
Retired US Air Force Captain David D Schindele yesterday alleged the bizarre incident unfolded in 1966, while he was a missile launch crew commander in the Minot Air Force Base missile field in North Dakota.
But the former serviceman was ordered never to breathe a word of what he saw, a bombshell press conference heard.
Along with other former American air force chiefs, Captain Schindele was giving evidence about how aliens allegedly tampered with weapons systems during tests, at nuclear bases, and even disabling doomsday missiles.
In his testimony at the National Press Club in Washington DC, he said:
"I was involved in a UFO incident at the time, where a flying object tampered with and took down a total of ten nuclear-tipped ICBM missiles by rendering them un-launchable."Captain Schindele said he awoke in December 1966 at the base to radio reports of UFO sightings by civilians in nearby Mohall.
Arriving above the underground missile control room, he was taken by the site manager to a ground-based "security centre" to tell him he and other security guards witnessed a flying saucer hovering outside a window.
Presenting a map to yesterday's press conference, Captain Schindele said:
"He [site manager] described a large object just outside the perimeter fence, with bright flashing lights, but without noise, and it hovered close to the ground."Captain Schindele said:
"I estimated the object to be 80 to 100ft wide, based on how he estimated the 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."


Captain Schindele recalled:
"It was a short period of time before the object took flight and disappeared within a second.He claimed he then took the elevator 60ft below ground to the nuclear missile launch control room.
"They [security guards] all confirmed to us a terrifying experience to behold, which I could tell by the tone of their voice and expressions on their faces.
"They knew the object was not a helicopter. Base choppers did not fly at night, especially without notice to the facility."
Here, the on-duty crew said the missiles went down when the UFO was hovering next to the main gate, and above the underground control room capsule.
Captain Schindele said:
"All the missiles indicated guidance and control system malfunction. Never had we seen a situation like this. It was all new to us.Other "missileers" claim they had similarly weird encounters. Worryingly for humankind, some report unidentified objects meddling with primed nuclear missiles in their silos.
"And it was so very disturbing and troubling to us when we attempted to comprehend the reality of the situation that had come our way."
'SPATE OF BASE UFO ENCOUNTERS'
Former Air Force officer, Robert Salas, was the on-duty commander of an underground launch control facility assigned to Malmstrom Air Force Base, Montana, US on March 24, 1967.
He claims all ten of his intercontinental ballistic missile became inoperable.
Salas added eight days earlier, on March 16, 1967, a similar incident occurred at another launch control facility.
Like other service personnel, he is now hopeful the military is edging towards disclosure.
A crucial development towards this came in June when the Pentagon released its UAP Task Force report which revealed 144 unexplained UFO encounters.
My second thought : Seeing this Captain Schindele photo. Mmmmh... An obvious cunning weasel's expression IMO. I trust the testimony even less after looking at this guy's face...