Dr. LaPaz And The Mystery Of The Green Fireballs
Written by Sean Raasch, Witness Citizen
Say Hello To Dr. LaPaz, The Unsung Hero Of UFO History
The celebrated Astronomer Dr. Lincoln LaPaz started his career as a mathematician, teaching classes between 1917 and 1920 at what is now Wichita State University.
He had many other accomplishments, including a Master’s Degree from Harvard University, where Professor Avi Loeb and the Galileo Project currently reside.
It was in 1945 that LaPaz founded the Institute of Meteoritics at the University of New Mexico, which he directed until 1966.
This is when LaPaz’s story gets interesting.
NOTE: The information you’re about to read comes from a myriad of historical documentation, which I have been researching.
LaPaz’s Interest In UFOs
Dr. LaPaz is known (at least in the UFO community) as the owner of Project Twinkle, a study into mysterious green fireballs in the late 1940s.
LaPaz and his interest in UFOs started after he experienced two mysterious sightings. One of those sightings is known as the ‘Starvation Peak Incident’, characterised by green fireballs - hence his study into this particular phenomena.
LaPaz was very familiar with meteorites - after all, it was what he had dedicated much of his career to.
But the green fire balls were different and baffled LaPaz. He couldn’t find an explanation.
Following his sightings, LaPaz’s odyssey to investigate the phenomena commenced. It was one which would be plagued by red tape and military interference, which many people will no doubt be familiar with.
LaPaz would later say that the green fireballs could “not be classified as a normal meteorite fall”.
So, what were they?
The initial characteristics of the fireballs identified by LaPaz were as follows:
Random path of fall
Colour and intensity variations in light emitted
No sound (calculations of objects would produce an easily audible loud noise - nothing was heard)
Frightened animals.
However, those characteristics would evolve as his investigations continued.
For instance, he later found that there were no frightened animals during some observations; although that was most peculiar, as classic meteor events would scare animals.
Also, there were some reports of associated sound, although the sound was reported to be very strange.
In total, there were thirty reported incidents between December 1948 and February 1949. However, that exact number is questionable, because at a later conference LaPaz referred to the Roswell case as one of those incidents, which usually isn’t associated with green fireballs.
Observations Of Green Fireballs
Let’s take a look at some of the first-hand testimony associated with the fireballs, as reported in Project Twinkle.
On one occasion, LaPaz recalled a group of five men congregated by a steel smokestack. They witnessed a green fireball. After the event every last one of them swore that they heard a noise similar to a gasoline blowtorch. Again, something which contradicted LaPaz and his initial assumptions.
Skip to 4:12 to hear the sound of a gasoline blowtorch
Witnesses ranged from commercial and military pilots to scientists at Los Alamos. Even security officers at Los Alamos witnessed these fireballs.
But it gets stranger. The fireballs were not reported anywhere else in the country but Los Alamos, Las Vegas, and the West Texas triangle.
Perhaps this could be a secret military test? Read on…
Enter Edward Teller
The events even caught the attention of the great scientist, Edward Teller.
Together, Teller and LaPaz concluded, “that these phenomena, particularly if there are any further incidents, are deserving of serious consideration”.
Teller was of the opinion that continued occurrences of unexplainable phenomena of this nature in the vicinity of sensitive installations were cause for concern.
Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Just take a look at the recent memo from Deputy Secretary of Defence, Kathleen Hicks.
LaPaz interviewed hundreds, if not thousands of people whilst investigating the fireballs.
Interestingly, LaPaz used a spectrum chart to survey witnesses of the phenomena. The result? 90 percent of the people selected witnessed that looked similar to copper salts in the bunsen burner.
How witnesses described the fireballs
Confusion And Frustration - Some Things Never Change
LaPaz knew similar colours could often be attributed to certain burning metals.
However, it brought LaPaz no closer to the truth.
Much like today, scientists such as LaPaz were confused and frustrated. He theorised everything, from a Russian bomb to a Geminid meteor shower. None sufficiently explained the observed phenomena.
