Base AF F.E. Warren (Wyoming), 1965

Commentaire : Beginning at 1:30 A.M. on August 1, 1965, various personnel at F.E. Warren AFB, Wyoming—including the base commander—telephoned the Air Force’s UFO Project Blue Book, at Wright-Patterson AFB, to report several UFO sightings at Warren’s Minuteman missile sites.

The officer who fielded and logged the telephone calls to Blue Book that night was a Lt. Anspaugh. A memorandum summarizing these telephone calls was published in 1972 by Dr. J. Allen Hynek, the civilian scientific consultant to the project, in his book The UFO Experience: A Scientific Inquiry.

Inserted below are the verbatim entries in Lt. Anspaugh’s memo:

1:30 A.M. - Captain Snelling, of the U.S. Air Force command post near Cheyenne, Wyoming, called to say that 15 to 20 phone calls had been received at the local radio station about a large circular object emitting several colors but no sound, sighted over the city. Two officers and one airman controller at the base reported that after being sighted directly over base operations, the object had begun to move rapidly to the northeast.

2:20 A.M. - Colonel Johnson, base commander of Francis E. Warren Air Force Base, near Cheyenne, Wyoming, called Dayton to say that the commanding officer of the Sioux Army Depot saw five objects at 1:45 A.M. and reported an alleged configuration of two UFOs previously reported over E Site. At 1:49 A.M. members of E flight reportedly saw what appeared to be the same [formation] reported at 1:48 A.M. by G flight. Two security teams were dispatched from E flight to investigate.

2:50 A.M. - Nine more UFOs were sighted, and at 3:35 A.M. Colonel Williams, commanding officer of the Sioux Army Depot, at Sydney, Nebraska, reported five UFOs going east.

4:05 A.M. - Colonel Johnson made another phone call to Dayton to say that at 4:00 A.M., Q flight reported nine UFOs in sight; four to the northwest, three to the northeast, and two over Cheyenne.

4:40 A.M. - Captain Howell, Air Force Command Post, called Dayton and Defense Intelligence Agency to report that a Strategic Air Command Team at Site H-2 at 3:00 A.M. reported a white oval UFO directly overhead. Later Strategic Air Command Post passed the following: Francis E. Warren Air Force Base reports (Site B-4 3:17 A.M.) –A UFO 90 miles east of Cheyenne at a high rate of speed and descending—oval and white with white lines on its sides and a flashing red light in its center moving east; reported to have landed 10 miles east of the site.

3:20 A.M. - Seven UFOs reported east of the site.

3:25 A.M. - E Site reported six UFOs stacked vertically.

3:27 A.M. - G-1 reported one ascending and at the same time, E-2 reported two additional UFOs had joined the seven for a total of nine.

3:28 A.M. - G-1 reported a UFO descending further, going east.

3:32 A.M. - The same site has a UFO climbing and leveling off.

3:40 A.M. - G Site reported one UFO at 70' azimuth and one at 120' . Three now came from the east, stacked vertically, passed through the other two, with all five heading west.

END OF SUMMARY

Airman 2nd Class Robert R. Thompson—Former Air Policeman, 809th Combat Defense Squadron, at F.E. Warren AFB, Wyoming:

Thompson states that he was on duty at the Quebec Flight Launch Control Facility one night in 1965, when he got a telephone call from the underground launch capsule. The Missile Combat Crew Commander asked Thompson and his partner to walk outside and look straight up. Thinking this was a joke of some kind, the two Air Policemen nevertheless complied. Directly overhead, Thompson saw eight stationary lights, much brighter and larger than stars, grouped together in four pairs. Due to their altitude and brilliance, it was not possible to determine the objects’ shape or other details.

Thompson said that one light eventually left its position and began to roam among the others, moving slowly from pair to pair. He and his partner watched the mysterious aerial formation for about 10 minutes, before reporting the sighting to the missile commander. In response, Thompson was informed that NORAD, located at Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado, had earlier notified FE Warren that its radars were tracking eight unknown objects hovering in the vicinity of the Quebec launch control site. Apparently, Warren’s Command Center had called the LCF and asked the missile commander to verify their presence.

