Dave Schindele of Mukilteo, Washington, a retired Air Force captain, will be among several panelists, including Robert Salas, also a former Air Force missile officer. Salas was involved in an event at Malmstrom AFB, Montana, in 1967, similar to the one Schindele was involved in at Minot AFB in 1966. Ten nuclear missiles were temporarily disabled, taking them offline during the event Salas was involved in. The panel will be led by host Steve Bassett, a UFO (unidentified flying object) lobbyist and executive director of the Paradigm Research Group.

The conference, being held in Indian Wells, California, is the world’s largest UFO and UAP conference.

According to conference information, reports of UFOs over nuclear facilities have been documented over several decades, raising concerns about national security.

Schindele was stationed at Minot AFB from July 1965 to May 1968. He wrote a book, “It Never Happened, Volume I,” on his research and documentation about the Minot incident and others. The book was published in 2017. He is working on a second volume and hopes to have it published in 2026.

This photo of Capt. Dave Schindele was taken at Minot Air Force Base when he was a Minuteman I intercontinental ballistic missile launch crew commander in the 1960s.

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.

In 2023, Schindele was one of former military members interviewed by the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), established by the Department of Defense in 2022 to investigate the UFO situation.

An interview with Schindele about the UFO incident in the Minot missile field is included in a new documentary, “UFOs Are Monitoring Nuclear Weapons GLOBALLY,” narrated by Jesse Michels and released on YouTube a few months ago.

Schindele provided information earlier this month to The Minot Daily News about the incident he was involved in 1966 while stationed at Minot AFB and his interest in the Contact in the Desert event.

Schindele’s personal account follows:

Over fifty-eight years ago, I and my crew commander, Major Gordon Tollerud, relieved/replaced a Launch Crew at “November Flight,” on September 25, 1966. This was not just an ordinary crew changeover, because the crew we relieved had just been involved in a very critical national security incident, where a UFO paid a visit to November Flight overnight and took down all ten of its nuclear tipped Minuteman ICBM missiles, which had been under careful control of the crew we relieved.

My commander and I were the first people to arrive at the Launch Facility, where we interviewed six security guards, a site manager, and cook, who were all top-side and viewed the UFO directly. And then we interviewed the launch crew in the Launch Control Capsule sixty feet below ground. In an extensive debriefing of the outgoing crew, they were totally mystified as to how all the missiles became disabled with a “guidance and control system malfunction,” which was during the time the UFO was seen top-side.

“When the crew returned to base, they were directed to sign a non-disclosure agreement and severely told to never talk or mention the incident again for as long as they should live. My commander and I then inherited ten un-launchable missiles, where we had to coordinate with maintenance and security crews to bring the missiles back to “Alert” status, which probably took many days. But my commander also received a phone call overnight from the Air Force Office of Special Investigations (OSI) directing that we both must never talk of the incident again.

When relieved by a new crew the following day, I attempted to again question the head security guard top-side, but he then said, “I’m sorry sir, but I have been directed to never speak of the incident again.

Of special interest to me is that my crew commander and I were never questioned by the Air Force about the incident, and neither were the people we debriefed at November Flight. And neither was Robert Salas, who had an identical incident six months later at Malmstrom AFB.

This told us two things. First was that the incident was very real, that UFOs do exist! Second was that the incident happened many times previous. It happened all over the nation at many missile sites, otherwise we all would have all been severely questioned. The Air Force wanted us to forget the incident so that other missile crews and the public would never find out. But this now brings to my mind the many security guards throughout the missile fields who had to deal with incidents and alarms from the missile sites. They were also told to forget what they saw, or what they had to “endure,” with all of them getting no needed help from the Air Force or Veterans Administration. Some went through what I should not describe, since it is quite disturbing, and I know the names of several of them.

Special interest

Of great interest to me is that Paul Hynek will be at the event called “Contact in the Desert” at the end of this month, where I will be a panelist. His father, Allen Hynek, was scientific investigator for Air Force Project Blue Book, and I will be giving Paul some documents his father exchanged with Colonel Richard Lemanski, who was Deputy Commander of Minot Air Force Base when I was there.

The first document was written by Allen Hynek on December 6, 1966, which was the same day that The Minot Daily News carried a major headline detailing a “Launch Control Center Saucer” at Mike Flight. Another document verifies that Major Chester Shaw of Minot AFB sent a UFO report (which I previously had) to Blue Book of the same UFO incident that occurred at “Mike Flight” involving crew commander Val Smich of my squadron in August 1966, which was before the incident I was involved with. The fact that Allen Hynek spent much time with Colonel Lemanski on base, probably in November 1966, and kept up a long relationship with Lemanski for many years, is amazing to me. The copies of the letters and other material was given to me by Lemanski’s daughter Valerie, after she read my book titled “It Never Happened.”