During the program, I asked for other veterans to contact me with their experiences and, to date, two of them have done so. I have secured these persons' DD214 military files and thereby confirmed that they were indeed stationed at the bases indicated, during the years indicated, and had been assigned to guard nuclear weapons.

Former U.S. Air Force Security Policeman Sgt. Richard E. Walker told me,

I was stationed at K.I. Sawyer AFB in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan from March 1973 to November 1976, and was assigned to the 410th Security Police Squadron. One night in October 1975, while on security duty on the flight line, a UFO was spotted over the base. It flew from the south to the north.

At first, no one suspected anything because the object appeared just like an approaching aircraft with its landing lights on, but soon we noticed that the runway lights were not turned on. That's when the radio chatter began on the security radios. We were asking, "Why aren't the runway lights on?"

The object continued its slow approach and then hovered over the flight line and the Weapon Storage Area. At the time, K.I. Sawyer had nuclear weapons in there and on the B-52 bombers that were on alert on the flight line.

As the object continued to hover over the base, the radio chatter from all of the security personnel increased. I remember that several of them began to say something to the effect, 'Do you see that?', as the object began to get brighter and brighter. It hovered for about one or two minutes, over the bomber alert area, when it suddenly split into five separate objects, which departed in several different directions at an incredible rate of speed.

The strangest thing of all was that there was never any official mention of what happened that night. Those of us who were working on the flight line just could not believe what we were seeing and were wondering why there was no security alert called. The first time we discussed it as a group was when we were on the bus leaving the flight line after being relieved from our posts. We thought it must have been some sort of new aircraft test.

We expected that when we arrived at the armory, to turn in our weapons, our flight leader, MSgt. ----, would ask us what happened, as it was his custom to talk with us when we arrived at the Central Security Office. That night he never said a word; he just sat in his office. The next day the 410 SPS commander had nothing to say about the incident and there was no explanation as to why there had been no official debriefing.

I asked Walker how he knew that the incident had occurred in October of 1975. He responded, "I'm pretty sure that this happened in October because it was around the time I received notice that I was scheduled to go to the range for my yearly qualifying with my M-16 rifle. The notice was given at the daily briefing and it was usually about two weeks before our visit to the range. Qualifying was always done in the month in which we enlisted and my enlistment month was November."

This report is particularly interesting to me for two reasons: First, although declassified documents secured via the Freedom of Information Act confirm UFO activity at Weapons Storage Areas at Loring AFB, Maine and Wurtsmith AFB, Michigan in October 1975, this is the first indication that such an incursion also occurred at K.I. Sawyer AFB during the same time-frame.

Secondly, the description provided by Walker, of the larger UFO breaking into five smaller objects, is identical to one reported by former RAF Bentwaters deputy base commander, now-retired USAF Col. Charles Halt, relating to the famous Rendlesham Forest UFO incidents of December 1980. Halt and a team of Security Policemen observed the same dramatic display while trudging through the woods, investigating strange lights there. At the same time, Halt heard on his two-way radio that one of the smaller UFOs had subsequently moved toward the base Weapons Storage Area, where it directed laser-like beams down into it.

Meanwhile, at Ellsworth AFB, Two Decades Later

Retired U.S. Air Force Security Policeman TSgt. Anthony W. Keel told me,

While at Ellsworth [AFB, South Dakota] I was assigned to the 44th Security Police Group. One night around September 1991, at approximately 2245 hrs, while working as an Alert Response Team leader in the Oscar Flight area, we were dispatched to a [missile] site with multiple alarms. We arrived and cleared the site and reset the alarms.

But before the site was set-up, we received another dispatch for a different site, with the same alarm pattern. We arrived and cleared the site, then got good set-up. On way back to the Launch Control Facility (LCF), we received another set of alarms and could see that site off in distance. We both saw and verified a blue, pulsating light near the site and called it in.

Out in that open country, distance and size are very distorted. We couldn't tell if it was hovering or on the ground, or if it was a single vehicle light, or some sort of large hand-held spotlight, or an aircraft light, given our distance to it. As we got closer and were able to place it in perspective with the surroundings, we could see that the light was hovering near the site, but had moved away as we got closer. The light then went over a knoll and just disappeared. After we knew it was gone, we ran normal procedures at the site, cleared the alarms and got a good set-up.

The light was about the size of a large helicopter, was semi-circular and oblong, and made not the faintest of noise. The closest we were able to get was about one-quarter to one-half mile from it.

Upon arrival at the LCF that evening, we were debriefed by the Flight Security Controller and Flight Chief and were told not to make written statements. The FSC did take notes and then I believe he made a call to Missile Security Control.

There was a second incident that I believe occurred in December 1996. I was engaged in a Field Training Exercise about one mile from the Weapons Storage Area (WSA) and was positioned on a steep slope. Around 2300 hrs, as I was checking on the personnel I was responsible for, I happened to look back towards the top of the hill and saw a light bobbing along, moving west-to-east. I assumed that it was a flashlight and thought, "Oh great, SSgt. -----, the squad leader, was coming down to check on us."

We went back to talking and, after about five to ten minutes, I looked back up the road to see where ----- was. The 'flashlight' was now traveling east-to-west in the same manner. I made a comment to the kid I was with and we both started observing this light and the movement it made. We watched it bob up and down east-to-west, and then back, several times. The last time it went west-to-east, it kept going and was [clearly visible] in the sky as it went past the edge of the hill.

By then, we both knew this was an aircraft, and that it had to be much farther away than we initially thought when it appeared to be a flashlight. The distance it was from us would have put the craft near the WSA, which was fairly close to the runway. I was wondering what one of our helicopters was doing and why it didn't have its running lights on.

We observed the craft's movement which was now straight-line and not out of the ordinary. It headed away from Ellsworth in an easterly direction and gained some altitude. We did not hear any aircraft engine noise, which was a little odd, but didn't think about that until after the fact.

The light stopped and hovered when it was about 2-3 miles from the base, then started moving as I know a helicopter or fixed-wing aircraft would not. It made several short darts in different directions and would stop on a dime and hover, then dart in another direction. The kid and I discussed this while observing it and I called the FTX (Field Training Exercise) command post to verify if we had any craft in the air.

After five minutes the radio/telephone operator at our command post stated that all base craft were grounded, including choppers, and nothing was flying at that time out of Rapid City Regional Airport as well. Shortly after receiving that transmission on the radio, the craft we were observing did a 'Star Trek'. One second it was there, we saw a streak of light, and it was gone.

I had previously received a number of other reports relating to UFO activity at Ellsworth AFB's missile sites—from ICBM launch officers, targeting and maintenance personnel, and guards—from the 1960s onward, so these two accounts only added to the database.

I am asking other USAF veterans to contact me with their accounts of UFO incursions at nuclear weapons sites, whatever the year or the location. Witnesses' names will be kept confidential unless I am given permission to publicize them. My email address is [ ufohastings AT aol DOT com ].