Malmstrom 1967: the 10 nuclear missiles that USAF reports recognize as deactivated

March 1967: the Cold War at its peak, 1000 ICBMs on alert

In March 1967, the Cold War experienced one of its peaks. The United States has deployed a thousand Minuteman ICBM intercontinental missiles in underground silos across several northern states, forming the backbone of strategic nuclear deterrence. Each of these missiles, controlled remotely from a launch station (LCF — Launch Control Facility), can be fired in a few minutes towards a pre-programmed target.

The air base of Malmstrom, in Montana, is home to 200 Minuteman I missiles, organized into 20 flights of 10 missiles each. The 341st Strategic Missile Wing of Strategic Air Command (SAC) ensures their operational availability 24/7.

8:45 a.m., Oscar Flight: 10 missiles go “no-go” in a few seconds

On the morning of March 24, 1967, Captain Robert Salas is a gunnery officer at Oscar Flight, an underground LCF located approximately 90 km from the main base. He is in service with his partner, 1st Lieutenant Frederick Meiwald. They are confined 18 meters underground in an armored capsule.

Around 8:45 a.m., Salas received a phone call from the security guard at the exterior gate. The guard reports that a orange-red luminous object, hovering approximately 100 meters above the gate, was observed by several members of the security team. The guard describes the object as "circular, without visible propulsion, of unidentifiable shape and behavior."

Salas reports the sighting to Meiwald. In the a few seconds after, the capsule control panel lights up: one, two, then ten red lights indicating a status "no-go" (impossible to fire) successively for the 10 missiles of the flight. The incident took place in less than 30 seconds.

“All the missiles went into no-go almost simultaneously. The painting lit up in a cascade. I heard Meiwald swear. We had never seen this. »

Robert Salas — deposition at the National Press Club, September 27, 2010

Echo Flight: the same incident, a week before

The Oscar Flight incident does not occur in isolation. A week earlier, the March 16, 1967, an almost identical event had occurred in Echo Flight — another Malmstrom launch station, located several tens of kilometers from Oscar. There too, 10 Minuteman missiles were in service no-go in seconds.

The commander of Echo Flight, Captain Eric Carlson, and his partner, 1st Lieutenant Walter Figel, had also received a UFO report from their surface security team. The sequence is documented in the USAF internal report, declassified in 1996 under the title "Echo Flight Incident — USAF Internal Report".

Robert Hastings, an independent researcher, has interviewed more than 30 years 160 former USAF and SAC soldiers having served on ICBM sites. His book UFOs and Nukes (2008) documents 50+ similar incidents on US nuclear bases (Malmstrom, Minot, F.E. Warren, Walker AFB) between 1948 and 1996.

September 27, 2010: the National Press Club conference in Washington

On September 27, 2010, at 11:00 a.m. local time, the National Press Club of Washington, D.C. hosts a press conference hosted by Robert Hastings. Seven former USAF soldiers speak, under their full names, to the international press. The subject: their direct observation of UFOs above American nuclear sites.

Among the speakers:

• Robert Salas, retired USAF captain — Oscar Flight incident, March 24, 1967.
• Bob Jamison, retired USAF captain — missile recommissioning team after the Echo incident.
• Charles Halt, retired USAF colonel — Bentwaters/Woodbridge UK incident, December 1980 (Rendlesham Forest).
• Patrick McDonough, USAF sergeant — nuclear site security Loring AFB, Maine.
• Bruce Fenstermacher, Captain USAF — F.E. Warren AFB.
• Jerome Nelson, USAF captain — Malmstrom, 1966.
• Dwynne Arneson, lieutenant colonel USAF — Malmstrom, communications.

Everyone is talking on the record, that is to say under their real identity, with their military rank, and incur their personal responsibility if their assertions are contested. The format is not an entertainment broadcast: it is a press conference in the heart of the Press Club, broadcast live on C-SPAN, publicly archived.

What the declassified USAF report says about Echo Flight

The USAF internal report "Echo Flight Incident" has been partially declassified as part of requests Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in the 1990s. The document, dated March 22, 1967, was written by the colonel commanding the 341st Strategic Missile Wing.

The report recognizes:

• What 10 Minuteman ICBM missiles effectively went into “no-go” state in cascade, over a period of a few minutes.
• Whatno conventional technical cause (electrical failure, software failure, loss of wired communication) could not be identified by the internal investigation team.
• That the event is qualified as "highly abnormal" by the commander who wrote the report.

The report briefly mentions the luminous object sightings by the surface security team, but does not formally correlate them to the missile failure. This correlation is made, on the other hand, by the witnesses themselves during their subsequent public statements.

What this case proves, and what it doesn't prove

The 1967 Malmstrom incident is one of the most well-documented UFO cases in the world. It combines several elements rarely combined:

• High-level military witnesses, identified, speaking on the record.
• Declassified internal USAF document confirming the technical materiality of the event.
• Concurring testimonies from different nuclear bases (Malmstrom, F.E. Warren, Minot, Bentwaters).
• Public hearing at the National Press Club, without official denial.

This does not mean, however, that the extraterrestrial origin of the objects observed has been established. Neither Salas, nor Hastings, nor any official report makes this claim. What is established is more precise:

1. Unidentified luminous objects have been observed above American nuclear sites.
2. Simultaneous and unexplained ICBM system failures occurred during or immediately after these observations.
3. The USAF has never published a proven conventional technical explanation.

The origin of the objects — drones unknown at the time, advanced Soviet technology, atmospheric phenomenon, or other — remains not established. It is precisely this "unestablished" status that makes the Malmstrom file singularly important: it documents a technical shortcoming of the US nuclear forces, for which the USAF has never published a satisfactory explanation in 58 years.