Scorched Earth and Burned Eyes: Examining the Socorro UFO Wave
In April 1964, New Mexico became the epicenter of one of the most intense UFO waves in American history. While Police Officer Lonnie Zamora’s encounter with an egg-shaped craft in Socorro captured international headlines, a series of equally compelling incidents occurred in the same region over the following days. These events, involving multiple witnesses, physical effects, and suspicious military involvement, have left an indelible mark on UFO research history.
The Young Witness: Sharon Stull’s Controversial Encounter
Ten-year-old Sharon Stull was playing on the Lowell School ground in Albuquerque when she spotted an unusual object in the sky shortly before 12:30 p.m. According to her testimony to police and reporters, she observed a silvery, egg-shaped craft “slightly smaller than an airplane and having no windows” for approximately 5–10 minutes. Her sister Robin, age 8, also saw the object but quickly looked away and returned to playing.
By 1 p.m., while in class, Sharon began experiencing burning sensations around her eyes and face. Her condition worsened, necessitating treatment at Bataan Hospital, where a doctor diagnosed her with conjunctivitis (inflammation of the eye membrane) and first-degree burns under her eyes and on her nose. The medical assessment noted these injuries resembled “the type of burn and inflammation caused by longer exposure to the sun,” though the brief time Sharon spent outside would typically be “considered insufficient to cause the burns.”
Sharon’s mother was adamant that her daughter “has never had a sunburn and couldn’t have gotten one in the few minutes she was outside.” Mrs. Stull kept both Sharon and Robin home from school the following day, with Sharon confined to bed with blinds drawn to protect her inflamed eyes.
The case took an unusual turn when, according to author Timothy Green’s book “Wicked This Way Comes,” Mrs. Stull later claimed her daughter underwent dramatic physical changes following the encounter. She reported that within a month, Sharon grew 5½ inches taller, gained 25 pounds, and displayed sudden maturity — cooking meals and caring for younger children instead of playing with dolls. Mrs. Stull described the aftermath as “a nightmare,” expressing regret about sending her daughter to school that day.
However, when Jim and Coral Lorenzen, founders of the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization (APRO), eventually managed to meet the Stull family after several attempts, they found these sensational claims largely unsupported. Their direct observation revealed that Sharon showed no unusual growth or maturation for a girl her age, though she did have some facial blemishes resembling typical adolescent acne and irritated eyes. The investigators noted that the family had changed their phone number to unlisted, raising questions about Mrs. Stull’s willingness to cooperate with objective investigation.
Multiple Sightings, Multiple Witnesses: The Pattern Emerges
Sharon Stull’s case was far from isolated. The same day she experienced her encounter, truck driver Napoleon Green, 37, and his wife reported sighting two UFOs while driving toward Albuquerque, approximately 17 miles north of Socorro. Green described egg-shaped objects “about half the size of jet planes and shining brightly in the setting sun.” His wife was so frightened by the sight that she “dived beneath the truck’s dashboard.” Green observed the objects for about two minutes before they disappeared over the eastern horizon.
In Edgewood, about 30 miles east of Albuquerque, Don Adams reported an even more dramatic encounter. Adams told State Police he fired twelve .22 caliber pistol shots at an “oblong thing” hovering directly over him at an altitude of about 100 feet. He claimed to have hit the object six times, hearing the bullets bounce off its surface. Adams described the UFO as light green, approximately 25–30 feet long, and completely silent. After he paused to reload, the object reportedly moved silently northward.
Another significant report came from Orlando Gallegos, who witnessed an egg-shaped metallic object near La Madera, about 50 miles north of Santa Fe. Gallegos described seeing flames spurting “from numerous jets around the bottom of the object as it took off.” State Police Captain Martin Vigil, who investigated this incident, made the notable statement: “There was definitely something there.”
Additional reports came from an Albuquerque motorist who observed a “silver looking” object near Truth or Consequences, two men driving in the La Madera area, and a Socorro teenager. In both the Socorro and La Madera sites, investigators discovered burned land, unusual “paw prints, like a mountain lion’s,” and what appeared to be landing gear marks — physical evidence supporting the witnesses’ claims.
The Reyes family reported seeing “a dish plate upside down” with “a bright light” on the bottom. Significantly, they noted that “several small planes were in the area at the time,” though Mrs. Reyes “insisted the object she saw was not an airplane.” This pattern — conventional aircraft apparently monitoring or pursuing unconventional objects — has been reported in numerous UFO cases both before and since.
Military Presence: Three Bases and the Curious Absence of Radar Data
The Socorro incidents took on additional significance due to their proximity to three major military installations: White Sands Missile Range, Holloman Air Force Base, and Kirtland Air Force Base — all facilities with previous histories of UFO activity and substantial radar monitoring capabilities.
