Historical T h e B lack Vault The Black Vault is the larges t o n l ine Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) document clearinghouse in the world. The research efforts here are responsible for the declassification of hundreds of thousands of pages released by the U.S. Government & Military. Discover the Truth a t : h t tp://www.theblackvault.com This document is made av a i l a b l e through the declassification efforts and research of John Greenewald, Jr., creator of: UNCLASSIFIED 4 . Post Q.o_]ltrl!,ctual Inqu_irY; In v iew of the unproductive nature of the contract \vith Land-Air, it was decided to roalco further inquiry concerninp: recent aerial object developments in Ne\-T Uoxico. On 9 August 19~>1, the situation \vas discussed \vith Lt. Col . Cox of the 17th OSI District (Kirtland AFB) . untill5l1arch 1950 the Distric t had been diligent in foruarding copies of their reports on aerial object nhenomena. Since then, no renorts have been received by the Geophysics Research uivision. Colonel Gox advised that renorts of stranp:e aerial nhenomena were still r eceived by the 17th OSI office, at the rate of once or t\rice a month but little attention was beinr-given to this matter. Host of' the renorts Rfirinated from n0rsonnol at Los Alamos. The OSI files were .; e\-ted. (A summary coverinrr recent r eports is attached. ) I t vias l e'"""!i' that r enresentatives from Ll]T~ and also from ARGOSY were interested in nublishinf articles on aerial object ohenomena. On 27 aUf.USt 1951, develonments concerning aerial nhenomena were iscussed at Holloman Al''B. Lt. John Albert previously ussocicted with the nroject had now been transferred from Holloman. Therefore, the project \vas discussed ui th Haj or I:dward A. Doty -vrho had assumed resnon- sibility. L.ajor J.JOty, uho seemed to be thoroughly acquainted with the situation, advised that there have been very few reports of , ,'N GR ADED AT 3 YEAR INTERVALS DECLASSIFIED AFTER 12 YEARS. ' UNCLASSIFIED UNCLASSIFIE a erial phenomena in the vicinity of Hollooon since Sontember 1950. The noDulace around HAFB seem to have lost their sensitivity as ob- servers. Lven durinr; the meteor sho\ver of 11-12 August 1951, no alarming renorts \.Jere received. However, on 14 !larch 1951, nine Bell personne l reportea si[!hting between fourteen and t\Tenty bodies not unlike a flock of geese On 9 July a ''red glo\ring ball u '"as sighted by a s e rgeant stationed at the Corona oerinental Radar Site a t Corona , Ne'\oT Hexico . (vopies of both reoorts are attached) lfur e recently, a nilot reported some aerial objects which, after investieation, were identified as nlanets. .&J. l.-uildenberg, who is an assistant to 1.Llljor L.Oty and an active amateur astronolllcr, comnented that he has been 511ending sev- eral hours at his telescope alnost ~u ry night for the past fe\1 years and never once observed an unexolainable object; that on one occasion, an excited acquaintance 'o~as nacified uhen a objec t showed uo as ru1 eagle in the telescope; that Clyde Tombaugh, discoverer of the nlanet t.Luto and now engaced in activities at \Jhi te Sands, never observed an 1mexolainable aerial object despite his contfnuous and e.."Ctensive observations of the sky; that Fred \!hioole in his '\orork photograohing meteors at Las Cruces, never de- tected a strange aerial object ui th his "'chmidt caueras; and that the A and 11 College at Las Cruces engages j.n astronomical observa- tions but had never observed strange aerial phenomena. UNCLASSIFIED lJNCLASSIFlED It \.Jas learned from Uajor voty, that Col. Da.ynes, C. 0 . at HAFB, no lonp:er felt there vias any justification for the allocation of funds for maintaininr; systematic investie;ation. Rather, he pr ovided that the nrojec t be maintained on a standby basis and Hithout official Air Force status. lhis entails assignment o f an officer (:f\1ajor voty) to collect incoming report s , make periodic r eview of the files for patterns or per sistent characteristics in the repor t s , maintain liaison with OSI, .t?rovost l'.arshall s Office and any other agencies whose a ctivities may serve to provid e information concerning future aerial nheno:mena develon; 1ents. Lund-Air ht:~.s agreed to reoort and if oossible photograph any abnoroal sightings made durine their scheduled period s of ooera tion (about eight hour s each. '8Jy) The \leather station Hill function similarly . Also, all JJ. .... 