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| Lonnie Zamora |
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| Lonnie Zamora |
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| Signed witness drawing |
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| Witness drawing |
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| Landing area photo |
UFO Case Which Continues To Confound Skeptics
One of the most intriguing cases of a UFO sighting with physical trace
evidence is that of the 1964 landing of an unknown craft witnessed by
policeman Lonnie Zamora. This event has been a mainstay of Ufology for
almost 40 years and is definitely one of those cases which will not go
away. The incident began at 5:45 P.M. on April 24, 1964, in Socorro, New
Mexico. Thirty-one year old policeman Lonnie Zamora was on patrol when
he was passed by a car which was obviously speeding. Zamora took off in
chase of the vehicle, but suddenly heard a loud roar in the distance,
accompanied by a bluish, orange flame rising into the air. He knew that
there was a dynamite shack not too distant from him and he thought at
first that there had been an explosion there.
Policeman Makes Twilight Zone Excursion
Abandoning the chase for the speeder, he pointed his police car in the
direction of the shack. He radioed his activities to the dispatcher. As
Zamora proceeded towards the rising smoke and flame the aftermath of the
explosion seemed to disappear and reappear because of the rising and
dipping roads he traveled. The route he was on was a narrow gravel one
and it wound around a small gully. As he approached the location of the
shack, he noticed in the distance a shining object, anywhere from 100 to
200 yards away. His first reaction to this sight was that it was an
automobile which had overturned and its gas tank had exploded. Upon a
closer look he discovered that it was an oval-shaped object without
windows or doors. He stated that the object was about the same bulk of a
medium-sized car.
Children Turn Out To Be Very Small Humans
He was drawn to an unusual red insignia on the side of the object and
then noticed two beings that he thought at first to be children, dressed
in white overalls. He recalled that one of the children seemed to jump
upon noticing him. Regaining his composure Zamora immediately radioed
the sheriff's office the details of the incident. He decided to get a
closer look at the strange scene before him. He then heard a loud roar
and saw a bluish flame shoot out of the underside of the object. Afraid
that it was going to explode he fell to the ground to protect himself.
Next, he saw the object lift off the ground, and head southeast, flying
in a straight line for about 10-15 miles. The legs that he had seen
earlier had disappeared.
State Lawmen Drawn Into UFO Web
Having intercepted the earlier radio transmission, State Police Sergeant
Sam Chavez arrived at the scene just after the craft disappeared into
the sky. The first military investigator on the scene, on April 25, was
Army Captain Richard T. Holder, Up-Range Commander of White Sands
Proving Grounds, along with an FBI agent, D. Arthur Byrnes, Jr., from
the Albuquerque office. Major William Connor from Kirtland AFB and Sgt.
David Moody, who was in the area on TDY, investigated for Air Force
Project Blue Book on April 26. Dr. Allen Hynek arrived on April 28.
Hynek also conducted a follow-up investigation on August 15, 1964.
UFO Champion James McDonald Makes A Discovery
In 1968, Dr. James McDonald, an atmospheric physicist at the University
of Arizona, said that he had learned of an alleged patch of fused sand
at the landing site. Two additional witnesses, Paul Kies and Larry
Kratzer of Dubuque, Iowa, submitted statements to Hynek on May 29, 1968.
In May of 1978 Ralph C. DeGraw, an Iowa investigator, interviewed them.
They were driving just southwest of Socorro at about 6:00 p.m. that day
when they noticed something shiny and a cloud of smoke near the ground
in the vicinity of the town. Later they heard a newscast about Zamora's
sighting and the significance of what they had seen became apparent.
Kratzer said he watched as a round, saucer or egg-shaped object ascended
vertically from the black smoke... After climbing vertically out of the
smoke, the object leveled off and moved in a southwest direction. He
said the object was silvery and had a row of apparent portholes across
the side and a red Z marking toward one end. At the time he thought it
might have been an experimental vertical-lift aircraft. Kies saw only a
shiny spot and the smoke.
Project Blue Book Completely Stumped Even Years After Incident
Two years after the sighting, Major Hector Quintanilla, Air Force Chief
of Project Blue Book at the time of the sighting, confided to
intelligence specialists in a classified CIA publication that the
Socorro case remained puzzling. With the help of many other agencies, he
had conducted an exhaustive check of military activities looking for an
explanation, but none could be found. As other officers and
investigators arrived, they discovered deep landing marks and footprints
on the ground. FBI and Air Force personnel soon joined local
authorities in the investigation, and found bent and burned brush in
several places surrounding the spot where the object had sat.
Measurements taken by police verified that there were 4 indentations on
the ground; the distance between them formed a quadrilateral whose
diagonals intersected at exactly 90 degree angles.
Zamora Character Above Reproach
Zamora was known as a well-respected, reliable police officer with no
hint of impropriety in his life, personal or professional. He described
the event in detail to all who reviewed this case, including renown UFO
investigator J. Allen Hynek, who represented the Air Force at the time
of Zamora's sighting. Immediately after the incident, he made a drawing
of the insignia he saw on the side of the craft. The case received a
great deal of press, and a lot of attention by UFO groups around the
world. The one negative aspect of the Socorro incident, however, is that
Zamora, though considered reliable by everyone who knew him, was the
sole witness of the event. Naturally, any report is given more weight
when multiple witnesses are involved.
Ridicule From Ignorant Follows UFO Landing
Zamora took such ridicule and kidding from members of the police force
and local community, that he retired only two years after the incident.
The case does not prove the existence of extraterrestrial life, but
there is no doubt that some type of unusual craft with occupants did
land, and take off again. Hynek, who interviewed Zamora on more than one
occasion, believes every word that Zamora said.
Lonnie Zamora passed away in 2009 but never relented from the truth of what he saw that day.
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