Said Thompson, “I wasn’t sure what we were seeing until I reported back to the launch commander. When he told me of the report of UFOs from Cheyenne Mountain, I could tell by his voice that he wasn’t joking.” Thompson states that he and his partner were never debriefed, or warned to remain silent about the incident, but he never again mentioned it to the missile commander.

Perhaps significantly, the Blue Book memorandum inserted above may lend credence to Thompson’s report. Specifically, this entry:

4:05 A.M. - Colonel Johnson made another phone call to Dayton to say that at 4:00 A.M., Q flight reported nine UFOs in sight; four to the northwest, three to the northeast, and two over Cheyenne.

However, because Thompson can not remember the date of his own sighting at “Q” or Quebec Flight, it may or may not have been the same incident noted above.

In any event, Thompson’s sighting was not the last UFO incident to be reported at Quebec Flight during that period. Less than a week later, he had been approached by another individual in his unit, and told about a far more dramatic incident.

“We worked three days on, three days off,” Thompson said, “One crew would relieve the other. Shortly after the sighting, when my crew returned to the LCF, an acquaintance came up and told me that while we were off-duty, he had been involved in another UFO sighting, at one of Q-Flight's Launch Facilities.”

According to this individual, he and his partner had been on stake-out duty one night, and were sitting in a Security Alert Team (SAT) camper that was parked next to the missile silo. Without warning, the vehicle began to shake violently. He quickly leaned his head out the window and saw a large, very bright light silently hovering directly above the camper. After a few seconds, the shaking ceased and the light rapidly departed.

The SAT guard went on to tell Thompson that he and his partner had later been debriefed by an OSI agent and ordered not to talk about the incident. However, in spite of this warning, he had nevertheless felt compelled to compare notes with Thompson, whose own UFO experience had occurred less than a week earlier, and was common knowledge among the missile guards at Quebec Flight.

After hearing this strange story, Thompson approached the Non-Commissioned Officer In Charge (NCOIC) who had been on duty at Quebec the night of the camper incident and asked him to verify it. To his surprise, the NCOIC did so. Furthermore, he told Thompson that he had personally seen the UFO as it hovered over the LF.

“The Launch Facility in question was the one located closest to the LCF,” said Thompson, “Even though it was five, maybe six miles away, the NCOIC told me that, on the night of the incident, he had seen an extremely bright light hovering over its location.”

Thompson said that he later heard that the UFO activity at various missile flights had continued for about a month.

Commentaire : Although the bizarre report involving the camper is strikingly similar to a scene in Steven Speilberg’s 1977 movie, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, UFO researchers Jim Klotz and Tom Tulien have heard a nearly-identical account from a former USAF missile guard who was stationed at Minot AFB, North Dakota, in 1968.

Airman 2nd Class Terry Stuck—Former Air Policeman, 809th Combat Defense Squadron, F.E. Warren AFB, Wyoming:

Stuck states that one morning in the summer of 1965, while reporting for duty at the Oscar Flight LCF, he was informed about a UFO sighting by the departing night-shift guards. “The night team had observed fast-moving lights or objects,” said Stuck, “vehicles moving with incredible speed.”

Apparently, during the shift-change, the departing security team leader also informed the arriving missile commander about the UFOs. Stuck overheard the exchange. “The OIC (Officer in Charge) was a Captain—I don't recall his name,” said Stuck, “I do remember him saying that he had been a pilot in Korea and had observed UFOs and had reported the incident. He said they had sent him to the base psychiatrist and had basically put a stop on advancements in his career.”

The moral of this story was clear to Stuck and the departing security team leader: Be careful what you report because there may be repercussions. Stuck did not know whether the team leader had ever filed an official report about the incident. In any event, the Oscar Flight UFO sighting incident is not mentioned in the Project Blue Book memorandum inserted above. Perhaps it took place on another date during that period, or perhaps it did indeed occur on August 1st, but went unreported.

A few days after these events, Stuck had his own UFO sighting, again at the Oscar Flight LCF. “The observations,” he recalled, “were actually made in front of the launch control security facility which was at ground level, facing the access gate of the main launch control facility. I was never able to determine the size or shapes [of the UFOs]. When I saw them, they were at extreme distances and were doing right [-angle] turns at unbelievable speeds. I never heard any sounds.”