White Sands had experienced notable incidents, including a July 1951 event where radar operators tracked a fast-moving object while a tracker observing a B-29 bomber spotted a large UFO nearby. In that case, another observer reportedly filmed the object, capturing 200 feet of 35mm film showing a round, bright spot — though this footage has never been released to the public. In 1959, Captain Jack Hembree, working on the Redstone missile project, reported observing a UFO near the launch tower.
Holloman AFB is perhaps most famous for an alleged UFO landing in 1974, referenced in the documentary “UFOs: Past, Present, and Future” by Robert Emenegger. According to the filmmaker, the Department of Defense initially offered actual footage showing a UFO landing and extraterrestrial beings interacting with Air Force officials, but withdrew permission to use the material shortly before the documentary’s completion.
Kirtland AFB had its own history of incidents, including a November 1957 sighting where two Civil Aeronautics Administration controllers observed a white light and dark, egg-shaped object crossing the airfield, with brief radar confirmation. The Air Force officially concluded this was a misidentified conventional aircraft, though UFO researchers have disputed this explanation.
Despite this concentration of sophisticated monitoring equipment, officials from the Federal Aviation Agency, Weather Bureau, and all three military bases denied detecting any unusual objects during the 1964 Socorro incidents. This apparent gap in surveillance raised significant questions for investigators.
Physical Evidence: Landing Traces and Medical Symptoms
What distinguished the Socorro wave from many UFO cases was the presence of tangible physical evidence. Following Zamora’s initial sighting, investigators discovered landing gear impressions and scorched vegetation at the reported landing site. Similar physical traces were found at La Madera where Orlando Gallegos reported his sighting.
The day after Zamora’s encounter, Major William Connor and Sergeant David Moody from Kirtland Air Force Base arrived to investigate, notably bringing Geiger counters to check the area for radiation — suggesting military concerns about potential radiation effects from these objects.
Sharon Stull’s medical symptoms provided another form of physical evidence. Her eye inflammation and facial burns were formally diagnosed by a physician, who noted the unusual nature of such burns given her limited sun exposure. While her mother’s later claims about accelerated growth and maturation appear to have been exaggerations, the initial medical assessment of her injuries remains part of the documented record.
The associate director of Interplanetary Intelligence of Unidentified Flying Objects, Hayden Hewes, claimed that photographs taken in 1956 by shipboard radio officer T. Fogl showed an object “almost identical in size, coloring, marking, characteristics and landing gears” to what Zamora reported seeing. Hewes characterized this as either “an awful good coincidence or it is the same object,” suggesting potential continuity in these phenomena over time.
How Socorro UFO Wave Changed Skeptic J. Allen Hynek
Perhaps most telling was the impact of the Socorro incidents on Dr. J. Allen Hynek, the Northwestern University astronomer who served as scientific consultant to the Air Force’s Project Blue Book. Previously known for providing conventional explanations for UFO sightings (famously suggesting “swamp gas” as an explanation for Michigan sightings in 1966), Hynek’s approach to the Socorro cases revealed a shifting perspective.
After visiting the site where Zamora reported his sighting, Hynek told reporters: “I’m convinced Mr. Zamora is a fine, honest man. What he saw, I don’t know, but what he told me, he certainly told without any intent to perpetuate a hoax.” He characterized Zamora’s report as “one of the soundest, best substantiated reports as far as it goes,” noting that “usually one finds many contradictions or omissions in these reports.”
Hynek expressed particular concern about the absence of radar confirmations, stating: “It’s my understanding New Mexico is infested with radar equipment. I’m going to check to see if there have been radar confirmations that would tie right into these reports.” The lack of official radar data despite the region’s extensive monitoring capabilities appeared to trouble him.
Four years later, in 1968, Hynek remained so intrigued by the Socorro incidents that he offered a $100 reward (approximately $1,000 in today’s currency) to locate a specific witness — a motorist who had told Socorro service station manager Opal Grinder about seeing a “funny-looking helicopter if that is what it was” that flew directly over his car. This continued interest, years after the events, demonstrates how deeply the Socorro cases affected Hynek, eventually contributing to his transformation from UFO skeptic to serious researcher after leaving Project Blue Book.
The Legacy of Socorro
The Socorro wave of April 1964 remains significant in UFO research for several reasons: the credibility of the primary witness (Zamora), the multiple independent testimonies describing similar objects, the physical evidence at landing sites, the documented medical effects, and the influence these cases had on scientific investigators like Hynek.
While certain aspects might involve embellishment, according to Coral Lorenzen (particularly Mrs. Stull’s claims about her daughter’s accelerated development), the core events — multiple sightings of similar objects by credible witnesses and physical evidence in the form of landing traces — have never received satisfactory conventional explanations. The military’s apparent lack of radar data despite extensive monitoring capabilities in the region adds another layer of mystery to these persistent questions.
Six decades later, the Socorro incidents continue to represent a critical chapter in UFO history — one where multiple witnesses, physical evidence, and the conversion of a former skeptic converged to create a compelling case that challenges conventional explanations and demands continued scientific scrutiny.
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