UFOs Initiated Nuclear Missile Launch Countdowns Say Former U.S. Air Force Officers

By Robert Hastings www.ufohastings.com 12-15-14

     Since 1973, I have interviewed more than 150 U.S. military personnel regarding their UFO experiences at nuclear weapons sites. CNN streamed my September 27, 2010 press conference, at which seven of those veterans appeared, and the video may be viewed below:

As noted in my last article, dramatic testimony recently provided to me by a former U.S. Air Force Minuteman missile launch officer, who wishes to remain anonymous, reveals that UFO activity at ICBM sites is not confined to the temporary shutting down of the missiles but also, in his case, the unauthorized activation of the launch-countdown sequence in them—an ominous and terrifying prospect.

But this was not the first time I had been told, by a former nuclear missile launch officer, that a UFO had initiated the launch sequence in one or more ICBMs. The following material is excerpted from my 2008 book UFOs and Nukes: Extraordinary Encounters at Nuclear Weapons Sites:

Of all the tape-recorded interviews I’ve conducted with former or retired ICBM launch officers over the past three decades, this was perhaps the most disturbing. According to the source, former U.S. Air Force Captain David H. Schuur, a UFO once activated the launch sequence in most of his Minuteman missiles.

In August 2007, Schuur told me, “I saw your request for information in the [June 2007] Association of Air Force Missileers Newsletter. I was involved in a UFO incident at Minot AFB in the mid-1960s. I had read your earlier article [in the September 2002 AAFM Newsletter] but was hesitant to respond.” I asked Schuur why he had been hesitant. He replied, “Well, we were basically told, way back when, that it was classified information and, you know, it didn’t happen and don’t discuss it. I guess I was still operating on that idea when I saw your first article.”

Schuur had obviously had a change of heart. He continued, “Anyway, I was a Minuteman missile crewmember in the 455th/91st Strategic Missile Wing at Minot from December 1963 through November 1967. I was a 1st Lieutenant during that period and the deputy commander that night. Since the incident occurred some 40 years ago, my memories are a bit foggy but, based on who my commander was at the time, I would say it occurred between July 1965 and July 1967.”

“As far as the incident, here’s my best recollection of it: Alpha capsule, which was east of us, reported on PAS—the Primary Alerting System—that their security personnel were observing a large, bright object hovering over some of their missile sites. It was moving from missile to missile. I think the Alpha missile crew also reported that they were receiving ‘spurious indicators’ on their missile control console, but I’m not certain about that. I do know that a few minutes later our own capsule had spurious indicators—anomalous readings—from some of our missiles.”

Schuur continued, “But it wasn’t just Alpha and Echo. Over the next hour or so—I don’t recall exactly how long it was—all of the flights reported that their [Security Alert Teams] were observing a UFO near their facilities. The path of the object could be followed as it passed over each flight area by the reports on the PAS. The object moved over the entire wing from the southeast to the northwest, following the layout of the wing.”

“As far as our flight, Echo, a few minutes after hearing the report from Alpha, I received a call from topside security that a large bright light—actually, a large, bright object would be more accurate—was in the sky, to the east of the launch control facility. When the guard called down, he may have used the term ‘UFO’ but I don’t recall. He didn’t describe its shape or altitude because it was too far away. It never got close enough to the LCF to see any detail. At its closest, it was two, three, maybe four miles away from us, near one of the missile sites.”

Schuur continued, “However, when the object passed over our flight, we started receiving many spurious indications on our console. The object was apparently sending some kind of signals into each missile. Not every missile got checked [out] by the object, but there were several that did. Maybe six, seven, or eight. Maybe all ten got checked, but I don’t think so. As this thing was passing over each missile site, we would start getting erratic indications on that particular missile. After a few seconds, everything reset back to normal.”

“But then the next missile showed spurious indicators so the object had apparently moved on to that one and did the same thing to it. Then on to the next one, and so on. It was as if the object was scanning each missile, one by one. The Inner Security and Outer Security [alarms were triggered] but we got those all the time, for one reason or another. However, on this particular night, we had to activate the ‘Inhibit’ switch because we got ‘Launch in Progress’ indicators! After a few minutes, the UFO passed to the northwest of us and all indicators reset to normal.”

I wanted to be certain about what I had just been told. I asked Schuur, “So, if you get a ‘Launch in Progress’ indicator, does that mean the launch sequence has been triggered—that the missile is preparing to launch?” Schuur replied, “That means the missile has received a launch signal. When that happens, we get an indication in the capsule that a launch command has been received by that missile. If that happens, without proper authority, you flip what’s called an ‘Inhibit’ switch, to delay the launch for a given period of time. If an Inhibit command comes in from another launch capsule, that shuts down the launch totally. But if that second command doesn’t come in, the missile will wait for a specified period of time and then launch automatically at the end of that expired period—theoretically. Of course, that night, we had all kinds of other indicators coming on from each missile so, in that situation, the launch probably would have aborted itself. I honestly don’t know.”

I asked Schuur if the “Launch in Progress” indicator had ever been triggered on any other occasion, either before or after the UFO incident, while he was on alert duty. He replied, “No, never.”

I asked Schuur if he had heard about missile maintenance teams having to replace components or whole systems in the affected missiles—the ones that generated the spurious readings. He replied, “No, if that happened, I never heard about it.”

Schuur said, “Upon returning to the base the next day, my commander and I were met by the operations officer. He just said, ‘Nothing happened, nothing to discuss, goodbye.’ Our logs and tapes were turned in. Every capsule had a 24-hour tape that, as I recall, recorded the communications that went over the PAS system, so all the reports would have been on that tape. But we were essentially told that nothing had happened that night and to discuss it no further. It was a non-event. We were never debriefed by OSI or anyone else. We just went home. Most of the returning missile crews drove back to the base from their facilities, so they all arrived at different times. There was no group debriefing that I know of. I never heard another thing about the incident.”

I asked Schuur, “I know that you were given no feedback from your superiors, but what is your personal assessment of the event?” He replied, “Oh, I think something was up there, uh, scanning the missiles, seeing what was going on. Some kind of a scanning process.” I asked Schuur whether he thought the launch activation had been incidental or deliberate. He seemed surprised by my question and said, “I think that the scanning just set it off. It set all kinds of things off, we were getting all sorts of indicators. There were some kind of signals being sent [from the UFO] to the missile that inadvertently triggered the launch activation, but I don’t think it was deliberate. I hope not! That would have been—.” Schuur didn’t finish this sentence. His voice broke and he heaved a deep sigh. Apparently, the thought that those aboard the UFO might have deliberately attempted to launch his nuclear missiles that night had caused him to pause—and probably shudder—over 40 years later.

I obviously accept Schuur’s report as credible, but am of course attempting to locate other former members of his squadron who are willing to corroborate it. As Schuur candidly admitted, after reading my first article in the September 2002 AAFM newsletter, he waited some five years before approaching me. It was only after my second published request for information from former/retired USAF missileers that he decided to unburden himself. This hesitant response is not atypical. Many of my former missile launch officer sources have not readily or easily divulged their UFO experiences to me, for one reason or another.

