Dr. Robert Jacobs is a former first lieutenant in the United States Air Force and former Bradley University college professor who claims to have filmed a UAP shooting down an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile in September of 1964 while working at Vandenberg Air Force Base near Big Sur, California. Jacobs says he believes the saucer-shaped craft he witnessed on the film of the missile test was of extraterrestrial origin and may have been warning humanity against the use of nuclear weapons.
The U.S. Air Force doubted the validity of the doctor’s claim, saying Jacobs was never in the military and that no such film exists. However, in 1987, former USAF Major Florenz J. Mansmann, who Jacobs says showed him the film, corroborated Jacobs’ service and testimony.
Since coming forward with his story in 1982, Jacobs says he has never wavered from his claims or profited from them and instead has experienced forty years of harassment and skepticism for telling his story. As recently as 2021, Jacobs said he continues to believe he witnessed something otherworldly and that his story will never change “because it's the truth.”
September 1964 ICBM Test
According to Jacobs, he was the Officer-in-Charge of Optical Instrumentation in the 1369th Photographic Squadron at Vandenberg Air Force Base during the incident, and in 1964, he was approached by his superiors to help determine why so many of the ICBMs being tested were failing.
“We called them ‘inter-county ballistic missiles’ because so many of them blew up on launch,” Jacobs joked in an early 2000s interview with the Disclosure Project,
In that same interview, Jacobs says his superiors tasked him to provide the engineers with good enough “sequential engineering photography” to help determine the cause of the failed tests. Jacobs says he was provided use of a powerful Boston University (BU) telescope owned by the Air Force, and after some work, he and his team found a suitable spot 124 miles away and about 3,400 feet in elevation in Big Sur, where they would film the missile test from the side to provide the necessary angle required by engineers.
“For my stunning achievement in finding a place where I could look back at Vandenberg Air Force Base from up north, and for figuring out how to transmit the timing up there, and for getting the thing set up, I was awarded the Air Force Guided Missile Insignia,” explained Jacobs. “I was the first photographic officer in the Air Force to get the…they called it the missile badge. It was a highly coveted thing at the time.”
Jacobs says that on September 4th, 1964, a date confirmed by Mansmann, he and members of his team were operating the telescope to film a “dummy” ICBM test launch, which was an unarmed version of the Atlas 5 rocket designed to deliver nuclear payloads.
“We were testing to see if we could launch a nuclear warhead into orbit, slightly above the nuclear chaff,” he explained, “so the Russians would aim their anti-missile missiles at the chaff (released by the missile), and our little warhead would fly over and obliterate Moscow.”
Jacobs says the launch went smoothly, and he and his team soon spotted the missile breaking through the fog and streaking toward the sky. His team used the M-45 tracking mount with 180” lenses to focus on the missile, and the big BU telescope “swung over and got it, and we followed the thing.”
Jacobs says they followed the missile through its launch stages until they heard their camera run out of film. He and his team did not witness anything unusual during the filming, and the BU telescope was connected to a kinescope for recording, meaning they were not watching the test through that telescope.
“We sent the film on down to Vandenberg,” he explained, “and I don’t know exactly how long it was after the event; it might have been a day or two, I was called into Major Mansmann’s office at the first strategic division’s aerospace headquarters.”
Jacobs says he entered the major’s office where he saw Mansmann and two unnamed men in grey suits, something he later described as “very unusual.” A film screen and a 16mm film projector were set up, and Mansmann asked Jacobs to sit on a couch. The major proceeded to play the film, which depicted the launch that Jacobs and his team had filmed a day or two earlier, and he was struck at the high quality of the imagery produced by the BU telescope.
“Because of the length of the telescope, as the Atlas missile entered the frame, we could see the whole third stage….filling our frame.”
Jacobs says he watched the missile go through all four “stages” as each one burned out as planned. He says he looked at the major with satisfaction that their filming had been a success, but Mansmann directed his attention back to the film, telling him, “watch carefully now, Lieutenant Jacobs.”
“Into the fame came something else,” recalled Jacobs. “It flew into the frame like this (motions with his hands), and it shot a beam of light at the warhead.” Jacobs notes that the missile and the unknown object were flying at “several thousand miles an hour,” a figure he later pegged at between 11,000 mph and 14,000 mph.
“So this thing fires a beam of light at the warhead,” he continues, “hits it, and then this thing flies up like this (demonstrates the object moving above the missile into its flight path), fires another beam of light, goes around like this (depicts the object moving to the other side of the missile), fires another beam of light, goes down like this (depicts object below and behind the missile), fires another beam of light, and then flies out the way it came in.”
