Four Los Alamos Security Inspectors and a Green Fireball That Levelled off

Four inspectors saw it from two security posts about eight miles apart. William D. Wilson, Buford G. Truett and Clifford E. Strang were inspectors of the Atomic Energy Security Service, and George S. Skipper was a Physical Security Inspector. At 20:54 on 20 December 1948 a greenish-white fireball appeared at least ten miles up. It came down at about 45 degrees to a point only 2.3 miles above the observers. Then it levelled off. It flew nearly horizontally for about 7.5 miles at 3.75 to 7.5 miles per second and vanished. Its path passed about six miles north of the town. Nobody heard a sound.

What is on the record

Lincoln LaPaz of the Institute of Meteoritics set out the account in his third report to OSI District 17, dated 30 December 1948. It sits in the Sandia Base general correspondence released by the Department of War as DOW-UAP-D017. LaPaz used the two posts to triangulate the path. He wrote that he had "no hesitancy" in saying it was not a falling meteorite. A later OSI note in the same bundle says this was one of only two green fireballs reported with two red lights trailing in fixed position and with a sharp change of direction.

NICAP lists it as AFOSI case 14 and as a Blue Book Unknown, and Eberhart names the same four inspectors. The incident belongs to the wider series of green fireballs, which the archive covers on its green-fireballs page. This one stands out because it is dated, timed and triangulated.

Why it sits where it does

L4 · OFFICIAL RECORD — a released government record names who saw it. Security staff account for every name on the record, Wilson, Truett, Strang and Skipper, all reporting through official channels. LaPaz's report is the only account the archive holds. That grade rests on the paper trail alone. What levelled off north of Los Alamos is not resolved here.