Out of the 414 meteor and non meteor reports, none showed a green hue or travelled parallel to the earth, another characteristic later attributable to the fireballs.
Red Tape
In an all too familiar story, LaPaz did run into red tape. Some things never change.
Scientists from Harvard University had been monitoring the White Sands Missile Range for objects, including meteors. The Missile range was the location of 12 instances where the fireballs had been witnessed. If LaPaz could engage with Harvard, then more information could be provided, bringing him one step closer to the truth.
But LaPaz’s efforts to engage with Harvard were thwarted due to ‘red-tape channelization impedimenta’. Why, do you ask? Because the data collected originated from a contract with the U.S. Navy.
Although access to the information was restricted, a person named as Professor Talbot, who was associated with the monitoring project, claimed he had not witnessed anything out of the ordinary.
Frustratingly, this conflicted with the reports LaPaz had received. LaPaz grew to be exasperated.
LaPaz suspected that Talbot wasn’t being honest. Perhaps because the fireballs witnessed at the Missile Range were associated with defensive manoeuvres to protect atomic bomb installations.
It could make sense, as many of the sightings were witnessed by military facilities.
Lack Of Physical Evidence
Officially, fragments of these fireballs were never found. Even a large fall in the Four Corners region in October of 1947 failed to yield physical evidence.
In this particular instance, LaPaz and his team arrived at the scene within hours. They exhausted multiple ground searches with radio controlled jeeps and search parties. Nothing could be found.
If the fireballs were meteorites, material could usually be found.
However, all was not lost. The Four Corners event marked the moment when the military first showed interest into the fireballs, according to LaPaz.
It was at this time that a Field Corps Intelligence Unit and Dr. Lansberg, a member of a Research & Development Board within the Pentagon, commenced their own investigation.
Thwarted By The Military
But when the military became involved, LaPaz grew further frustrated. At one particular conference meeting attended by military personnel and LaPaz, it is claimed that a military official named Major Godsoe said to LaPaz, “the purpose of this meeting is that we want you to find a meteorite”.
This was a significant meeting attended by a person named Mr. Newburger from the U.S. Army’s Environmental Command.
Newburger is on the record stating that the United States Air Force had classed ‘flying discs’ and the green fireballs into one category of phenomena. This suggested that the fireballs were much more interesting and mysterious than mere meteorites.
The meeting ended with all parties puzzled by the general absence of sound - (they moved 12 miles per second and up to hundreds of miles in distance) and followed a long horizontal path, which would need propulsion.
Why Did So Many Sightings Occur At Sensitive Facilities?
Let’s go back to where many of these sightings took place - sensitive military installations, including White Sands and Los Alamos.
There were multiple sightings on multiple days by multiple military witnesses at many installations, including:
Sandia Base (Secret lab)
Los Alamos (Lab that created the atomic bomb)
Kirkland Air Force Base
White Sands Missile Range
Holloman Air Force Base
Walker Air Force Base
Randolph Air Force Base
Original report copy, showing locations where some of the sightings took place
A declassified military document, which captures details from fireball events
Vindication
This is just a short list of installations, but does NOT include all sightings by any stretch of the imagination. At the very least, it does prove that the sightings happened.
After being thwarted on many occasions, one could forgive LaPaz if he contemplated giving up. Luckily, he didn’t.
Following the military’s interest and its classification of the fireballs under the same category as flying discs, LaPaz was vindicated. There was in fact something unusual occurring.
But how does the work of LaPaz reflect the situation we are in today? To accurately assess the present we must be aware of what happened in the past. If we do not we are doomed to CONTINUE to rinse, wash, repeat. UFO incursions into restricted military airspace is nothing new.
And like today, there’s still that uncertainty as to whether the UFOs originate from military activity or something not originating from this planet.
This time, will we finally find out the truth? Or like LaPaz, will we be thwarted again?
Notes From The Author
You can find more information on my website. There are over 1,000 documents relating to the New Mexico sightings alone. These can all be found on www.witnesscitizen.com.
Want to hear more about the history of UFO incursions over sensitive airspace? Check out Sean’s UFO Bootcamp.