San Antonito UFO Crash (1945)

Just one month after the world’s first nuclear detonation at the Trinity Site in July 1945, and two years before the famous Roswell incident, it is alleged that the U.S. military carried out the retrieval of a downed UFO along with its extraterrestrial occupants near San Antonito, New Mexico — only 18 miles north of the Trinity test site.

The significance of this purported recovery, if true, is profound. It is entirely plausible that this event directly influenced how the government later handled the Roswell Incident of 1947. Having already dealt with the retrieval of an extraterrestrial craft, the official response in Roswell — which included an initial press release announcing the recovery of a “flying disk” followed by a rapid retraction — may have followed a carefully rehearsed protocol based on prior experience.

The Trinity Site, located in the Jornada del Muerto desert about 35 miles southeast of Socorro, New Mexico, is where the United States detonated the world’s first atomic bomb on July 16, 1945, as part of the top-secret Manhattan Project. The device, nicknamed “Gadget,” was a plutonium-based implosion-type nuclear weapon and served as the prototype for the “Fat Man” bomb later dropped on Nagasaki. The explosion unleashed an immense nuclear chain reaction, releasing enormous energy through the fission of plutonium-239. It also produced various forms of radiation, including gamma rays, neutron radiation, beta radiation, and alpha radiation.

The blast created significant radioactive fallout that contaminated the surrounding area — some of which remains slightly radioactive today, though the site is considered safe for short visits. This historic detonation marked the dawn of the atomic age and played a key role in ending World War II. Today, the Trinity Site is a National Historic Landmark managed by the White Sands Missile Range and is open to the public twice a year. San Antonito is a small community in Bernalillo County, New Mexico, located approximately 15 miles east of Albuquerque and 60 miles southwest of Santa Fe. In 1945, Albuquerque had a population of roughly 35,449, while Santa Fe had about 21,134 residents. The region was rural and sparsely populated, making it an ideal yet remote location for both secret military testing and an alleged UFO recovery operation.

The primary witnesses to this event were two young boys, Jose Padilla, who was approximately nine years old, and his friend Remigio “Reme” Baca, who was about seven years old. While out on the Padilla family ranch performing chores — possibly searching for a lost cow — the boys saw a brilliant flash of light followed by a loud crunching sound and a tremendous crash. They approached the scene and discovered a long gouge in the earth at the end of which lay a large, dull gray, metallic, avocado-shaped craft, about 25 to 30 feet long and 14 to 15 feet high, with a protuberance toward one end and smoke rising from the damaged area. Through binoculars they observed small humanoid beings moving around inside and near the craft. The entities appeared under stress, were roughly four feet tall with thin, needle-like arms, large bulgy eyes, and heads resembling a praying mantis or “campamocha.” They moved in a strange, gliding manner as if willing themselves from one position to another. Jose felt a strong sense of empathy and wanted to help the beings, while Reme was more cautious.

Over the following days the boys watched as U.S. Army personnel secured the area and carried out a full recovery operation, eventually removing the craft on a flatbed trailer.This 1945 event may also have laid the groundwork for Project Blue Book, the U.S. Air Force’s official UFO investigation program that ran from 1952 to 1969. If a craft and its occupants had already been recovered and studied in secret, it would provide strong motivation to systematically collect and analyze future UFO reports to assess any potential threat to national security.

The alleged recovery near San Antonito would rank among the most classified secrets in U.S. history. Revealing such information could have caused widespread public fear, disrupted societal and religious structures, and risked sharing advanced technology with rival nations. At the same time, the potential scientific and technological benefits would have been enormous. Studying an extraterrestrial craft could have accelerated breakthroughs in propulsion systems, energy production, materials science, medicine, and biology — advancements that may still be influencing classified programs today. The San Antonito UFO Crash of 1945 remains a fascinating and historically significant case, offering a compelling window into the early intersection of nuclear technology and unidentified aerial phenomena.