A former Minot Air Force Base Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missile launch officer will never forget an incident in 1966 when military personnel in the Minot missile field reported a large object hovering near a launch control center. All 10 of the nuclear-tipped missiles controlled at the launch control center went off alert, causing them to be unlaunchable.

David Schindele, a retired Air Force captain from Mukiliteo, Washington, is included in the new documentary, “UFOs Are Monitoring Nuclear Weapons GLOBALLY.”

The documentary, narrated by Jesse Michels, was released on YouTube several days ago. It reports on the recent drones and mysterious flying objects being sighted over New Jersey and other areas in the country and some of the past sightings of unidentified flying objects (UFOs)/unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) by military members.

In an interview in the documentary, Schindele said when he arrived at the Minot missile field launch control center near Mohall the next morning for duty he was met at the door by the site manager who indicated with his hands how big the object was they had seen during the night and that it had flashing lights. Schindele said based on the site manager’s gesture of its size with his outstretched arms, he (Schindele) estimated it might have been 80-100 feet wide according to the site manager’s description and it was probably about 100 feet away from the facility.

David Schindele, a former missile officer, was involved in a UFO incident at a missile launch control center in the Minot missile field in 1966.

Another interview by Robert Hastings, a ufologist, author and filmmaker, with the late David Schuur, a missile officer on duty in the underground capsule at the Minot launch control center the night the incident occurred, is included in the documentary.

Eight military members topside at the launch control facility observed the mysterious flying object with bright flashing lights hovering near the perimeter fence, according to earlier stories about Schindele published in The Minot Daily News.

Schindele and others who were at the launch control center the night of the incident or knew about the 1966 incident were told by the Air Force to never talk about it and that it never happened, according to Schindele.

The Minot Daily News wrote a story about the incident in the Minot missile field that ran on the front page on Dec. 6, 1966, with the headline, “Minot Launch Control Center ‘Saucer’ Cited As One Indication Of Outer Space Visitors.”

“You (Minot Daily News) actually wrote it up but the other media had no interest in it. They were not going to touch it. The rest of the entire world media did nothing. So The Minot Daily News has a historical place in this,” Steve Bassett, UFO lobbyist and executive director of Paradigm Research Center, said in an interview with The Minot Daily News on Dec. 26, 2024.

Schindele also said he remembers The Minot Daily News story about the 1966 incident.

For 40 or more years, Schindele never spoke about the 1966 incident. Searching online, he came across Robert Salas, another former Air Force missile officer who was involved in a similar incident at Malmstrom AFB, Montana, missile field in March 1967. Schindele was relieved to find someone talking about the incidents.

Schindele wrote a book, “It Never Happened, Volume 1: U.S. Air Force UFO Cover-up Revealed,” a six-and-a-half-year project published in 2017. He is working on a second volume and hopes to have it published in 2026.

In October 2021, Schindele was among military veterans involved in UFO incidents who spoke at a mock congressional hearing, “Citizens Hearing on UFO Disclosure,” presented by Bassett at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.

David C. Scott, a retired Air Force sergeant who witnessed an incident believed to be a UFO in November 1974 in the Minot missile field, also testified at that hearing.

The hearing, “UFOs-Nuclear Tampering,” can be viewed on YouTube.

Bassett and the Paradigm Research Group are working to bring about a congressional hearing or hearings to include UFO/UAP witnesses. Because of the recent interest in drones/mysterious flying objects across the country, Bassett believes a hearing may come about within a relatively short time.