GUEST COLUMN
OPINION: Are UAPs nuclear sentinels? Part 3: Veil of deception
In 1953, following a contentious episode between the Navy and the Air Force that included UFO classification, the CIA-sponsored Robertson Panel marked a decisive shift toward methodical debunking, recommending that government agencies use "mass media" to strip UFOs of their "aura of mystery." This policy was broadly implemented, as verified by subsequent press coverage. Concurrently, strict regulations imposed severe penalties on military personnel for unauthorized UFO disclosures.
Throughout the late 1950s and 1960s, media coverage of UFOs collapsed. Aliens and spaceships became tabloid fodder. Writing or reporting on the topic was considered career suicide for journalists, despite continuing reports of UFOs from credible witnesses, including pilots and government officials.
The Air Force had reduced Project Blue Book to a minimal staff, and U.S. Air Force Capt. Edward Ruppelt was reassigned. In 1956, contradicting much of what he promoted while supervising Blue Book, Ruppelt wrote “The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects.” He disclosed that he had seen a classified document from 1947 that described UFOs as being of extraterrestrial origin.
Significantly, he also reversed previous dismissive comments, writing that UFOs were seen more frequently around areas vital to the defense of the United States. The Los Alamos-Albuquerque area, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and White Sands Proving Ground rated high.
Project Blue Book remained a public front for UFO inquiry until 1969, while most military observations were excluded and classified as top secret. Air Force personnel continued to face fines and court-martial for publicly acknowledging UFO sightings near strategic sites.
A chronological examination reveals that unknown forces continued to observe nuclear developments. Despite official dismissals, various incidents alerted the military to this undisguised interest. On numerous occasions, that interest became direct engagement.
The data from top secret files, along with firsthand accounts, show a deliberate pattern initiated by what was controlling the UFOs. The earliest incidents occurred at uranium enrichment laboratories and weapons assembly sites. Dozens of discs and strange lights appeared during and after nuclear bomb tests. Later, personnel at intercontinental ballistic missile silos across Montana and the Dakotas reported incidents — each holding missiles with nuclear warheads capable of reaching the other side of the planet in 30 minutes. UFOs also appeared at Strategic Air Command bases where bombers carrying nuclear payloads sat on constant alert. UFO researcher Robert Hastings interviewed over 160 Air Force personnel who, after years of silence, confirmed the incursions had continued — and intensified. Hastings’ book, “UFOs and Nukes,” presents an oral history filled with detailed accounts from eyewitnesses of the highest caliber describing intentional behavior of unidentified craft.
One dramatic example occurred in October 1962, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, when a giant cigar-shaped craft hovered over the Air Force base at Loring, Maine, one of the largest facilities in the Strategic Air Command's nuclear strike force. Two B-52 bombers loaded with nuclear weapons aborted their polar mission. At humanity's closest approach to nuclear war, something intervened.
In 1966, Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota housed a major Strategic Air Command Minuteman missile complex. David Schuur, a deputy missile commander, described to Hastings how, when he was on duty at his underground launch station, security teams sighted a UFO surveying the entire facility before it began hovering over each silo.
Schurr said: “As this thing was passing over each missile site, we would start getting erratic indications on that particular missile. After a few seconds, everything reset back to normal. But then the next missile showed spurious indicators, so the object had apparently moved on to that one and did the same thing to it. Then on to the next one, and so on. It was as if the object was scanning each missile, one by one. However, on this particular night, we had to activate the 'inhibit' switch because we got ‘launch in progress’ indicators! After a few minutes, the UFO passed to the northwest of us, and all indicators reset to normal.”
Schuur's account describes a systematic reconnaissance of each missile. The craft triggered the missiles' readiness to fire, forcing operators to activate emergency protocols to prevent an unauthorized launch. Whatever was overhead had penetrated the most secure systems in America's nuclear arsenal. This was not observation — this was a display of capability.
The pattern of direct interference continued.
In the spring of 1967, Capt. Robert Salas sat underground in a launch control capsule at Malmstrom Air Force Base, monitoring 10 ICBMs. The phone rang. A security guard, voice shaking, reported a glowing red object, 30 feet in diameter, suspended above the main gate.
Then the impossible happened. The missiles went offline. Not one. Not two. Ten ICBMs — independently operated, with redundant systems designed precisely to prevent simultaneous failure — all showed a "No- Go" status.
During the same period at Malmstrom, multiple reports described both a red orb and an object with extraordinary flight capabilities maneuvering overhead. Military investigators contend that the planet Mars was mistakenly identified as the red orb and attributed the system failure to an electronic glitch. Recently, the Air Force claimed the missiles went offline due to an electromagnetic pulse device they had been secretly testing.
An EMP test conducted without informing the commander or launch officers would entail great risk and violate basic operational protocol. The Pentagon's account — offered decades after the fact — raises more questions than it answers, particularly when incidents where missiles were made ready to fire had also occurred.
Witnesses to the Minot incursion are convinced that external forces had initiated launch sequences. At Malmstrom, they showed they could prevent them from firing. Taken together, the message was unmistakable: Something had proven that the Air Force no longer held exclusive control over its nuclear weapons. Whatever was conducting these forays possessed the capability to command America's ICBMs — whether to launch them or disable them.
Salas would maintain his silence about ICBM missiles going offline at Malmstrom for 30 years, understanding that speaking out about UAP controlling nuclear weapons meant ridicule, financial penalties and the risk of court-martial.
These accounts are only a sampling of Hastings' interviews documenting the experiences of many brave Air Force veterans who revealed the truth about events that had been suppressed. But incidents with numerous witnesses could not always be hidden by the military, and some have been confirmed with evidence from government files.
In October 1975, a UFO once again violated the perimeter at Loring Nuclear Air Force Base in Maine. Initially detected at a distance and described as resembling a helicopter, the silent object approached the secure storage area for nuclear warheads. Eyewitnesses with a clear view described the craft as metallic, cigar-shaped and without any visible means of propulsion.
The airfield went to maximum security. Records show that the CIA, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the National Security Administration were immediately informed. The craft evaded all attempts at interception before departing at unprecedented speed. Over the next four days, additional unidentified objects appeared. Strategic Air Command and ICBM bases across the country went on high alert.
The government has worked diligently to deflect and minimize these incidents, but that effort has begun to fail.
Next week: Are UAPs nuclear sentinels? Part 4: Intervention and disclosure
David Marks is a veteran investigative journalist and documentary producer whose work has appeared on the BBC and PBS, including “Nazi Gold,” which exposed Switzerland's role in World War II.
