◆ SpookStack

Approved For Release 2001/04/02 : CIA-RDP81R00560R000100010002-9 Closer examination revealed unidentifiable white object and what appeared to be two “small adults” who, apparently startled by Zamora’s appearance, took off with “ear-splitting roar.” the markings on the object, this under instructions from Army Intelligence. But the Lorenzens already had secured this information and did not press the already put-upon patrolman. That afternoon, as the Lorenzens were leaving town, they saw Zamora back.on his job, “standing by the door of a car which was pulled to the curb in front of his prowl. car. He had his ticket book in hand, and his pen poised. Business as usual.” C(ARPO Bulletin, May, 1964) But business as usual was not to be the case either for Zamora or for the town of Socorro in the next several days. The account had been given international news coverage and had attracted interest from scientists, investigators and the curious. The Air Force sent out a major from its Kirt- land Base in Albuquerque and followed this up with their consulting scientist, Dr. J. Allen Hynek, head of the Astron- omy Department at Northwestern University. a To Dr. Hynek has fallen the difficult task of having to minimize the importance of certain sightings in keeping 26 Approved For Release 2001/04/02 : with the Air Force policy of looking upon all UFOs reports as “errors, hallucinations or hoaxes.”’ At a closed hearing of the House Armed Services Committee, in April 1966, Dr. Hynek acknowledged that this hypothesis for the Air Force had been “very successful,” but it could stand in the path of research for “if one digs too intently for coal he is apt to miss diamonds. . . . And in dealing with truly puz- zling cases, we have tended either to say that, if an investi- gation had been pursued long enough, the misidentified object would have been recognized, or that the sighting had no validity to begin with.” (The UFO Investigator, NICAP, May-June 1966.) But at the time of the Socorro incident, “digging for coal” was the adopted approach and one of Dr. Hynek’s first ques- tions was Why, if the UFO had been seen, had it not been reported on radar “in an area that is infested with radar.” The APRO investigators were the ones who pointed out that the radar station in that area was not in operation at CIA-RDP81R00560R000100010002-9 “w | ! |