Kevin Randle - Encounter in the Desert: The Case for Alien Contact at Socorro

ENCOUNTER

IN THE DESERT

IN THE DESERT

THE CASE FOR ALIEN CONTACT AT SOCORRO

KEVIN D. RANDLE

Copyright 2018 by Kevin D. Randle

All rights reserved under the Pan-American and International Copyright Conventions. This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system now known or hereafter invented, without written permission from the publisher, The Career Press.

ENCOUNTER IN THE DESERT
EDITED BY JODI BRANDON
TYPESET BY KARA KUMPEL
Cover design by Wes Youssi/M80 Branding
Cars photo by Amy Johansson/shutterstock
Sky photo by MarcelClemens/shutterstock
UFO photo by Alin Popescu/shutterstock
Printed in the U.S.A.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Randle, Kevin D., 1949- author.

Title: Encounter in the desert : the case for alien contact at Socorro / by

Kevin Randle.

Description: Wayne, NJ : New Page Books, a division of The Career Press,

Inc., [2018] | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2017034796 (print) | LCCN 2017043854 (ebook) | ISBN 9781632658937 (ebook) | ISBN 9781632651136 (pbk. : alk. paper)

Subjects: LCSH: Unidentified flying objects--Sightings and encounters--New

Mexico--Socorro.

Classification: LCC TL789.5.N6 (ebook) | LCC TL789.5.N6 R3598 2018 (print) |

DDC 001.94209789/62--dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017034796

As I have said before, the problem with acknowledgments is that someone is always left out, but not on purpose. Without Rob McConnell offering me an opportunity to host a radio show, I would have never started my research into the Socorro UFO landing. Ben Moss and Tony Angiola told me things that I hadnt heard and wanted to learn more about. This led to Ray Stanford, who had investigated the case in 1964 and is the only living person who had been on that site within days of the landing, collecting samples and taking pictures. Rob Mercer sparked some of this because he searched Craigslist for UFO-related material and bought a box of documents that came from Project Blue Book. Carmon Marano, whom I had mentioned in another book but who had been one of those anonymous officers who worked on Project Blue Book, provided insight into that investigation as it wound down. Paul Harden and Rick Baca, of Socorro, provided guidance in my search, and Rick had been the man (kid, then) who drew the craft as described by Lonnie Zamora, which showed us what it looked like. Jerry Clark, as always, provided information and guidance in this search.

There are many others whose names appear in the book who witnessed UFO landings and found burned areas caused, in most cases, by UFOs, including Robert Shaw, who had been an Iowa sheriff, and Howard Grove, who was an Iowa farmer. Pat Barr and her father provided information about her 1969 UFO sighting. Brad Steigers work is always valuable, and Ralph DeGraw interviewed two men who claimed to have seen the same craft as Lonnie Zamora. Im not sure that it does any good at this late date, but Coral and Jim Lorenzen of APRO helped, as did several members of the Fund for UFO Research.

There are many more who contributed in some fashion and whose names escape me at the moment. I dont mean to overlook your contribution; its just that there was so many others who helped in so many ways that it is impossible to produce a proper list. For your help, I thank you, too.

This book is intended to provide accurate and helpful information. The publisher and author disclaim any liability, loss, damage, or injury caused by the use or application of the contents of this work. NO WARRANTY, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IS DELIVERED BY THE AUTHOR OR PUBLISHER WITH RESPECT TO THE CONTENTS OF THIS WORK.

Anyone who has been interested in UFOs for very long is aware of the landing that took place in Socorro, New Mexico, in April 1964. It was national news the day after police officer Lonnie Zamora reported the sighting. He saw the craft on the ground and there were reports that he had witnessed two people, two beings, or small adults standing near the object before it took off moments after he arrived on the scene. Zamoras sighting was one of the best of 1964 and might be considered one of the best ever reported to Project Blue Book. It is one of the few in which the witness claimed to have seen alien creatures that was not immediately written off as a psychological problem, an illusion, or some sort of a hoax.

Those who write UFO books often mention the sighting, providing little in the way of new and additional information or personal analysis of the data. Their research into the case is usually superficial, based almost solely on what other UFO researchers had written before them, and often the Socorro landing is only mentioned in passing rather than described in depth. It is a well-known sighting that suffers from too much rumor and too little fact, but it is one that helps make the case for alien visitation that much more plausible.

I knew of the sighting, and I have been in Socorro a number of times, mostly in my research into the Roswell UFO crash, and I did have occasion to speak to some of the locals about the sighting. Because this was always of secondary importance to me, the conversations were just that: conversations rather than serious research. I never took it much further and made few notes. I was interested in a distracted sort of way.

That changed when Ben Moss and Tony Angiola were guests on my radio show, A Different Perspective, They mentioned some things that I hadnt heard or read elsewhere, and that was quite intriguing to me. They talked about the symbol that Zamora had seen on the side of the craft, they talked about a picture taken in the months after the landing that might show craft similar to that seen by Zamora in the New Mexico sky, and they said that they had seen the real Project Blue Book file on the casewhich didnt exactly match what was eventually released to the public after Blue Book operations were suspended in late 1969. All of this was news to me, and I wanted more information about it.

After the show, I emailed Ben to ask for that additional information. He responded with a DVD of the presentation that he and Tony had made to the MUFON Symposium in Orlando during summer 2016. It was an abbreviated version of their longer lecture given at other venues. Though it seemed to answer some of my questions, it opened up others. I asked about that Blue Book file and was told that Rob Mercer of the Miami Valley UFO Society was the one who had found it. They said that he pulled the file from a box that he had bought at a garage sale and those documents were definitely from Blue Book.

I found it difficult to believe that a box of files from Project Blue Book would be sold at a garage sale, but I have learned that you just dont reject data because it seems a little strange or nearly unbelievable. Besides, Ben had given me the contact information for Rob and he responded quickly. Email and the Internet are wonderful ways of investigating a case in the 21st century. Responses come in a matter of hours instead of days or weeks, or at the cost of huge telephone bills.