Thursday, April 23, 2009

Lonnie Zamora Encounter 45 years Later









On 24 April 1964 a very important UFO encounter took place outside of the small town of Soccoro, New Mexico. The incident was very interesting because of the extreme credibility of the main witness, multiple witnesses reported it and physical trace evidence. At about 5:30 pm that afternoon police officer Lonnie Zamora had just noticed a black Cadillac drive past him in the other direction at excessive speed. The description of the car that was speeding is also interesting in light of the "Men in Black" reports around the world as they are often said to drive big black luxury cars! Thinking to catch the speeding vehicle Zamora quickly turned his police car around, and with squealing tires was in hot pursuit. He was on State Road 85 with the Cadillac still speeding ahead of him, when he heard a noise like a roar or thunder. Towards the southwest direction and about three-quarters of a mile away, an orange and blue colored flame shot across the sky. A dynamite shack was located in the area in that general direction and Zamora had hoped there hadn't been an explosion there. At this point Officer Zamora decided to let the speeder get away and go investigate. Once he had driven up the first hill he looked in the direction of the dynamite shack and saw a glowing white object at the bottom of a gorge about 500 feet away from him.


Now he was thinking some terrible accident had taken place there-perhaps a small plane crash or car wreck. Zamora radioed to the Soccoro police station that he was going to leave his patrol car and "check the vehicle." As Zamora got closer he realized that what he had thought of as a wrecked vehicle was something entirely different. Two "persons" in white overalls were standing near a white, glowing, metallic object that was shaped like an American football or egg and standing on four thin black landing struts. One of the humanoids looked in the direction of Zamora's car and was apparently startled by it an began moving quickly. Officer Zamora approached the object still thinking that whoever the occupants might be they might need help. As he got closer, Zamora again heard the noise of thunder and also saw a flame. The flame was bluish in color; accompanied by a loud roar and was coming from the underside of the object. Zamora noticed a sign or symbol on the object. It was painted in red on the white side of the object. It looked like a semicircle, drawn horizontally, about twenty-five inches long. Inside it was an arrow pointing upwards with the shaft cut off at the level of the barbs. Zamora was now quite frightened and thought the object was in danger of exploding and didn't hesitate hitting the ground running. Once he got to the other side of the hill he felt a little more safe and turned back to observe the egg-shaped object. He took shelter behind some rocks and bushes and watched the craft fly away at a low height of fifteen to twenty feet above the ground. It missed the dynamite shack by only about three feet. After gradually increasing its velocity the object finally disappeared in the distance.

Officer Zamora ran back to his car and radioed to a fellow officer at the police station, "Look out the window and tell me if you can see an object. It looks like a balloon." However, a moment later Zamora realized that it would be impossible for his fellow officer to witness the object as the window at the station faced the wrong direction. Here is a quote by Officer Zamora describing how the object took off, "After I fell by the car and my glasses fell off, kept running to north, with car between me and object period. Glanced back a couple of times. Noted object to rise to about level of car, about 20 to 25 feet guess-took I guess about six seconds when object started to rise and I glanced back. I ran I guess about halfway to where I ducked down -about 50 feet from the car is where I ducked down, just over the edge of hill. I guess I had run about 25 feet when I glanced back and saw the object level with the car and it appeared about directly over the place where it rose from. I was still running and I jumped just over the hill-I stopped because I did not hear the roar. I was scared of the roar, and I had planned to continue running down the hill. I turned around toward the object and at the same time put my head toward ground, covering my face with my arms. Being that there was no roar, I looked up, and I saw the object going away from me. It did not come any closer to me. It appeared to go in straight line and at same height possibly 10 to 15 feet from ground, and it cleared the dynamite shack by about three feet. Shack about eight feet high. Object was travelling very fast. It seemed to rise up, and take off immediately across country."

Almost immediately upon the object leaving the area, State Police Sargeant Sam Chavez arrived having overheard Officer Zamora who had radioed wildly to his dispatcher hoping that someone else might be able to see the object. Together they noted the evidence in the arroyo: a half-burned bush, four angular impressions in the soil where the "legs" had been and several small footprints and other impressions.

Hector Quintanilla, Jr., the former head of the Air Forces Project Bluebook writes in a declassified CIA document from 1966-"Studies in Intelligence" that: "There is no doubt that Lonnie Zamora saw an object which left quite an impression on him. There is also no question about Zamora's reliability. He is a serious police officer, a pillar of his church, and a man well-versed in recognizing airborne vehicles in his area. He is puzzled by what he saw, and frankly so are we. This is the best documented case on record, and still we have been unable, in spite of thorough investigation, to find the vehicle, or the stimulus that scared Zamora to the point of panic."

The first image is a drawing Lonnie Zamora made of the "insignia" on the craft. The next iimage is a sketch Zamora made of the craft itself. The last image is an artist's conception of the encounter. http://www.ufoevidence.org/cases/case90.htm Best to anyone stopping by and thanks again for all of your considerate, insightful and intelligent comments! PS-I may be back with a bit more about this case soon-not sure yet- may have some more thoughts and information about it.


13 comments:

Anonymous said...