More UFOs At Minot AFB in 1967-68

In 2005, I posted a series of messages on the Yahoo missile_talk group’s bulletin board, summarizing the testimony of former and retired USAF sources who had reported their UFO-related experiences at various nuclear missile sites over the years. My hope was that some of the group’s members, largely made up of U.S. Air Force missileers, would be encouraged to come forth and discuss their own experiences. A few of them, including Larry Manross, did just that. He wrote:

Robert, you are right on. As a launch crew commander at Minot AFB from 1966-1970, I will tell you that there were UFO incidents. In one [during which I was present] the security team upstairs went into a defensive posture with lights turned out. They had called in a UFO sighting to the base and radar was tracking it. All of a sudden it buzzed the launch control center and that was when they cut the lights and took a defensive position.

The details are fairly slim on the incident [but it occurred sometime during] 1967 or ’68. It was treated by the Air Force as a non-incident. In other words, no report was asked for from the missile crew. I am not certain if the security team made a report, but the whole thing made you feel somewhat uneasy. But base ops did confirm that they were tracking an unidentified object on radar.

I asked Manross to elaborate on these statements. He responded:

I was in the 742nd [Strategic Missile Squadron]. The capsules we manned were Kilo, Lima, Mike, November, and Oscar. I was primarily assigned to Kilo or Lima. I do not remember the name of the senior officer during that [alert] assignment; he was not the usual commander I was assigned with. He was several years older than I and was a career officer, I believe. I was never assigned with him again and don't remember much about him. He may have been in a different squadron. Sometimes they mixed and matched us when they were having scheduling problems.

The year was ’67 or ’68, before I moved up to the commander role. I was attempting to sleep while the commander was dealing with security upstairs and the base headquarters regarding some unidentified [flying] object. It was when his [missile status console] lit-up like a Christmas tree for a moment that he got scared and asked for back-up. The lit-up board had signaled that the missiles had launched. It was a false signal but correlated with the incident taking place upstairs. It all happened quite fast. Then things returned to normal.

[Anyway,] that was when I became engaged. The commander was rattled and so was the security team upstairs. They reported that something had buzzed the LCF and that they had gone into a defensive posture, turning out the lights and drawing their weapons. They indicated it was very bright and traveling at a high rate of speed. They did not describe any shape, etc., other than it was bright. [Then] base headquarters reported that the unidentified object was no longer on radar and that was the last we heard of it.

There was no debriefing—nada. Just another day pulling an alert at Minot. I do remember the senior officer saying something about how I should not talk about the incident without getting authorization. [In spite of that,] all the officers talked about UFOs and what was going on. As you can imagine, there was quite a range of opinions. The common assumption among many [launch officers] was that the objects were somehow drawing power from the missile warheads.

The number of UFO incidents at the time, during 1966-’70, were so frequent that in the summer the security team sometimes would put chairs in front of the building, or on the roof of the building, to watch for UFOs. Can you believe it?

Regarding this last statement, I told Manross that I had heard nearly identical stories from other former or retired USAF personnel who had been stationed at Ellsworth, F.E. Warren, and Malmstrom AFBs during that era. This particular side show is almost humorous: Nuclear missile security guards sitting outside Minuteman Launch Control Facilities at night looking for UFOs because the objects appeared above the missile field so frequently! If only the American media had been given that story at the time. But, of course, like everything else relating to these classified incidents, almost no information leaked out to the press or public.

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See Also:

UFO Activated One of his ICBMs—Twice, Says Former U.S. Air Force Missile Launch Officer

UPDATE/REBUTTAL To D'Antonio: UFO Activated One of his ICBMs—Twice, Says Former U.S. Air Force Missile Launch Officer

Malmstrom Air Force Base Picks Up UFO on Radar; "Sabotage Alert Team Located Another UFO Directly Over The Base"

UFO Buzzes ICBM Launch Capsule at Minot AFB

My Evidence: The Account of Minute-Man Missiles Being Disabled, While UFOs Hovered Over The Launch Facilities

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Reprise: UFO Activated Nuclear Missiles at Minot AFB Says One Retired Launch Officer

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By Robert Hastings www.ufohastings.com © Copyright 2008 - 2013

Retired U.S. Air Force Captain David H. Schuur--whose dramatic testimony about a UFO temporarily activating his nuclear missiles at Minot AFB, North Dakota, in 1966--died on May 31, 2013. Schuur's tape recorded statements during his interview with UFOs and Nukes researcher Robert Hastings were published here in 2009 and are presented again below.

     Of all the interviews I’ve conducted with former or retired ICBM launch officers over the past three decades, this was perhaps the most disturbing. According to the source, David H. Schuur, a UFO had apparently activated the launch sequence in most of his Minuteman missiles.

In August 2007, Schuur told me, “I saw your request for information in the [June 2007] Association of Air Force Missileers Newsletter. I was involved in a UFO incident at Minot AFB in the mid-1960s. I had read your earlier article [in the September 2002 AAFM Newsletter] but was hesitant to respond.” I asked Schuur why he had been hesitant. He replied, “Well, we were basically told, way back when, that it was classified information and, you know, it didn’t happen and don’t discuss it. I guess I was still operating on that idea when I saw your first article.”

Schuur had obviously had a change of heart. He continued, “Anyway, I was a Minuteman missile crewmember in the 455th/91st Strategic Missile Wing at Minot from December 1963 through November 1967. I was a 1st Lieutenant during that period and the deputy commander that night. Since the incident occurred some 40 years ago, my memories are a bit foggy but, based on who my commander was at the time, I would say it occurred between July 1965 and July 1967.”

I asked Schuur if he could narrow the time-frame during which the incident occurred, by associating it with another event. He replied, “Not really, but my sense is that the incident occurred toward the end of my duty in the [missile] field, so it was probably during 1966, or ’67. I was pulling alert in the Echo [Launch Control] Capsule and was at the console at the time, probably early in the morning when the commander was sleeping. I know I was at Echo because that’s where I pulled almost all of my alert duty. My crew commander at the time has died. He was a Lieutenant Colonel at Minot, in his 50s—he was in the reserves, an old Korea veteran, who was recalled to duty in the early 1960s.”

“As far as the incident, here’s my best recollection of it: Alpha capsule, which was east of us, reported on PAS—the Primary Alerting System—that their security personnel were observing a large, bright object hovering over some of their missile sites. It was moving from missile to missile. I think the Alpha missile crew also reported that they were receiving ‘spurious indicators’ on their missile control console, but I’m not certain about that. I know that a few minutes later our capsule had spurious indicators—anomalous readings—from some of our missiles.”

I asked Schuur to explain PAS. He said, “It was an open line between SAC headquarters and the wing command posts. There was a speaker in each launch capsule and when the command posts issued a directive, or whatever, we were able to hear it. When Alpha had their UFO sightings, they alerted the command post, at which time the command post called SAC headquarters. So, when the report of the sightings went out, we all heard it on PAS.”

Schuur continued, “But it wasn’t just Alpha and Echo. Over the next hour or so—I don’t recall exactly how long it was—all of the flights reported that their [Security Alert Teams] were observing a UFO near their facilities. The path of the object could be followed as it passed over each flight area by the reports on the PAS. The object moved over the entire wing from the southeast to the northwest, following the layout of the wing.”

Schuur elaborated, “All of them—Bravo Flight, Charlie, Delta, right on down the line to Oscar—were reporting sightings of this object. Minot’s missile field is laid out like the letter ‘C’. Alpha is located southeast of the base, and the other flights—Bravo, Charlie and so forth—were south, southwest, west, northwest, then north of Minot. Oscar, the last flight, is at the top of the ‘C’, north of the base. The object—as far as I know, it was only one object—came across Alpha Flight, then moved all the way around the flights and ended up at Oscar. We could hear that on PAS. At Echo, it didn’t come close to the Launch Control Facility, it just visited the LFs (silos), then passed onto the next flight.”

