UFO sightings during official launches of missiles at Vandenberg AFB 1965 to 1978

I am now a 73 years old male, who, for over 15 years, worked in the Aerospace industries at Vandenberg AFB, in the early years of missile activity, from 1965 through 1978, Delco & Santa Barbara Research Center, in Goleta, CA.

It’s getting to be late in life, for me and I have little to lose any more, so I have decided to discuss my experiences while at Vandenberg, pertaining to UFOs.

As an Employee of Convair, MAB5, involved with the Atlas D & F series, launch facilities, with access to Bldg. 7000, I have been included in many conversations where UFOs were discussed. I have witnessed several incidents, while launching Atlas D missiles from South Vandenberg (Point Arguello), LF04 & LF05.

Most of my tenure, at VAFB, was while it was the designated Western Test Range and part of the Strategic Air Command, or, SAC. While it was Military, most of the locals received critical launch activity reports from various locations all over Lompoc and Vandenberg Villiage, where most of us worked. Because of my work with the rehab of the launch facilities after a launch, I knew of the upcoming schedules and was cleared for the Fallback areas during launches, for both Atlas and Thor missiles.

On many occasions, I was allowed to view the launches using the “Big Eye”, a 4400mm telescope, and, later, view the Range Camera data, at Bldg. 7000.

The “Big Eye” was used to receive immediate sight data to verify the flight profile for each missile launch. During the Thor launches, it was imperative that the BlueStreak (much smaller missile used for gathering exhaust gases data for analysis by Douglas Aircraft to improve the main engines). While viewing some of the launch films, it was quite common to see UFO activity paralleling the flight. Given that for many of these years, the Thor was considered the fastest ICBM that we had, on launch.