Linda Moulton Howe's
EARTHFILES.COM
Malmstrom AFB in March 1967
“All ten missiles in ECHO Flight at Malmstrom lost strat alert
within ten seconds of each other. ... The fact that no apparent reason
for the loss of ten missiles can be readily identified is cause for
grave concern to this headquarters.”
- Strategic Air Command to Hill AFB, March 17, 1967
Illustration in 2006 by investigator and author
Robert Hastings of unidentified flying disc near USAF missile site.
Malmstrom AFB in Great Falls, Montana, is north of Helena and about 100 miles south of the Canadian border. Malmstrom is one of three U.S. Air Force Bases that maintains and operates modern Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles. From 1960 until 1997, the Minuteman I and Minuteman II were in service, and in 1963, the Minuteman missile was officially designated LGM-30 in the Department of Defense's revised aircraft and missile designation system. The L stands for the launch environment and indicates the missile is fired from an underground silo. G indicates the missile is designed to be directed against ground targets. The M means it is a guided missile, not an unguided rocket. 30 is the sequence number of the Minuteman design in the USAF missile inventory. All the original Minuteman I and II missiles have been retired.
Today, the LGM-30 Minuteman III is a U.S. nuclear missile, a land-based intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). The L indicates it is silo-launched; the G means it is designed to attack ground targets; and the M indicates it is a guided missile. The name “Minuteman” comes from the Revolutionary War’s Minutemen. Further, the missile can be launched in about one minute. The Air Force planned to keep the Minuteman missiles in service until 2020, but it might be upgraded to stay in service until 2030.
The current Minuteman force has 450 Minuteman III missiles manufactured by Boeing in missile silos around F.E. Warren AFB, Cheyenne, Wyoming; Malmstrom AFB, Great Falls, Montana; and Minot AFB, North Dakota.
missiles manufactured by Boeing in missile silos around F.E. Warren AFB, Cheyenne,
Wyoming; Malmstrom AFB, Great Falls, Montana; and Minot AFB, North Dakota.
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UFOs Shut Down 20 ICBMs
at Malmstrom AFB in March 1967
Forty-three years ago on March 16, 1967, at Malmstrom AFB, the ECHO Flight crew was 60 feet underground in the Flight Launch Control Center (LCC) located 90 miles east of Great Falls. To everyone’s astonishment, large, reddish-orange, glowing aerial discs were seen by the Security Alert Teams. Simultaneously, ten Minutemen intercontinental ballistic missiles started going off line, one at a time, every second. That meant TEN of America’s most secure military weapons 60 feet underground had been controlled and shut down by a force from above ground.
Then incredibly, the same thing happened eight days later on March 24, 1967, to OSCAR Flight. Ten more ICBMs were shut down one at a time every second. One of the USAF personnel in a missile bunker 60 feet underground was 1st Lt. Robert L. Salas, who had graduated from the U. S. Air Force Academy in 1964. While in the USAF, Bob Salas received his Masters Degree in Aerospace Engineering in 1969. In April 1971, he received an honorable discharge as a USAF Captain and went on to work for Martin-Marietta and Rockwell International as an aerospace engineer working on space shuttle proposals. Then in 1974, Bob Salas was hired by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in aircraft certification and aircraft structures and worked as a structural engineer for aircraft until 1995. Since retirement from the FAA, Bob has taught high school mathematics in Ojai, California, and tutored students in math.
On September 27th, 2010, at the National Press Club in Washington, D. C., Bob Salas joined six other witnesses to the ECHO and OSCAR Flight shut downs in a presentation he had organized with UFO investigator, Robert Hastings. They want the press and public know that it’s not true when U. S. government authorities say there never was a UFO threat to national security.
INTERVIEW:
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NO ONE FROM THE GOVERNMENT HAS EVER APPROACHED YOU OFF THE RECORD TO SAY, ‘KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT’?
I think they tried to keep my mouth shut. In 1969, I was transferred to Wright-Patterson AFB to finish up my Master’s Degree (Aerospace Engineering) and not long after I arrived, I was ordered to go to the base psychiatrist’s office. I didn’t know why, but I went ahead to the hospital. The base psychiatrist orderly came out and wanted me to talk to the psychiatrist.
I asked him for what reason was I called in there. I hadn’t complained about anything.