“As far as our flight, Echo, a few minutes after hearing the report from Alpha, I received a call from topside security that a large bright light—actually, a large, bright object would be more accurate—was in the sky, to the east of the launch control facility. When the guard called down, he may have used the term ‘UFO’ but I don’t recall. He didn’t describe it’s shape or altitude because it was too far away. It never got close enough to the LCF to see any detail. At its closest, it was two, three, maybe four miles away from us, near one of the missile sites.”

Schuur continued, “However, when the object passed over our flight, we started receiving many spurious indications on our console. The object was apparently sending some kind of signals into each missile. Not every missile got checked [out] by the object, but there were several that did. Maybe six, seven, or eight. Maybe all ten got checked, but I don’t think so. As this thing was passing over each missile site, we would start getting erratic indications on that particular missile. After a few seconds, everything reset back to normal. But then the next missile showed spurious indicators, so the object had apparently moved on to that one, and did the same thing to it. Then on to the next one, and so on. It was as if the object was scanning each missile, one by one. The Inner Security and Outer Security [alarms were triggered] but we got those all the time, for one reason or another. However, on this particular night, we had to activate the ‘Inhibit’ switch because we got ‘Launch in Progress’ indicators! After a few minutes, the UFO passed to the northwest of us and all indicators reset to normal.”

I wanted to be certain about what I had just been told. I asked Schuur, “So, if you get a Launch in Progress indicator, does that mean the launch sequence has been triggered—that the missile is preparing to launch?” Schuur replied, “That means the missile has received a launch signal. When that happens, we get an indication in the capsule that a launch command has been received by that missile. If that happens, without proper authority, you flip what’s called an “Inhibit” switch, to delay the launch for a given period of time. If an Inhibit command comes in from another launch capsule, that shuts down the launch totally. But if that second command doesn’t come in, the missile will wait for a specified period of time and then launch automatically at the end of that expired period—theoretically. Of course, that night, we had all kinds of other indicators coming on from each missile so, in that situation, the launch probably would have aborted itself. I honestly don’t know.”

I asked Schuur if the Launch in Progress indicator had ever been triggered on any other occasion, either before or after the UFO incident, while he was on alert duty. He replied, “No, never.”

I asked Schuur if he had heard about missile maintenance teams having to replace components or whole systems in the affected missiles—the ones that generated the spurious readings. He replied, “No, if that happened, I never heard about it.”

Schuur said, “Upon returning to the base the next day, my commander and I were met by the operations officer. He just said, ‘Nothing happened, nothing to discuss, goodbye.’ Our logs and tapes were turned in. Every capsule had a 24-hour tape that, as I recall, recorded the communications that went over the PAS system, so all the reports would have been on that tape. But we were essentially told that nothing had happened that night and to discuss it no further. It was a non-event. We were never debriefed, by OSI or anyone else. We just went home. Most of the returning missile crews drove back to the base from their facilities, so they all arrived at different times. There was no group debriefing that I know of. I never heard another thing about the incident.”

I asked Schuur, “I know that you were given no feedback from your superiors, but what is your personal assessment of the event?” He replied, “Oh, I think something was up there, uh, scanning the missiles, seeing what was going on. Some kind of a scanning process.” I asked Schuur whether he thought the launch activation had been incidental or deliberate. He seemed surprised by my question and said, “I think that the scanning just set it off. It set all kinds of things off, we were getting all sorts of indicators. There were some kind of signals being sent [from the UFO] to the missile that inadvertently triggered the launch activation, but I don’t think it was deliberate. I hope not! That would have been—.” Schuur didn’t finish this sentence. His voice broke and he heaved a deep sigh. Apparently, the thought that those aboard the UFO might have deliberately attempted to launch his nuclear missiles that night had caused him to pause—and probably shudder—over 40 years later.

I obviously accept Schuur’s report as credible, but am of course attempting to locate other former members of his squadron who are willing to corroborate it. As Schuur candidly admitted, after reading my first article in the September 2002 AAFM newsletter, he waited some five years before approaching me. It was only after my second published request for information from former/retired USAF missileers, that he decided to unburden himself. This hesitant response is not atypical. Many of my former missile launch officer sources have not readily or easily divulged their UFO experiences to me, for one reason or another.

Importantly, to my knowledge, Schuur’s testimony represents the only credible report on record of a UFO temporarily activating a U.S. nuclear missile. However, there is one other reliable report of such an activation—in the Soviet Union. That incident will be discussed at length in a later chapter.

* From the book UFOs and Nukes by Robert Hastings
* Available only at www.ufohastings.com (after July 18, 2008)

See Also:

UFO Hovered Near Missile Launch Control Center at Minot AFB: Retired Officer Says Several ICBMs Dropped “Off Alert”

UFO Tracked on Radar at Minot AFB: It Was Near Nuclear Missile Sites At The Time

UFO Buzzes ICBM Launch Capsule at Minot AFB: The Commander’s Control Panel “Lit Up” Indicating Missiles Away!

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UFOs Activated U.S. and Soviet Nuclear Missiles: Former Enemies Reveal Shocking Near-Launches Decades Later

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By Robert Hastings www.ufohastings.com 2-8-12

     I investigate nuclear weapons-related UFO activity. Over the past 39 years, I have interviewed more than 130 former or retired U.S. military personnel who were involved in UFO incidents at nuclear missile sites, weapons storage depots, strategic bomber bases, or atmospheric test sites in Nevada and the Pacific.

Many of my findings are available at my website, in various articles and links. My CNN-streamed September 27, 2010 press conference—at which seven U.S. Air Force veterans revealed their UFO experiences at nuclear missile sites or Weapons Storage Areas (WSAs)—may be viewed at:

VIDCAST: Former Officers Say UFOs Shut Down Nuclear Missiles at Our Nation's Defensive Launch Facilities

But those revelations are merely the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Other ex-USAF officers—as well as ex-Soviet Army personnel—have discussed far more frightening incidents. It appears that even as the superpowers rattled their nuclear sabers at one another, some unknown, technologically-advanced third party was doing a bit of that as well—on both sides of the ocean.

Missile Activations at Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota

Of all the interviews I’ve conducted with former or retired ICBM launch officers, this was perhaps the most disturbing. According to the source, David H. Schuur, a UFO once activated the launch sequence in most of his Minuteman missiles.

In August 2007, Schuur told me, “I saw your request for information in the [June 2007] Association of Air Force Missileers Newsletter. I was involved in a UFO incident at Minot AFB in the mid-1960s. I had read your earlier article [in the September 2002 AAFM Newsletter] but was hesitant to respond.”

I asked Schuur why he had been hesitant. He replied, “Well, we were basically told, way back when, that it was classified information and, you know, it didn’t happen and don’t discuss it. I guess I was still operating on that idea when I saw your first article.”

Schuur had obviously had a change of heart. He continued, “Anyway, I was a Minuteman missile crew member in the 455th/91st Strategic Missile Wing at Minot from December 1963 through November 1967. I was a 1st Lieutenant during that period and the deputy commander that night. Since the incident occurred some 40 years ago, my memories are a bit foggy but, based on who my commander was at the time, I would say it occurred between July 1965 and July 1967.”

