INCIDENT AT THE MALMSTROM ICBM AIR FORCE BASE, MONTANA
(USA)
A former USAF officer testifies before us!
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.
© Boeing
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
The Minuteman I missile from Boeing
© USAF Museum
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