Robert Salas
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 👤 Person
Contents 6
| Type | Person |
|---|---|
| Also known as | Salas |
| On the Timeline | 2 events, 2010–2012 |
Robert Salas is a former U.S. Air Force officer who served as a Minuteman missile launch officer at Malmstrom Air Force Base, Montana, in the 1960s, and who has said that nuclear missiles under his control shut down while a UFO hovered outside the launch facility in March 1967. He became one of the best-known voices on the alleged link between UFOs and nuclear weapons.[1][2]
Military and civilian career
Salas served as a deputy missile combat crew commander with the 341st Strategic Missile Wing at Malmstrom. After leaving the Air Force, he worked as an engineer in the aerospace industry.[1]
The 1967 account
Salas first went public in an article in the Great Falls Tribune on 13 August 1996. He said that while on duty underground, he received calls from the surface security guards, who reported strange lights manoeuvring and then a glowing red object hovering over the facility's front gate; shortly afterwards, several missiles in his flight went into "No-Go" status. He has placed the event at Oscar Flight in March 1967, around a week after the documented shutdown of Echo Flight on 16 March.[1][2]
Books and advocacy
With James Klotz he wrote Faded Giant (2005), arguing that the government was concealing evidence of extraterrestrial involvement. His account is a centrepiece of Robert Hastings's UFOs and Nukes (2008). He appeared on CNN with skeptic Michael Shermer in 2008, spoke at the National Press Club press conference on UFOs and nuclear weapons on 27 September 2010, and later published Unidentified: The UFO Phenomenon (2014) and UAPs and the Nuclear Puzzle (2023). Later he and other veterans briefed Pentagon officials on their accounts.[2][3][4]
Criticism
Skeptics such as Brian Dunning, Robert Sheaffer and Mick West note that contemporary Air Force records document only the Echo Flight outage, attribute it to an electronic fault, and contain no UFO reports; they suggest that Salas's recollection, made almost 30 years later, may be mistaken. Salas maintains that his account is accurate.[2][5]
On the UAP Timeline
- UFOs and Nukes press conference (27 September 2010) — Former military officers hold a press conference about UAP at nuclear weapons sites.
- Fergus County sheriff's log sightings (2012) (19 September 2012) — A sheriff's log records a report of two silent V-shaped UAP near a Montana missile site.
References
- "1967 UFO incident still mystifies man", Great Falls Tribune (13 Aug 1996) · newspapers.com · archived copy
- Malmstrom UFO incident — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- "Ex-Air Force Personnel: UFOs Deactivated Nukes", CBS News (2010) · cbsnews.com · archived copy
- "Nearly six decades after seminal Montana UFO incidents, air force vets brief Pentagon", Calgary Herald · calgaryherald.com · archived copy
- Brian Dunning, "The Day the UFO Deactivated the Nukes", Skeptoid #842 · skeptoid.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.
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