Case · C-030

Minot 1968: a light over the missile sites and a B-52 that follows it on radar

Minot Air Force Base and missile field, North Dakota · United States · Oct 24, 1968

In flight Military witnesses Radar Photos

What happened

At around 3 a.m. several military personnel on duty in the missile field reported a light that hung suspended over the installations; the crew of a B-52 flying in the area, at the request of radar control, tracked with its onboard radar a target near the aircraft, photographed the screen and reported a light. Lieutenant Colonel Arthur Werlich, in charge of the investigation at the base, reported to Blue Book, which did not send investigators: an October 30 memorandum by Quintanilla reports that Strategic Air Command was asking for a preliminary assessment to downplay the matter.

Proposed explanation

On November 13, 1968, the head of Blue Book, Hector Quintanilla, attributed the observations from the ground to the star Sirius and the B-52 in flight, the radar echo and the loss of the bomber's radio transmissions to a plasma similar to ball lightning, and the observation from the aircraft possibly to the star Vega, a light on the ground or the plasma; in Blue Book's final statistics for 1968 the case is listed as identified (plasma). The investigation by Thomas Tulien (Sign Oral History Project) disputes these conclusions, noting among other things that Vega was below the horizon in the direction the pilots were looking and that the plasma hypothesis found no support in the scientific community.

Official investigation

U.S. Air Force (Minot Air Force Base, Strategic Air Command, Project Blue Book)

Words of the document

some of the men were looking at celestial bodies

Official documents

1. Memorandum for the Record: Telephone conversation with Col Pullen, Hq SAC (30 October 1968) · U.S. Air Force – Project Blue Book (Lt Col Hector Quintanilla); Sign Oral History Project copy · Oct 30, 1968

Sources

1. Thomas Tulien, “Investigation of UFO Events at Minot AFB”, section 6: the Blue Book assessment (analysis, pro-disclosure)
2. Prairie Public, Dakota Datebook (Merry Helm) – “Minot Missile Base UFO” (2022) (press)

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