Faded Giant: The 1967 Missile/UFO Incidents

CLAIM-710001 · Faded Giant Communications Effect

“Salas and Klotz quote Major Chester A. Shaw Jr.’s report as stating that radio transmission at Mike Flight was interrupted by static when the UFO came close to the missile site and that the static stopped when the object climbed.”

CLAIM-710002 · Reported Encounter Observation

“The book summarizes witness statements describing a bright object showing red, green and yellowish-white light, with brightness changes and repeated lateral/downward movement, disappearance and reappearance. The formal Air Force report recorded the shape as round, while one witness drew a silhouette described as rounded on top and bottom.”

CLAIM-710003 · Faded Giant Radar Evidence

“Faded Giant states that South Radar Base personnel detected the object with height-finder radar at varying altitudes up to 100,000 feet; one search-radar operator reportedly had the target continuously on scope for several hours and described it as isolated from other traffic or clutter.”

CLAIM-710004 · Faded Giant Documentary Record

“The quoted Shaw report says the object appeared to descend and apparently land south of the missile area; when a strike team drove toward the reported location, radio contact was disrupted by static, and the glow later diminished before the object was reported to take off.”

CLAIM-710005 · Faded Giant Documentary Record

“The book’s quoted Air Force chronology states that an F-106 interceptor was dispatched roughly two and a half hours after the first sighting and that no visual, aircraft-radar or infrared contact was established.”

CLAIM-710006 · Faded Giant Documentary Record

“Salas and Klotz quote a January 4, 1967 response from First Lieutenant Roger D. Meyer to J. Allen Hynek stating that, after considering distance, weather, refraction and related factors, there was beyond reasonable doubt an object at or very close to an altitude of 8,200 feet.”

CLAIM-710007 · Faded Giant Communications Effect

“Raymond E. Fowler is cited as recalling an unnamed Strategic Air Command officer who said that all types of sophisticated communications were instantaneously jammed on all frequencies during the UFO activity and who also described interceptor aircraft being outflown.”

CLAIM-710008 · Reported Encounter Observation

“For September 14, 1966 the book cites Air Force witness statements describing a bright light first reported by a November-Flight maintenance team and then observed by personnel at Oscar-7, where it was described as changing from green to orange to red or as a bright green light with flashing red/orange light around it.”

CLAIM-710009 · Faded Giant Documentary Record

“The cited September 14 material says Minot Base Operations was notified and was trying to locate the reported object on radar. The passage does not state that a radar target was positively acquired.”

CLAIM-710010 · Reported Encounter Observation

“Salas recounts that while he was underground at the Oscar Flight LCC, the Flight Security Controller first reported maneuvering lights over the site and then urgently reported a glowing red object hovering outside the front gate. Salas did not personally see the object.”

CLAIM-710011 · Faded Giant Documentary Record

“Salas says that within seconds of the urgent topside UFO report, multiple Oscar missiles indicated No-Go conditions. He recalls eight to ten missiles, while a footnote states Fred Meiwald recalled six and that both agreed six to eight were lost immediately after the guard report.”

CLAIM-710012 · Faded Giant Documentary Record

“Salas and Meiwald describe Oscar missiles going off alert because of Guidance and Control system faults rather than loss of site electrical power. Faded Giant does not provide a contemporaneous Oscar engineering record equivalent to the Echo documentation in this chapter.”

CLAIM-710013 · Reported Encounter Observation

“Meiwald later recalled that a mobile security team responding to an outlying Oscar launch facility also reported observing a UFO, and that radio contact with the team was lost until the vehicle approached the LCF again.”

CLAIM-710014 · Faded Giant Documentary Record

“Faded Giant describes a post-alert debriefing attended by Salas, Meiwald, their squadron commander and an AFOSI representative, after which Salas says they were told the incident was highly classified and not to be discussed. This is Salas's retrospective participant account of the briefing.”

CLAIM-710015 · Faded Giant Documentary Record

“The authors explicitly preserve uncertainty over whether Echo and Oscar occurred on the same morning or on different days close together. They note that the official Wing history and contemporary documents discussed in the chapter document Echo but do not resolve Oscar chronology.”

CLAIM-710016 · Faded Giant Documentary Record

“For Echo Flight, the book states that Eric Carlson and Walter Figel were on duty and that Figel recalled an on-site security guard reporting a UFO over a launch facility before additional missiles went off alert. Figel then dispatched teams to two sites where personnel reportedly also described UFOs.”