Jacobs says that at this point, the missile tumbled out of its flight path and fell to the ocean below.
“Now, I saw that,” he exclaims. “I don’t give a god damn what anybody else says about it. I saw that on film!”
Jacobs says that at this point, Major Mansmann stopped the film, looked at him, and asked, “Were you guys screwing around up there?” Jacobs says he confirmed that his team had not altered the film in any way. Jacobs then says he recalls Mansmann asking him, “what was that?” to which he replied, “It looks to me like we got a UFO.”
The Object
In his various interviews and writings, which include his book “Confession: Our Hidden Alien Encounters Revealed,” co-authored with Robert Hastings, Jacobs describes the “unknown object” as shaped like two saucers placed face to face with a “ping pong ball” shaped dome on top. Jacobs says the beams of light that were fired at the missile originated from this dome.
“The beam of light came out of the ping pong ball,” he said. “That’s what I saw on film.”
Jacobs says that after Major Mansmann showed him the film, he was told, “you are never to speak of this again. As far as you’re concerned, this never happened.” Jacobs says Mansmann reminded him of his security oaths and warned of the “dire consequences” Jacobs would face if he should share this information. Jacobs also says that Mansmann offered another suggestion as he started for the door.
“He said, ‘years from now if you’re ever forced by someone to talk about this, you are to tell then it was laser strikes. Laser tracking strikes.’” Jacobs has repeatedly pointed out that in 1964 lasers were in the very early stages of development, and there was nothing capable of doing what he witnessed in the film.
“(Lasers) were little play things in laboratories,” he said.
The Fall-Out From Going Public
Jacobs says he did not discuss this incident until 1982 when he realized he had never been told it was top secret, and therefore he would not be violating his security oaths if he discussed the incident. He wrote up a full description of his encounter, shopped it around to various scientific publications, and was repeatedly told that UFO stories were “unpublishable.” Ultimately, the American tabloid newspaper “the National Enquirer” ran Jacobs's story, bringing the supposed incident to the broader public.
“After that article hit, the shit hit the fan,” Jacobs explains. He says he started getting harassed at work by odd telephone calls and that these calls also happened at his home at all hours of the day and night.
“People would call and start screaming at me, ‘you’re going down, motherf—er, you’re going down, motherf—er.’”
Jacobs says his mailbox was exploded by “sky” rockets, after which he received a phone call from someone who taunted him by exclaiming, “skyrockets in your box at night, oh what a beautiful sight, motherf—er.” Jacobs says these types of incidents, particularly the menacing phone calls, have haunted him since 1982 and increase each time a TV special or article recounting his story comes out.
Jacobs also says that the Air Force denied everything after he came public.
“Was I in the Air Force?” he asks rhetorically. “The Air Force denied it. Was I ever at Vandenberg? Well, of course, I couldn’t because if I wasn’t in the Air Force, how could I have been at Vandenberg? Did I put a tracking site at Big Sur, California? No, there was no site at Big Sur, California. Which is a crock! The tracking site at Big Sur, California is still there right where I put it, and they use it to show you every time the Space Shuttle lands in California; that’s where you see it from. And they’re still photographing missiles at Vandenberg from that tracking site.”
Mansmann’s Confirmation
In 1987, MUFON researcher and author T. Scott Crain released a letter he had received from former Major Mansmann (who had left the military and since received a Ph.D. from Stanford University) confirming the main points of Jacob’s story.
Dated May 6, 1987, the letter opens by explaining the delay in contacting Crain, citing some personal reasons, and then makes the following two statements:
- The events you are familiar with had to have happened as stated by both Bob Jacobs and myself because the statement made from each of us after 17 years matched.
- I ordered Lt. Jacobs not to discuss what he saw with anyone because of the nature of the launch, the failure of the launch mission, and the probability that the optical instrumentation (the film) showed an interference with the normal launch patterns.
After explaining that he had seen the film a total of four times and listing some of the circumstances under which he had seen the film, Mansmann’s letter then lists answers to seven questions posed by Crain.
1. The object was saucer-shaped. (Dome? Don’t remember)
2. Do Not know the names of the CIA personnel
3. Only assumptions from the seriousness of the situation
4. I was ordered to not discuss any of what was seen or discussed during the screenings. I only passed my order, as the ranking optical instrumentation officer, on to Lieutenant Jacobs, there was no one else involved.
5. No film was ever released from our archives without a signature. I even signed out the film when we had launch showings to VIPs in the General’s office on short notice. However, I released the film to the chief scientist over his signature, then they departed.