If there were people in white overalls standing nearby, then I'm of the opinion that it would be likely to be a US (Top Secret) weapons experiment rather than a genuine UFO. White coats sort of go with Labs or protective type clothing, etc. But, it is very interesting.

Sharon Day said...

I had heard about this case over the years, but never in as much detail as you provided. Thanks for the logical and clearly descriptive post. I think we can run on the assumption that this man definitely saw this. But what "this" is, well that's still to be determined decades later. I would suspect that the heydays of UFO sightings also coincided with our greatest gains in military invention. I wonder if our tested equipment is what we're seeing or if it's technology we acquired from elsewhere that made us make such leaps and bounds in such a short time. If these objects are military-based, then during Bush's administration there should have been a huge increase in the number of sightings and during Obama's tenure, there should be considerably less. We'll have to wait and see how that lines up. If this truly was from another world/dimension/time, then maybe we have to give up bragging rights.

Devin said...

Aggie I love the way you think-this whole area is not an either/or proposition and if you look at the variety of cases over the years I think there is a great possiblility that different sightings and encounters could be about different events-thanks so much for stopping by-best to you!!

Autumnforest as always thanks so much for your thoughts -we are to the point now -how long we have been there I do not know-where I believe "our" stuff could easily be mistaken for "their" stuff! having said that I do believe there is a remainder of reports-however small the percentage that can't be explained-some of them just plain weird in crossing all lines of the paranormal-best to you!!

Julie Ferguson said...

Devin, I actually did not hear of this case and appreciate you writing about it. We can assume that his story is credible because he swears that it is what he saw, backing it up with drawings, but we just don't know because there was no other witnesses. I did enjoy the story.

Devin said...

Hey Mike and Julie thanks so much for stopping by- Congrats again on anniversary Julie!Lonnie Zamora was known as a man of complete integrity a real "salt of the earth" type-I should have had the various things said by other witnesses (not to the actual scene-but before or after) in this post-I will definitely come back with those the next time I am online or perhaps in a post a bit later with some more thoughts and questions about this and other cases-all the best to the both of you and I hope you are enjoying-I am anyway-what will probably be one of our last cloudy and not too hot days-although I am crossing my fingers that we can get one more "break" in the weather in May:-)

Alex Robinson said...

Interesting posts as always Devin

I have been reading an 'alien interaction' book - it's quite illuminating when you find authors whose veracity is so strong that you allow possibilites that to all intents & purposes are 'out of this world'. Anyway who hasn't had experiences that are totally outside of the realm of 'reality'. I know I don't know nearly as much as I thought I did.

I hope you are very well & that your back is behaving & that you are winning at tic tac toe :).

Devin said...

Hi alex-thanks for your comment! The book sounds fascinating-I agree in that if we all think about -probably everyone has had some type of bizarre experience-as into the paranormal as i am -I always try to discount my own "maybe" type experiences and say it could have been scientific and rational type things that caused it instead-back is behaving today buy insomnia isn't-haha-so if none of this made any sense I apologize:-)

Nina said...

It's funny how we want proof of such things--how the words of another aren't always enough. I was sceptical until I saw my first "what the hell is that" object in the sky. Since that time, I've seen many more such objects (which I realize some may be from this dimension, some from others, some may be "alien", others, ours). Most people don't want to admit to seeing such things, certainly not in days past when we weren't as open to the whole UFO phenomena. Even today, I hesitate to share because of the looks I receive. Whenever I'm faced with one who says "I never see such things" I ask if they spend time looking. Not one of them have.

Take an hour or two now and then. Lay on a blanket late at night and just relax (we have seen most of our sightings after 10pm). You may be surprised. :)

Devin said...

Nina thank you so very much for stopping by!I will definitely take your advice-and it had better be soon cause soon here the nights are even gonna be hot-on a post Autumnforest did about the Phoenix Lights we were both commenting on how we were probably right under the "whatever it was' flight path"but do to being inside that evening-March 13 1997-we missed the biggest paranormal event in Phoenix history!! best to you as always!!

X. Dell said...

I was going to mention Zamora briefly in an upcoming postin my current series. Sgt. Richard Doty (AFOSI) claimed that the Zamora sighting represented a goof up on the part of aliens, who were trying to get to Holloman AFB for a meeting with US officials. According to ufology lore, this meeting happened in 1971. But Doty insists that it happened in 1964, shortly after the Zamora sighting.

Devin said...

Hey Xdell-thanks so much for your comments-I definitely can't wait to see that about the Zamora case because that is new to me! sorry if I sound really out of it in comments today insomnia+ not feeling so hot -I just feel kind of out of it (more so than normal:-)

Justin R. said...

On the subject of Crowley, magick and the UFO phenomenon you may find the following piece from Adam Gorightly of interest:

Adam Gorightly In The Land of Enchantment

Damn good article I thought.

Devin said...

Sub Specie-thanks so much for your comment and I feel like such an idiot-I didn't lose it -it was just under a different post-I had thought it was under the most recent duh! I found out when I went to check my email and then saw that I had published it-o well nothing like feeling dumb! Thanks again for the heads up and that was a wonderful article!! best to you as always!!