I asked Schuur if he could narrow the time-frame during which the incident occurred, by associating it with another event. He replied, “Not really, but my sense is that the incident occurred toward the end of my duty in the [missile] field, so it was probably during 1966, or ’67. I was pulling alert in the Echo [Launch Control] Capsule and was at the console at the time, probably early in the morning when the commander was sleeping. I know I was at Echo because that’s where I pulled almost all of my alert duty. My crew commander at the time has died. He was a Lieutenant Colonel at Minot, in his 50s—he was in the reserves, an old Korea veteran, who was recalled to duty in the early 1960s.”

“As far as the incident, here’s my best recollection of it: Alpha capsule, which was east of us, reported on PAS—the Primary Alerting System—that their security personnel were observing a large, bright object hovering over some of their missile sites. It was moving from missile to missile. I think the Alpha missile crew also reported that they were receiving ‘spurious indicators’ on their missile control console, but I’m not certain about that. I do know that a few minutes later our own capsule had spurious indicators—anomalous readings—from some of our missiles.”

I asked Schuur to explain PAS. He said, “It was an open line between [Strategic Air Command] headquarters and the wing command posts. There was a speaker in each launch capsule and when the command posts issued a directive, or whatever, we were able to hear it. When Alpha had their UFO sightings, they alerted the command post, at which time the command post called SAC headquarters. So, when the report of the sightings went out, we all heard it on PAS.”

Schuur continued, “But it wasn’t just Alpha and Echo. Over the next hour or so—I don’t recall exactly how long it was—all of the flights reported that their [Security Alert Teams] were observing a UFO near their facilities. The path of the object could be followed as it passed over each flight area by the reports on the PAS. The object moved over the entire wing from the southeast to the northwest, following the layout of the wing…”

“As far as our flight, Echo, a few minutes after hearing the report from Alpha, I received a call from topside security that a large bright light—actually, a large, bright object would be more accurate—was in the sky, to the east of the Launch Control Facility (LCF). When the guard called down, he may have used the term ‘UFO’ but I don’t recall. He didn’t describe its shape or altitude because it was too far away. It never got close enough to the LCF to see any detail. At its closest, it was two, three, maybe four miles away from us, near one of the missile sites.”

Schuur continued, “However, when the object passed over our flight, we started receiving many spurious indications on our console. The object was apparently sending some kind of signals into each missile. Not every missile got checked [out] by the object, but there were several that did. Maybe six, seven, or eight. Maybe all ten got checked, but I don’t think so. As this thing was passing over each missile site, we would start getting erratic indications on that particular missile. After a few seconds, everything reset back to normal. But then the next missile showed spurious indicators so the object had apparently moved on to that one and did the same thing to it. Then on to the next one, and so on. It was as if the object was scanning each missile, one by one. The Inner Security and Outer Security [alarms were triggered] but we got those all the time, for one reason or another. However, on this particular night, we had to activate the ‘Inhibit’ switch because we got ‘Launch in Progress’ indicators! After a few minutes, the UFO passed to the northwest of us and all indicators reset to normal.”

I wanted to be certain about what I had just been told. I asked Schuur, “So, if you get a ‘Launch in Progress’ indicator, does that mean the launch sequence has been triggered—that the missile is preparing to launch?” Schuur replied, “That means the missile has received a launch signal. When that happens, we get an indication in the capsule that a launch command has been received by that missile. If that happens, without proper authority, you flip what’s called an ‘Inhibit’ switch, to delay the launch for a given period of time. If an Inhibit command comes in from another launch capsule, that shuts down the launch totally. But if that second command doesn’t come in, the missile will wait for a specified period of time and then launch automatically at the end of that expired period—theoretically. Of course, that night, we had all kinds of other indicators coming on from each missile so, in that situation, the launch probably would have aborted itself. I honestly don’t know.”

I asked Schuur if the “Launch in Progress” indicator had ever been triggered on any other occasion, either before or after the UFO incident, while he was on alert duty. He replied, “No, never.”

Schuur said, “Upon returning to the base the next day, my commander and I were met by the operations officer. He just said, ‘Nothing happened, nothing to discuss, goodbye.’ Our logs and tapes were turned in. Every capsule had a 24-hour tape that, as I recall, recorded the communications that went over the PAS system, so all the reports would have been on that tape. But we were essentially told that nothing had happened that night and to discuss it no further. It was a non-event. We were never debriefed, by OSI or anyone else. We just went home. Most of the returning missile crews drove back to the base from their facilities, so they all arrived at different times. There was no group debriefing that I know of. I never heard another thing about the incident.”

I asked Schuur, “I know that you were given no feedback from your superiors, but what is your personal assessment of the event?” He replied, “Oh, I think something was up there, uh, scanning the missiles, seeing what was going on. Some kind of a scanning process.” I asked Schuur whether he thought the launch activation had been incidental or deliberate. He seemed surprised by my question and said, “I think that the scanning just set it off. It set all kinds of things off, we were getting all sorts of indicators. There were some kind of signals being sent [from the UFO] to the missile that inadvertently triggered the launch activation, but I don’t think it was deliberate. I hope not! That would have been—.”

Schuur didn’t finish this sentence. His voice broke and he heaved a deep sigh. Apparently, the thought that those aboard the UFO might have deliberately attempted to launch his nuclear missiles that night had caused him to pause—and probably shudder—over 40 years later.

Military Unit 52035, Soviet Ukraine

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, a number of ex-Soviet Army personnel came forward and began discussing their involvement in UFO incidents in that country during the Cold War era. One of those events occurred on October 4, 1982, near the Ukrainian town of Byelokoroviche, when a disc-shaped object apparently hovered over an Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile (IRBM) base for an extended period. At one point during the encounter, a number of nuclear missiles suddenly activated—without authorization from Moscow or any action being taken by the missile launch officers—and were preparing to launch!
This incident was first publicized on the American ABC News program Prime Time Live (which unethically used information provided to its producers by KLAS-TV reporter George Knapp without crediting his contributions). A transcript of that program may be found at:

Soviet KGB Files on UFOs (ABC News television program transcript)

(The link above incorrectly states that the program first aired in October 1995; it was actually 1994.)

Among those interviewed by ABC News was retired Army Lt.Col. Vladimir Plantonev (spelled “Plutinov” in other published references) who described the UFO to reporter David Ensor: “It looked just like a flying saucer. The way they show them in the movies. No portholes, nothing. The surface was absolutely even. The disc made a beautiful turn, like this, on the edge, just like a plane. There was no sound. I had never seen anything like that before.”

Ensor said, “Every person we spoke to in Byelokoroviche said they saw a flying saucer on that day. They told us it was huge, about 900 feet in diameter. For hours it hovered over the nearby ballistic missile base.”

