A wave of unexplained aerial sightings reported in and around Sandia Base, New Mexico, between 1948 and 1950. The PURSUE Release 02 file DOW-UAP-D017 logs 209 such sightings: “green orbs”, “discs” and “fireballs”, with witnesses describing objects manoeuvring, vanishing or exploding.
The records come from the AFSWP and the US Air Force, and document a genuine security concern over the most sensitive nuclear airspace in the country. The file includes investigations into residual copper powder found near sighting areas, a testable lead, since copper burns with a green flame, and notes that some of these investigations fed into Project Grudge. The episode has serious conventional explanations, principally an unusual run of meteoric or atmospheric activity, and the file proves the worry was real rather than that it was correct.
In the 1952 talk released by PURSUE as DOW-UAP-D154 and credited to Edward J. Ruppelt, the green fireballs are treated as a separate division: LaPaz holds that they come from Russia, a good story the speaker cannot rule out, and Cambridge laboratories worked on them for two years and came up with no conclusions whatsoever.
Connections
Sandia Base · AFSWP · Project Grudge · PURSUE · Department of Energy · Edward J. Ruppelt