CLAIM-710017 · Faded Giant Documentary Record

“The chapter quotes the 341st Strategic Missile Wing history as stating that UFO rumors around Echo during the fault were disproven and that a November Flight mobile strike team reported no unusual activity on the morning of March 16. The authors dispute the adequacy and accuracy of that conclusion.”

CLAIM-710018 · Faded Giant Documentary Record

“The authors quote a March 17, 1967 SAC message requesting immediate support from Ogden and stating that the lack of an apparent reason for the loss of ten missiles was cause for grave concern to headquarters.”

CLAIM-710019 · Faded Giant Documentary Record

“Robert Kaminski told the authors that a Boeing investigation team found no significant failures or engineering findings that explained why the ten Echo missiles went off alert and that a final engineering report was later stopped after he was told the incident had been reported as a UFO event.”

CLAIM-710020 · Faded Giant Documentary Record

“W.M. Dutton confirmed his role as an electrical-power specialist on the investigation and said no definitive cause was determined. R.E. Rigert said laboratory injection of a certain electrical noise signal could duplicate the Guidance and Control faults, while power problems and lightning were ruled out.”

CLAIM-710021 · Faded Giant Documentary Record

“The chapter reports that George Richards, the Logic Coupler specialist, was certain the LCC Logic Coupler could not have issued a programmed shutdown command to the missile Guidance and Control system and that no such command signal existed.”

CLAIM-710022 · Faded Giant Documentary Record

“The authors discuss electromagnetic pulse as a candidate mechanism because sufficiently strong externally generated pulses could in principle penetrate or couple into the Minuteman system, but state that no source capable of producing the required field pulse at Echo was found.”

CLAIM-710023 · Faded Giant Documentary Record

“Faded Giant rejects contemporaneous nuclear testing as the source of the putative EMP, noting no U.S. nuclear test on March 16 and arguing that the nearest Operation Latchkey tests were underground and too distant to account for effects at Malmstrom.”

CLAIM-710024 · Faded Giant Documentary Record

“The book describes an active 1965-1967 EMP hardening/test program at several Minuteman locations but states the authors found no evidence that an EMP test at Echo or Oscar caused the shutdowns; they argue such equipment could not have been present at the LCFs without operational personnel knowing.”

CLAIM-710025 · Faded Giant Documentary Record

“The authors infer that later Minuteman pulse-suppression and monitor-line protection modifications may have been influenced in part by the shutdown investigation. The chapter does not document a direct causal administrative link.”

CLAIM-710026 · Faded Giant Documentary Record

“Salas and Klotz argue that directed electromagnetic effects from UFOs may have caused the Malmstrom shutdowns, drawing on wider UFO electromagnetic-effect literature and the reported proximity of objects to missile facilities.”

CLAIM-710027 · Reported Encounter Observation

“James Ortyl told the authors that during a March 1967 day shift at Kilo LCF he saw a red or red-orange glowing, roughly round object pass over the entrance gate and close past the window, and that at least two other air policemen acknowledged seeing it.”

CLAIM-710028 · Reported Encounter Observation

“Roberto Morales told Klotz that while guarding launch facilities during missile-restoration work he and others saw lights streak, stop, move back and forth, and approach relatively closely. The account is retrospective and not tied in this chapter to a specific launch facility or exact time.”

CLAIM-710029 · Faded Giant Documentary Record

“The authors mention an additional anonymous 341st Missile Maintenance Squadron witness who alleged that UFO presence interfered with reactivating Echo missiles. They state they found the correspondence credible but could not directly verify the witness because he wished to remain anonymous.”

CLAIM-710030 · Faded Giant Documentary Record

“Faded Giant reproduces Kenneth C. Williams's April 7, 1967 NICAP report. Williams said that at about 9 p.m. on March 24 he saw a large dome-shaped or headlight-like luminous object near Belt, Montana, watched it pace his truck, later hover low over a gully, descend to within what he believed were a few feet of the ground, flare brightly several times, depart rapidly, reappear farther away and apparently descend again.”

CLAIM-710031 · Faded Giant Documentary Record

“Williams stated that officers later told him there were freshly broken tree limbs and branches in the area where he first saw the object. The chapter does not present an authenticated field report, photographs, chain of custody or analysis of those alleged traces.”

