Ancien officier de ciblage ICBM Minuteman de l'USAF (Combat Targeting Team Commander), 341ème Escadron de Maintenance de Missile, base AF de Malmstrom, Montana
Jamison dit avoir assisté au redémarrage d'un site de tir entier de 10 ICBM Minuteman qui avaient simultanément et inexplicablement été désactivés juste après qu'un ovni ait été observé dans les environs par la Police de Sécurité de l'Air Force. Jamison est certain que l'incident eut lieu sur un des sites de tir de missiles situé près de Lewistown, dans le Montana, peut-être le site Oscar. Cet événement eut probablement lieu la nuit du vendredi 24 mars 1967, étant donné le récit des événement par Jamison.
Jamison dit que alors que son équipe et d'autres se préparaient à réagir sur le site touché, ils reçurent l'ordre — par précaution — de rester à Malmstrom jusqu'à ce que tous les signalements d'ovnis sur le terrain aient cessé. Il ajoute que son équipe reçu un briefing spécial avant d'être envoyée, lors duquel ils furent instruits de rapporter immédiatement tout ovni observé alors qu'ils se rendaient ou revenaient du site de missiles. Au cas où un ovni apparaîtrait au-dessus d'un des silos de missiles pendant la procédure de redémarrage, l'équipe avait l'ordre d'entrer par la trappe du personnel du silo, et de rester à l'intérieur jusqu'à ce que l'ovni ait quitté les parages. Selon Jamison, le garde de la Police de l'Air qui accompagnait l'équipe devait rester dehors et relayer l'information sur l'ovni au Poste de Commandement de la base. La propre équipe de Jamison redémarra 3 ou 4 missiles mais n'observa aucune activité aérienne inhabituelle.
Jamison dit que alors qu'il se trouvait dans le hangar de maintenance de missiles, attendant d'être envoyé sur le terrain, il entendit des two-way radio communications at the temporary Command Post, relating to another UFO having been sighted on the ground in a canyon near the town of Belt. He states he recalls hearing that a top commander—either Malmstrom’s base commander, or the 341st Strategic Missile Wing commander—was on-site with other personnel. Based on these recollections, it appears that Jamison is describing the well-documented Belt, Montana UFO sighting of March 24/25, 1967.
Jamison said that immediately after the missile shutdown incident, for a period of approximately two weeks, his team received a special UFO briefing, identical to the one described above, before being dispatched to the field. Jamison said that approximately two weeks after the full-flight missile shutdown, his team responded to another, partial shutdown—involving four or five ICBMs. Prior to being dispatched, Jamison’s team received a report that the missile failures had occurred immediately after a UFO was sighted over the flight's Launch Control Facility. Jamison recalls that this incident took place at a flight located south or southwest of Great Falls, possibly India Flight, and during daylight hours.
Jamison said that he had subsequently spoken with several individuals, mostly missile security guards, who had
witnessed various UFO-related incidents. He reports that they were “visibly shaken
” by their experiences.
Commentaire : Au moins 5 autres anciens membres du personnel de l'USAF — tous des officiers chargés du lancement de missiles Minuteman affectés à la base AF de Malmstrom en 1967 — ont auparavant divulgué leur connaissance d'un implication d'ovnis dans 2 incidents distincts de missile de grande portée. Un de ces individus, l'ancien Deputy Missile Combat Le commandant d'équipe Robert Salas a enquêté sur ces événements en long et en large, avec le chercheur Jim Klotz. Leur résumé révélateur des incidents de mars 1967 peut être trouvé à :
https://www.cufon.org/cufon/malmstrom/malm1.htm
L'article ci-dessus traite également du démenti formel de la Force Aérienne de l'implication d'ovnis dans l'incident de désactivation complète de missiles officiellement reconnu à la base AF de Malmstrom — sur le site de tir Echo — en dépit du témoignage contraire des officiers chargés du lancement de missiles. Le désavœu officiel est trouvé dans "l'unité historique" de la 341ème Escadrille de Missiles Stratégiques.
