Article/Document:

Malstrom Air Force Base Incident, 1987: Report by USAF witness Robert Salas

UFOCOM

original source |  fair use notice

Summary: Report by former US Air Force officer Robert Salas, working as a missile launch officer monitoring the status of ten nuclear missiles (ICBM Minuteman), when guards reported a UFO hovering outside the base, after which the nuclear missiles shut down inexplicably.

1. INTRODUCTION

Life is sometimes funny… On June 29 1998, the Journal for Scientific Exploration published a report by Dr. Sturrock and co-workers (Dr. Sturrock is a renown US physicists) on the UFO phenomenon.

In this report, one gets information on the " Trans-en-Provence affair " (France), a case previously investigated by the GEPAN headed by Jean-Jacques Velasco, in the 80s. You may read this document at the Ufocom site dedicated to the official investigations of GEPAN at : http://www.mygale.org/~ufocomfr/ (thanks to SEPRA).

The day after the publication of Dr. Sturrock's paper, UFOCOM received a mail from a person who thought he was connected to the GEPAN / SEPRA site. The name of this man is Robert Salas. He is a former USAF officer, and he related us a very peculiar incident…

I first told Mister Salas that we were not involved in Dr. Sturrock's report and that we were not GEPAN. I, however, asked him whether he would agree to let us issue his story and whether he would allow me to ask him a few questions. He nicely agreed. I also forwarded his mail to Mr. Jean-Jacques Velasco from SEPRA.

2. THE STATEMENT FROM ROBERT L. SALAS

I was a U.S. Air Force officer stationed at Malmstrom AFB, Montana, working as a missile launch officer from 1966-1969. On March 16, 1967 I was on duty at one of our Launch Control Facilities monitoring the status of ten nuclear missiles (note from Ufocom: ICBM's Minuteman).

Early that morning I received a call from my security guard who was quite frightened as he reported that an unidentifiable flying object was hovering immediately above the front gate. The object was illuminated by a red glow. He told me all the guards were ready with weapons drawn. During our conversation, one of the guards was injured and he terminated the call.

As I was informing my commander of this conversation, many of our missiles became disabled. When we reported this to the command post, they informed us that a similar incident had occurred at another site and they had all of their missiles disabled while UFOs were observed directly over the launch sites.

Although the Air Force conducted a thorough investigation, no cause of the missile shutdowns was ever determined. I was able to retrieve some documents regarding these events from the Air Force under a special U.S. law called the Freedom of Information Act (note FOIA). The incident was classified but is no longer classified as a result of obtaining these documents. I have many ex-military personnel who have validated this story.

3. QUESTIONS - ANSWERS

After having read the report from Mister Salas, I mailed him several questions to clarify several aspects of his testimony.:

UFOCOM : What was your rank in that time?
Robert Salas: I was a First Lieutenant at the time of the incident.

Was it day or night?
It was early morning during our incident, I don't recall the exact time, but it was probably dark outside.

Do you remember the name of the security guard who phoned you?
Unfortunately, I cannot recall his name.

How much guards were at the front gate? Did they open the fire on the object?
There were at least four or five guards at the front gate who saw the UFO. They all had their weapons at the ready but did not fire on the object.

What kind of injury had the wounded guard? Who is he? Is there a medical report about him?
I recall that his injury was minor, either a burn or a cut he received while approaching or retreating from the object, but not due directly as a result of any attack from the object. He was evacuated from the site before we were relieved by another crew. Although we requested documents pertaining to his injury, we were unable to receive any medical records.

Have you, or someone else, requested for air support?
We have heard from other sources that an F-106 was sent to intercept one of the objects, but we have no records to that effect. We, in the Launch Control Center (LCC), did not request air support because of the sequence of events - the UFO left the site within minutes of the report and there was no hostile attack.

What was the security reaction?
We did have security violations indications at the launch facilities after the incident at the LCC and we dispatched security teams to investigate. The team also reported seeing a UFO over one of the launch sites which departed very quickly.

Which is the other launch site that has been also visited? Was it in the same time?
The other LCC was Echo - We were at November. These sites are located some 35-45 miles apart. Their incident occurred the same morning.

Was the incident reported in the chief guard's diary?
The incident was reported in the Security log and my own log as well as that of the Echo crew.

What is the name and the rank of your commander?
My crew commander was Frederick C. Meiwald who was a Captain at the time. He later retired as a full Colonel.

Is the sighting (and the injury of the guard) mentioned in the recently declassified officials documents or just the problems with the ICBMs?
One of the document we obtained is the 341st Strategic Missile Wing History for the period January-March 1967. This document goes into great detail about the Echo incident but does not mention the "November incident" except to say that members of the security teams at November flight were questioned. There is only one mention of UFOs in that document. It states: "Rumors of UFOs were disproved." I can certainly show that statement to be false by the testimonies of myself, my commander and the other crew. There was no mention in that document about the injury to our guard.

Have you received orders to don't speak about the incident?
Yes. Upon returning to the base, we briefed our Wing Commander, George W. Eldgridge in addition to a member of the Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI) on the incident. After our briefing we were told the incident was classified and we were not to discuss it with anyone. I followed these orders even into civilian life - I resigned my commission in 1971. It was not until I read an account of the Echo incident in a book that I decided to send an inquiry under FOIA for declassification of information regarding the incident. At that time I believed I was at Echo flight because I could not recall my location. I later learned that I was at November flight. I feel justified in going public with this story because of the declassification of the Echo incident.

4. THE DECLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS

Thanks to the US law named FOIA (see above), you may look at these documents at the CUFON (Computer UFO Network) site of Mr. Jim Klotz. On the web, the URL of this site is: http://www.tcet.unt.edu/~chrisl/cufon/malmstrom/malm1.htm

You'll find there several pictures that will help you understand the testimony from Mr. Salas.

5. CONCLUSIONS

For us, at Ufocom, the conclusion is that it is difficult to conclude! This case appears to be interesting first because the witnesses at Malmstrom, Montana, are " selected " USAF Officers. Indeed, one generally chooses the best Officers to work at a LCC operating nuclear ICBMs! Second, the phenomenon seems to have been observed at two LCCs.

More interestingly, the very same Malmstrom base, now under the authority of the Air Force Space Command, has experienced a similar situation on November (sic!) 7, 1975... The results of this visit is somehow frightening! For more data, see: http://www.evansville.com/~slk/751107.htm

Read more articles on this topic:

UFO Cases