top of page
  • Writer's pictureJ.P. Robinson

Atomic Interception: UFOs and Nuclear Activity

For more information on the UFO/ET situation read The Alien Enigma by JP Robinson.

UFOs have been monitoring Earth’s nuclear activities since the first atomic tests took place during Operation Crossroads at Bikini Island in the Pacific on July 12, 1946 when a series of photographs showing the billowing mushroom cloud rising from the explosion revealed a number of UFOs fleeing the scene.

Following these UFO sightings, which were captured on film thanks to Otto Schneider's invention of a high-speed camera, the UFO phenomenon began to intensify as sightings greatly increased, before the beginning of the modern UFO era truly commenced in 1947. Otto's son, Philip Schneider (known in the UFO community for his information on DUMBs) claimed to be in possession of some of these photos which were given to him by his father.


The intrinsic link between UFOs and nuclear activity is becoming more apparent thanks to the testimonies of the various officials bringing the subject out into the public arena. In this post we shall look at some of those testimonies and see exactly what has been going on behind the veil of public perception.


1st Lt. Robert Jacobs, a Photo-Optical Inst. Officer for the USAF, came forward to disclose information regarding an extraordinary incident that took place in 1964 whilst he was in the 1369th photo squadron at Vandenberg AFB in California. The bizarre situation arose while he was in charge of photo-optical instrumentation at a tracking site in Big Sur, 124 miles away from the base.


His mission was to film an Atlas ICBM [intercontinental ballistic missile] rocket as it went through all three stages of powered flight. On this particular occasion, Jacobs’s mission was part of a Nike-Zeus objective for the development of an anti-missile missile during the height of the cold war. Jacobs began to film from Big Sur once they heard “lift-off” over the radio from Vandenberg, and following what appeared to have been a successful mission, he took the cans of film back to base where they were to be developed that same night.

First thing next morning Jacobs was called to the office of his superior, Major Florence J. Mansmann, where a 16mm projector and screen were already setup. He sat down next to Mansmann and two other men wearing grey civilian clothes, which Jacobs found a little unusual, and Mansmann said to Jacobs, “Watch this!”


The film showed the missile launch from the previous day. As the missile entered the frame Jacobs saw the whole third stage filling the frame from about 160 miles away, along with the ‘dummy’ warhead which was attached to the rocket. This was a test run to see how well everything was functioning so it wasn’t necessary to employ a real warhead at this stage.


As the rocket was travelling between 11,000 and 14,000 mph, suddenly a saucer shaped craft entered the frame. As Jacobs described, “It flew into the frame and shot a beam of light at the warhead – hits it – then this thing flies up – fires another beam of light – goes around – fires another beam of light – goes down – fires another beam of light and then flies out the way it came in and the warhead tumbles out of space.”[i]


Mansmann asked “What was that?” and Jacobs replied, “It looks to me like we got a UFO.” According to Jacobs, Major Mansmann was a very good reader of film, and his instinct at the time was that it must have been extraterrestrial. They assumed that the beam of light must have been some sort of plasma beam. Following some discussion on the matter, Mansmann told Jacobs, “You are never to speak of this again. As far as you are concerned, this never happened.”


Mansmann wrote about the incident years later in a letter dated November 18, 1991 claiming that two agents took the footage. He wrote, “They did not sign out for all the footage but took out the part that showed the encounter and returned the rest of the film as a “complete package.”” Continuing he declared that, “The one agent stated as he handed me back the film, “That leaves you off the hook but not off any disclosure – understood?” Naturally my answer was “Yes Sir”.”


Three years later on March 16, 1967 another UFO encounter took place at Malmstrom AFB in Cascade County, Montana. In the event of a nuclear war, nuclear ‘minute men’ missiles were to be launched as a counterattack, and one of the men responsible for their deployment was Lt. Col. Robert Salas, SAC (Strategic Air Command) Launch Controller.

Whilst on duty that day, Salas was contacted by his topside guard who was claiming that there was an unidentified object above the missile site. Minutes later he radioed Salas again saying that there was a reddish-orange, oval-shaped object hovering quietly outside the front gate. This was going on in the early hours of the morning but Salas had to wake up his commander and inform him of the two phone calls. During their conversation, all the missiles on site went into a no-go condition, one after the other. They lost in excess of ten missiles in one morning. The malfunction of one missile should not affect the others because they are individually operated and separated by miles.


Salas remarked, “Somehow this object was able to disable these missiles.” Following the incident, everyone involved including Salas were forced to sign documents swearing to never disclose this information, ever.