De manière significative, l'historien de l'unité, David Gamble, dit à Klotz que, alors qu'il compilait des éléments
pour l'historique officiel, il découvrit l'existence de signalements d'activité ovni au sein des terrains de missiles
de Malmstrom. Lorsqu'il fit des demandes d'informations, Gamble ne reçu "aucune coopération" de la part des personnes
informées. Il ajouta que des échanges écrits concernant l'aspect ovni de l'incident de désactivation des
missiles
avait été faits par des supérieurs. La version finale de l'historique de l'unité indique, Des
rumeurs d'Objets Volants Non Identifiés (OVNI) autour de la zone du site Echo au moment de la défaillance furent
démenties
.
Salas et Klotz have written a thorough and persuasive book, Faded Giant, which expands upon their earlier online report.
If Jamison’s recollections are correct, and he did indeed respond to a large-scale missile shutdown at Oscar Flight on the same date as the well-documented Belt UFO sighting, then the date proposed for the Oscar event by Salas and Klotz—March 16, 1967—would seem to be in error. Salas has now acknowledged this possibility, however, Klotz remains skeptical about the alternate date.
Prior to my posting the Jamison-related material on the NICAP and NCP websites, I sent it to Klotz for his review. He
responded, I think that while witnesses’ memories of ‘events’ tend to be pretty clear, memories of dates tend to be
less accurate. I am a document-driven guy and I'd like to see some documentary evidence of multiple events. Lacking
this, I only wish to keep open the idea that memories may be of a ‘single’ UFO-related missile shutdown event at
Malmstrom. Certainly the indications from witness testimony are that multiple events may well have occurred
.
For the record: I too would like to see unaltered documents relating to the shutdown events. In the early 1980s, I attempted to access, via the Freedom of Information Act, Office of Special Investigations (OSI) files relating to UFO sightings at Malmstrom’s ICBM sites, only to be told that all such documents had already been declassified. However, multiple source testimony strongly suggests otherwise. I think David Gamble’s comments above are telling. In my opinion, the documents that might shed light on the true facts relating to the missile shutdowns will remain hidden indefinitely, whereas those supporting the official version of events, including unit histories, will sometimes be declassified.
I also sent my Jamison-related material to Bob Salas. He responded, What is interesting to me is the briefing
Jamison received about how to respond if they sighted a UFO while working in the field. This would be a further
indication that there had been experiences with UFOs at [Launch Facilities] prior to Jamison going out to the sites.
We have also received similar information from a source we are protecting at this time
.
Salas continued, I [now] think it is more likely that Oscar Flight went down on some date after the Echo Flight
[shutdown] and that it could very well have been on the same day as the Belt sighting. One of the factors that lead me
to that 'opinion' is the lack of comment about two flights going down in the [now-declassified] telex that went out,
and in the unit history. If the two had gone down on the same day, that would have been mentioned. The reason, I
think, Oscar wasn't mentioned later is because by then the Air Force wanted to keep a secrecy lid on it and avoid the
possibility of a leak by the indication of a growing and continuing problem. That would have made quite some headlines
in the press
.
Salas concluded, Remember, from all we have heard from the maintenance people we have interviewed, the rumors and
comments [about UFO activity] were rampant. I personally received a call from an NCO after the Oscar shutdowns,
practically begging me to come talk to him and others about the incident. Believe me, it was all over the base and
some of the troops were flat scared
.
In conclusion, Jamison’s statements are important because they indicate that the Air Force was fully aware of UFO involvement in at least two missile flight shutdown incidents prior to dispatching the missile maintenance teams to restart the ICBMs. Specifically, according to Jamison, the 341st Missile Maintenance Squadron undertook certain precautions and formally implemented various procedures to protect the teams’ safety while in the field. In this respect, his testimony is unprecedented.