DISCLOSURE / FILE

LaPaz Green Fireball Case Yields Cobalt Spheres

DOW-UAP-D017, UAP Reported at Sandia Base, 1948-1950

A 116-page Armed Forces Special Weapons Program and Air Force dossier on 209 UAP sightings near Sandia Base, NM (1948-1950), anchored by Lincoln LaPaz's classified investigation series into green fireball events and the anomalous copper and cobalt particles recovered in their aftermath.

Brief

This file is a multi-institutional classified investigation into repeated green fireball sightings near Sandia Base — the AFSWP's nuclear weapons complex and direct successor to the Manhattan Project — between 1948 and 1950. The provided pages center on scientific dust-collection campaigns by Dr. William Crozier and Ben Seely of the New Mexico School of Mines following fireballs on July 24 and August 6, 1949, which yielded anomalous copper-bearing particles up to 100 microns in size and three geometrically perfect cobalt spheres that investigators described as unique in their experience. Astronomer Lincoln LaPaz filed at least a Sixth Report on 'Anomalous Luminous Phenomena' to Colonel Doyle Rees, systematically contesting Crozier's 'negative or inconclusive' ruling across four sub-arguments and advocating continued study. A B-25 from Kirtland Field was deployed for airborne collection at 23,000 feet, and some of these cases formed foundational inputs for Project Grudge.

Metadata

Agency: Department of War
Release: 5/22/26
Incident: 1948-1950
Location: New Mexico
Type: PDF • .pdf
Length: 116 pages
Classification: SECRET
Programs: Project Grudge, Armed Forces Special Weapons Program (AFSWP), Aerosol Research Project (New Mexico School of Mines)
Tags: green fireball, disc, green orb, New Mexico, 1948-1950, Sandia Base, Socorro NM, Project Grudge, AFSWP, copper particle trace, cobalt sphere, airborne chemical analysis

Key points

The green fireball of July 24, 1949 passed over the Socorro, NM area at 8:26 p.m.; dust collected within 13.5 hours contained copper-bearing particles up to 100 microns in maximum dimension — the first copper particles Crozier had ever found in air collections.p.5
Three cobalt particles of apparently perfect spherical geometry, 12 microns in diameter, were recovered in the July 26, 1949 afternoon collection and described as 'quite unique in the experience of the present' investigators.p.8
Crozier's particle collection equipment, originally developed for the New Mexico School of Mines Aerosol Research Project, used rubeanic acid (dithiooxamide) adhesive plates to identify copper, cobalt, and nickel — capturing approximately 90 percent of airborne particles larger than one micron.p.5
Lincoln LaPaz addressed at minimum a 'Sixth Report' on 'Anomalous Luminous Phenomena' to Colonel Doyle Rees, dated August 17, 1949, confirming a sustained, numbered institutional investigation series predating Project Grudge.p.10
LaPaz systematically contested Crozier's inconclusive ruling across four numbered sub-arguments covering pre-fireball copper collections, particle descent-rate discrepancies, size-decrease patterns over time, and the airplane collection's terminal-region miss.p.10
Copper particles were found in a July 14, 1949 collection — ten days before the July 24 fireball — which LaPaz attributed to a plausible unreported prior fireball, noting that events as bright as a half-moon have gone nearly unreported in the sparsely inhabited Socorro region.p.11
A B-25 from Kirtland Field was equipped with particle collection hardware and flown on August 8, 1949, at 23,000 feet to intercept material from the August 6 fireball, but operated hundreds of miles from the subterminal region and returned inconclusive results.p.9
Field collections by Crozier and Seely made on July 27 along routes through San Antonio, Carthage, and Bingham, NM yielded copper particles indistinguishable from those collected at Socorro at approximately the same time, extending the geographic footprint of the anomaly.p.11
AFSWP — post-Manhattan Project nuclear authority — held the classified documents library at Sandia Base and stamped these UAP records SECRET, embedding the investigation within the nation's highest nuclear-security administrative infrastructure.p.3
The April 1949 security inspection at Sandia Base found an incomplete alert plan: no stockpile custodian had been assigned and final defense arrangements awaited the 11th Airborne Division, which had not yet arrived.p.1

Verbatim

A 'fireball was raportad to have pasaod ovor the general noighborhood of Socorro, Uew Uexi.00 1 at 8:26 p.m. 1 J'uly 24 1 1949.
p.5
In view Qt the above fa.eta , it i,eem:, very hazardous to draw any: definite con clusion associating ~he coppe~- bearioo perticlos collected with the fireball or 1uly 24.
p.6
Momaloua J.uminous Phenomona. Sixth Report {attempts to colleci volatili sation woduots trom ~en fireballs)
p.10
all were found to contain copper particles 1nd1stineu1chable trom :those colleotod. in Socorro at about the omne time.
p.11

Most interesting

The AFSWP — direct institutional successor to the Manhattan Project — classified and held these UAP records, meaning green fireball sightings near nuclear weapons storage were treated as a top-tier security matter from the outset, not a fringe concern.
Lincoln LaPaz, one of the foremost meteoriticists of the 20th century, filed at least six formal classified reports to military intelligence under the heading 'Anomalous Luminous Phenomena' — a designation that sidesteps both 'meteor' and 'flying saucer,' reflecting deliberate analytical agnosticism.
The copper particles recovered after the July 24, 1949 fireball were up to 100 microns in size — far too large to have traveled long horizontal distances by surface winds — and were the first copper particles Crozier had ever encountered in years of air-dust collection work.
Three cobalt particles of apparently perfect spherical geometry (12 microns in diameter) found in the July 26 collection have no standard meteoritic or terrestrial combustion explanation; perfect spheres of that composition were described by the investigators as unique in their professional experience.
A copper-particle hit in a July 14, 1949 collection predates the July 24 fireball by ten days, which LaPaz argued was itself evidence of an unreported prior event — pointing to a systematic under-reporting problem in the sparse high-desert terrain.
The scientists seriously entertained the hypothesis that the fireball had been completely volatilized during flight, dispersing only fine dust — a property inconsistent with ordinary meteoric stone or iron and left without explanation in the source documents.
Despite Crozier's official conclusion of 'negative or inconclusive,' LaPaz's rebuttal memo is structured as a formal scientific counterargument — four numbered points, each with supporting logic — suggesting the investigation was far from settled at the time it was classified.

LaPaz Green Fireball Case Yields Cobalt Spheres

DOW-UAP-D017, UAP Reported at Sandia Base, 1948-1950

Brief

Metadata

Agency

Department of War

Release

5/22/26

Incident

1948-1950

Location

New Mexico

Type

PDF • .pdf

Length

116 pages

Classification

SECRET

Programs

Project Grudge, Armed Forces Special Weapons Program (AFSWP), Aerosol Research Project (New Mexico School of Mines)

LaPaz Green Fireball Case Yields Cobalt Spheres

Brief

Metadata

Key points

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LaPaz Green Fireball Case Yields Cobalt Spheres

LaPaz Green Fireball Case Yields Cobalt Spheres

Brief

Metadata

Key points

Verbatim

Most interesting

Cited in

Related research

Related topics