He said, ‘The base psychiatrist will let you know that.’
And I said, ‘No, I’m not going to go back and talk to him about anything.’ Because I knew it would go on my record.
Later, the orderly comes out and he released me. I suspect they wanted to hear my UFO story so they could put it on the record. That’s the closest I got to where they put pressure on me to keep my mouth shut.
IF YOU HAD TALKED TO THE PSYCHIATRIST, THEY WOULD BE ABLE TO HOLD THAT OVER YOU AS A QUESTION OF YOUR CREDIBILITY FOR THE REST OF YOUR CAREER AND LIFE.
That’s correct. So, I was happy I made that decision not to go into the psychiatrist’s office.
USAF Lt. Salas Ordered to Sign
Non-Disclosure Statement
GIVEN THE FACT THAT YOU WERE AN EYEWITNESS ON THE MARCH 24, 1967 OSCAR FLIGHT INTERRUPTION OF PERHAPS TEN ICBMS THAT DATE AND THAT 9 DAYS BEFORE ON MARCH 16, 1967, AT ECHO FLIGHT, TEN ICBMS WENT DOWN IN SEQUENCE WITH IN SECONDS. DID ANYBODY IN THE USAF OR ANY OTHER AGENCY EVER COME TO YOU AND SAY, ‘THIS IS WHY WE HAVE TO KEEP THIS UNDER WRAPS’?
No. No one ever talked to me after the next morning when I was debriefed in my Squadron Commander’s office. We were told to sign a non-disclosure statement, which I did, by the way. We were told never to talk about the incident again. And nobody ever talked with us about it again and I never spoke about it until 1994 (27 years later).
BUT DID YOU ASK BACK IN 1967, ‘WHY ARE WE BEING ASKED TO SIGN NON-DISCLOSURE AGREEMENTS ABOUT SOMETHING AS SIGNIFICANT AS THIS?’
I certainly did. My commander – the first question I asked him when I walked into his office – I said, ‘Was this some kind of an Air Force exercise?’
And he said, ‘Absolutely not!’
And then the guy from AFOSI (Air Force Office of Special Investigations) said, ‘Sign here, and we will never speak of this again.’ I even wanted to know why I should sign it because I had Above Top Secret clearance already. But he said, ‘No, this specific incident, you have to sign this.’
THE AFOSI AGENT STANDING NEXT TO HIM, HE WAS NOT GOING TO ALLOW YOU TO HAVE ANY DIALOGUE ABOUT THIS? IT WAS, ‘SIGN THIS NON-DISCLOSURE IF YOU WANT TO HAVE A CAREER?’
Exactly. In fact, a day or two – maybe a week – later, one or two of the guards called me at home and wanted to sit down and talk to me. They were very upset with this whole thing. They couldn’t understand it. And I had to turn them down. I said, ‘I can’t talk about it because I’ve signed this non-disclosure thing. I can’t talk about it again.’
“Absolutely Not” Terrestrial Aircraft
DID YOU ALL KNOW AT THE TIME THAT YOU WERE DEALING WITH SOMETHING FROM OUTER SPACE THAT WAS NOT HUMAN?
Absolutely we knew it! These were not aircraft. We even discussed this in that first phone conversation I had with the guards. They assured me these were not airplanes! So they knew they were something from elsewhere.
IN FACT IN MARCH 1967, ONE OF THE ECHO FLIGHT SECURITY POLICEMEN – AND I’M QUOTING FROM YOUR 1999 SUMMARY OF ALL THIS BY ROBERT SALAS AND JIM KLOTZ . YOU REPORTED THAT ONE OF THE SECURITY POLICEMEN WAS SO AFFECTED BY HIS ENCOUNTER WITH ONE OF THE BIG, RED, GLOWING OBJECTS IN THE SKY THAT ‘HE NEVER RETURNED TO MISSILE SECURITY DUTY.’
That’s true. In fact, that happened not only at ECHO Flight, but at OSCAR Flight. I know at least one case where one of the security guards lost control of himself and wandered off. They had to bring people out to pick him up and take him to the base hospital. He was just out of it!
HOW WERE THE SAT (Security Alert) TEAM DESCRIBING WHAT THEY WERE SEEING?
