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wv ~~ — YY Approved For Release 2001/04/02 : CIA-RDP81R00560R000100010002-9 the time. Missions involving Holloman-White Sands had ended at 5 p.m. The long range radars at the Air Base in Al- buquerque would not have been able to pick up “an object flying at such low altitude in that hilly area.” CFlying Saucers, Signet) Detailed investigations continued to be carried out by the Air Force and private UFO investigating groups, at the close of which it was determined that the sighting had much to recommend it as a good one, but several factors that were puzzling. In its favor were (1) the character of the sighter him- self; reliable, honest and sincere with the expert powers of observation that endow the well-trained police officer. (2) Not'a speck of evidence that a hoax had been perpetrated. (3) A flurry of reported sightings and landings (to be touched upon later) in the New Mexico area that tended to strengthen the belief that Zamora’s sighting had been a genuine UFO. Working against the premise were, (1) an analysis made by Colorado State University of soil samples taken from the area said to have been touched by the blue flame. These were compared with control samples and revealed nothing significant. (2) Zamora was the sole witness. This was no reflection upon the patrolman, but any sighting with the characteristics mentioned at Socorro profits by the support of more than one witness. (3) The publicity attached to the “little men” who were believed to have accompanied the object was too unrealistic for the public to accept, and tended to dissuade many that the sighting had been made. Zamora himself was reluctant to: mention this aspect of the experience and would have preferred that the information he submitted to the Air Force xelative to this facet had not been given attention. But he affirmed his belief that he had seen them to APRO investigators in the presence of a local deputy and a news reporter. That there was some confusion and perhaps uncertainty among Air Force personnel as to how this Jatest experience should be explained was apparent in some of the theories that were offered. When there appeared to be a solid ex- planation for why the object had not been picked up on radar, a leading meteoriticist identified the craft as an ex- perimental device being developed by the Army. The Army already had said it had no craft to correspond with the one Zamora had described, and the device to which the scien- tist was said to have referred had not yet been built. While controversy was still waging over the Socorro inci- dent a young man in Espanola, N.M., came upon what he described as a bluish thing as “long as a telephone pole,” resting on the ground near the house. His family laughed at him when he told about it, but the man took his story to the police officers who returned with him to the scene and found the ground still smoking 20 hours after the man had seen the object. The ground was hot to the touch and the officers found several good-sized indentations plus some small, circular tracks, all of which conformed in shape to those found at Socorro, though word of the Socorro sighting with the de- tailed descriptions had not yet reached the area. Not long after this, a landing with strong similarities was reported in Montana. Some youngsters had seen a lighted object make a night landing at the rear of their home. The sheriff's office investigated the next day; found rectangular indentations and signs of scorched ground still warm. It was a reported incident of far more dramatic content that was brought to the attention of the directors of APRO continued on next page we Within half an hour, Army 7) 149% he BURNED AREAS ON GRASS CLUMPS AND ~ BUSH Pe INDENTA a oe \ Nines 88 CIRCULAR LINES ARE INTENDED TO SHOW THAT DIRT WAS MOUNDED CHIEFLY 70 THE OUTSIDE OF THE DEPRESSIONS Intelligence had a man on the scene to interview Zamora and take measure- ments of the two different sets of (1) wedge-shaped, (2) circular indentations that were found on the scorched “landing” area. a 972 COPY OF SKETCH MADE BY ONE OF THE OFFICERS TO SHOW SPACING OF LANDING GEAR MARKS DIMENSIONS ARE CENTER 70 CENTER 27 Approved For Release 2001/04/02 : CIA-RDP81R00560R000100010002-9