Person
Robert Salas
Also known as Bob Salas, Salas
- Captain, U.S. Air Force; Minuteman missile launch officer, Malmstrom AFB
Robert Salas is a former U.S. Air Force captain who was a Minuteman missile launch officer at Malmstrom Air Force Base, Montana. He is the best-known witness to the claim that UFOs have interfered with American nuclear weapons.
He says that on the night of March 24, 1967, as a first lieutenant and deputy crew commander in the Oscar Flight launch capsule, his topside guard reported strange lights. The guard then called back in terror about a red, pulsating oval object hovering over the front gate. As Salas woke his commander, Fred Meiwald, the missiles dropped off alert one after another with guidance and control failures. He has variously put the number at six to eight or all ten. He says the crew was made to sign non-disclosure statements and the squadron commander told them it was no exercise. He kept silent until 1994, when a FOIA request led the Air Force to declassify records of a similar shutdown of all ten missiles at Echo Flight eight days earlier. For years he believed his own event had been at Echo, until Meiwald corrected him in 1996.
He has told the story at the 2001 Disclosure Project and 2010 "UFOs and Nukes" press events, the 2013 Citizen Hearing and in The Age of Disclosure (2025), and co-wrote Faded Giant (2005). The official record cuts both ways. The 341st Wing history confirms the Echo shutdown but calls UFO rumours there "disproven" and traces it to a noise pulse, and it does not mention Oscar Flight. Salas counters that the investigators suspected "externally generated signals". He rejects a 2025 Wall Street Journal report that a secret EMP test caused the shutdowns, and says AARO disregarded him.
Sources: Citizen Hearing on Disclosure (2013) · UFOs and Nukes press conference (2010) · American Alchemy interview (2025) · 341st Strategic Missile Wing history (1967) · September 9, 2025 hearing · Wikipedia
Facts and claims
- claimed Salas testified that on 24 March 1967, as deputy missile combat crew commander at Malmstrom's Oscar Flight, the missiles lost alert status while guards reported a red, pulsating oval object hovering above the front gate: “we lost alert status on all 10 missiles while this object was above our facility.” In other accounts he has put the number at six to eight of ten. — Robert Salas Source: Citizen Hearing 2013: Nuclear Tampering, Part 1 at 3:40
- claimed He says his crew was ordered to sign non-disclosure statements, and that he kept silent for nearly 30 years until a FOIA request led the Air Force to declassify the related Echo Flight shutdown. — Robert Salas Source: Citizen Hearing 2013: Nuclear Tampering, Part 1 at 1:12:01
- claimed He says that back at base his squadron commander, “white as a sheet”, assured them it was not an exercise, and an AFOSI agent had the crew sign a non-disclosure agreement. — Robert Salas Source: “This UFO Shut Down 10 Nukes!” - Air Force Officer Robert Salas at 59:27
- claimed He long told the story as having happened at Echo Flight, until his crew commander Fred Meiwald told him in 1996 that they had been at Oscar Flight, a week after Echo; in a recorded call Meiwald confirmed the guard's reports and missiles going down, though not how many. — Robert Salas Source: “This UFO Shut Down 10 Nukes!” - Air Force Officer Robert Salas at 57:53
- documented The 341st Strategic Missile Wing history records that all ten Echo Flight missiles lost alert on 16 March 1967 and that “Rumors of Unidentified Flying Objects (UFO) around the area of Echo Flight during the time of fault were disproven”; engineering tests traced the shutdown to a noise pulse in the logic coupler. The histories do not mention the Oscar Flight event Salas describes. Source: 341st Strategic Missile Wing histories, January 1967 – March 1968 (Echo Flight incident), FOIA release
- claimed Salas reads the unit history differently, quoting the investigating team's opinion that “externally generated signals” shut the Echo missiles down, and says Boeing engineer Robert Kaminski was told not to submit his final report because the incident was reported as a UFO event. — Robert Salas Source: Citizen Hearing 2013: Nuclear Tampering, Part 1 at 11:01