It was a reddish-orange, pulsating object. It was about 30 feet in diameter and it was just sitting there (in the air). It had all the guards out there with their weapons out and they were frightened. Very frightened!
YOU WERE GETTING THESE DESCRIPTIONS DOWN UNDERGROUND ABOUT HOW DEEP?
Yeah, I was sixty feet underground. We were locked in. We were obligated to stay there until we were relieved by another crew - obviously because we were in control of ten nuclear weapons.
Boeing Concluded Electromagnetic Pulses
from Outside Silos Shut Down Missiles
THE BOEING INVESTIGATORS CONCLUDED – AND THIS IS READING FROM YOUR 1999 SUMMARY – ‘TO REPRODUCE THE EFFECTS ON THE ICBMS THAT WENT DOWN, A 10-VOLT PULSE WOULD HAVE TO BE INTRODUCED INTO THE DATA LINE,’ HOW DID THEY REACH THAT CONCLUSION?
One of the Boeing engineers, Mr. (Robert) Rigert, did a bench test on the guidance and control package. We got information when the missiles went down that we had guidance and control system failure and logic coupler failure. The logic coupler is part of the computer system that helps orient the missile in flight on target. So, I think he (Rigert) did a bench test – in other words, he had the equipment on a bench and input a certain signal or wavelength – and was able to shut the system down.
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SAC Telex to Hill AFB, March 17, 1967
“All ten missiles in ECHO Flight at Malmstrom lost strat alert
within ten seconds of each other. ... The fact that no apparent reason
for the loss of ten missiles can be readily identified is cause for
grave concern to this headquarters.”
Hill AFB, Utah, and others including Malmstrom AFB, Montana; Boeing Co.,
Seattle, Washington; and Norton AFB, California, dated March 17, 1967, about
ECHO Flight shut down of ten ICBMs the day before on March 16, 1967. Then 10 more
were shut down at OSCAR Flight by unidentified external EMP on March 24, 1967.
BOB, YOUR OWN 1999 SUMMARY SAYS, ‘THE TECHNOLOGY OF 1967 MADE GENERATING AN ELECTROMAGNETIC PULSE OF SUFFICIENT MAGNITUDE TO ENTER THE SHIELDED SYSTEM A VERY DIFFICULT PROPOSITION REQUIRING LARGE, HEAVY, BULKY EQUIPMENT. THE SOURCE OF THE PULSE THAT CAUSED THE MISSILE SHUT DOWNS REMAINS A MYSTERY TO THIS DAY.’
Right. And that’s why Boeing concluded that they could find no reasonable cause for this. They could not explain it. They could not understand it.
Missile Shut Downs Were Threat to National Security
AGAIN, QUOTING FROM YOU: ‘THE USAF HAS CONFIRMED THAT ALL OF THE ECHO FLIGHT’S MISSILES SHUT DOWN WITHIN SECONDS OF EACH OTHER AND THAT NO CAUSE FOR THIS COULD BE FOUND.’ HOW COULD THEY MAINTAIN THAT NO REPORTED UFO INCIDENT HAS EVER AFFECTED NATIONAL SECURITY?
Exactly! Exactly my point! That’s why we have a standoff here with the Air Force. It’s a contradiction. They cannot, on the one hand, say that they can’t explain how these missiles went down within seconds of each other, and on the other hand say that national security was not involved. I mean, they are talking out of both sides of their mouths!
AS WE SPEAK ON OCTOBER 12, 2010, WHAT IN YOUR MIND COULD EXPLAIN IN THE 21ST CENTURY NOW A POLICY OF DENIAL IN THE INTEREST OF NATIONAL SECURITY BEING MAINTAINED AND PERSISTING AFTER 60 YEARS?
The only way I can explain it is that there is a very influential small group of individuals within the government – and maybe also outside of government – that are controlling this information, keeping it from (U. S.) presidents and are just not inclined to release it for their own reasons. It’s high time it stopped. It’s got to stop! The public needs to be involved in this conversation.
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Other UFOs and Missile Events:
- August 1, 1965, Warren AFB, Cheyenne, Wyoming
- August 24-25, 1966, Minot AFB, North Dakota
- March 5, 1967, Minot AFB, North Dakota
- June 6, 1968, Minot AFB, North Dakota
- October 24, 1968, Minot AFB, North Dakota
The interaction of glowing, unidentified, round craft in the skies with American ICBMs did not start or end in March 1967. The following are some other events.