A recently declassified preliminary report dated March 24, 1964 supports his claims that a UFO disabled all the nuclear missiles at Malmstrom AFB that day; “Between the hours 2100 and 0400 MST numerous reports were received by Malmstrom AFB agencies of UFO sightings in the Great Falls, Montana area.” The document went on to say, “Reports of a UFO landing near Belt, Montana were received from several sources including deputies of Cascade County Sheriff’s Office.”


Another formerly classified secret Air Force telex confirmed the incident stating that, “the fact that for no apparent reason the loss of ten missiles can be readily identified is cause for grave concern to this headquarters.”


As usual, matters of this kind are rarely entered into the public domain and a veil of secrecy is always quick to conceal such delicate issues exposing the nation’s defensive frailties. A letter sent from Col. James H. Rix, USAF Director of Administration to Lee M. Graham reveals why the military authorities feel compelled to deny that such occurrences have ever taken place: “As regards this subject matter, mere existence or non-existence is currently and properly classified per Executive Order and exempt from mandatory disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act because it would reveal defense capability or lack thereof.”[ii]


In 2001, Robert Salas stated, “Unknown aerial objects have in fact been observed over many of our nuclear weapons bases and other nuclear facilities, and in some cases the appearance of these objects coincided with compromising the operational readiness of our nuclear weapons.”[iii]


Retired USAF Nuclear Missile Launch Officer Jerome Nelson testified to a series of events which occurred at Site 9, west of Roswell, New Mexico starting in the winter of 1963. Just like Capt. Salas, Nelson was alerted by his topside guard that a large UFO was hovering above the site, but once he contacted his commanding officer he was met with indifference and told to get on with his work. Over the years that followed that particular incident, Nelson claimed that several more sightings occurred over the same facility, reported by a number of different guards, all of whom appeared “shaken up” by what they had just witnessed.


In September 1966, Patrick McDonough, a USAF Nuclear Missile Site Geodetic Surveyor experienced a UFO encounter whilst temporarily assigned to Malmstrom AFB. There were around 150 ‘minute-men’ missile sites in the area and he was ordered to perform geodetic surveys for the last fifty sites, his task being to calculate their precise latitude and longitude.


The first peculiar thing he noticed was that the blast hatch of the missile silo he was working on that evening was open; he found this to be very unusual as they were always closed. At around 1-1:30 a.m. a spherical UFO roughly 50ft. in diameter with pulsating lights all around it, came from the north and stopped about 300ft. above their heads. McDonough described seeing a white light appear from the centre of the object and shine directly down into the missile silo. Without wind or noise and from a complete standstill, the UFO then shot off into the night sky eastwards until it was out of sight. The Montana Highway Patrol later revealed that they had received in excess of twenty reports of UFO sightings in the area that same night.


“I worked everywhere on these guidance systems and I never saw anything in the air force infantry that could perform like this UFO did”, remarked McDonough.


According to UFO researcher Robert Hastings, UFOs continue to intercept and tamper with nuclear missiles to the present day. In April 2003, a number of UFOs were spotted manoeuvring near the bunkers at the nuclear facility located at Nellis AFB in Nevada. The latest incident involving a UFO at a nuclear test facility took place at Malmstrom AFB in 2007, but civilian UFO sightings in Orange County, California, have been reported near a series of nuclear bunkers at the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station as recently as March 2009.


And of course, UFOs were reported by Col. Halt during the famous Rendlesham Forest Incident of 1980 to be shining their beams into the missile bunkers.


Other incidents reported during the Disclosure Project press conference in May 2001 involved a UFO shaped like a “pregnant cigar” which was seen hovering silently over several launch sites in the same evening. Each time the commanding officers in charge were informed that something unusual seemed to be ‘investigating’ the nuclear facilities under their command; the informant was quickly told there was nothing to be concerned about and to return to their post.


Current USAF policy on UFOs states that, “No UFO reported or investigated or evaluated by the Air Force was ever an indication of threat to our national security.” The fact that it is not publicly acknowledged that unexplained aerial phenomena have been reported as either directly intercepting nuclear warheads or taking more than a keen interest in them, speaks volumes. If we are not informed about something of this magnitude it is usually for reasons of national security or their innate fear that such incidents, should they become publicly known, would undermine their military expertise and expose their lack of defensive capabilities.


The above excerpt was taken from The Alien Enigma by JP Robinson.



[i] UFOTV Presents Out Of The Blue, narrated by Peter Coyote, released 09/11/2011

[ii] Letter from Headquarters Space Command, Peterson AFB, Colorado, Department of the Air Force – Dated 27 Aug, 1984

[iii]National Press Club, Washington D.C., UFOs and Nukes Conference, September 27, 2010

Featured Posts
Recent Posts
Search By Tags
bottom of page