Spodnik states that one summer night in 1966, he and a fellow Electro-Mechanical Team technician were dispatched to Launch Facility (silo) Juliet-3 to correct an electrical malfunction. For some reason, both the commercial power supply to the site and the emergency power systems had simultaneously failed, rendering the Minuteman I missile temporarily inoperable. In Air Force parlance, the ICBM had “gone off alert status”.
After restoring power to the launch facility, Spodnik and his partner began an automated start-up procedure which would return the missile to normal operational status. When they left the underground silo to take a break, the technicians’ security escort alerted them to a sudden, excited exchange over the Crew Cab’s two-way radio. As the three men listened, they learned that an armed Air Force Security Alert Team had been ordered to investigate a triggered security alarm at nearby Launch Facility Juliet-5. Furthermore, the missile there had abruptly dropped off alert status. As with Juliet-3, the site had lost commercial electrical power and its diesel-powered generator, designed to charge back-up batteries, had failed to start.
When the Security Alert Team arrived at Juliet-5, they reported that a strange object was sitting on the ground inside the security fence that surrounded the missile silo. As Spodnik and his companions eavesdropped, they heard the Flight Security Controller order the SAT to approach the object. Obviously upset, the team leader responded that he would not do so. He said that his team was parked outside the gate to the launch facility but would go no further. He then reported that the mysterious object was round, apparently metallic, and resting on a tripod landing gear.
As this drama was unfolding over the radio, Spodnik and his companions quickly climbed up on the Crew Cab’s roof and flat bed to get a better view of the adjacent missile silo, which was about four miles away. Gazing across the flat, open terrain, they noticed an intense glow that seemed to envelop the entire launch facility, much brighter than the security lights located there.
By this time, the Flight Security Controller had notified Juliet Flight’s Launch Commander about the situation. Spodnik could only hear the radio conversation between the Flight Security Controller and the Security Alert Team, but the Launch Commander had apparently ordered the team to approach the unidentified object. Once again, the team leader refused. In a strained voice, he abruptly asked for permission to fire on the object. In response, the Flight Security Controller yelled, “Negative! Don’t shoot until you know what’s going on!” He then informed the agitated security team leader that the Launch Commander had ordered the men to stand-by while he called the Missile Command Post at Ellsworth AFB. After a few moments, the team leader was told that a helicopter was being sent to the site.
Spodnik states that about 30 minutes after the Command Post had been notified about the UFO landing, he saw the helicopter in the distance, as it approached the stricken launch facility. When it was about five minutes away, someone screamed into the radio, “There it goes!” Instantly, Spodnik saw a brilliant white light directly above Juliet-5, ascending vertically at enormous velocity. He said that while he couldn’t see the object itself, the light beneath it had the appearance of an “inverted flashlight beam”.
After the furor had subsided, Spodnik and his partner finished their work at Juliet-3 and returned to the base. Upon arriving, they and their security escort were unexpectedly met by the missile maintenance commander, who promptly asked them if they had seen or heard anything unusual while at the launch facility. The security guard readily admitted to eavesdropping on the two-way radio, confessing that he was baffled by what had taken place at Juliet-5.
Glancing nervously at each other, Spodnik and the other technician impulsively denied having witnessed anything out of the ordinary. Both men told the commander that they had spent the entire visit to the launch facility underground, restoring the missile to alert status.
When I asked Spodnik why he had not admitted to listening to the radio chatter, he replied that he and his partner had previously heard rumors about missile technicians being relieved of duty for reporting strange occurrences at ICBM sites. “We heard about people reporting seeing things,” he said, “Not necessarily UFOs, just anything oddball that couldn’t be explained rationally. Those guys were ordered to report to the [base] hospital, examined, and medically discharged as mentally unfit for military service.” Spodnik admitted that he didn’t personally know of anyone who had been treated in this manner, but rumors to that effect had been circulating within his squadron.
Spodnik was undoubtedly referring to a Department of Defense regulation known as “PRP”—Personnel Reliability Program. As mentioned earlier, this directive is designed to govern the behavior of those who work with or around nuclear weapons. Under its guidelines, potentially severe consequences await those judged by their superiors to be psychologically unstable. Several former Air Force missile personnel whom I have interviewed have said that, because of this regulation, they also had concerns about reporting their own UFO sighting, and often did not.
Spodnik said that the maintenance commander, upon hearing his denial, eyed him suspiciously and then ordered the two technicians to report to his office early the next morning. Upon arriving there, Spodnik noticed that the commander had with him an individual dressed in civilian clothes. This person was not introduced, said nothing, took no notes, but listened attentively as Spodnik and his partner answered the commander’s questions about the events of the previous evening. Now very nervous, the pair nevertheless stuck to their story—they had seen and heard nothing. After a several-minute interrogation, the maintenance commander ordered the two men to report to duty.
Spodnik further stated that the neither he nor his partner ever saw their security escort again. Ordinarily, standard duty rotation would have ensured that the same individual be assigned to accompany Spodnik on some future maintenance call, but this never occurred. Spodnik assumed that the escort had been transferred to another base, but never did learn the reason for his sudden departure.
Comment: A second former 44th Missile Maintenance Squadron technician, whom I will not identify, has independently confirmed the essential elements in Spodnik’s account, in particular the landing of the UFO inside the missile silo’s security fence. This individual estimates that the incident occurred in late June or early July, 1966, just prior to his separation from the Air Force.