John Mills and the Vandenberg warhead films
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 8
| Date | 1984/1985 |
|---|---|
| Topics | Beings & bodies (topic), Nuclear & missile sites (topic), Military encounters (topic) |
| People | John Mills, Robert Hastings, Robert Jacobs, Kingston George |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 98 |
| Year | 1984 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 1984 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 7 |
John W. Mills III, a retired U.S. Air Force technical sergeant, told researcher Robert Hastings that in the mid-1980s he was shown classified film from a Minuteman III test launch at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California in which a small white object appeared to move around the dummy warheads in flight.[1]
Mills
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From 1981 to 1985 Mills was a Minuteman missile targeting team chief at Vandenberg in the 394th Intercontinental Ballistic Missile Test Maintenance Squadron. In 1978, at Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota, he and his team commander said they saw a rhombus-shaped object over a launch facility after a guard called them.[1]
The film
Mills said that about two days after a Minuteman III launch — perhaps in 1984, from Launch Facility 26 — contractors showed him and his team partner a very classified black-and-white film about 30 to 40 seconds long. It showed three dummy warheads after separation from the missile's post-boost vehicle, with a small white object moving around them; one warhead reached its target and the other two were never found. Mills said he and the engineers considered lint on the lens, leaking propellant and ignition effects, that no one suggested a UFO at the time, and that he has no real idea what happened. He also heard from contractors of a Peacekeeper test around late 1984 or early 1985 in which a beam of light appeared and only two of five warheads came down, but he did not see that film.[1]
Context
Mills's account is one of several Hastings has collected about Vandenberg tests, the most famous being Robert Jacobs's story of the 1964 Big Sur film. Hastings also cites a 1974 New York Times report of radar-tracked "ghost" objects during an August 1973 Minuteman test, and retired Lieutenant Colonel Philip Moore's account of a lost warhead during a test on 28 March 1979. His book UFOs and Nukes argues that UFOs have repeatedly shown interest in missile tests and nuclear weapons.[1][2]
Skepticism
Engineer Kingston George's 1993 rebuttal of the Big Sur story argued that decoys and debris released during tests can look strange on film. A video circulated online as footage of a "UFO shooting down an ICBM" is a re-enactment. No original films matching Mills's description have been released.[3][4]
People and topics
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- U.S. Air Force — The U.S. military service that ran the official UFO projects from 1947 to 1969.
- Unidentified anomalous phenomena — The U.S. government's current term for unidentified objects in the air, in space and underwater.
- John Mills — Air Force technician who described films of UFOs near test warheads.
- Robert Hastings — Researcher who has collected accounts of UFOs at nuclear weapons sites, author of UFOs and Nukes.
- Vandenberg Space Force Base — The California missile and space launch base.
- Robert Jacobs — Air Force officer who said he filmed a UFO intercepting a test warhead at Big Sur in 1964.
- UFOs and Nukes — Robert Hastings's book on UFOs at nuclear sites.
- Unidentified flying object — An object in the sky that can't be identified; the older term for UAP.
- Kingston George — Engineer who argued the Big Sur film showed ordinary missile hardware.
On the Timeline
- Groom Range land withdrawal (1984) (7 August 1984) — The Air Force admits it restricted public access to land near Area 51 without legal authority.
- Advanced Theoretical Physics group (20 May 1985) — A secure facility hosts a conference on whether UAP evidence supports a research program.
See every 1984 event on the UAP Timeline →
References
- Robert Hastings, "UFOs are stalking and intercepting dummy nuclear warheads during test flights" · ufohastings.com · archived copy
- Big Sur UFO — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Kingston George, "The Big Sur UFO: an identified flying object", Skeptical Inquirer (1993) (PDF) · cdn.centerforinquiry.org · archived copy
- "Explained: video of Vandenberg 'UFO shooting down ICBM' (re-enactment)", Metabunk · metabunk.org · archived copy
- UFOs visited nuclear weapons sites, former Air Force officers say — History News Network · historynewsnetwork.org · archived copy
- 579th Strategic Missile Squadron Atlas F sites, Walker AFB · atlasmissilesilo.com · archived copy
- ufohastings.com · ufohastings.com · archived copy
Further reading
- Skunk Works — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Vandenberg Space Force Base — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · 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.
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