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33 when most of the reports were written. Conflicts within the government on UFO policy were aired, as were some of the failures of the system. Dozens of previously unheard-of UFO reports were opened to debate. The efficiency and effectiveness of Project Blue Book were brought into question by the project's own words. Those who had long been challenging the Air Force's handling of its UFO investigation suddenly had a storehouse of ammunition pro- vided by the Air Force itself. Public and press confidence in the ability of the government to cope with UFOs dropped to a new low. In the spring of 1964 another startling news report came out of New Mexico that must have raised considerable consterna- tion at the Pentagon. Patrolman Lonnie Zamora, of the Socorro Police Department, radioed his headquarters that he had seen a landed UFO accompanied by two small, white-suited individ- uals, parked in a barren area outside town. He said he got close enough to see an "insignia" on the side of the metallic, egg- shaped object before it began to roar and spout flame. Fearing it was about to explode, he ducked down behind his cruiser, then looked up when the noise ceased and saw the craft hovering a few feet in the air and making absolutely no sound. After it flew away, he walked down to the landing site with a police sergeant who had responded to his radioed call for assis- tance, and they found burned shrubs, scorched ground, and indentations in the soil corresponding to the location of the object's landing gear. Within two hours an Army Intelligence agent from the White Sands Proving Ground was there, as was an FBI agent, and their intensive investigation resulted in a lengthy report detailing the event. They were clearly impressed by Officer Zamora, as was Project Blue Book scientific consultant Dr. J. Allen Hynek, who arrived a day later. Half-hearted official efforts to explain the UFO as a rancher's helicopter or a NASA moon-landing test vehicle were quickly dropped, as neither could possibly account for the main charac- teristics of the sighting, especially the silent hovering. When THE GOVERNMENT AND UFOS