Robert Salas
Robert Salas is a former US Air Force First Lieutenant who served as on-duty commander of an underground nuclear launch control facility at Malmstrom Air Force Base, Montana, during the night of March 24, 1967. He is the principal witness to the Malmstrom Air Force Base UFO Incident, in which a pulsating red oval craft hovered over the base's front gate and simultaneously caused all 10 of the site's Minuteman nuclear missiles to fail — an event Salas later formalized in a sworn affidavit and that four Malmstrom personnel corroborated under oath.
| Role | First Lieutenant, US Air Force; UAP witness; Malmstrom AFB incident |
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Background
Salas was assigned to the 490th Minuteman Missile Squadron at Malmstrom Air Force Base. As on-duty commander of a launch control facility, his primary responsibility was monitoring the readiness and security status of 10 Minuteman ICBMs housed in underground silos.
The March 1967 Incident
During the night of March 24, 1967, Salas received the first in a series of increasingly urgent calls from his flight security controller (FSC). The initial call reported lights in the sky performing maneuvers inconsistent with any known aircraft: high velocity, abrupt directional changes, and no engine noise. Minutes later, the same FSC called again in a state of alarm, reporting that a pulsating red oval-shaped object approximately 30 to 40 feet in diameter was hovering directly over the base's front gate. Security personnel outside had drawn their weapons on the craft.
Simultaneously, alarms and indicators at Salas's launch commander console began to fail in rapid succession. All 10 Minuteman nuclear missiles showed red fault status — a guidance and control system failure state that rendered every missile incapable of launch. The craft then departed. For the remainder of the night, the missiles remained inoperable, though subsequent inspection found no permanent damage.
The following morning, squadron commander Colonel George Eldridge briefed Salas and his crew. Eldridge confirmed the incident was not part of any Air Force exercise and offered no explanation for why it had occurred. An officer from the Air Force Office of Security and Intelligence informed the Malmstrom crew that the event was classified Secret and directed them not to discuss it.
Corroboration and Documentation
Salas later submitted a 2010 sworn affidavit placing the incident on formal record. Three other Malmstrom personnel submitted independent sworn affidavits corroborating the events of that night:
- USAF First Lieutenant Robert C. Jameson
- USAF Airman First Class Patrick McDonah, an FSC communications officer
- Dwin C. Arneson, officer in charge of communications
The existence of four independent sworn statements from the same incident makes the Malmstrom case one of the most formally documented instances of UFO Interference with Nuclear Weapons in the unclassified record.
Significance
Salas's account is one of the primary cases cited in establishing a pattern of UFO interference with US nuclear weapons systems during the Cold War. The simultaneous failure of 10 ICBMs — without any conventional explanation — represents a demonstration of apparent capability to disable nuclear deterrent assets without physical access. David Grusch directly referenced the Malmstrom incident as a confirmed fact in his interview with Ross Coulthart on NewsNation.