Malmstrom AFB UFO Missile Incident

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In 1967, extraordinary events happened in central Montana as UFOs evidently shutdown of Minuteman Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs) around Malmstrom Air Force Base (AFB). According to eyewitnesses and government documents, UFOs have displayed an interest in nuclear-weapons facilities.

1 Echo-Flight
2 Oscar-Flight
3 Investigation
4 More sightings
5 External links
6 Relevant discussion threads

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Echo-Flight

Thursday morning March 16 1967, Captain Eric Carlson and Lieutenant Walt Figel, were below ground at the Echo Flight Launch Control Center (LCC). The E-Flight LCC was located about 15 miles north of Lewistown Montana.

Missile maintenance crews and security teams had camped overnight at two of the Launch Facilities, having performed work during the previous day. During the early morning hours, several reports came from the security and maintenance crews that they had seen UFOs. One UFO was described as hovering directly above one of the E-Flight silos (Launch Facilities).

Around 8:30 a.m., Figel was briefing Carlson on the flight status when the alarm horn sounded. One of the Minuteman missiles had become inoperable and was now offline. Thinking that the maintenance crew on site had forgotten to notify him of some maintenance work which required the missile to be offline, Figel promptly called the site to find out what was going on.

Upon speaking with on-site security, Figel was told that there hadn't been any maintenance performed that morning, but there had been UFOs hovering around the site. Figel recalls thinking the guard must have been drinking. However, now other missiles started going offline in rapid succession. One by one they became inoperable due to a guidance and control system failure.

Two security teams were dispatched to the sites where the maintenance crews were present. The security teams reported back that UFOs had been seen hovering over the silos by all of the maintenance and security personnel at each site. Captain Don Crawford's crew relieved the Echo Flight crew later that morning and recalls that both Carlson and Figel were still visibly shaken by what had happened. It took Crawford's crew the entire day and into the evening to bring the missiles back on alert.

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Oscar-Flight

Oscar Flight LCC was located about 20 miles southeast of Echo-Flight LCC. Robert Salas was the Deputy Missile Crew Commander (as was Figel) below ground in O-Flight LCC that morning. Salas remembers receiving a phone call from an air security policeman who reported strange lights making incredible maneuvers over the facility and that they weren't aircraft. Finding the story to be unbelievable in nature, Salas didn't take the report seriously and informed the security officer that he keep watching them and to inform him if they get closer.

The security officer was a Non-Commissioned Officer (NCO), but Sales still found his behavior to be very odd, as the security policemen were usually very professional. A few minutes later, the security NCO called again. This time he was clearly frightened telling Salas "there's one hovering outside the front gate!"

The officer went on to describe it as a glowing red UFO and was clearly shaken and wanted to know what to do. Salas told him to secure the site and that he would phone the Command Post. Then the officer told him that he had to go as someone had gotten injured.

At this point Salas went to wake his commander, Lieutenant Fred Meiwald, who was on a scheduled sleep period. As he was briefing him on what was going on topside, an alarm sounded indicating problems at one of the missile sites. As the Lieutenant jumped into action to query the system another alarm sounded, then another and another. Within seconds, six to eight missiles were inoperable for unknown reasons.

After reporting the incident to the Command Post, Salas phoned the security guard to find out the man who had approached the UFO had not been seriously injured but was being evacuated by helicopter to the base. Salas then left the underground control center, and came topside to talk face to face with the security guard. The man repeated his story of a saucer shaped, glowing red UFO hovering just outside the front gate. Salas was bewildered and upon being relieved later that morning reported that the missiles had still not been brought back on line by maintenance teams.

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Investigation

A full scale investigation of the E-Flight incident took place, both on-site and in laboratory tests at Boeing's Seattle plant. No cause for the missile shutdowns was ever found. There were no significant engineering data or technical explanations that could explain how ten missiles were knocked off alert. The most that could be done to reproduce the effects (80% of the time) was by introducing a 10 volt pulse onto a data line.

The only way a pulse or noise could be sent in from outside the shielded system was through a electromagnetic pulse (EMP) from an unknown source. This conclusion was thought to be quite unbelievable, especially considering the technology of that day.

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More sightings

Retired USAF Col. Don Crawford reported that he had received a phone call from security in February 1967 about a UFO hovering over a launch facility (near Malmstrom AFB). Skeptical at first, Crawford ended up calling the Command Post, which refused to accept the report.

Minot AFB also received an unwelcome visit. On March 5, 1967, Air Defense Command radar tracked a UFO descending over the Minuteman missile silos in North Dakota. When F-106 fighters were scrambled the UFO climbed and streaked off at incredible speed.

Around that time period (in 1967) many UFO reports were made by both military personnel and civilians. Articles from local newspapers told of strange objects in the sky, however the major wired news networks did not pick it up. In 1975 more stories of UFOs interfering with the ICBM sites in Montana were reported. The full story emerged years later, as local participants came forward with their account of the events.

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