- claimed He argues the Air Force kept the shutdowns from the Condon study, whose report ended Project Blue Book, and concludes the Air Force “was and is engaged in lying and disinforming the public.” — Robert Salas Source: Citizen Hearing 2013: Nuclear Tampering, Part 1 at 14:00
- claimed Citing David Schindele's account of a September 1966 shutdown at Minot AFB, he says that between September 1966 and March 1967 “we lost 30 missiles to UFO activity.” — Robert Salas Source: “This UFO Shut Down 10 Nukes!” - Air Force Officer Robert Salas at 1:34
- claimed He calls the 2025 Wall Street Journal report attributing the Malmstrom shutdowns to a secret EMP test a deliberate attempt to discredit his story, citing DOE confirmation that there were no nuclear tests on 16 or 24 March 1967. — Robert Salas Source: “This UFO Shut Down 10 Nukes!” - Air Force Officer Robert Salas at 39:19
- claimed George Knapp testified in 2025 that Salas went to AARO and “was completely disregarded”. In 2022 Scott Bray told Congress the Malmstrom data was not in the UAP Task Force's holdings: “I have heard stories.” — George Knapp Source: Restoring Public Trust Through UAP Transparency and Whistleblower Protection at 2:15:30
Connected files
Books
- Eyes Only: The Story of Clifford Stone and UFO Crash Retrievals (wrote foreword for)
- Faded Giant: The 1967 Missile/UFO Incidents (authored)
- Unidentified: The UFO Phenomenon — How World Governments Have Conspired to Conceal Humanity's Biggest Secret (authored)
- UAPs and the Nuclear Puzzle: Visitations, National Security, and the Need for Transparency (authored)
Claims
- The U.S. government has deliberately spread false or misleading information about UFOs (asserts)
- A UFO shut down nuclear missiles at Malmstrom Air Force Base in March 1967 (comments on claim)
- UAP show a recurring interest in nuclear weapons sites, at times interfering with the weapons (asserts)
Events
- Disclosure Project press conference at the National Press Club (testified in)
- UFOs and Nukes press conference, National Press Club (testified in)
Documentaries
- The Age of Disclosure (appears in)
News
- WSJ: Pentagon disinformation fueled UFO myths, from doctored Area 51 photos to a fake “Yankee Blue” briefing (subject of)
Hearings & briefings
- Citizen Hearing on Disclosure (testified at)
Incidents
- Malmstrom AFB missile shutdown (witness)
Documents
- 341st Strategic Missile Wing histories, January 1967 – March 1968 (Echo Flight incident), FOIA release (cites) — Salas says a FOIA request led the Air Force to declassify the Echo Flight records; the wing history says UFO rumours there “were disproven”
Programs
- All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (disputes) — He says AARO disregarded him, and rejects the WSJ's EMP-test explanation
People
- Sean Kirkpatrick (related to)
- George Knapp (statements by)
Videos
- UFOs and Nukes press conference, National Press Club (27 September 2010) (appears in)
- Citizen Hearing 2013: Nuclear Tampering, Part 1 (appears in)
- Citizen Hearing 2013: Nuclear Tampering, Part 2 (appears in)
- Restoring Public Trust Through UAP Transparency and Whistleblower Protection (discussed in)
- Disclosure Project press conference, National Press Club (May 9, 2001), full event (appears in)
- “This UFO Shut Down 10 Nukes!” - Air Force Officer Robert Salas (appears in)
- Joe Rogan Experience #2314: Hal Puthoff (discussed in)
Mentioned in videos
- UFOs and Nukes press conference, National Press Club (27 September 2010)
- Citizen Hearing 2013: Nuclear Tampering, Part 1
- Citizen Hearing 2013: Nuclear Tampering, Part 2
- The UFO Phenomenon | Full Documentary 2021 | 7NEWS Spotlight
- Meet the nuclear missile guard abducted by aliens: Richard Barth (American Alchemy, 2026)
Mentioned in documents and records
- Disclosure: Military and Government Witnesses Reveal the Greatest Secrets in Modern History
- The Disclosure Project