Jerome Nelson's Atlas missile site sighting
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 8
| Witness | Jerry (Jerome) Nelson, 579th Strategic Missile Squadron; later a retired pharmacist in Cocoa Beach, Florida |
|---|---|
| Place | Atlas F Site 9 (Picacho, New Mexico), Walker Air Force Base near Roswell |
| Period | Early-to-mid 1960s, over "several months" |
| Claim | Objects hovered silently over the silo and shone lights on the guards |
| Published | Billy Cox, Florida Today, October 2001 |
| Status | Second-hand by Nelson's own account; no official record released |
| Date | Late 1963 |
| Topics | Nuclear & missile sites (topic), Military encounters (topic) |
| People | Jerome Nelson, Robert Hastings |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 66 |
| Year | 1963 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 1963 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 5 |
Jerry (Jerome) Nelson, a veteran of the 579th Strategic Missile Squadron at Walker Air Force Base near Roswell, New Mexico, described unknown objects visiting his Atlas missile silo, Site 9, during the 1960s.[1] He said the guards saw them while he stayed below at his post, and that the base never acted on his calls. Other 579th veterans have told similar stories.[1][3]
The account
Nelson told his story in an October 2001 Florida Today column by Billy Cox. He was by then a retired pharmacist in Cocoa Beach.[1] Reading about the Disclosure Project's May 2001 press event had brought the memory back. He said he had never heard of the 1975 base intrusions or, until a few years earlier, of the Roswell crash story, though he served next to Roswell.[1]
Site 9, he said, had a run of strange night-time security breaches over several months:[1]
- The objects. "The guards were scared. These objects would hover over the silo and shine lights down on them without making any noise."
- The base. "So I'd call the base and the base would say, 'We'll take it under advisement.'"
- Nelson himself. "I never got a chance to see it, because I couldn't leave my post."
Cox described the strain of the work: 24-hour shifts that ran to about 27 hours with driving, the Cuban missile crisis, and three Atlas silos near Roswell destroyed by fuel explosions.[1]
Other Site 9 reports
Cox also interviewed Bob Caplan, a missile facilities technician on another crew at Site 9.[1] His account:[1]
- The guard's request. Late one night a guard asked for the security lights to be dimmed, because weird lights beyond the perimeter were unnerving him.
- The light. Caplan went up and, on a clear, moonless night, saw something "definitely on the ground … white and very intense". It was not a beam but "more like a flat circle, like a halogen light that's shining flat on the ground".
- Vanishing. When he and a guard approached with flashlights it vanished, reappeared 20 to 30 feet away, then disappeared without trace.
- Questioned. An Office of Special Investigations agent questioned him days later.
Gene Lamb, a 579th deputy crew commander and the squadron's reunion coordinator, saw nothing himself. He recalled stories of a landing north of Roswell reported by a highway patrolman, who said it left a triangular pattern of leg marks, and of a daylight sighting. He said his own crew commander had seen UFO activity but felt bound by a security oath. Some veterans told Lamb that what happened there "ruined my life".[1]
The squadron
The 579th operated twelve Atlas F missiles in underground silos around Roswell. Site 9 was near Picacho, and the others were near Roswell, Elkins, Hagerman and Lake Arthur.[2] The squadron's short life ran from 1961 to 1965, when the Atlas F was retired.[1][2]
Similar accounts
Other 579th veterans have described comparable events.[3] The former launch officer Philip Moore told the researcher Robert Hastings about a night in late 1964:[3]
- The call. Moore's crew was on alert at Site 7 when a sister site called to report a UFO.
- The light. Crew members sent topside saw a silent light dart between Sites 6 and 8, about 10 to 15 miles away. It stopped and hovered instantly, with "no getting up to speed or slowing down".
- Afterwards. They were never debriefed and never told not to discuss it.
Hastings recorded similar accounts from Minuteman officers at F. E. Warren and Ellsworth Air Force Bases.[3] Hastings, author of UFOs and Nukes, presented six former Air Force witnesses at the National Press Club in Washington in September 2010. He argued that UFOs had monitored and possibly interfered with U.S. nuclear missiles.[4] The page reporting that event offered almost no readable text when checked. A photograph Hastings posted in connection with Nelson no longer loads.[4][5]
Assessment
Nelson's account is second-hand by his own description, since he relied on what the guards reported, and it was told decades later.[1] Caplan's first-hand description is of a ground-level light, not a hovering craft. No official record of the Site 9 events has been released.[1]
People and topics
- Unidentified anomalous phenomena — The U.S. government's current term for unidentified objects in the air, in space and underwater.
- Jerome Nelson — Atlas missile launch officer who described a glowing object over his site near Roswell.
- Roswell Army Air Field — The bomber base at Roswell, home of the 509th Bomb Group in 1947.
- Roswell — The New Mexico town at the center of the 1947 crash story.
- Robert Hastings — Researcher who has collected accounts of UFOs at nuclear weapons sites, author of UFOs and Nukes.
- Unidentified flying object — An object in the sky that can't be identified; the older term for UAP.
- UFOs and Nukes — Robert Hastings's book on UFOs at nuclear sites.
On the Timeline
- Dan Sherman and the telepathy breeding claim (January 1963) — Air Force Sgt. Dan Sherman says he was told of a program breeding people with telepathic abilities.
- Holloman landing and hangar claim (1964) (30 April 1964) — A claimed UFO under guard at Holloman AFB; the same day a pilot reports an egg-shaped object.
See every 1963 event on the UAP Timeline →
References
- Billy Cox, "UFOs haunt missile crews", Florida Today (Oct 2001), via Patrick Gross · ufologie.patrickgross.org · archived copy
- 579th Strategic Missile Squadron site locations — AtlasMissileSilo.com · atlasmissilesilo.com · archived copy
- "Three former U.S. Air Force ICBM launch officers speak out about UFOs", UFOs & Nukes (Robert Hastings, Oct 2013) · ufohastings.com · archived copy
- "UFOs visited nuclear weapons sites, former Air Force officers say", History News Network (Sept 2010) · historynewsnetwork.org · archived copy
- ufohastings.com · ufohastings.com · archived copy
This page was last edited on 29 October 2026. Articles are written in our own words from the sources listed under References; disputed claims are attributed to the people who made them.
No discussion yet.