1.ot s have been briefed to re""fort any unusual observations. If ncct,.;.i.:)aary, the n rojcct can be activated very quickly, even to the extent where funds \~11 be made available, for the purchase of equipment Lajor Doty also arranged a conference \d th L.:r. larren Kott, who is in charge of Land-Air operations. Hr . l ott oointed out that a forrlal report coveri~g the year s vigilanc e period had not been issued since the contract contained no such provision. Actually, a time correlation study should be made covering the fiLra and verbal recordings at both Askania stations. Thi s would a ssure that theae records did not contain significant material. ~ov1ever, such a study i s quite laborious, and \Jould require about thirty man days to comolete. Ag~in, no r.>r ov isions are contained in the contra c t for this study , but Lr . Kott felt that DOWNGRADED AT 3 YEAR INTERVALS DECLASSIFIED AFTER 12 YEARS UNCLASSlflE ct:ASSIF~:: this could be done b y Land-Air at the additional oxoense in the r..ear future when the uork load diminished. hr. h.ott requc:stc foraal authorization to do this and .~.ajar .uoty agreed to issue this letter of authorization. It was arranc;ed further that at such time uhen the study is completed all hotographic and tape recordings would be sent to the Geoohysics Research Jivision. Prior to departing HAFB, the projec t files were reviewed . ~jor uoty advised ~hat access to the files had not been requested by any periodicals. On 28 August 19jl, the subject \>Tas discussed informally with Dr. Lincoln La Paz, who expressed disbelief in all aerial phenonena except for the green fire-balls. The red fire- ball occasionally re- ported he believed ,.,as the visual after-effect of the green. Their recent oripin (1947) and peculiar trajectories did not, permit, accord- ing to Dr. La Paz, them to be classed as natutal phenomena. .~.he most recent that has co~e to his attention occurred over Detroit on ? July 1951. It crossed tne city from Horthwest to Southeast with a sharply descending trajectory which leveled out and '\n .. s bserved by many residents of the city. Dr. La Paz exryressed the opinion -chat the fir eballs may be of our oHn rri.litary oririn, but if not, they are a 1:1atter ot serious co!luern. 5. Conc.lusions Undoubtedly, a gooa many ot the observations reported are attri- butable to ordinary man- made objects such as air'Jlanes, balloons, sm.oke rockets, etc. It apoears that balloon observations especially are re- soonsiole for a large n tu'loer ot the reports. 'ihe possiu~li ty of snall DOWNGRADED "AT S YEAR INTERVALS DECLASSIFIED AFTER 12 YEARS. ' ernissive clouds issuing 1rom atomic installations also has been rroposcd. IW"ly ot the sightinf;S are attributable to natural ohcnoruena such as ~ o1rds, planets, meteors, and possib~y cloudiness. Dr. Fred L. le of Harvard, in a memorandum to this lo.bo1atory dated 9 J~urrt.tst 1950 relative to this problell, indicated that he had observed a tendency for the occurrence of small detachea clouds in Hou l ~xi co Hhich might have been mist~en for an aerial object when illuminated by the reflected light of the moon. Dr. .hipple investigated the possibility of a cor- relation between the frequency of aerial pheno~ena observations and weather conditions --specifically cloudiness. A rough analysis of available \reather data, in ... icated that on the 53 nights (bet\veen 5 December 1948 and 5 March 1951) vrhen observations were r eoorted , 10 were clear, 4 partially cloudy, 5 cor.1pletcly overcast and 14 had no record. The nt~ber of cloudy nights i nvolved seems unusually hirh for New I:exico. The weather reports vrere for the Las Cruces Ar~a only where- as many of the observations were a considerable distance from Las Cruce s . li'urther investigation is therefore necessary to determine correlations with cloudiness. ur. Uhiople also conducted a study us to \Jhethcr tho ar:e of the moon was related to th0 frequency of aerial phenomena observations. The res~ts did not indicate that the phenomena were observed largely at fUll moon. The stctistics show th8t of the 72 observations reported, 45 occurred when the moon was uo and 27 when it was down with many of the observations occurring at the time of the moon' s first quarter. From the statistical study, Dr. lhipple suggests that the existence of moon- light is correlated with the ohenomena. Dr. \lhipple s frequency diagrar1 of observations vs. age of moon is included in.tbjs report. ~--_ 'AT 8 YEAR INTERVAT~S: AFTER 12 YEARS. IJNCLASSlFlED It should be noted that Dr. Jhipnle made a cnre~ study of meteor photogranhs tru{en in I;ew hexico on 35 nirhts when observations Here reported. None of the nhotographs revealed the. pr0sence of un- usual sky phenomena . Finally, the overall picture obtained from the year of vigilance and inquiry does not uormit a conclusive opinion concerning the aerial ohenomena of interest. The comparatively hif;h incidence of tl1e ~heno- mena since 1948 does not necessarily indicate that the objects are man- made. It is conceivable that the earth may be passing through a ree;ion in space of high r.1eteoric pooulation. Also, the sun-spot lilrodma. in 1948 ocrhaos in some vray may be a contributing factor. 