A series of strange, but smaller and slower lights were reported at the weapons storage area at Ft. Hood, Texas, from April 1949 and onward. the Army set up observation posts, and while no photos were taken, managed to gather alot of information and triangulation of the objects.
By April 1949, similar sights were reported over a nuclear-weapons storage facility at Fort Hood in Texas. The intrusions were deemed so serious that, unlike the Air Force, the Army quickly set up an observation network. Sightings continued through August, the most spectacular being on June 6 when a hovering orange light, 30 to 70 feet across and a mile in the air was spotted. Finally it started moving in level flight, then burst into small particles.
Those familair with the UFO phenomenon will note some rather eerie similarities to the object seen during the Rendelsham Forest Incident in 1980.
On July 24, a green fireball was observed falling close to Socorro, New Mexico. Dust samples were collected at the School of Mines there and were found to contain large particles of copper. La Paz found this highly significant since copper burns with the same yellow-green color characteristic of the green fireballs. He also noted that if the copper particles came from the green fireballs, then they couldn't be conventional meteorites, since copper was never found in dust of meteoritic origin. La Paz suggested that further air and ground samples be taken in areas where the fireballs were seen.
At the same time, AFOSI informed La Paz on investigations of "anomalous luminous phenomena" between early June and early August. Many of the green fireballs were now descending on vertical paths, whereas initially they almost always traveled horizontally.
Another Los Alamos conference convened on October 14. No one disputed the reality of the phenomena and nobody could explain it. Among the puzzles was the sudden onset and the high concentration of sightings in New Mexico, quite unlike a natural phenomena. Despite this, it was decided the fireballs were probably atmospheric in origin. Instrumented observations -- photographic, triangulation, and spectroscopic -- were deemed essential to solving the mystery.
Incidentally, when dust samples were taken out in the desert far from any man made facilities in areas where the fireballs were reported, they did indeed discover copper particles, further proving these fireballs were not meteoric in origin, since copper is never found in meteors.
Eventually, Project Twinkle was formed to fully study the phenomenon. the project, however, failed to produce any results. The most interesting tidbit was that Project Twinkle was taken over in 1951 by a Maj. Edward A. Doty, who was a skeptic, who got the project closed down and stripped of offical status. If you recognized the name Doty, you are correct. Edward Doty was the uncle of Richard Doty, The AFOSI agent involved in the Bennewitz Affair.
Project Twinkle never came to any concensus on the nature of the Green Fireballs. The sightings of the fireballs continued, although waning from their original frequency of at least half a dozen in a month. They still remain a mystery. Many explainations have been put forward, but none are satisfactory. For example:
1. Aurora effects. Ruled out, since the fact that these fireballs were only seen in New Mexico, and only during this time period, never before or since.
2. Plasma. Again, ruled out. If it was natural, it would not be confined to one small geographical region, and would have been reported since then, or before then.
3. secret weapon. Ruled out. No evidence of any sort of secret weapon on any side has ever serviced.
4. Lunar debris. Quite a joke, since none was recovered.
The Scientists of Los Alamos, though, had their opinions on the fireballs:
Edward J. Ruppelt, director of the USAF Project Blue Book UFO study, stated he visited the Los Alamos National Laboratory in early 1952 and spoke to various scientists and technicians there, all of whom had had green fireball sightings. (book) None of them believed they had a conventional explanation, such as a new natural phenomenon, secret government project, or psychologically enlarged meteors. Instead the scientists speculated that they were extraterrestrial probes "projected into our atmosphere from a 'spaceship' hovering several hundred miles above the earth." Ruppelt commented, "Two years ago I would have been amazed to hear a group of reputable scientists make such a startling statement. Now, however, I took it as a matter of course. I'd heard the same type of statement many times before from equally qualified groups."
While this view was not unanimous amongst scientists, the man with the most knowledge and expertise of the lot, Dr. La Paz, believed the fireballs were artifical things created by unknown agencies.
