Dr. Lincoln LaPaz: The Meteor Expert Who Investigated UFOs
Dr. Lincoln LaPaz, the University of New Mexico's leading meteoriticist, directed the 1948–1950 USAF investigation of green fireballs over Sandia Base, Los Alamos, and other U.S. nuclear-weapons sites. His Fourth, Sixth, and Seventh Reports are part of the 116-page DOC-141 declassification.
Dr. Lincoln LaPaz (1897–1985) was the founding director of the University of New Mexico's Institute of Meteoritics and the U.S. military's primary scientific consultant on meteoric phenomena during the late 1940s and 1950s. Between November 1948 and May 1950, LaPaz was retained by the U.S. Air Force and the Armed Forces Special Weapons Project (AFSWP) to investigate an unusual cluster of 'green fireball' sightings concentrated over the U.S. nuclear-weapons complex in New Mexico. LaPaz personally observed multiple green fireballs and concluded they were not natural meteors — their predominantly horizontal trajectories at relatively low altitude, anomalous green color, and absence of recovered meteoritic debris were inconsistent with the meteor hypothesis. His Fourth (December 20, 1948), Sixth, and Seventh (May 23, 1950) Reports on the green-fireball phenomenon are declassified in PURSUE Release 02 as part of catalog entry DOC-141.
“These usually occurred during the early part of the night, nine to eleven, and were usually in the Jemez Mountains.”
LaPaz's credentials
Lincoln LaPaz earned his PhD in mathematics from the University of Chicago and joined the University of New Mexico in 1945. He founded the Institute of Meteoritics — the first academic department in the world dedicated to the study of meteorites — and was widely regarded as the leading authority on meteoric phenomena in the United States. During World War II, LaPaz served as a technical analyst at Eglin Field. His expertise made him the natural choice for the USAF when an unusual luminous-phenomenon cluster began appearing over the U.S. nuclear-weapons handling sites in late 1948.
The 1948 fireball anomaly
On December 5, 1948, two USAF C-47 transport aircraft observed a green fireball over Albuquerque. The object's color (intense green), trajectory (predominantly horizontal), and altitude (low, estimated within ten miles of the ground) did not match the characteristics of natural meteors, which typically appear white or yellow, follow ballistic trajectories, and burn up at altitudes of 50–80 kilometers. LaPaz personally observed similar phenomena. His Fourth Report (December 20, 1948) is among the earliest documents in the Sandia bundle.
Four major reports in the Sandia bundle
DOC-141 contains LaPaz's Fourth Report (December 20, 1948), Sixth Report, and Seventh Report (May 23, 1950) on green-fireball phenomena. The reports document specific sightings, witness interviews, ballistic and spectroscopic analysis, and LaPaz's working hypothesis that the objects might be artificial in origin. The bundle also contains transmittal memoranda from Sandia Base to the Strategic Air Command Board and a 1st Indorsement from SAC dating from April 1949.
Why LaPaz's conclusions still matter
LaPaz's 1948–1950 investigation establishes a unique reference point in the U.S. government's UFO record: a credentialed meteor expert, given full access to the primary witness and trajectory data, concluding that the observed phenomena were not natural meteors. AARO does not formally endorse or refute LaPaz's hypothesis in current PURSUE materials, but the 116-page DOC-141 declassification preserves his analysis in primary form. Researchers can compare LaPaz's 1948–1950 conclusions against later AARO determinations on modern UAP cases.