CLAIM-710032 · Faded Giant Documentary Record

“The chapter cites Highway Patrolman Bud Nader as arriving during the object's reported second appearance and seeing a light near the top of the hill that then went down and out of sight.”

CLAIM-710033 · Faded Giant Documentary Record

“Salas and Klotz reproduce a report by Lt. Col. Lewis D. Chase, Chief Operations Division at Malmstrom, recording that the base Command Post received a reported UFO landing near Belt at 2205, checked aircraft movements, coordinated with Cascade County authorities, sent Chase, a helicopter officer and an alert photographer to the scene, planned a daylight ground/helicopter search, and prepared notifications under AFR 80-17 including the Air Force Chief of Staff.”

CLAIM-710034 · Faded Giant Documentary Record

“Chase's reproduced chronology records numerous additional sightings between 0230 and 0340 and states that the sheriff's ground search and Malmstrom aerial survey were completed by 0800 with negative results.”

CLAIM-710035 · Faded Giant Documentary Record

“The chapter cites a Great Falls Leader report stating that early on March 25 Airman Richard Moore plotted an unidentified object on radar northeast of Malmstrom, that FAA radar also detected a target, that Airman Warren Johnson visually reported a bright object with orange lights, and that Moore later personally saw another object after a Security Alert Team report. The newspaper account describes radar tracking from roughly 0310/0345 until 0426 at a slow southeastward speed.”

CLAIM-710036 · Faded Giant Documentary Record

“The authors state that a later FOIA request sought 341st Strategic Missile Wing and related records, including messages and alert-photographer images concerning the March 24-25 activity, and that the Air Force Historical Research Agency replied that it could locate no such records.”

CLAIM-710037 · Faded Giant Documentary Record

“Salas and Klotz conclude that the reports from February 8 through March 25 form a continuum showing UFO presence around Malmstrom and its missile facilities during the period of the shutdowns. The chapter does not demonstrate that all reported objects were identical or that the Belt/March 25 activity caused any missile malfunction.”

CLAIM-710038 · Faded Giant Documentary Record

“Faded Giant summarizes Robert Jacobs's account that a special telescopic camera at Big Sur filmed an Atlas test in 1964 and that subsequent film review showed a disc-like object approach the separated dummy warhead, maneuver around it and emit apparent beams before leaving the frame.”

CLAIM-710039 · Faded Giant Documentary Record

“The book states that Jacobs placed the event in September or possibly November 1964 and that Florenz J. Mansmann later corroborated the account in writing. The source therefore preserves date uncertainty rather than establishing an exact launch date.”

CLAIM-710040 · Faded Giant Documentary Record

“Jacobs said the simulated warhead was adversely affected and failed to reach its target; he and Mansmann also said the film was treated as sensitive and removed by unidentified government agents. Faded Giant does not independently authenticate the original film.”

CLAIM-710041 · Faded Giant Documentary Record

“Faded Giant recounts the October 4, 1982 Byelokoroviche case from ABC Prime Time's presentation of KGB UFO files and witness interviews. The book says multiple witnesses reported a very large disc-like object hovering over the missile base for hours.”

CLAIM-710042 · Faded Giant Documentary Record

“The chapter says missile engineer Vladimir Plantonev reported that control equipment unexpectedly indicated missiles were preparing to launch even though no launch command had been sent from Moscow.”

CLAIM-710043 · Faded Giant Documentary Record

“The book states that Colonel Igor Chernovshev later described an investigation finding pre-launch indicators even though no security codes were entered, no launch commands issued and no controls manually activated. The missiles did not launch.”

CLAIM-710044 · Faded Giant Documentary Record

“Salas and Klotz interpret the Byelokoroviche episode as a stronger repetition of a possible message conveyed at Malmstrom. The source does not establish that an external intelligence intentionally manipulated either missile system.”

CLAIM-710045 · Faded Giant Documentary Record

“Faded Giant summarizes late-October 1975 Loring AFB reports of an unidentified object near the weapons storage area and flight line, seen visually and reportedly detected on radar, showing red, white and amber/orange lights and sometimes described as a glowing orange-red object. The source says helicopter pursuit did not identify it.”

