Part 7 (1/2)

Toward the end of Noven from Germany It was the first report where a UFO was seen and simultaneously picked up on radar This type of report, the first of many to come, is one of the better types of UFO reports The wire said:

At 2200 hours, local time, 23 November 1948, Capt ------ saw an object in the air directly east of this base It was at an unknown altitude It looked like a reddish star and was htly to the southwest then the southeast The speed could have been between 200 to 600the height Capt --- --- called base operations and they called the radar station Radar reported that they had seen nothing on their scope but would check again Radar then called operations to report that they did have a target at 27,000 feet, so at 900 mph Capt ------ reported that the object that he saas now in that area A few et had cli 40 miles south of Munich

Capt ------ is an experienced pilot now flying F-80's and is considered to be co was verified by Capt ------ , also an F-80 pilot

The possibility that this was a balloon was checked but the answer from Air Weather Service was ”not a balloon” No aircraft were in the area Nothing we know of, except possibly experimental aircraft, which are not in Germany, can climb 23,000 feet in a matter of minutes and travel 900 n had received several hundred UFO reports Of these, 167 had been saved as good reports About three dozen were ”Unknown” Even though the UFO reports were getting better and more numerous, the enthusias off The sao to Godman AFB to talk to Colonel Hix and his UFO observers in January now had to be prodded when a sighting needed investigating More and ative organization that was helping ATIC The kickback on the Top Secret Esti to dampen a lot of enthusiasms It was definitely a bear market for UFO's

A bull”little lights” and green fireballs

The ”little lights” were UFO's, but the green fireballs were real

CHAPTER FOUR

Green Fireballs, Project Twinkle, Little Lights, and Grudge

At exactlyIt was Jira saucer report,” hot off the wires He read it to e fireball light up dark New Mexico skies tonight”

The story went on to tell about how a ”blinding green” fireball the size of a full moon had silently streaked southeast across Colorado and northern New Mexico at eight-forty that night Thousands of people had seen the fireball It had passed right over a crowded football stadium at Santa Fe, New Mexico, and people in Denver said it ”turned night into day” The crew of a TWA airliner flying into Albuquerque from Amarillo, Texas, saw it Every police and newspaper switchboard in the two-state area was jammed with calls

One of the calls was fro unusual had happened recently When he was inforh of relief, ”Thanks,” he said, ”I was afraid I'd gotten so up

Dr Lincoln La Paz, world-famous authority on meteorites and head of the University of New Mexico's Institute of Meteoritics, apparently took the occurrence calmly The wire story said he had told a reporter that he would plot its course, try to detero out and try to find it ”But,” he said, ”I don't expect to find anything”

When Jim Phalen had read the rest of the report he asked, ”What was it?”

”It sounds to reen fireballs are back,” I answered

”What the devil are green fireballs?”

What the devil _are_ green fireballs? I'd like to know So would a lot of other people

The green fireballs streaked into UFO history late in Novean to report seeing ht The first reports reen streak in the sky,” low on the horizon Froence people at Kirtland AFB in Albuquerque and the Project Sign people at ATIC wrote the objects off as flares

After all, thousands of GI's had probably been discharged with a duffel bag full of ”liberated” Very pistols and flares

But as days passed the reports got better They seeer andtheical because there had been no publicity--so the Air Force decided to reconsider the ”flare” answer They were in the process of doing this on the night of Decereen fireball chapter of UFO history

At 9:27PM on Dece at 18,000 feet 10 miles east of Albuquerque The pilot was a Captain Goede Suddenly the crew, Captain Goede, his co-pilot, and his engineer were startled by a green ball of fire flashi+ng across the sky ahead of thee reen color and it didn't arch doard, as reen-colored ball of fire had started low, from near the eastern slopes of the Sandia Mountains, arched upward a little, then see for a er than any meteor that anyone in the C-47 had ever seen before After a hasty discussion the crew decided that they'd better tell somebody about it, especially since they had seen an identical object twenty-two as, New Mexico

Captain Goede picked up his microphone and called the control tower at Kirtland AFB and reported what he and his crew had seen The tower relayed the ence people

A few ht 63 called Kirtland Tower At 9:35PM he had also seen a green ball of fire just east of Las Vegas, New Mexico He was on his way to Albuquerque and would make a full report when he landed