Who: Captain Eric Carlson, First Lieutenant Walt Figel, Deputy Missile Combat Crew Commander Robert Salas
What: A glowing, red, saucer shaped UFO, hovered silently over the Echo-Flight Launch Facilities. Deputy Crew Commander Walt Figel was briefing Crew Commander, Captain Eric Carlson on the flight status when the facilities alert alarm went off. 10 missiles had gone off-line and were inoperable.
A few miles from Echo-Flight Launch Control Center, Missile Combat Crew Commander, Robert Salas, was at the Oscar Flight LCC. He recalls that Airmen on duty probably spent time looking up at the night sky and would often see falling stars. On this particular morning, one of the airmen spotted a “star” that began to zig-zag across the sky. Then another light appeared and did the same movements, but was larger and closer. The lights both streaked across the sky directly above, would stop and then change directions at high speed, then return to the above position over the facility. Security phoned Salas twice; first, with the reports of strange lights, but Salas did not take much of an interest. Security, then phoned again, to report the glowing red saucer sitting in front of them. The phone call ended abruptly when security said that one of the men approached the UFO and was inured. Later it was reported that the man was not seriously injured, but was evacuated by helicopter to the base. With maintenance crews working all day and night, the missiles still remained out of service for the whole day.
When: 8:00 A.M., March 16, 1967
Where: Malmstrom Air Force Base, central Montana
Clearing up possible false claims and confusion
Eric Carlson, in an interview, said he never saw any UFOs nor did he hear about any being near the launch facilities. Walt Figel also claimed he never saw any UFOs at the base during the missile shut down either, but that when he heard the claims of a UFO being the cause, he laughed it off as a joke. These officers that reported the missile shutdowns were not the same officers and security that reported seeing a UFO during that time. Information as to why the missiles shut down was classified and both Carlson and Figel would never know that information. Any story reporting that Carlson and Figel saw the UFOs would be a false claim. Salas is now an avid lecturer on UFOs after he saw a book that mentioned the incident at E-Flight LCC. He thought the story was now declassified and he could talk about his experiences with UFOs while working at Oscar Flight. Apparently on three different occasions, within the span of two months, this same incident happened at Malstrom where UFOs were spotted and soon after missiles were turned off-line.
In addition to the incidences at Malmstrom, a year before, a UFO was spotted over the Minot Air Force Base Minuteman missile LCC. The documents for this sighting have been declassified and you can read them below. [source: www.theufochronicles.com]
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