CLAIM-710046 · Faded Giant Documentary Record

“The chapter notes that a released document quoted in Clear Intent described an object as demonstrating a clear intent in the weapons storage area. Faded Giant transmits that wording through the prior publication rather than reproducing the underlying document in this chapter.”

CLAIM-710047 · Faded Giant Documentary Record

“Faded Giant summarizes Wurtsmith AFB reports on November 1, 1975 of red or irregularly flashing aerial lights over restricted airspace, with objects reportedly observed and detected by radar near the weapons storage area.”

CLAIM-710048 · Faded Giant Documentary Record

“For Malmstrom on November 7-9, 1975, the chapter reports a huge glowing orange object near Kilo-6, security personnel reluctant to approach, and an unsuccessful F-106 interception attempt. It also notes additional reports from M-1, K-1, L-3, L-6 and the L-Flight LCF.”

CLAIM-710049 · Faded Giant Documentary Record

“Faded Giant mentions a claim, attributed to Linda Moulton Howe's Glimpses of Other Realities, that targeting information at Malmstrom LF K-7 was altered during the 1975 activity. The authors explicitly call this aspect unconfirmed.”

CLAIM-710050 · Faded Giant Documentary Record

“The chapter also summarizes released NORAD-related reports of radar/visual activity and interceptor scrambles near Falconbridge in mid-November and a bright silent unidentified object passing over Minot AFB on November 10, placing these within the wider 1975 military-base wave.”

CLAIM-710051 · Faded Giant Documentary Record

“Faded Giant briefly notes early-August 1965 UFO reports near F.E. Warren missile sites and says Project Blue Book attributed the sightings to stars, while also stating that the authors had not verified the incident details.”

CLAIM-710052 · Faded Giant Documentary Record

“Appendix C reproduces the January-March 1967 341st Strategic Missile Wing history stating that at 0845 on March 16 all ten Echo Flight launch facilities lost strategic alert nearly simultaneously with Voice Reporting Signal Assembly Channels 9 and 12 No-Go indications, while no other Wing I configuration lost strategic alert at that time. The history says Channel 50 data were collected from E-7 and E-8 and all ten sites were returned to alert without launch-facility equipment replacement.”

CLAIM-710053 · Faded Giant Documentary Record

“The reproduced Wing history says analysis of Channel 50 data from E-7 and E-8 determined that both sites were shut down as a result of an "external influence" to the Guidance & Control section and that no internal G&C No-Go was detected. Later data from E-2 and E-9 likewise indicated their G&C units had not entered a No-Go loop. In this engineering context, "external influence" denotes an input external to the G&C circuitry, not an identified external craft or actor.”

CLAIM-710054 · Faded Giant Documentary Record

“The reproduced March investigation report states that the team considered externally generated signals capable of producing the Channel 9 and 12 indications through the Logic Coupler, while emphasizing that a scenario requiring all ten couplers to fail within seconds of each other was very remote and required further contractor-level study.”

CLAIM-710055 · Faded Giant Documentary Record

“The same reproduced Wing history records a competing official conclusion: weather was ruled out, communications maintenance reported no unusual EWO-1/EWO-2 activity, UFO rumors around Echo were described as disproven after questioning a November Flight mobile strike team, and the 801st Radar Squadron reportedly gave a negative report for radar or atmospheric interference related to Echo Flight.”

CLAIM-710056 · Faded Giant Documentary Record

“Appendix C records that a 7.2-kV transformer failed later on March 16 and that power-system switching and transformer-failure theories were investigated. The reproduced history says subsequent tests led investigators to decide commercial power switching was not the cause of the Echo shutdown and that the Malmstrom investigation team remained unable to determine a logical cause.”

CLAIM-710057 · Faded Giant Documentary Record

“A reproduced March 17 SAC message states that all ten Echo missiles lost strategic alert within about ten seconds, were returned to alert with no apparent difficulty, and that no apparent reason for the loss of ten missiles could readily be identified, which SAC described as cause for grave concern requiring an in-depth analysis and corrective action.”

CLAIM-710058 · Faded Giant Documentary Record

“A reproduced March 28 task-group message says representatives of Boeing, Autonetics, OOAMA and Fifteenth Air Force concluded that insufficient data existed to resolve the Echo problem or define an adequate engineering analysis without further testing, and planned tests intended to reproduce the No-Go mode first at launch-facility level and then at LCF level.”

