I have spent 39 years investigating the UFO-Nukes Connection. During that period, a number of former or retired U.S. Air Force officers have confirmed their involvement in incidents where UFOs had hovered over their Minuteman missile launch control facilities, sometimes shutting down or even temporarily activating the missiles.

In 2005, I posted a series of messages on the Yahoo missile_talk group's bulletin board, summarizing my research. My hope was that some of the group's members, largely made up of U.S. Air Force missileers, would be encouraged to come forth and discuss their own experiences. A few of them, including Larry Manross, did just that.

Declassified U.S. government documents confirm that UFOs have repeatedly visited nuclear weapons sites—laboratories, plutonium production plants, bomb test ranges, missile warhead storage depots, ICBM launch silos—as early as December 1948.

Furthermore, KGB and Ministry of Defense documents released or leaked following the collapse of the U.S.S.R. verify that the Soviets also experienced such incursions at their nuclear facilities during the Cold War era.

In short, someone or something operating highly superior aerial craft has been monitoring and sometimes disrupting the functionality of American and Russian nuclear weapons for decades.

Thousands of declassified U.S. government documents and hundreds of military veterans have confirmed the reality of ongoing UFO activity at American nuclear weapons sites. Seven of those veterans participated in my September 27, 2010 press conference in Washington D.C., which CNN streamed live. The full-length video of the event is here.

I have investigated the UFO-Nukes Connection since 1973 and have interviewed nearly 130 former or retired U.S. military personnel about their experiences at ICBM launch facilities, weapons storage depots, nuclear bomb test sites, and missile test ranges. A summary of their dramatic testimony may be found in my book UFOs and Nukes: Extraordinary Encounters at Nuclear Weapons Sites, which is available only at my website, www.ufohastings.com.

On October 23, 2010, F.E. Warren Air Force Base, in Cheyenne, Wyoming, temporarily lost the ability to communicate with 50 of its Minuteman III nuclear missiles. The five Missile Alert Facilities responsible for launching those ICBMs in time of war—Alpha through Echo, comprising the 319th Strategic Missile Squadron—would have been unable to do so during the period of the disruption.

On September 27, 2010, seven U.S. Air Force veterans took part in a press conference in Washington D.C. during which they discussed dramatic UFO incursions at nuclear weapons facilities in the 1960s and '70s. One of the participants, former USAF Captain Robert Salas, spoke of being on duty as an ICBM launch officer at Malmstrom Air Force Base, Montana, in March 1967, when a UFO disrupted key systems in each of the ten Minuteman nuclear missiles under his control. Although Salas first divulged the astonishing Oscar Flight UFO Incident in 1995, and had even discussed it at previous public events, the unprecedented, worldwide media coverage surrounding the September 2010 UFO-Nukes Connection press conference resulted in huge publicity for the still-classified case.

Interview with Colonel Walter Figel, Oct. 20, 2008

This is my first taped interview with Col. Walt Figel, occurring on October 20, 2008. Figel confirms that he had received a report from a security guard about a "large, round" UFO hovering over one of Echo Flight's missile silos, seconds after that missile failed. Figel further says that he and the other officer on duty that day, Captain Eric Carlson, where told not to talk about the incident and that Carlson's son, James Carlson, has misrepresented Figel's remarks to Hastings and others—regarding the reality of a UFO-presence during the Echo Flight shutdown incident—in his many blog posts on the topic.

On March 16, 1967, ten Minuteman I nuclear missiles operated by Malmstrom Air Force Base's Echo Flight suddenly malfunctioned, one after the other, just as a "large, round object" was reported hovering above one of them—according to retired USAF Col. Walter Figel, one of two launch officers on duty during the incident.

Figel received the startling news while in the missile flight's underground Launch Control Capsule, during a two-way radio conversation with an Air Force security guard posted at the missile silo in question. Although highly skeptical of the report, then-Lieutenant Figel dispatched two-man Security Alert Teams to the field to investigate. At least one of them confirmed the presence of the UFO.

The following report is extraordinary. The source is highly credible and the importance of the incident is self-evident. Simply put, this case is among the most fascinating I have encountered during my decades of research into nuclear weapons-related UFO sightings. It all began with an email:

From: John Mills
To: Robert Hastings
Sent: Sunday, March 05, 2006 4:26 AM
Subject: Re: UFO sightings at ICBM sites and WSAs

Mr. Hastings,

Since I'm retired, and no longer held accountable to the National Security 10 year no-talk list, I can tell you I have seen and heard of plenty unexplained phenomena in the missile fields. I was stationed at Ellsworth AFB, SD in the late 70's; Vandenberg AFB, CA in the early 80's; Grand Forks AFB, ND in the middle 80's to early 90's and Malmstrom AFB, MT in the early 90's. I spent over 11 years in the actual missile field before being promoted to a desk job.

If you can find the data, check out the winter of 1979, Delta flight at Ellsworth AFB. If you want further details, we might want to talk in person, or via a hard line. All of Echo and most of Delta flights. I was on Delta 6 at the time.

John Mills

In the wake of the recent, widespread, but misguided publicity surrounding the FBI memorandum written by Special Agent-in-Charge Guy Hottel—which recounted the alleged recovery of three "flying saucers" in New Mexico—numerous articles have appropriately debunked the document, including one written for livescience.com by Skeptical Inquirer magazine's managing editor Ben Radford. See FBI's UFO File: Proof of Roswell?.

The supposedly just-released, supposedly important memo is neither and Radford rightly says just that. So far, so good. However, in an apparent effort to suppress relevant facts related to the UFO crash-recovery story—facts that Radford would never mention—livescience.com has declined to post my own input. In response to Radford's remarks I wrote a detailed comment, which received an "awaiting moderation" reply when I tried to post it. As of this date it still has not appeared on the website and seems to have been rejected. In any case, here is what I attempted to add to the discussion …

My father, USAF Senior Master Sergeant Robert E. Hastings, was stationed at Malmstrom AFB, Montana in 1966–67 and worked in the SAGE (Semi-Automatic Ground Environment) building which housed the base's sophisticated, NORAD-integrated radar facility. As some former members of the 29th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron (FIS) based at Malmstrom will recall, there were several scrambles during that era involving intercept attempts of "unknown targets" that were being tracked on radar as they maneuvered near and/or hovered above various Minuteman nuclear missile sites scattered across the surrounding countryside.