On June 16, 2010, a large-circulation Russian newspaper, Life, published an article about the case. One of the paper’s reporters, Inessa Kornienko, interviewed other witnesses who provided additional details about the incident. An excerpt from that article, translated into English, follows here:

For a 20-year-old radio operator, Vladimir Matveyev, assigned to the 50th Missile Division RVSN, Carpathian Military District, October 4, 1982 was a day that he will remember for the rest of his life. In the evening, he and a thousand soldiers and officers saw a UFO for almost an hour, as it hovered over the R-12 missile silos. “It was unbelievable. Approximately one-and-a-half kilometers from us hovered an elliptical-shaped object,” the former rocketeer excitedly told Life. “The dimensions of the UFO shocked us—as large as a five-story house! Barely-visible lights flew up to the object. The guys [and I] were on our way to dinner when we all saw it! The UFO continued to hover, slowly moving to the left, as if drifting. One officer tried to get closer to it in a car but the UFO flew away. At this time all of the missile launchers malfunctioned. The UFO [also] blocked radio signal reception in the bunker. We heard only complete silence, which we could not understand, because this had never happened before. We were [later] told that the radio equipment was burnt!”

In his official statement on the incident, Major Michael Katzman [spelled ‘Kataman’ in other sources], who was responsible for the missiles’ guidance systems, reported that the computer equipment and security systems had been disabled by a powerful [electromagnetic] pulse. He wrote that all of the control panels had lit up, indicating the missiles were preparing to launch toward their strategic targets.

Former TsSBUiS [missile division] Chief Yuri Zolotukhin told a Life journalist, “I too was a witness to these events and also saw the UFO, but could not reveal what had happened to the sensitive equipment because I signed a non-disclosure document [designed to] protect state secrets.” These events happened in the underground bunker where the missile control panels display the missiles’ readiness status. [During the incident] the panels lit up, indicating that the missiles had gone to full combat readiness and were preparing to launch. [Ordinarily] this is possible only after obtaining an order from Moscow. In this case, it happened by itself. The officers on duty at their battle stations were shocked. [Figuratively speaking,] their hair had turned gray. They said that the information appearing on the control panels indicated that all security measures designed to prevent an unauthorized launch of the missiles had been hacked! Within just a few seconds, the launch officers had lost control over their nuclear weapons. Immediately after this occurred, the officers called Moscow. The reply they got was that no order to launch had been issued. After 15 seconds, all of the controls reset to the normal position.

[Former] rocketeer Vladimir Matveyev says, “A few days later, a commission came to the base and interviewed the witnesses. The guys gave them their drawings of the UFO. One of the officers swore on his [Communist] Party membership that he wasn't drunk. A few days later we were lined up [for our morning inspection by our officers] and read an order from the Commander-in-Chief of the Strategic Rocket Forces, designated number R010, which said, ‘If you see a UFO, do not panic and do not shoot.’ Then I realized why the officers who had their finger ‘on the button’ looked so old and had gray hair.”

Reporter Kornienko commented, “I think [the UFO] technology allows [their pilots] to launch our missiles. However, they choose not to do so. Cases such as Byelokoroviche and Minot [suggest] that aliens are trying to understand how these systems work, and what they need to do in the event of war breaking out, to stop the feuding children, i.e., us. I believe that the UFO [pilots], by running the rockets’ pre-launch countdown, learned how to stop it."

While we can not know with certainty the reason for the actions taken by those presumably aboard the UFOs in these two cases, I think Kornienko’s speculative statements may have merit.

Probably the most detailed summary of the Ukrainian case was written in 2010 by journalist Antonio Huneeus, which may be read at:

Soviet nukes and UFOs

In conclusion, ex-military personnel in both the U.S. and the former U.S.S.R. have reported shocking incidents of UFO activity at nuclear missile sites during the Cold War era. In addition to the temporary system-activations described above, other incidents reportedly involved temporary disruptions—the shutting down of ICBMs, sometimes in large numbers. See:

The Echo Flight ICBM Incident: Retired USAF Officer Confirms Receiving A UFO Report Just as the Missiles Failed

While the current situation in Russia is unreported, as far as I am aware, credible evidence suggests that the latest UFO-involved disruption of ICBM systems in the U.S. occurred at F.E. Warren AFB, Wyoming, on October 23, 2010. My detailed report on that incident may be read at:

Huge UFO Sighted Near Nuclear Missiles During October 2010 Launch System Disruption

. . . More


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Recent Russian Newspaper Article Discusses UFO Incidents at Soviet and American Nuclear Weapons Sites

UFOs & NUKES | Civilians Report UFOs in F.E. Warren's Missile Field

50 Nuclear Missiles (ICBMs) Experience Mystery Disruption

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UFO NEWS - TONIGHT: UFO-Nukes Connection Researcher Robert Hastings to appear on Coast to Coast AM on August 15, 2010

By Robert Hastings
www.ufohastings.com
8-9-10

     I have been invited to appear on the Coast to Coast AM radio program on Sunday, August 15, 2010, for a two-hour interview with KLAS-TV reporter and host George Knapp. I will be discussing my 37-year investigation of UFO activity at nuclear weapons sites, as well as the September 27, 2010 press conference in Washington D.C. that I will be co-hosting with former nuclear missile launch officer, USAF Captain Robert Salas. At that event, six former or retired USAF officers, and one former enlisted man, will reveal their dramatic UFO experiences at various nuclear weapons sites.

In March 1967, Salas was present at Oscar Flight (10 Minuteman ICBMs controlled by a Launch Control Capsule) at Malmstrom AFB, Montana, when a UFO apparently shut down most or all of his missiles. This extraordinary event occurred just moments after one of Salas’ security guards reported seeing an orange-red, oval-shaped object hovering over the launch site’s front gate. The other launch officer in the capsule that day, now-retired Col. Fredrick Meiwald, has confirmed that a security police team was sent out to the field in a Jeep shortly thereafter, to investigate another report of a UFO hovering near one of Oscar Flight’s missile silos. According to Col. Meiwald, upon seeing the unknown aerial object, the missile guards were scared out of their wits and fled the scene, wasting no time in returning to the Launch Control Facility.

But this dramatic incident—which has been confirmed by a third former USAF officer, Captain Bob Jamison—is just the tip of the iceberg. Appearing with me on Coast to Coast AM will be yet another retired USAF missile launch officer, Captain Bruce Fenstermacher, who had a very similar experience in 1976, at F.E. Warren Air Force Base, Wyoming, which he summarizes this way:

I spent 20 years in the Air Force. The first nine years I served as an enlisted man and the last 11 as an officer. Initially I was very skeptical about all the “UFO nonsense”.

In the fall of 1976 I was a Minuteman III Combat Crew Commander on alert with my deputy “Sam”. We monitored radio communications between the Flight Security Controller, “Sgt. Jones”, and the cops—actually a Security Alert Team or SAT. They were on patrol near one of our 10 missile sites which was south about 9 or 10 miles from the Launch Control Facility or LCF.

Sometime around 2 A.M. we heard Sgt. Jones ask the two cops to stop the vehicle, look around and report anything that the saw that looked unusual. He gave no hints about where to look or what to look for. The response at first was that they didn't see anything. Then a few seconds later, they reported in an excited voice that they saw a pulsating white thing in the sky. They could see flashing red and blue lights between the pulsations. Jones asked where they saw it. The cops responded that it was to the north about 10 miles and that it looked very close to the main capsule.

Now fully awake, Sam and I looked at each other and wondered what was going on. I called Jones on the hot line between us and asked him about the conversation he just had with the SAT. He said that right now above the Launch Control Facility (100 feet or so) was a white pulsating light with red and blue lights visible between the pulsations. He also said it was shaped like a “fat cigar” and appeared to be about 50 to 60 feet long. He was looking at it while we talked on the phone. Jones reported that it moved away.