CLAIM-710059 · Faded Giant Documentary Record

“The April-June Wing history and reproduced April status message report Boeing testing in which a roughly 30-microsecond pulse placed on the C-53P Logic Coupler self-test-command line produced Channel 9 and 12 No-Go responses in seven of ten applications in one test series. The records describe a plausible Logic Coupler sequence-error mechanism and continued work to identify the source and path of such a noise pulse.”

CLAIM-710060 · Faded Giant Documentary Record

“A reproduced June 2 interim report states that May power and transformer-simulation tests at Malmstrom produced no launch-facility shutdowns and no significant noise propagation on the Sensitive Information Network attributable to the simulated transformer failure. The report also says the ten Echo launch facilities showed no status change as a result of those power tests.”

CLAIM-710061 · Faded Giant Documentary Record

“Because the power tests were essentially negative, the reproduced June interim report says the Echo problem appeared to be of an electromagnetic-pulse or electrostatic nature and recommended additional susceptibility testing. This was an engineering working assessment, not identification of an actual March 16 EMP source.”

CLAIM-710062 · Faded Giant Documentary Record

“The October-December 1967 Wing history says tests directed at adverse-power theories all produced negative results and describes the Sierra-39 EMP program as the final series of tests in that area. This shows continued technical investigation months after the shutdown rather than a settled cause immediately after the event.”

CLAIM-710063 · Faded Giant Documentary Record

“A reproduced June 10 SAC progress report states that induced electronic pulse testing had shown a pulse introduced at the Logic Coupler could cause shutdown, but neither the source nor the paths for the field impulse had been determined and a system analysis was underway to identify possible coupling paths and recurrence probability.”

CLAIM-710064 · Faded Giant Documentary Record

“A reproduced July 7 SAMSO message says no similar cause could yet be postulated that would account for the E-Flight incident and lists additional monitoring, susceptibility and power-system work, while calling for continued technical interchange to identify a credible explanation.”

CLAIM-710065 · Faded Giant Documentary Record

“Appendix D reproduces the August 30, 1966 Air Force UFO report filed under AFR 200-2. The form describes two objects, gives the primary object a round shape and red, greenish-yellow and white coloration, records ground-visual/ground-electronic observation, and states that the 786th Radar Squadron verified substantial altitude movement while the object moved slowly back and forth and up and down.”

CLAIM-710066 · Faded Giant Documentary Record

“The reproduced Minot report comments state that radio static interrupted missile-site communications when the object came close and stopped when it climbed; South Radar reportedly supplied altitude information, corroborated a descent, and later confirmed two objects. The report uses apparent-landing language, says a strike team lost radio contact to static while approaching the area, and records an F-106 intercept with no contact.”

CLAIM-710067 · Faded Giant Documentary Record

“Appendix D reproduces an investigator letter stating that SSgt Angel Camacho reported the target remained continuously on his radar scope until he was relieved, isolated from nearby aircraft, ground clutter or random noise except when the interceptor entered the area. The interceptor pilot reported no visual, airborne-radar or infrared contact despite being directed toward the radar target.”

CLAIM-710068 · Faded Giant Documentary Record

“The reproduced Minot correspondence states that, after considering distance, weather, refraction and related factors, there was beyond reasonable doubt an object at or very close to approximately 8,200 feet for the cited radar/distance combination. The same correspondence separately considered a low white light seen near the horizon to have a high probability of being an approaching aircraft, showing that the investigator distinguished observations rather than treating every light as unidentified.”

CLAIM-710069 · Faded Giant Documentary Record

“Appendix E reproduces the Project Blue Book record for the March 24 Belt report. Its brief summary records Williams's claim of a bright dome-shaped object descending into a ravine but states that attempts to locate a landing site were inconclusive, that ground and air searches were negative and that no evidence was discovered indicating a craft had landed; the record nevertheless lists the case conclusion as UNIDENTIFIED.”

CLAIM-710070 · Faded Giant Documentary Record

“Appendix E reproduces Lt. Col. Lewis D. Chase's investigation chronology: Malmstrom was notified of a reported landing, Chase traveled to the scene with a helicopter officer and alert photographer, numerous additional sightings were reported between about 0230 and 0340, notifications were prepared under AFR 80-17, and by 0800 the sheriff's ground search and Malmstrom aerial survey had been completed with negative results.”