6. Reconunenda tions Since the findings to d~te cannot 'be considered conclusive, it appears that the followine recozmnendations would be oertinent: l>OWNGRADED AT 3 YEAR INTERVAlS DECLASSIFIED AFTER 12 YEARS. I UNCLASSIFIED ONCLASSIFI (1) No furvher f i s cal 0xnenditure be nmde in pursuin~ the problem. This opinion is proupted nartly by the fruitless expenditure durinp t he past year, the uncertainty of existence of unexplainable aerial objects, and by the inactive position currently tal\en by Holloman AFB as indicated by the ''stand- by status of the TJroj ct. The arrangements by HAFB for continued vigilance by Land-Air, the weather ststion as well as the briefing of pilot s on t he problem in part reliev es the need for a s ystematic i nstrumentation program. thin the next fevr months, Dr. Uhipnle will have completed the installation of two 18-inch Schmidt cameras for meteor studies. rrbe cameras will be stationed about ?Q miles apart in the vicinity of Las Cruces, New Hexico. Since these studies l.il l be s ponsored by the GRD, arrangements can be nade for examining the film for evidence of aerial object phenomena. LOUIS ELTLRIW~ Project Scientist Atmospheri c Physics Laboratory Geophysics Research Vivision DOWNGRADED AT 3 DECLAssiFIED AI4 R ~.J'ERV AT,S: .. DoD DlR 6200.10 EARS. UNCLAS~lf .. Summary of Recent_Aeria+.. Jhcnorn~na ;tenort13 fro]]} 17th. O,$I J?).s,trict 11 Nov. 19;0 -Reports of a. l are;e-sized balloon. It vras determined that this vias released by General d:i.lls. subsequently was recovered. J,.2 Jan. 1951 -Report from ten k>s Alamos emnloyecs. Tear shaned object ,n_ th small tail; v er y bright appearance; descended slo\-1ly; sky lirhte d up fo about 1 sec; 16 ~eb. 1951 -Aerial object reported i n the vicinity of holloman AFB. This turn ed out to be a General :d. lls balloon functioning for Project s~1ook 19 Feb. 1951 -A C- 54 pilot reoorted a gr een flar e or roc1~et observed in the vicinity of Rodeo, IJ .1'. I-r,s notion was vertical and nassed the plane at 900C ft. Investigators believed this to be a meteo~. 6 r:iar . 1951 -Renort fror:t four Los Alamos personne l of very brieht obj c t crossine, sky. Also observed by t\.ro Kirtland P.-FB pilots who reryorted this as a meteor; time -11~:30; reported by ur. La Paz to be a detonating fire-baJl. .o fr~ents recovered. DOWNGR.ADP.D AT 3 YEAR !NT . DECLAtitilFJED AFTl~P 12 UNCLASSIFIE . DOD DIR 5200.10 . . 1'2 lfur. 1951 -Report from Albuqueroue, H.l1. by t\.ro individuals of ba11-shaoed object, shining-v1hi te apucarance. jec t descended rap idly to the horizon 1 April 1951 -Renort from a Los Almms employee. Oblong shaped object movin~ slowly both in horizontal and vertical directions . Bright appearance. 7 June 1951 -Repor t from a Los Alamos employee. Pointed cylinder in vertic a l position. Cloth-like construction. Fell in canyon at 11:10 A. H. Search oarty \;.ras unable to find the object or any rc1.1ains. 8 June 1951 -Report f rom a ws Alamos employee. Large reddis h dot, ull apocaro.nce \-ThieL turned brieht green. Obs erved for three seconds ELNaton/elf SUBJECT: Transmittal of Final Renort of Project Twinkle TO: Director of Research and Development Headquarters, USAF ATTN: AFDR.u-RE, Colonel John Tucker ashington 25, D. C "Inclosed is a cony of the Final Heoort on .t'roject forl'Jarded at your reques G. 2 . As there is interest in this matter outside of the Deoartment of Defense, \ole have recommended to Hq. , ABDC:; that consideration be piven to its declassification, particularly in view of the fac t that no~hing of a security nature has been discover ed. FOR TH~ COl~ IANuiNG G~ULRAL: EPHRAIN RAutn.R Chief, Operations Section lans and Onerations Branch Geophysics Research Vivision or ICL .s:;r-p::o It ia a well known fn.ot thnt the Rusa1nna have been hftrd a.t work on several urgent projects to study 'fireballs. Uany years ago the Air