Sgt. Jones called back in a few minutes and said that it appeared to stop a few miles away—very close to one of the Launch Facilities (LF) or missile sites. We ordered the cops to that missile site but they had to return to the capsule for batteries for their flashlights and other equipment. When they finally headed towards the silo, the pulsating light moved away before they got there. Over the next couple of hours the pulsating light made stops very close to several more missile sites. Each time we tried to send the cops to the site in question. Each time the cops said they had car problems and/or other equipment problems and never actually made it to any of the sites. According to Jones, some time around 4:30 AM it “whooshed away” and turned into a white dot within a few seconds. The white dot stayed in the sky for a few more seconds and then totally disappeared.

While this was going on, during one of our communication checks with all the other launch control capsule commanders in our squadron we mentioned the object and received some chuckles and ridicule. Within a minute or so one of the other commanders called our capsule [and] said that he was told by his topside crew that they had the same sort of lights over their missile sites earlier that night but didn't want to say anything about it in the communications check for fear of ridicule. He said that he had not and would not report the incident to headquarters—again for fear of ridicule. Sam and I reported it to SAC and Warren [Command Post] right after that call and were laughed at and told to call back if it “ate the cops” we had sent to check it out, which of course did not happen as they never got close to the sites. Even though we were laughed at each time we called, we made sure that it was officially reported with about 3 or 4 more calls to the [Command Post]. On the final call we insisted that they include it in their log or we would wake the base commander. I wish we had.

The next morning after our alert we were relieved by a new crew and went topside. Sgt. Jones was there curled up in a chair. He was wide awake and still quite upset and scared about his experience. We spent some time talking to him and trying to calm him down. Under promise that we wouldn't report the SAT actions, Sgt. Jones also told us that the cops were scared to death last night and had decided they were not going to drive to any of the sites that had “that thing” over it under any circumstances. That explained all their vehicle and equipment problems. To this day I am convinced that Sgt. Jones believed that he saw something very unusual that night and was sincere in his description of the activity. I did not see Sgt. Jones again on any other alert duty.

At the next several crew departure meetings all outgoing crews were briefed that this event never officially happened and not to talk to anyone about it. I did not recognize the individual who briefed us at that departure meeting.

As a serviceman who followed orders for 20 years I have had reservations about mentioning this incident. However, in the past several years I have read about or seen on the Larry King TV show cases where similar incidents have been reported by former military members. A former Missile commander, Robert Salas, especially comes to mind. Since skeptics appear to have challenged their integrity as well as their memory I think it is time for all of us that have been silent to talk about what we observed.

So, folks, check out Coast to Coast AM on Sunday, August 15th, to learn more about these bizarre but true UFO encounters. You will be amazed at what has been kept hidden from you by the U.S. government. The question is whether or not this official censorship should be allowed to continue, decade after decade. Not surprisingly, my own position on the issue is very clear: American citizens and the rest of the world deserve to know the facts.

More . . .

See Also:

UFOs & Nukes: Robert Hastings Sets The Record Straight!

PRESS RELEASE:
Robert Hastings, Author of UFOs and Nukes, to Appear on Coast To Coast AM, Tonight, Sunday July 26 2009


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UFO NEWS: UFO-Nukes Connection Researcher Robert Hastings to appear on Coast to Coast AM on August 15, 2010

By Robert Hastings
www.ufohastings.com
8-9-10

     I have been invited to appear on the Coast to Coast AM radio program on Sunday, August 15, 2010, for a two-hour interview with KLAS-TV reporter and host George Knapp. I will be discussing my 37-year investigation of UFO activity at nuclear weapons sites, as well as the September 27, 2010 press conference in Washington D.C. that I will be co-hosting with former nuclear missile launch officer, USAF Captain Robert Salas. At that event, six former or retired USAF officers, and one former enlisted man, will reveal their dramatic UFO experiences at various nuclear weapons sites.

In March 1967, Salas was present at Oscar Flight (10 Minuteman ICBMs controlled by a Launch Control Capsule) at Malmstrom AFB, Montana, when a UFO apparently shut down most or all of his missiles. This extraordinary event occurred just moments after one of Salas’ security guards reported seeing an orange-red, oval-shaped object hovering over the launch site’s front gate. The other launch officer in the capsule that day, now-retired Col. Fredrick Meiwald, has confirmed that a security police team was sent out to the field in a Jeep shortly thereafter, to investigate another report of a UFO hovering near one of Oscar Flight’s missile silos. According to Col. Meiwald, upon seeing the unknown aerial object, the missile guards were scared out of their wits and fled the scene, wasting no time in returning to the Launch Control Facility.

But this dramatic incident—which has been confirmed by a third former USAF officer, Captain Bob Jamison—is just the tip of the iceberg. Appearing with me on Coast to Coast AM will be yet another retired USAF missile launch officer, Captain Bruce Fenstermacher, who had a very similar experience in 1976, at F.E. Warren Air Force Base, Wyoming, which he summarizes this way:

I spent 20 years in the Air Force. The first nine years I served as an enlisted man and the last 11 as an officer. Initially I was very skeptical about all the “UFO nonsense”.

In the fall of 1976 I was a Minuteman III Combat Crew Commander on alert with my deputy “Sam”. We monitored radio communications between the Flight Security Controller, “Sgt. Jones”, and the cops—actually a Security Alert Team or SAT. They were on patrol near one of our 10 missile sites which was south about 9 or 10 miles from the Launch Control Facility or LCF.

Sometime around 2 A.M. we heard Sgt. Jones ask the two cops to stop the vehicle, look around and report anything that the saw that looked unusual. He gave no hints about where to look or what to look for. The response at first was that they didn't see anything. Then a few seconds later, they reported in an excited voice that they saw a pulsating white thing in the sky. They could see flashing red and blue lights between the pulsations. Jones asked where they saw it. The cops responded that it was to the north about 10 miles and that it looked very close to the main capsule.

Now fully awake, Sam and I looked at each other and wondered what was going on. I called Jones on the hot line between us and asked him about the conversation he just had with the SAT. He said that right now above the Launch Control Facility (100 feet or so) was a white pulsating light with red and blue lights visible between the pulsations. He also said it was shaped like a “fat cigar” and appeared to be about 50 to 60 feet long. He was looking at it while we talked on the phone. Jones reported that it moved away.

Sgt. Jones called back in a few minutes and said that it appeared to stop a few miles away—very close to one of the Launch Facilities (LF) or missile sites. We ordered the cops to that missile site but they had to return to the capsule for batteries for their flashlights and other equipment. When they finally headed towards the silo, the pulsating light moved away before they got there. Over the next couple of hours the pulsating light made stops very close to several more missile sites. Each time we tried to send the cops to the site in question. Each time the cops said they had car problems and/or other equipment problems and never actually made it to any of the sites. According to Jones, some time around 4:30 AM it “whooshed away” and turned into a white dot within a few seconds. The white dot stayed in the sky for a few more seconds and then totally disappeared.

While this was going on, during one of our communication checks with all the other launch control capsule commanders in our squadron we mentioned the object and received some chuckles and ridicule. Within a minute or so one of the other commanders called our capsule [and] said that he was told by his topside crew that they had the same sort of lights over their missile sites earlier that night but didn't want to say anything about it in the communications check for fear of ridicule. He said that he had not and would not report the incident to headquarters—again for fear of ridicule. Sam and I reported it to SAC and Warren [Command Post] right after that call and were laughed at and told to call back if it “ate the cops” we had sent to check it out, which of course did not happen as they never got close to the sites. Even though we were laughed at each time we called, we made sure that it was officially reported with about 3 or 4 more calls to the [Command Post]. On the final call we insisted that they include it in their log or we would wake the base commander. I wish we had.

