It reads in part:

2. Description of Objects: Reported objects are mostly round, although there are reports of oval/cigar-shaped and pencil-shaped, or merely a light source. Reported sizes vary from that of a pinhead to a nickel when seen with the naked eye, and from the size of a pea to a half-dollar when seen through binoculars. Where sightings involved more than one object, V-shaped, echelon, cross, box, and tail-shaped formations were reported. On August 1st, there was one daytime report, from a civilian source in Cheyenne, of an oblong object tumbling through the sky and in the distance becoming two objects before disappearing in separate directions. There were no discernable features, except that most reports stated that colored lights were flashing on and off at one to two second intervals, sometimes becoming alternately bright and dim. Possible tails were reported in a few cases. There has been no sound reported in association with any of the objects …

1. Reference 200-2 as amended. Francis E. Warren Air Force Base is located in an area which has recently experienced a considerable number of reports pertaining to unidentified flying objects. On the night of 31 July 1965, several civilians in Cheyenne, Wyoming reported to the local radio stations various objects generally with red and green flashing lights. These were relayed to the Francis E. Warren Command Post. All missile sites were immediately contacted and alerted to be on the watch for such objects. As a result, the following number of sightings were reported during the following three nights:

Another UFO incident at F.E. Warren AFB occurred on some as-yet undocumented date in 1976, according to a retired Minuteman missile launch officer, Captain Bruce Fenstermacher. His dramatic account was presented to the media during my CNN-steamed "UFOs and Nukes" press conference in Washington D.C. on September 27, 2010.

A different account of UFO incursions at F.E. Warren originates with another former ICBM launch officer, Walter F. Billings. In 2002, The Association of Air Force Missileers (AAFM) published a brief article of mine it its September newsletter, in which I asked former or retired USAF nuclear missile personnel to contact me with their UFO experiences. Among the 30-plus responses I received was this letter from Billings, regarding three UFO incidents at the base in the early 1970s. It is now presented at this website for the first time:

Dear Mr. Hastings:

This is written with the assumption that you are an ex missile man and that I do not need to go into an explanation of my position at F.E. Warren AFB or what the job entailed.

I arrived at F.E. Warren AFB in Cheyenne, Wyo. in late January of 1972 from Vandenberg AFB [where I] had been trained in Minuteman One, and after further training at F.E. Warren, was sent with the operations crews as a Deputy Missile Commander and assigned to a Squadron for the typical duty as a 2nd Lieutenant. I was later trained as a training officer for the Wing in Minuteman One, which encompassed assisting new arrivals in training and running simulators, and other duties. [These were] the standard duties until the Spring of 1973.

As a First Lieutenant, along with so many others, I went back to school at F.E. Warren to learn the new Minuteman Three system that was to be installed during the year of 1973. After training and evaluations, alert duties were assigned for the new system to those that had completed their training. We were to go on alerts as the new missile system was installed. In those days, F.E. Warren had 200 missiles on alert and was very active.

I am afraid that the dates that I will provide are somewhat vague. I wrote [up] my experiences for a publication in this arena back in September 1993 and even then the dates were not exact. Also, some of the missile terminology may not be exact. I have forgotten some of the terms. I am sorry that I did not keep a private log of these events, back when they occurred.

The first event took place in the Fall of 1973, over half of the [Launch Control Capsules] had been converted to Minuteman Three by this time and I was on alert at Golf LCC. It was late at night. The UHF radio linking all twenty LCCs opened up with urgent talk from India LCC. In those days, the UHF radio was turned on, at all times, and if one LCC spoke to their [Security Alert Team] or other LCCs, all twenty LCCs heard the conversation. After the India crew received an Outer Security Zone indicator on one of their missiles and sent their SAT crew out for the standard investigation trip, we began to hear over the radio the events that developed.

From the UHF radio communication between the SAT team and the India LCC crew, as we listened, we heard that as the truck was heading to the missile silo, the Inner Security Zone indicator had been tripped at the silo. Upon arriving near the subject silo, the SAT team observed a bright UFO hovering above the silo. The LCC crew advised the SAT team to proceed no further and to observe only. Approximately a minute later, the UFO moved off slowly for several thousand feet and then sped off at a high rate of speed. The conversation between the India LCC crew and the SAT team was heard by 19 other LCC crews on duty that night.

Upon relief by the next crew and upon return to F.E. Warren AFB, all crews on duty that night were informed that they would not speak to civilians or the news media about what they had heard on the UHF radio that night. Severe penalties were mentioned for those that did not heed this warning.

We, the LCC crews in general, began to hear rumors and stories from other officers in operations and maintenance, that [Strategic Air Command] headquarters at Offutt AFB had sent the [Office of Special Investigations] to investigate this incident by helicopter. The India crew of that night would not speak of the incident at all. There were stories from maintenance that the missile in question had been carefully examined and they found that target tapes on the three warheads had been erased, supposedly by the UFO. Needless to say, I only heard that these things had occurred. These stories were told between missile guys over the following week, but they were reliable people who did not speak to civilians or the press about this subject. However, the squadron commanders warned us, again, not to speak of the incident.

The second incident involved an entire missile maintenance crew, I believe six enlisted men and one officer. This, also, occurred in late 1973. A Minuteman III missile was being worked on for some routine problem during one of those late fall nights. A UFO was observed by the entire maintenance crew. The UFO appeared to be watching the work and was seen for a full five minutes as it maneuvered close to the missile silo. This was told to me by a missile maintenance 1st Lieutenant, approximately three days after the incident occurred.

The third incident took place in early spring of 1974. As I was arriving at Charlie LCC, in the morning with my captain to begin an alert duty, we were told by the staff sergeant and two security police, who had been on duty that night, of the strange thing that had happened. They told us that a UFO had actually landed near the LCC and had been observed by the three, and that a minute by minute report had been given to the operations crew downstairs. When we asked about this, as we were relieving the LCC crew for our duty to begin, they would not talk about it with us. I heard a few days later that the staff sergeant was in some sort of trouble for speaking to us about what he saw and that the OSI was again involved.

While I was in SAC, I, personally, was not directly involved with a UFO incident while on duty. However, during June of 1974, while on a camping trip in Dubois, Wyoming with three other Lieutenants, we observed a UFO flying relatively low. It was similar to the ones that were described to us, in the above three incidents. Since all four of us were AF Lieutenants, we knew that this low flying object was not an aircraft. From that time forward, I have had an interest in this subject and have read some on the subject as well.

I can tell you that these three incidents, at F.E. Warren AFB, did occur. It was a long time ago and I am sure many other things have happened since. I have not been able to find any written statements of these three incidents since. This could be because there was a very good cover-up of the situation, at that time, or they were not deemed important enough to bother with. Though, I doubt that the later [sic] is true.

I have always wondered as to what really happened to the missile that had the UFO hovering above it, and if the warhead target tapes had really been erased.

I wish you good luck on any research that you may do on this subject. I doubt that you will receive any help from those that might know the truth. I am sure that the cover-up that I observed many years ago is still in effect.

Thank you for your interest.

Sincerely,



Walter F. Billings

10/18/2002