, the real expert in the
field, rejected the idea of natural phenomena because of the limited geographic
area in which the fireballs were seen, their sudden appearance in 1948, the
lack of success in recovering any fragments from them, and their subsequent
disappearance.
Although a satisfactory solution for the fireballs
was never found, those case that made their way into the Project Blue Book
files were all labeled as “Astro (Meteor).” And while that might be true for
some of them, many of them were not meteors, and the gathered evidence seems to
prove it.
There is a final note of importance. On February 19,
1952, Albert E. Lombard, Jr. sent a letter to the Directorate of Intelligence
and to the attention of Colonel John G. Erickson, about the declassification of
the Project Twinkle report, and the activities surrounding it. Lombard wrote,
“The Scientific Advisory Board Secretariat has suggested that this project
[Twinkle] not be declassified for a variety of reasons, chief among which is
that no scientific explanation for any of
the ‘fireballs’ and other phenomena was revealed by the report [emphasis
added] and that some reputable scientists still believe that the observed
phenomena are man-made.”
In the end, when all the files on this are examined,
it is clear that the question of the green fireballs was never resolved. They
stopped falling, people stopped seeing them, and no one cared anymore. They
became little more than a footnote in the history of UFO research. Clearly,
they deserved more than that.
