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From: James Easton <voyager@ukonline.co.uk>
Date: Tue, 17 Aug 1999 23:04:53 +0100
Fwd Date: Tue, 17 Aug 1999 22:43:59 -0400
Subject: Re: Socorro: The Zamora 'Insignia'


I didn't bring up the 'Socorro' incident on the 'public' UpDates
list and currently wouldn't have, in view of certain ongoing
enquiries.

However, as it's a controversial topic and comments are being
made without any appreciation of recent breakthroughs in research
(not only my own, I would add), I will respond.

It may be prudent to keep in mind the following, from an article
entitled `Don Piccard - 50 Years of Ballooning Memories', at:

http://www.balloonlife.com/9707/piccard.htm

"During his years at Raven, between 1962 and 1964, Piccard
devoted his energy to marketing the Vulcoon, one-man thermal
balloons. Stressing his lack of security clearance at the time,
Piccard says he worked strictly on sport balloons and had no
contact with any of Raven's military contracts. Be that as it
may, following a 1987 interview in Balloon Life with Don
Piccard, where he described his civilian work with Raven, the
CIA library in Langley, Virginia, began to subscribe to the
magazine".

[...]

"Reflecting back to those days at Raven, Piccard thinks the
company's sport balloon division was a cover-up for the military
applications of ballooning. `The sport balloon program, which was
not believed in by the Raven Industry management, was strictly
getting this crazy guy who liked to fly in balloons and make
cover. So, when one of these other balloons went down, it would
just look like a sport balloonist'. When the Navy terminated its
contract with Raven, the sport balloon program died too. That was
in December of 1964".
[End]


Although generally realised that the reconnaissance
possibilities offered by hot-air balloons were overtaken by the
successful deployment of spy satellites, this is a significant
'cover up' claim by Piccard, one of the central figures in the
development of hot-air ballooning.

If the "military applications" program was terminated at the end
of 1964, then all work must have taken place before then.

Which means that there were a number of publicly undocumented,
hot-air balloon flights prior to December 1964 and these must
have taken place somewhere.

It's now known exactly where.


Some 'impossibilities' have been cited in opposition to the
suggestion (which was Larry Robinson's, not mine) that Zamora
possibly encountered a hot-air balloon.

Recent, unpublished, developments have proven that some
'impossibilities' are not based on a full understanding of the
overall situation at that time.

This has nothing to do with Zamora and everything to do with what
none of us realised about the work Don Piccard alludes to.

Until some further enquiries are resolved, it's not really
possible to say more and whether there might be a connection to
the Zamora sighting


The rumoured 'International Paper' balloon may be a misnomer.
Larry Robinson's recollections seem to involve elements of
different articles he read and which have become jumbled over
time.

It still requires some sorting out, however, the probabilities
are much clearer now.

As previously highlighted, Robinson claimed:

"1965-Feb 1967: I saw an article or ad showing the results of a
multi-state series of hot-air balloon flights. A map was
included, showing the landing points of the balloon and some
amusing anecdotes of things that happened to the balloonists.
One of these was an encounter with a lawman who they thought was
going to shoot it out with them. The balloon freaked him out.
The article said, "We later found out that he thought he was
seeing a space ship." IF ANYONE CAN POINT ME TO THIS ARTICLE, IT
MIGHT COMPLETE THE PROOF".

This 'multi-state series' was almost certainly a transcontinental
crossing of the U.S. by Tracy Barnes from April to September
1966.

As such, this could not have involved the Zamora case.

These flights were featured in a number of magazines and one
source - which hasn't yet been located - is the 'Popular
Science', July 1966 issue.

Interestingly, Robinson refers to 'Popular Science' as a magazine
he read:

3) Mar 1967: I bought the LOOK special on flying saucers.(2) I
first saw the account of the Socorro sighting here. For some
reason, the name Socorro NM was very familiar at the time,
because I had just seen it on a map. I thought of a map I saw in
Popular Science involving a performance run of a car, but
Socorro was not on it. I did not see the drawings Zamora made
until June 1968, in NICAP's "The UFO Evidence." I immediately
thought of the logo I had seen earlier, but I discounted a
balloon, because I did not know balloons could be noisy. [End]


As the July 1966 'Popular Science' article was written whilst
the transcontinental flights were ongoing, it couldn't have
featured a map of all the locations visited. It might have shown
the intended landing points.

If it did refer to a humorous incident, when a 'local cop
thought a hot-air balloon was a space-ship', it could still be a
knowledgeable reference to the Zamora incident from 1964.

That article is obviously important to see.

Does anyone have access to a copy?

Its contents and the possible significance of some other
matters, can hopefully be clarified before too long.


James.
E-mail: voyager@ukonline.co.uk