There have been renewed calls for an investigation of UFO-related incidents surrounding the 1945 Trinity nuclear test site. Two years before the infamous Roswell incident, the first nuclear bomb was detonated at the Trinity Test Site.
But a 12-page report states that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) found no instances of collisions with an unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP). But the threat of foreign intelligence surveillance weighs heavily among its topics.
What Happened at Trinity Site
The Trinity Test Site was a remote corner on the Alamagordo Bombing Range known as the "Jornada del Muerto", or "Journey of Death", 210 miles south of Los Alamos. In 1965, this site was declared a National Historic Landmark district and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1966.
At this site on July 16, 1945 a plutonium implosion device, hoisted atop a 100-foot tower, was tested. The device, called the "Gadget", detonated at 5:30 am over the New Mexico desert, releasing 18.6 kilotons of power. It vaporized the tower and turning the surrounding asphalt and sand into green glass. There was an enormous blast that sent searing heat across the desert and knocked observers to the ground. This site is now part of the White Sands Missile Range and is owned by the US Department of Defense. The ground zero is marked by an obelisk made of black lava rock. A commemorative sign is attached to it.
Witnesses Spoke of UFOs and Aliens
Around a month after the Trinity nuclear test in the Jornada del Muerto desert of New Mexico, two kid cowboys – 9-year-old Jose Padilla and 7-year-old Reme Baca heard a crash. They saw an avocado-shaped craft, inside of which were two mantis-like occupants, one of which appeared in pain. The object had struck a communications tower during its descent. The two boys witnessed the US Army trying to remove it.
Lt. Col William Brothy, a bomber pilot was the third witness. He was coming in for a landing at the nearby Alamogordo air base when air traffic controllers asked him to investigate the sudden loss of signal from a communications tower. Brothy's report described the damage to the tower, the egg-shaped object and the two boys. But the bomber pilot and the two boys kept silent about this incident for decades. They finally came forth with their story in 2003.
The boys had kept hidden a fragment of the object under one of their houses. Jacques Vallee, a pioneering computer scientist-turned UFOlogist, in the book called TRINITY: The Best-Kept Secret had the fragment analyzed using spectroscopy in 2015. But the results were not striking. The metal was aluminium alloyed with copper and silicon. It contained isotopic ratios typical of metals found on Earth. It was commonly used in the 1940s for parts and casings for combustion-powered engines.
Fresh Investigations
The Pentagon had reportedly been "quiet" on the incident. But now, with the US Congress having passed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) last month, it has to look into all UAP reports. US Rep. Mike Gallagher, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, said on Friday the probe would be an important step that will give a more comprehensive understanding of what they know and don't know.