6. The articles in the National Enquirer and OMNI on my part and the statements made by both Dr. Jacobs and myself were factual. The statements you referred to that an “Air Force spokeman (sic) said ‘there is nothing on the film and the rocket did hit its target’ makes no sense. This means the film is available and the record of the launch and the results are also available. If the Air Force spokesman did review a closed-date launch and saw nothing, it could not have been the launch that perpetuated such quick security action
7. Further? If the government wishes to withhold such vital information which most certainly relates to our basis Star Wars research, then this information must be protected.
After noting his history with secure information and his inherent protective nature of secured information, Mansmann closes the letter with a final thought.
“I can only say in regard to your research that in all my activities to date, indications point to one fact…the information gathered from space is very favorable to our side.”
“He corroborated my story,” said Jacobs. “And he continued to do that year after year every time somebody brought it up. Every time somebody would contact him, he corroborated my story, saying, ‘yes, that’s exactly what happened.’”
“Even if I didn’t believe myself,” Jacobs joked after highlighting the major’s impressive credentials, “I would believe Major Mansmann.”
What Happened to the Film
Jacobs says he doesn’t know for sure what happened to the film but recounted what Major Mansmann told him and others.
“Sometime after I had gone, the guys in civilian clothes (Mansmann recalls three where Jacobs recalls two) I thought it was the CIA, but he said no, it wasn’t the CIA, it was somebody else, and I never did find out who it was. What happened was this. They took the film, they spooled off the part that had the UFO on it, and they took a pair of scissors, and they cut it off. They put that on a separate reel; they put it in their briefcase, they handed Major Mansmann back the rest of the film and said, ‘here, I don’t need to remind you, Major Mansmann, of the severity of a security breach. We’ll consider this incident closed’ and they walked off with the film.”
In another interview, Jacobs says he doesn’t believe the film can be found via Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests.
“I do not believe that anyone is going to succeed in getting the film on a F.O.I.A. request. I have been asked to make such a request myself and refuse to do so. Eric Mishara, Lee Graham, T. Scott Crain, Jr., and others have done so and have run into the wall of futility. I don't believe that anyone can succeed in getting the film because the fact of its existence will have been completely expunged from the records by now.”
Theories
As far as what the film actually depicted, Jacobs, says that Major Mansmann, who is a “very good reader of film,” regarded the incident as “extraterrestrial.” He says Mansmann assumed that the beam of light that struck the warhead was a plasma beam “because it looked like a plasma beam.”
In his letter to Crain, Mansmann seems to attribute the test to America’s burgeoning Strategic Defense Initiative, nicknamed “Star Wars.” However, the major leaves open an extraterrestrial interpretation, cryptically stating that “information gathered from space has been very favorable to our side.”
In the MUFON Journal, Issue No. 249, Jacobs offered the following analysis of his experience:
Academicians first gather data, then postulate conclusions based on what they find. From what I have gathered firsthand, primary evidence, pieced together from Mansmann, from a fine researcher named Lee M. Graham, from contemplation, discussion, and debate of the material, as well as from the Air Force position on this and other related matters, I have come to the following conclusions:
(1) What we photographed that September day in 1964 was a solid, three-dimensional, intelligently controlled flying device.
(2) It emitted a beam of energy, possibly a plasma beam, at our dummy warhead and caused a malfunction.
(3) This "craft" was not anything of which our science and technology in 1964 was capable. The most probable explanation of the device, therefore, is that it was of extraterrestrial origin.
(4) The flashing strikes of light we recorded on film were not from laser tracking devices. Such devices did not exist then aside from small-scale laboratory models.
(5) Most probably the B.U. Tele scope was brought out to California specifically to photograph this event which had been prearranged. That is, we had been set up to record an event which someone in our Government knew was going to happen in advance.
(6) What we photographed that day was the first terrestrial demonstration of what has come to be called S.D.I. or "Star Wars." The demonstration was put on for our benefit for some reason by extraterrestrials.
In the Disclosure Project interview, Jacobs offers some more thoughts on possible motives by those piloting the craft.
“Maybe, just maybe, they’re telling us something,” said Jacobs. ”What message would I interpret from that? Don’t mess with nuclear warheads. That’s probably the message I would interpret from that. Maybe somebody doesn’t want us annihilating Moscow. Maybe we should stop doing that.”
“Perhaps that was the first shot across the bow,” he added, “a warning shot saying ‘knock it off, kid. Time to grow up. You don’t want to annihilate this planet, do you?’”
