Submitted Photo This photo provided by David Schindele shows a Launch Control Center like the one at November Flight in the Minot missile field that he worked in the 1960s. This particular picture is of Delta Flight connected with Ellsworth AFB, S.D.

Retired Air Force Capt. David Schindele gave a detailed account of the unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP)/unidentified flying object (UFO) encounter at a facility in the Minot missile field in the 1960s. Schindele related the account when giving testimony at a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., in October.

His account follows:

In September of 1966, I was a Minuteman ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile) launch control officer and deputy commander of a launch crew stationed at Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota. I was involved in a UFO incident at that time, where a flying object tampered with and took down a total of 10 nuclear-tipped ICBM missiles by rendering them un-launchable!

It all began for me early one morning when having breakfast and listening to a television news cast by a TV station in the town of Minot. The newscaster announced that residents of Mohall, North Dakota, saw strange lights west of town that night, which they attributed to a UFO. This caught my attention because I was scheduled to relieve/replace the current Minuteman ICBM launch crew at “November Flight” Launch Control Center, which was three miles west of town.

When I attended the “predeparture crew briefing” on base that morning, where fifteen two-man officer crews would meet each morning prior to going to their assigned Launch Control Centers, we were told that a few missiles at November Flight had gone “off alert,” but nothing more was said on this. After that briefing, several missile crews came up to me and mentioned about what they heard on the news that morning. And my crew commander also acknowledged that he heard the news.

When my crew commander and I arrived at November Flight Launch Control Facility, which was a drab green non-descript building surrounded by a high fence, and located 37 miles from base, my commander entered through the front door of the building to debrief security guards. Upon entering the rear door of the facility, I was met by the site manager, who was a tech sergeant, and he asked if I heard what happened overnight. I responded by stating I knew that residents of Mohall reported sighting strange lights during the night. He then took me to the “day-room” and its west facing windows, and he described to me what he and others had seen that night. He described a large object just outside the perimeter fence with bright flashing lights, but without noise, and it hovered close to the ground. I estimated the object to be 80 to 100 feet wide, based on how he gestured its size with his outstretched arms.

After many minutes passed, the object then glided to the north end of the building and out of sight, but it then became visible to security guards in the Security Control section of the building. The object, which hovered just outside the main gate, was slightly blocked from view because of the large garage located inside the fence to the right. With security and other personnel viewing the object through Security Control windows, and with the security personnel preferring to remain in the building, it was just a short period of time before the object abruptly took flight, and it disappeared within a second.

There were eight people topside within the building who saw this object, and it included six security personnel, a facility cook, and the site manager. They all confirmed it was a terrifying experience to behold, which I could tell by the tone in their voices and expressions on their faces. They knew the object was not a helicopter, and base “choppers” normally did not fly at night, especially without notice to the facility.

My commander and I then entered the elevator next to the Security Center, which lowered us 60 feet below ground to where the hardened Launch Control Center capsule was located.

When we arrived, the blast door to the capsule was opened for us and we walked in. We were greeted by the two officers of the launch crew who were waiting for us, but we also immediately glanced at the launch control console located at the opposite end of the room, which displayed the status of the 10 nuclear-tipped missiles. With the missiles positioned in hardened underground secure silos located many miles away in all directions from us, the lights on the console indicated they were all “off alert” and unlaunchable. The on-duty crew told us that the missiles went down when the flying object was hovering next to the main gate and above the underground capsule. The crew was communicating with the head security guard topside during the entire time of the incident.

The crew discussed this situation extensively with my commander and I, and then we all went through the formalities of crew change-over. When the crew left, we closed the blast door behind them, and then my commander and I settled in to monitor our 10 inoperable nuclear-tipped ICBM missiles. All the missiles indicated a “Guidance and Control System Malfunction.”

At other times during crew change-over at launch centers, we might note one or two missiles down for scheduled maintenance, but never had we seen a situation like this. It was all new to us, and it was so very disturbing and troubling to us when attempting to comprehend the reality of the situation that had come our way. But we also had a forewarning, and that was followed by the emotions exhibited by airmen topside, and by the officer crew below ground briefing us on actions they took during the incident.

The next morning, after we were relieved by another crew and we arrived topside, I attempted to further question the head security guard about the incident, and on what he saw. But he interrupted me and said he was instructed to not talk to anyone about it, and then my commander turned toward me and said he had received a call overnight from the Air Force Office of Special Investigations (OSI) while I was on a rest break below ground.

My commander was told by the OSI that we were to forever keep our lips zipped about the incident, and he was told that, “As far as you are concerned, It Never Happened.” We were even “instructed” to never talk to each other again about the incident!

In effect, the Air Force confirmed to me the seriousness and reality of the UFO incident. Ironically, this was verified by the fact that my crew commander and I were never questioned, interrogated, or debriefed on the incident, and neither was the other crew. It amazed us that we were not questioned. Instead, we were only told in no uncertain terms to keep quiet. We were never told what the security classification of the incident was. We were never instructed or trained on what to do if another incident should ever happen again. And other missile crews were never informed of our incident, or of the other UFO incidents in the missile field at the time.