HOW 'BOUT THEM DEFENSELESS NUKES?
By Billy Cox
Herald Tribune
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Original LinkWhen he tested the limits of his security oath in 1995 and went public with how a UFO crippled a nest of nuclear missiles in Montana during the Cold War, former Air Force captain Robert Salas was on his own. No one else who worked inside or around those subterranean silos dared talk about how the world’s top superpower was unable to defend its own nuclear arsenal.
Today, “UFOs and Nukes” author Robert Hastings has 115 ex-USAF eyewitnesses on record, due in no small measure to Salas’ willingness to gamble that the feds wouldn’t go after him because prosecution would put them in a credibility jam. “If they did,” Salas says from his home in Ojai, Calif., “we could have a righteous trial.”
In 2005, the erstwhile deputy missile combat crew commander waved the red cape with even more vigor at the government bull by co-authoring “Faded Giant: The 1967 UFO/Missile Incidents.” Salas’ story was augmented by other witnesses and FOIA-acquired USAF documents acknowledging the Minuteman shutdown -- but without mentioning the U-word.
Salas and co-author Jim Klotz demonstrated how the hovering phenomenon that disabled fully armed nukes on the early morning of March 24, 1967, acted with impunity and deliberate intent, and that its actions weren’t confined to Salas’ post. On March 16, UFOs also visited an ICBM site some 60 miles away, and shut down all 10 of its missiles in similar fashion.
Having apparently dodged legal repercussions, the 68-year-old former FAA aircraft certification engineer remains puzzled over the lack of MSM interest in the vulnerabilities of our deadliest weapons systems. Aside from appearances on Larry King and niche shows like Art Bell and The History Channel, Salas’ story -- and those of a growing number of colleagues -- has been pretty much ignored by American media.
“I had high hopes for the Peter Jennings special,” says Salas in reference to the ultimately feckless ABC prime-time “investigation” in 2005. “They seemed really interested. They flew me out to Dallas and got two, three hours on videotape. But a week before the show, they called and said, ‘Sorry, we’ve got to cut you out.’ I don’t know if somebody got to them or what.”
Forty-two years later, Salas remains in awe of what happened at Oscar Flight, the code-named Minuteman silo belonging to the 341st Strategic Missile Wing. Shortly after jittery topside guards reported bright aerial objects pulsing silently above the security gate, klaxons started shrieking and the missiles began losing power in rapid succession, one by one, until six to eight amid the 10-shot cluster were reduced to no-alert status. Security upstairs reported the objects flew off immediately afterwards.
“Somehow,” recalls Salas, who monitored the control panels alongside bunker colleague Lt. Fred Mywald, “these objects were able to penetrate 65 feet of earth and a completely shielded cabling system with an electromagnetic pulse that sent signals to upset the most sophisticated weapons in the world.”
Those signals were strong enough to foil the missiles’ guidance and control mechanisms, Salas says. An account of the March ‘67 incidents is available [
here], but by no means are they the only ones involving UFO security breaches with nukes. Salas is in contact with plenty of other witnesses who’ve yet to come forward.
But even if they did, would the media bother to shrug?
“To me, it was a benevolent message,” says Salas, whose world view was forever altered by the event. “My own speculation is that these objects were saying we shouldn’t be messing with nuclear weapons because we might destroy ourselves.”
But maybe that’s not news.
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THE MALMSTROM AFB UFO MISSILE INCIDENTBy Jim Klotz and Robert Salas
November 27, 1996
Updated May 15, 2000
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