The next morning after our alert we were relieved by a new crew and went topside. Sgt. Jones was there curled up in a chair. He was wide awake and still quite upset and scared about his experience. We spent some time talking to him and trying to calm him down. Under promise that we wouldn't report the SAT actions, Sgt. Jones also told us that the cops were scared to death last night and had decided they were not going to drive to any of the sites that had “that thing” over it under any circumstances. That explained all their vehicle and equipment problems. To this day I am convinced that Sgt. Jones believed that he saw something very unusual that night and was sincere in his description of the activity. I did not see Sgt. Jones again on any other alert duty.

At the next several crew departure meetings all outgoing crews were briefed that this event never officially happened and not to talk to anyone about it. I did not recognize the individual who briefed us at that departure meeting.

As a serviceman who followed orders for 20 years I have had reservations about mentioning this incident. However, in the past several years I have read about or seen on the Larry King TV show cases where similar incidents have been reported by former military members. A former Missile commander, Robert Salas, especially comes to mind. Since skeptics appear to have challenged their integrity as well as their memory I think it is time for all of us that have been silent to talk about what we observed.

So, folks, check out Coast to Coast AM on Sunday, August 15th, to learn more about these bizarre but true UFO encounters. You will be amazed at what has been kept hidden from you by the U.S. government. The question is whether or not this official censorship should be allowed to continue, decade after decade. Not surprisingly, my own position on the issue is very clear: American citizens and the rest of the world deserve to know the facts.

More . . .

See Also:

UFOs & Nukes: Robert Hastings Sets The Record Straight!

PRESS RELEASE:
Robert Hastings, Author of UFOs and Nukes, to Appear on Coast To Coast AM, Tonight, Sunday July 26 2009

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PRESS RELEASE:Robert Hastings, Author of UFOs and Nukes, to Appear on Coast To Coast AM, Tonight, Sunday July 26 2009

By The UFO Chronicles
7-21-09

     Noted UFO researcher, lecturer and author Robert Hastings will make his second appearance on Coast-to-Coast AM on July 26, 2009. Hastings will discuss important declassified U.S. government documents which confirm a decades-long UFO-Nukes Connection that began with some 150 reports of UFO activity at the Los Alamos atomic weapons laboratory as early as December 1948. According to one FBI document, dated January 31, 1949, these incidents were “considered top secret by Intelligence Officers of both the army and the air forces.”

On July 16, 1945, Los Alamos secretly tested the first atomic bomb in the desert near Alamogordo; bombs two and three were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan on August 6th and 9th respectively, thus ending World War II and ushering in the Nuclear Age. Not long thereafter, according to the declassified documents, someone piloting “flying discs” or “flying saucers” began to monitor America’s atomic and thermonuclear weapons program on an ongoing basis.

Information uncovered by Hastings and other researchers reveals that intermittent UFO surveillance of Los Alamos, and other nuclear weapons-related sites, continued throughout and the Cold War era and beyond, occurring as recently as 2006. One Air Force document declassified in 1977 reveals that several UFOs maneuvered near Minuteman nuclear missile sites outside of Malmstrom AFB, Montana, in November 1975. Some of those objects, which alternately hovered and flew around at high velocity, were also tracked on radar and chased, unsuccessfully, by jet fighters. One UFO was reported by missile security personnel to have an “orange white disc” appearance.

These dramatic incidents occurred some six years after the Air Force closed down Project Blue Book—its supposedly definitive UFO investigation—claiming that it had terminated the project because there was no evidence that UFOs posed a threat to national security. However, another now-declassified USAF document states that “Reports of unidentified flying objects which affect national security...are not a part of the Blue Book system.” Of course, the American public was never officially informed of this fact, which only became known after the document’s release years later. Researchers now have evidence that national security-related UFO incidents, including the missile base cases, were actually investigated by the Air Force Office of Special Investigations (OSI) and various counter-intelligence groups.

Hastings will also present stunning testimony from a few of the 100-plus former or retired U.S. Air Force personnel he has interviewed, who were involved in one or more of UFO incidents at nuclear missile sites over the years. According to those sources—which include missile launch officers, targeting officers, and maintenance personnel—missiles malfunctioned on a number of occasions, at different bases during the 1960s and ‘70s, just as UFOs were sighted hovering above their underground silos, or above their launch control facilities.

In other words, if nuclear war with the Soviet Union had erupted during any of those incidents, the affected missiles—which displayed what the Air Force refers to as a “Guidance and Control NO-GO” error—would have sat useless in their silos.

Even more shocking than those cases is the incident reported by former Minuteman missile launch officer David H. Schuur, who was stationed at Minot AFB, North Dakota, in the mid-1960s. According to Schuur, late one night, a UFO actually activated most of the ten missiles he controlled. At the time, he was in the underground Echo Flight Launch Control Capsule, receiving frantic calls from missile security guards topside, who were reporting an extremely bright object in the sky which rapidly moved from missile to missile, briefly hovering over each one. As the UFO lingered, that particular missile’s “Launch in Progress” button suddenly lit up on the control panel in the capsule. Schuur states that he had to quickly press an "Inhibit" circuit button to override the launch command apparently being sent to each missile by the UFO.

Schuur told Hastings that he does not know whether the missiles would have actually launched, had he not disrupted their countdown sequence, because several other “spurious indicators” had simultaneously appeared on his missile-readiness display panel. Significantly, a nearly identical incident occurred in Soviet Ukraine, on October 4, 1982, according to two retired Soviet Army officers interviewed by ABC News in 1994. The reporter, David Ensor, later worked at CNN as the network’s Chief National Security Correspondent.

Hastings has researched the UFO-Nukes Connection since 1973 and has been invited to speak about his findings at over 500 U.S. colleges and universities since 1981. He has just returned from two international lectures, in Stockholm Sweden and Curitiba, Brazil. His book, UFO and Nukes: Extraordinary Encounters at Nuclear Weapons Sites, is available ONLY at www.ufohastings.com

More . . .

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Launch in Progress!

Excerpt From UFOs and Nukes by Robert Hastings: 'Like a Diamond in the Sky'

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Launch in Progress!

By Robert L. Hastings
© Copyright 2008 - 2013

     Of all the interviews I’ve conducted with former or retired ICBM launch officers over the past three decades, this was perhaps the most disturbing. According to the source, David H. Schuur, a UFO had apparently activated the launch sequence in most of his Minuteman missiles.

In August 2007, Schuur told me, “I saw your request for information in the [June 2007] Association of Air Force Missileers Newsletter. I was involved in a UFO incident at Minot AFB in the mid-1960s. I had read your earlier article [in the September 2002 AAFM Newsletter] but was hesitant to respond.” I asked Schuur why he had been hesitant. He replied, “Well, we were basically told, way back when, that it was classified information and, you know, it didn’t happen and don’t discuss it. I guess I was still operating on that idea when I saw your first article.”

Schuur had obviously had a change of heart. He continued, “Anyway, I was a Minuteman missile crewmember in the 455th/91st Strategic Missile Wing at Minot from December 1963 through November 1967. I was a 1st Lieutenant during that period and the deputy commander that night. Since the incident occurred some 40 years ago, my memories are a bit foggy but, based on who my commander was at the time, I would say it occurred between July 1965 and July 1967.”

