Bernal, New Mexico: LaPaz and two USAF officers see low green fireball
At 9:02 p.m. on December 12, 1948, Lincoln LaPaz and two USAF officers from Sandia Base saw a green fireball near Bernal, New Mexico; LaPaz calculated that it flew directly over Los Alamos at only 8–10 miles altitude.
Background
At 9:02 p.m. Lincoln LaPaz and two USAF officers, Sandia Base Intelligence Officer Lt. Allan B. Clark and Sandia's AF-Civil Air Patrol Liaison Officer Maj. Charles L. Phillips, saw a green fireball near Bernal, New Mexico. LaPaz calculated that it was flying directly over Los Alamos National Laboratory and that it kept a horizontal flight at an altitude of 8–10 miles, low for a meteor. LaPaz then arranged with the Atomic Energy Security Service to set up a patrol with Speed Graphic cameras to try to photograph the fireballs. Eberhart cites NICAP (AFOSI Case 13), Sparks, LaPaz's reports of December 1948 and pages of the PURSUE release. The account follows the entry in George M. Eberhart's chronology UFOs and Intelligence (CUFOS) and the sources cited there; it is not an independent determination by From Beyond Space.