On the morning of March 16, 1967, glowing, disk-shaped UFOs evidently shut down two wings of Minuteman ICBMs. Echo Flight lost all ten of its missiles during the encounters, while nearby Oscar Flight lost most of its missiles. This was puzzling to investigating engineers because the missiles were designed to be entirely independent of each other. Military records show the events were “cause for grave concern” at Strategic Air Command (SAC) headquarters.
Although widespread UFO activity was reported in Montana newspapers at the time, details about the Minuteman incidents were successfully covered up for several decades. Air Force personnel involved in the Minuteman-UFO encounters were sworn to secrecy by their commanding officers. The full story has only emerged in recent years, mainly because participants in the events decided the American public must finally know the truth. An abbreviated account of these events can be found on the Web (click here).
In late 1975, UFOs returned to the area surrounding Malmstrom AFB, repeatedly hovering over and interfering with ICBM facilities. This was a major story in Montana at the time and received extensive coverage in regional newspapers and other media. The evident interest of the UFOs in the ICBM sites was well known and reported locally, however the national news media turned a blind eye to these incidents, even though they continued over a period of several months.
The 1975 wave of UFO activity became the subject of a book, “Mystery Stalks the Prairie,” by then Cascade County Deputy Sheriff Keith Wolverton and journalist Roberta Donovan. Further details about these events were uncovered as a result of a series of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuits. Air Force records show that UFO activity also occurred at other military bases across the northern part of the United States during the same period.
Several commentators have speculated that these events may have been part of an elaborate attempt by the Air Force to test the security of the nation’s nuclear weapons force. Military eyewitnesses and Air Force records argue very strongly against this theory, however.
This brief summary was provided by Terry Hansen. For a detailed summary of the 1975 Minuteman ICBM encounters, see the opening chapter of his book The Missing Times.
