Commentaire : I first learned of Joe Brown’s experience after he posted a brief summary of it on researcher Ron Wright’s Triad Research website. With Wright’s assistance, I located Brown and interviewed him.
Brown states that one night in the spring of 1992, he and his security team partner were posted at Alpha Flight missile silo A-3. Due to an alarm system malfunction at the site, the two-man team was staked-out in a security camper near the launch facility, with one man on duty while the other slept. “I believe it was March or April,” Brown told me, “site top-side security was down—the IMPSS (Improved Minuteman Physical Security System)—and if I remember correctly, there was no top-side power.”
At about 4:30 a.m., Brown noticed a bright white light moving erratically across the sky. In his online posting, Brown had written, “This light was doing some wild things in the sky, sudden direction changes, moving very fast, then stopping, then shooting off in another direction. I watched this for about 15 to 20 minutes.”
Then the light appeared to move closer to the silo. “I started getting spooked,” Brown wrote, “so I reached out the window of the truck and started banging on the camper shell to wake [my partner] up. He finally came around the front, asking me what was wrong. I pointed to the light and told him I'd been watching it for around 20 minutes and I didn't know what it was. He got into the passenger side of the truck and we kept watching this thing doing its acrobatics.”
Brown decided to radio another security team posted at Alpha Flight silo A-10, located some 10 miles away. “They responded hesitantly that they were watching this light,” he wrote. The Flight Security Controller (FSC) at the Alpha Flight Launch Control Facility apparently overheard this exchange, because he suddenly broke into the conversation to inquire about the anxious radio chatter between the two security teams. Each confirmed that they were observing the strange light as it raced wildly around the sky.
Brown wrote that the team continued to watch the UFO until around 6:30 to 7:00 a.m., when it suddenly appeared to go straight up and hover. “We could still see the light, but by now it was starting to get daylight. As it got brighter, we could sort of make out a black shape around where the light was. We had binoculars, but even with them, all you could see was a fuzzy outline of sort of a triangle. I can't estimate the height of the object.”
Upon returning to Malmstrom, Brown and his partner privately conferred with the security team posted at Alpha Flight silo A-10. The four guards agreed that they would not mention the sighting, and all expressed concern about possible repercussions resulting from their report to the Flight Security Controller.
As the security guards returned their weapons to the armory, they were suddenly ordered to report to a captain assigned to their squadron. Brown can not recall the officer’s name but remembers being very concerned by this unexpected development. The captain asked the men to describe what they had seen. He listened carefully and then pointedly suggested that they not discuss the sighting. Brown told me, “At this point, the captain says, well I don't think you saw anything and I wouldn't go around talking about it. You guys are under PRP, remember that!”
Commentaire : Here is an apparent instance in which the mere mention of the PRP—Personnel Reliability Program—effectively intimidated military UFO witnesses into silence. This Department of Defense directive pertains to those who work with or around nuclear weapons, and dictates their conduct both on and off the job. If an individual’s commanding officer judges his or her behavior to be unreliable, and a potential threat to the security of the weapons, a psychological examination of that person is usually ordered. Depending on its outcome, the individual under scrutiny risks being relieved of duty.
Brown stated that a couple of days after his experience at Alpha Flight, he heard that there had been some unusual activity at Malmstrom that same night. Referring to these rumored developments, he told me, “[A friend of mine] was a Tech Sergeant in the [missile] maintenance squadron, and it was a bit unusual for him to actually go to out in the field. He normally trouble-shot stuff on-base. He and I never got to really discuss what had happened...[but] he did tell me that a lot of maintenance folks were sent out that night. Quite honestly, a lot of us were afraid to talk about it openly, especially after being told we should not talk about anything by our Captain.”