August 1, 1965, Warren AFB, Cheyenne, Wyoming
About eight months earlier on August 1, 1965, beginning at 1:30 AM at F.E. Warren AFB in Cheyenne, Wyoming, various personnel at Warren AFB - including the base commander—telephoned Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, to report several UFO sightings at Warren’s Minuteman missile sites.
Investigator Robert Hastings summarized some of the Warren AFB August 1, 1965 events in his 2008 book, UFOs and Nukes, this way:
“4:40 A.M. - Captain Howell, Air Force Command Post, called Dayton and Defense Intelligence Agency to report that a Strategic Air Command Team at Site H-2 at 3:00 A.M. reported a white oval UFO directly overhead. Later Strategic Air Command Post passed the following: Francis E. Warren Air Force Base reports (Site B-4 3:17 A.M.) –A UFO 90 miles east of Cheyenne at a high rate of speed and descending—oval and white with white lines on its sides and a flashing red light in its center moving east; reported to have landed 10 miles east of the site.
3:20 A.M. - Seven UFOs reported east of the site.
3:25 A.M. - E Site reported six UFOs stacked vertically.
3:27 A.M. - G-1 reported one ascending and at the same time, E-2 reported two additional UFOs had joined the seven for a total of nine.
3:28 A.M. - G-1 reported a UFO descending further, going east.
3:32 A.M. - The same site has a UFO climbing and leveling off.
3:40 A.M. - G Site reported one UFO at 70' azimuth and one at 120' . Three now came from the east, stacked vertically, passed through the other two, with all five heading west.”
August 24-25, 1966, Minot AFB, North Dakota
NICAP report: "Minuteman Site Jammed By UFO, North Dakota, August 24*, 1966 - A United States missile program supervisor claims that mysterious unidentified flying objects have seriously imperiled national security. The Air Force denies it. Raymond E. Fowler, project supervisor on a Minuteman missile program near Boston, asserts that [UFOs] have penetrated the restricted air space above America's missile sites, jamming vital electronic equipment. He also says the objects eluded fighter aircraft scrambled to intercept them.
Specifically, Mr. Fowler says he talked with an Air Force officer who had been in one of the subterranean Launch Control Facilities [LCFs] of a North Dakota Minuteman site on August 25, 1966, when radar operators picked up a UFO maneuvering over the base at 100,000 feet. The officer declared that the LCF's sophisticated radio equipment, that enables it to receive firing instructions from coordinating centers and transmit them to the silo Launch Facilities [LFs] was blocked out by static when the UFO hovered directly over it. Mr. Fowler recalls the officer saying that he could conceive of "nothing on earth" that could caused the equipment to malfunction from such an altitude, emphasizing that it was working perfectly before the object appeared overhead and after it left."
Minot AFB, North Dakota, UFO Report to AFSC (FTD), Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio,
dated August 30, 1966, concerning UFO events over nuclear missile sites on August 25, 1966,
signed by Chester A. Shaw, Jr., Major, USAF, Base Director of Operations.
Mr. Fowler reported he was told that communications between F-106 aircraft sent to investigate and armed jeep patrols on the ground dispatched to a spot where the first UFO appeared to land were jammed by strong radio interference. Missile site control also experienced intense static disruptions in efforts to communicate with its strike-teams.
After UFOs left, Ray Fowler reported that Air Force Intelligence teams showed up at Minot AFB and told eyewitnesses to keep quiet. Ray Fowler says that a Joint Chiefs of Staff regulation last updated in 1966 established a system for reporting UFO sightings to the Aerospace Defense Command in Colorado Springs and imposes stiff penalties for unauthorized disclosures of UFO information.
March 5, 1967, Minot AFB, North Dakota
Air Defense Command radar tracked an unidentified target descending over the Minuteman missile silos of the 91st Strategic Missile Wing at Minot AFB, ND. Base security teams quickly converged on the area and saw a metallic, disc-shaped craft ringed with bright, flashing lights moving slowly. The disc stopped and hovered about 500 feet (150 meters) off the ground, as security police held their fire and watched in awe. Suddenly the object began moving again and circled directly over the launch control facility.