I asked Schuur if he could narrow the time-frame during which the incident occurred, by associating it with another event. He replied, “Not really, but my sense is that the incident occurred toward the end of my duty in the [missile] field, so it was probably during 1966, or ’67. I was pulling alert in the Echo [Launch Control] Capsule and was at the console at the time, probably early in the morning when the commander was sleeping. I know I was at Echo because that’s where I pulled almost all of my alert duty. My crew commander at the time has died. He was a Lieutenant Colonel at Minot, in his 50s—he was in the reserves, an old Korea veteran, who was recalled to duty in the early 1960s.”

“As far as the incident, here’s my best recollection of it: Alpha capsule, which was east of us, reported on PAS—the Primary Alerting System—that their security personnel were observing a large, bright object hovering over some of their missile sites. It was moving from missile to missile. I think the Alpha missile crew also reported that they were receiving ‘spurious indicators’ on their missile control console, but I’m not certain about that. I know that a few minutes later our capsule had spurious indicators—anomalous readings—from some of our missiles.”

I asked Schuur to explain PAS. He said, “It was an open line between SAC headquarters and the wing command posts. There was a speaker in each launch capsule and when the command posts issued a directive, or whatever, we were able to hear it. When Alpha had their UFO sightings, they alerted the command post, at which time the command post called SAC headquarters. So, when the report of the sightings went out, we all heard it on PAS.”

Schuur continued, “But it wasn’t just Alpha and Echo. Over the next hour or so—I don’t recall exactly how long it was—all of the flights reported that their [Security Alert Teams] were observing a UFO near their facilities. The path of the object could be followed as it passed over each flight area by the reports on the PAS. The object moved over the entire wing from the southeast to the northwest, following the layout of the wing.”

Schuur elaborated, “All of them—Bravo Flight, Charlie, Delta, right on down the line to Oscar—were reporting sightings of this object. Minot’s missile field is laid out like the letter ‘C’. Alpha is located southeast of the base, and the other flights—Bravo, Charlie and so forth—were south, southwest, west, northwest, then north of Minot. Oscar, the last flight, is at the top of the ‘C’, north of the base. The object—as far as I know, it was only one object—came across Alpha Flight, then moved all the way around the flights and ended up at Oscar. We could hear that on PAS. At Echo, it didn’t come close to the Launch Control Facility, it just visited the LFs (silos), then passed onto the next flight.”

“As far as our flight, Echo, a few minutes after hearing the report from Alpha, I received a call from topside security that a large bright light—actually, a large, bright object would be more accurate—was in the sky, to the east of the launch control facility. When the guard called down, he may have used the term ‘UFO’ but I don’t recall. He didn’t describe it’s shape or altitude because it was too far away. It never got close enough to the LCF to see any detail. At its closest, it was two, three, maybe four miles away from us, near one of the missile sites.”

Schuur continued, “However, when the object passed over our flight, we started receiving many spurious indications on our console. The object was apparently sending some kind of signals into each missile. Not every missile got checked [out] by the object, but there were several that did. Maybe six, seven, or eight. Maybe all ten got checked, but I don’t think so. As this thing was passing over each missile site, we would start getting erratic indications on that particular missile. After a few seconds, everything reset back to normal. But then the next missile showed spurious indicators, so the object had apparently moved on to that one, and did the same thing to it. Then on to the next one, and so on. It was as if the object was scanning each missile, one by one. The Inner Security and Outer Security [alarms were triggered] but we got those all the time, for one reason or another. However, on this particular night, we had to activate the ‘Inhibit’ switch because we got ‘Launch in Progress’ indicators! After a few minutes, the UFO passed to the northwest of us and all indicators reset to normal.”

I wanted to be certain about what I had just been told. I asked Schuur, “So, if you get a Launch in Progress indicator, does that mean the launch sequence has been triggered—that the missile is preparing to launch?” Schuur replied, “That means the missile has received a launch signal. When that happens, we get an indication in the capsule that a launch command has been received by that missile. If that happens, without proper authority, you flip what’s called an “Inhibit” switch, to delay the launch for a given period of time. If an Inhibit command comes in from another launch capsule, that shuts down the launch totally. But if that second command doesn’t come in, the missile will wait for a specified period of time and then launch automatically at the end of that expired period—theoretically. Of course, that night, we had all kinds of other indicators coming on from each missile so, in that situation, the launch probably would have aborted itself. I honestly don’t know.”

I asked Schuur if the Launch in Progress indicator had ever been triggered on any other occasion, either before or after the UFO incident, while he was on alert duty. He replied, “No, never.”

I asked Schuur if he had heard about missile maintenance teams having to replace components or whole systems in the affected missiles—the ones that generated the spurious readings. He replied, “No, if that happened, I never heard about it.”

Schuur said, “Upon returning to the base the next day, my commander and I were met by the operations officer. He just said, ‘Nothing happened, nothing to discuss, goodbye.’ Our logs and tapes were turned in. Every capsule had a 24-hour tape that, as I recall, recorded the communications that went over the PAS system, so all the reports would have been on that tape. But we were essentially told that nothing had happened that night and to discuss it no further. It was a non-event. We were never debriefed, by OSI or anyone else. We just went home. Most of the returning missile crews drove back to the base from their facilities, so they all arrived at different times. There was no group debriefing that I know of. I never heard another thing about the incident.”

I asked Schuur, “I know that you were given no feedback from your superiors, but what is your personal assessment of the event?” He replied, “Oh, I think something was up there, uh, scanning the missiles, seeing what was going on. Some kind of a scanning process.” I asked Schuur whether he thought the launch activation had been incidental or deliberate. He seemed surprised by my question and said, “I think that the scanning just set it off. It set all kinds of things off, we were getting all sorts of indicators. There were some kind of signals being sent [from the UFO] to the missile that inadvertently triggered the launch activation, but I don’t think it was deliberate. I hope not! That would have been—.” Schuur didn’t finish this sentence. His voice broke and he heaved a deep sigh. Apparently, the thought that those aboard the UFO might have deliberately attempted to launch his nuclear missiles that night had caused him to pause—and probably shudder—over 40 years later.

I obviously accept Schuur’s report as credible, but am of course attempting to locate other former members of his squadron who are willing to corroborate it. As Schuur candidly admitted, after reading my first article in the September 2002 AAFM newsletter, he waited some five years before approaching me. It was only after my second published request for information from former/retired USAF missileers, that he decided to unburden himself. This hesitant response is not atypical. Many of my former missile launch officer sources have not readily or easily divulged their UFO experiences to me, for one reason or another.

Importantly, to my knowledge, Schuur’s testimony represents the only credible report on record of a UFO temporarily activating a U.S. nuclear missile. However, there is one other reliable report of such an activation—in the Soviet Union. That incident will be discussed at length in a later chapter.

* From the book UFOs and Nukes by Robert Hastings
* Available only at www.ufohastings.com (after July 18, 2008)

Note-Below are comments made By "James Carlson," son of Captain Eric Carlson, member of the "Echo-Flight Missile Combat Crew"; a complete rejoinder to Mr Carlson's charges can be found here:

Did UFOs Cause the Shutdown of ICBMs at Malmstrom AFB, in March 1967?

See Also:

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