A number of those incidents have been publicly discussed in recent years by ex-military personnel who witnessed the mysterious incursions at various bases. In one such case, a UFO apparently directed laser-like beams of light down onto the U.S. Air Force's largest nuclear Weapons Storage Area (WSA) in Europe. That event was mentioned during my September 27, 2010 "UFOs and Nukes" press conference.

The shocking incident occurred at the American-operated RAF Bentwaters base in Suffolk, England in December 1980. In the video above, Bentwaters' former Deputy Base Commander, retired USAF Col. Charles Halt, tells the assembled reporters that he personally observed the UFO, as well as the light beams emanating from it. Although Halt's remarks were necessarily brief during the press conference—six other USAF veterans presented testimony as well—his description of the sighting has been more detailed in previous interviews. As I write in my book UFOs and Nukes:

During a May 13, 1997 interview with journalist A.J.S. Rayl, Halt said, "[After leaving the woods, our search team] crossed the farmer's field past his house and across the road, stumbled through a small stream, and went out into a large plowed field...About that same time, somebody noticed a [UFO in the southern sky]. It was round—did not change shape—and at one point it appeared to come toward us at a very high speed. It stopped overhead and sent down a small pencil-like beam, sort of like a laser beam...It illuminated the ground about ten feet from us and we just stood there in awe wondering whether it was a signal, a warning, or what it was. We really didn't know. It clicked-off as though someone threw a switch, and the object receded, back up into the sky. Then it moved back toward Bentwaters, and continued to send down beams of light, at one point near the weapons storage facility. We knew that because we could hear the chatter on the [two-way] radio."

Halt further discussed the incident at the WSA during a Sci Fi Channel television program, UFO Invasion at Rendlesham, which first aired in December 2003. After some prodding by the show's host, Bryant Gumble, a reluctant Halt stated, "The object to the south was actually sending some beams down near, or into, the Weapons Storage Area. That caused me a great deal of concern. You know, what was it doing there? Was it searching for something, was it trying to—who knows what it was trying to do?" For a split second, it seemed as if Halt would say something like, "Was it trying to zap the nukes?" but caught himself before the words left his lips.

Given these public statements, I decided to approach Halt, in the hope that he would elaborate on the nuclear weapons aspect of the sightings at Bentwaters. My telephone interview with him took place on February 7, 2006. Among other things, Halt told me, "[While we were in the forest and, later, in the farmer's field] we heard radio conversations on the Law Enforcement frequency, the Security Police frequency, and the Command Network. Now, we were having a lot of problems with the radios. They were really acting up. We were getting a lot of interference and static, but we could hear talk about one of the objects [being] in the vicinity of the Bentwaters WSA. I heard that some of the beams, or whatever they were, came down into the WSA. As I recall, the guard in the tower at the WSA made that report."

During the telephone interview, I asked Halt, "Were you ever concerned that the UFO was attempting to disable or otherwise compromise the integrity of the nuclear weapons?" He replied, "I can't comment on that, the way you worded it." He then paused a moment and said, "I did have great concern about the purpose of the beams." I then said, "So you wouldn't rule out the possibility that the object was trying to disable some of the weapons?" After another pause, Halt replied softly, "I can't comment about the weapons." Pressing on, I asked a follow-up question, "Did you ever hear any rumors about some of the weapons being removed from the WSA and being shipped back to the United States for inspection?" Halt replied, "I have no comment on that."

As I discuss in my book, in 1994, another retired USAF officer who had been very high up in the NATO nuclear weapons security organization, told me that shortly after the incident two tactical nuclear bombs had been removed from one of the bunkers at the Bentwaters WSA and shipped to Kirtland AFB, New Mexico for inspection. This individual, who I am not at liberty to identify, claimed not to know the results of that analysis.

Over the years, other ex-USAF personnel have told me about UFOs directing beams of light—some of them laser-like; others appearing to be searchlights—down onto nuclear missile silos. Several examples are referenced in my book, which is available at my website.

The "Soviet Bentwaters" Incident

In July 1989, an intriguing UFO incident occurred at the Soviet missile test complex known as Kapustin Yar, located south of the city of Volgograd, in southwestern Russia. At the time, a group of 12 intermediate-range missiles, RT-14s, were operational at Kapustin Yar and spare nuclear warheads were stored in a nearby weapons depot.

The information about the UFO sighting comes directly from declassified KGB documents, secured by Western researchers and journalists following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Don Berliner, of the Fund for UFO Research, notes that the KGB file contained the depositions of seven Soviet military personnel, drawings of the UFO made by some of the observers, and a case summary written by an unnamed KBG officer, from which Berliner excerpted the following passage:

Military personnel of the signal center observed UFOs in the period from 22:12 hrs. to 23:55 hrs. on 28 July 1989. According to the witnesses' reports, they observed three objects simultaneously, at a distance of 3–5 km. After questioning the witnesses, it was determined that the reported characteristics of the observed UFOs are: disc 4–5 m. diameter, with a half-sphere on top, which is lit brightly. It moved sometimes abruptly, but noiselessly, at times coming down and hovering over ground at an altitude of 20-60 m. The command of [censored] called for a fighter... but it was not able to see it in detail, because the UFO did not let the aircraft come near it, evading it. Atmospheric conditions were suitable for visual observations.

Berliner writes, "The most detailed communication was submitted by the Officer-on-Duty, Ensign Valery N. Voloshin. A captain from the telegraph center informed him at 23:20 hrs. that 'an unidentified flying object, which he called a flying saucer, was hovering over the military unit for over an hour.' After confirming the sighting with the operation signal officer on duty, Ensign Voloshin and Private Tishchayev climbed the first part of an antenna tower." According to [Voloshin's] deposition:

One could clearly see a powerful blinking signal which resembled a camera flash in the night sky. The object flew over the unit's logistics yard and moved in the direction of the rocket weapons (nuclear warhead) depot, 300 meters away. It hovered over the depot at a height of 20 meters. The UFO's hull shone with a dim green light which looked like phosphorous. It was a disc, 4 or 5 m. in diameter, with a semispherical top.While the object was hovering over the depot, a bright beam appeared from the bottom of the disc, where the flash had been before, and made two or three circles, lighting the corner of one of the buildings … The movement of the beam lasted for several seconds, then the beam disappeared and the object, still flashing, moved in the direction of the railway station. After that, I observed the object hovering over the logistics yard, railway station and cement factory. Then it returned to the rocket weapons depot, and hovered over it at an altitude of 60-70 m. The object was observed from that time on, by the first guard-shift and its commander. At 1:30 hrs., the object flew in the direction of the city of Akhtubinsk and disappeared from sight …

The remarkable UFO incident at Kapustin Yar's nuclear warhead depot, as summarized by the KGB, has obvious parallels with the sighting at the USAF Weapons Storage Area at RAF Bentwaters in December 1980. In each case, a disc-shaped object hovered at low altitude over (or near) a nuclear weapons storage site and released beams of light down into it for unknown reasons. When I sent a copy of Berliner's report to Colonel Halt, he responded simply, "This all sounds very familiar."