Force concluded e study of the cys t erious ' green fireballs'in the aouthwestorn states in the U.S.A. It was called 'PROJECT T\liiXLE' but its findings been rove&led UNCLASSIFIED Extract of Letter from AFCRL, dated 15 September l950, Subject: Status of Project Twi.nkle TO: Commanding General Air Materiel Command Attn: MCREEP-4 Major J. H. Kodis Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Dayton, Ohio If no fire balls are observed in the next six month period, it is reconnnended that the project be d)scontinued. In a phenomenon as sporad.ic as the :t'iJ.'"C balls appear to be, it is felt that at least one year is required in order to establish '"hether their occurrence is or is not a seasonal phenomenon. 4. There is considerable doubt in the minds of some of the project personnel that this is a natural phenomenon. As long as a reasonable doubt exists, 1 t is not wise to d).scontinue entirely the observations. Dr. Whipple s suggestion that these may be moon reflections on small clouds cannot be discounted. That fire balls have been observed in the past cannot be di.scounted due to the re- liability of' several witnesses. It may be considered significant that fire balls have ceased abruptly as soon as a systematic \vatch vras set up. At present it does not appear likely that the next six months of observations will yield any more information than the first six months, ut it is felt that even oegati ve inf6rmati.on may be significant. 5. It is requested that a six month extension of the Land Air contract be negotiated. It is also requested that the spectrographic equipment abando~ed by Holloman Air Force Base due to lack of personnel be turned over to Land Air for operation in the next six month period. At the conclusion of the six month extension, an evaluation of the observations will be accomplished by this Directorate and reconunenda- tions as to the future conduct of this project will be forwarded to your cOimnand. " RADED AT 3 YEAR INTERVALS~ DO LASSIFIED AFTER 12 YE.ABS. ClASS/FlED UNCLASSlF\ED Bas Ltr fr Hqs, Al1C, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Dayton Ohio dtd 9 December 1949, Sub: Light Phenomena Hq AMC, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Dayton, Ohio 17 May 1950 TO: Director of Research and Development ,Hq, USAF, Washington 25, D. c. ATTN: AFMRS-4 1. Since the date of basic correspondence this Conm~nd has been able to initiate subject project on a limited basjs utilizing personnel and eqttipment which have become available at Holloman Air Force Base. For your information the investigation involves the following observa- tional techniques: a .. Optical tracking with Aska..'l'lia photo theodolites in order to provide trajectory datn and photo records. b. Optical spectra-photography using standard cameras ~nth suitable diffraction gratings. c . Radio spectrum analysis through the range from 500 kc to 4000 me. This portion of the program will be shortly started with the Signal Corps providing equipment and personnel. 2. The request of this Comnand as contained in Paragraph 2 of basi c correspondence is withdrawn. In view of this, prior RDB approval for the project is not bt!!lieved necessary. This COimnand will take action to co- ordinate the project through normal channels. 3 .. In order to better evaluate the results of the investigation outlined in Paragraph 1 above, it would be very desirable to have the activities of the 17th District OSI at Kirtland Air Force Base re-ini~iate in making field investigations of light phenomena reports. Such report s be important in the verification of any results of the project work at Holloman. It is therefore requested that action be truten for re-ini- tiation of the 17th District OSI investigations for the period of this FOR THE COMMANDING GENERAL: S, R, BRENTNALL Major General, USAF Research and Development .UO\VNGRADED AT 3 YEAR lJ., TERVA!JS; SSIFIED AFTER 12 YEARS. Bas Ltr fr Hqs AlJ!C, Wright-Patterson Air Force Ease, Dayton, Ohio dtd 9 December 1949, Sub: Light Phenomena AFMRS-4 1st Ind Department of the Air Force, Hq., USAF, Wash. 25, D. C. 20 December 1949 TO: Cozmnanding Geueral, Air Materiel Command, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Dayton, Ohio 1. This headquarters concurs in the ,establishment of a project within the Air Force Geophysical Research Program in order to ft~ther investigate and secure quanti ttati ve data on the "Light Phenomena observed in the Southwestern United States. 2 . Prior to securing the approval of