October 24, 1968 — Minot AFB, ND
2:15–5:18 a.m. Sixteen military personnel stationed throughout the Minuteman ICBM missile complex at Minot AFB, North Dakota, report a very large, brightly illuminated aerial object, alternating colors from brilliant white to orange-red and green, with the ability to hover, accelerate rapidly, and abruptly change direction.
Ground radar tracks an unidentified target correlated with a visual orange glow and radios it (saying, “Someone is seeing flying saucers again”) to the attention of the USAF crew of a B-52H Stratofortress bomber at 2,000 feet as a UFO target 24 miles to the northwest.
It shifts to 15 miles at 3:35 a.m. RAPCON alerts the pilots (instructor pilot Maj. Bradford Runyon and copilot Maj. James Partin) to the location of the UFO near Bowbells, North Dakota, which the B-52 navigator Capt. Patrick D. McCaslin observes on the radarscope maintaining a three-mile distance throughout a standard 180° turnaround.
Radar navigator Maj. Charles Richey captures the tracking on film. As the B-52 starts its descent back to Minot AFB, the UFO appears to close distance to one mile at a high rate of speed, pacing the aircraft for nearly 20 miles before disappearing off the radarscope.
Both B-52 UHF radios cannot transmit during the close radar encounter with the UFO and when the radarscope film is recorded.
Shortly afterwards, RAPCON provides vectors for the B-52 to overfly a stationary UFO on or near the ground. After turning onto the downwind leg of the traffic pattern, the pilots observe a large, illuminated UFO ahead of the aircraft for several minutes, before turning onto the base leg over the UFO while observing it at close range.
After the B-52 lands, both outer and inner-zone intrusion alarms are activated at the remote missile Launch Facility Oscar-7. The duration of the reported observations is over three hours.
Other witnesses include Capt. Thomas Goduto, S/Sgt James F. Bond, S/Sgt William E. Smith, A1C Robert O’Connor, A1C Joseph P. Jablonski, and A1C Gregory Adams.
The chief of the 862nd Combat Support Group, Lt. Col. Arthur J. Werlich, is designated as Blue Book liaison and he calls the report in at 4:30 p.m. after SAC investigations, an analysis of the radarscope film, and the B-52 crew debriefing. Werlich provides Blue Book with selected data through October 31. On November 13, Blue Book chief Lt. Col. Hector Quintanilla completes his evaluation and forwards the final report to SAC headquarters.
It is a single-page letter providing several possible explanations for the various reports, along with 11 pages of attachments cobbled together in support. He attributes the B-52 radar contact and loss of UHF transmission to “a plasma similar to ball lightning.” [Eberthart]
Record Card:
Sources:
Brad Sparks, Blue Books Unknowns Catalogue, Case 1760, p. 330;
J Allen Hynek, The Hynek UFO Report, pp. 137–139;
Kevin D. Randle, Project Blue Book Exposed, Marlowe, 1997, pp. 151–163;
Thomas E. Bullard, “Defending UFOs,” IUR 34, no. 2 (Mar. 2012): 32–33;
Robert Hastings, UFOs and Nukes, 2nd Edition, pp. 319–323; [pp. 309-314 in First Edition]
Jerome Clark, The UFO Encyclopedia, 3rd Ed., pp. 748–763;
Jerome Clark, The UFO Encyclopedia, 4th Ed., pp. 830-845, 1006, 1313;
Robert Powell, UFOs: A Scientist Explains What We Know (And Don’t Know), 2024, pp. 72–75;
NICAP, “Minot Tracks Object, B-52 Sees and Tracks UFO”;
Thomas Tulien, “A Narrative of Events at Minot Air Force Base,” Sign Oral History Project;
[One of the best investigated and most in depth case studies in the UFO literature]
Richard F. Haines, “Analysis of B-52H Radar Returns from October 24, 1968,” May 7, 2002;
Claude Poher, “Analysis of Radar and Air-Visual UFO Observations on 24 October 1968 at Minot AFB, North Dakota, USA”, August 2005;
Martin Shough, “Minot Air Force Base, Oct 24 1968,” 2006;
“The Minot AFB B-52 UFO Incident,” Above Top Secret forum, February 24, 2010;
https://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread546470/pg1
“New Witness to UFO Incursion at Nuke Missile Complex,” The UFO Chronicles, October 17, 2017;
“UFOS Seeing Is Believing (full length movie)” UFOandAlienChannel Youtube channel, June 18, 2013;
[Witness Testimony from ground and flight crews begin at 36:10]
“B-52 and Missile Crews Witnessed a UFO at the Vicinity of Minot Air Force Base, October 24, 1968,” Eyes on Cinema YouTube channel, July 2023;
Thomas Tulien, “The Investigation of UFO Events at Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota,” Sign Oral History Project, August 2023;
Thomas Tulien, “A Narrative of UFO Events at Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota,” Sign Oral History Project, August 2023;