F-106 fighter-interceptors were standing by on the flight line, waiting for an order from NORAD to scramble. When the order was not forthcoming, Minot AFB base operations decided on their own to scramble the interceptors. At that moment, the UFO climbed straight up and streaked away at incredible speed.
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At 0330 hours, the controllers received information that there was a UFO twenty-four miles to the northwest. A B-52 jet bomber (JAG 31) flying at 2000 feet was on a calibration check and requested a clearance from radar personnel.
At 0334 “MIB (Minot) approach control does JAG 31 have clearance to WT fix at Flight Level 2000?
“JAG 31, Roger climb out on a heading of 290 climb and maintain 5000. Stand by for higher altitude. We're trying to get it from center now.
At 0335, the controller asked, “And JAG 31 on your way out to the WT fix request you look out toward your one o'clock position for the next fifteen miles and see if you see any orange glows out there?”
“Roger, roger glows 31, someone is seeing UFOs again!”
“Roger I see a........” (Rest of transmission garbled)
At 0352, the controller then radioed, “Three one, the UFO is being picked up by weather's radar also. Should be at our one o'clock position three miles now”
The pilot said, “We have nothing on our airborne radar and I'm in some pretty thick haze now and unable to see out that way.”
At 0358, the pilot then requested an instrument guided approach, and received instructions. The pilot called, and then the transmitter went dead, but they could hear instructions from the ground. The controller asked them to squawk “ident,” which meant to use the aircraft's transponder that would paint the controller's radar with a large, glowing blip with the aircraft's identification.
At 0400, the controller then radioed, “JAG 31 if you hear me squawk ident...JAG 31 ident observed. Cleared for the approach attempt. Contact on frequency 271 decimal three and you're cleared for the low approach.” They continued to have radio problems for another couple of minutes.
At 0402, they were able to communicate easily. The pilot said, “Our UFO was off to our left side when we started penetration.”
“Roger, understand you did see something on your left side. We had a radar return at about a mile and a quarter, at nine o'clock position for about the time we left 200 to 14...”
They discussed the troubles with the transmission and then, the controller said, “Affirmative. I was wondering how far out did you see that UFO?”
“He was about one and a half miles off our left wing at 35 miles when we started in and stayed with us 'til about 10.”
“I wonder if that could have been your radio troubles?”
“I don't know.... But that's exactly when they started.”
“At 0413, Jag 31 are you observing any more UFOs?”
“Negative on radar. We can't see anything visually.”
“JAG 31, request you have someone report to base ops after you land.”
Frustrated over the decades since his traumatic experience underground when the OSCAR Flight ICBMs went down on March 24, 1967, and the United States Air Force continues to deny there have been any national security threats from UFOs at Malmstrom AFB or other bases, in 2005 Bob Salas and his co-author James Klotz released a book, Faded Giant: The 1967 Missile/UFO Incidents. “Faded Giant” is a military acronym for an event involving a nuclear reactor or other radiological accident. Bob's website is: http://www.spiralgalaxy.org/
Bob Salas also has a Facebook website, www.spiralgalaxies.org, where the seven affidavits of the seven eyewitnesses to UFOs shutting down ICBMs at Malmstrom AFB in 1967 can be seen, plus video testimonies.
Email from Earthfiles Viewer About
Davis Monthan AFB and Missiles, Tucson, Arizona
Subject: Hi Linda - Davis Monthan AFB Missiles, 1964-1967
Date: October 24, 2010
To: earthfiles@earthfiles.com
“My x-husband (now deceased) and I were transferred to Davis Monthan AFB in Tucson, Arizona,and we were there from approximately 1964 to 1967.
He worked as a pad chief on one of the underground missile sites.
There was a problem with many of the missiles because they would not hold
a destination. That means they all had a programmed target and it
was changed and could not be fixed. My husband said someone thought
it was espionage. The AF took 2 or 3 missiles over ground to Vandenberg AFB (Calif).My husband traveled with the convoy. When they got to Vandenberg and tested the missiles, they would not fire. There was no way to shoot them off. There must be some record of the missiles traveling over ground (Tucson to Vandenberg). There would have to be road closings or such. There must be others that remember this. The 2 people I can remember are both dead. I heard nothing more of this and didn't ask as I was young and really didn't care to put 2 and 2 together."
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