as
recommended that this phase of the UFO investigation be given to the
Air Force's Cambridge Research Laboratory, since it is the function
of this group to study natural phenomena, and that Cambridge set up a
project to attempt to photograph the green fireballs and measure
their speed, altitude, and size.

In the late summer of 1949, Cambridge established Project Twinkle to
solve the mystery. The project called for establishing three
cinetheodolite stations near White Sands, New Mexico. A
cinetheodolite is similar to a 35-mm. movie camera except when you
take a photograph of an object you also get a photograph of three
dials that show the time the photo was taken, the azimuth angle, and
the elevation angle of the camera. If two or more cameras photograph
the same object, it is possible to obtain a very accurate measurement
of the photographed object's altitude, speed, and size.

Project Twinkle was a bust. Absolutely nothing was photographed. Of
the three cameras that were planned for the project, only one was
available. This one camera was continually being moved from place to
place. If several reports came from a certain area, the camera crew
would load up their equipment and move to that area, always arriving
too late. Any duck hunter can tell you that this is the wrong tactic;
if you want to shoot any ducks pick a good place and stay put, let
the ducks come to you.

The people trying to operate Project Twinkle were having financial
and morale trouble. To do a good job they needed more and better
equipment and more people, but Air Force budget cuts precluded this.
Moral support was free but they didn't get this either.

When the Korean War started, Project Twinkle silently died, along
with official interest in green fireballs.

When I organized Project Blue Book in the summer of 1951 I'd never
heard of a green fireball. We had a few files marked "Los Alamos
Conference," "Fireballs," "Project Twinkle," etc., but I didn't pay
any attention to them.

Then one day I was at a meeting in Los Angeles with several other
officers from ATIC, and was introduced to Dr. Joseph Kaplan. When he
found we were from ATIC, his first question was, "What ever happened
to the green fireballs?" None of us had ever heard of them, so he
quickly gave us the story. He and I ended up discussing green
fireballs. He mentioned Dr. La Paz and his opinion that the green
fireballs might be man-made, and although he respected La Paz's
profes