2002 · Area II weapons storage area, north-east edge of Nellis AFB, Las Vegas, Nevada (not NNSS Area 2 on Yucca Flat)

Nellis Area II nuclear weapons storage: orbs, a disc, shadow figures and missing time (2002-2008)

Sourced, unconfirmed

Strength D · 4/10

Evidence 1/4 · Witnesses 2/3 · Backing 1/3

A named firsthand security controller describing multi-witness events, a second named witness at the same depot, and an earlier written account (Hastings 2015); no released documents or images, and the FBI statement is his own report.

Plausibility Moderate

Score 9 · 6 factors for, 0 against

A named nuclear security controller, cleared under PRP, gives detailed multi-witness accounts that match Hastings's 2015 write-up of an unnamed witness with the same dates; a second named guard (Cabrera) reports the same kind of figures at the same depot. No co-witness to Shelton's own events is named yet, and nothing is released, which secrecy at a weapons site would explain.

See the factors ↓

Unresolved

Nellis Area II at night: earth-covered weapons bunkers behind the fence, a lone guard, and amber orbs hovering silently above. · Illustration for uaptrail.com

WhenOctober 2002 to 2008 (Cabrera's reports from 1998)

WhereArea II weapons storage area, north-east edge of Nellis AFB, Las Vegas, Nevada (not NNSS Area 2 on Yucca Flat)

From 2002 to 2008 Joshua Shelton guarded the Area II nuclear weapons storage area at Nellis AFB with the 99th Security Support Squadron, rising to central security controller. He describes a sphere on the fence sensor that paced eight responders for 1.5 miles, a glowing disc that silenced the ground beneath it and went down behind the bluffs with a soundless flash, lights that 'rushed' his patrol and left 20 to 30 minutes unaccounted for, solid black figures seen by up to 16 men and tracked on thermals before they 'blinked out', a blow from inside a DOE-only bunker and three mutilated animals. Christopher Cabrera, a named guard at the same depot from 1998 to 2002, reports the same kind of figures, and Robert Hastings wrote up both men in 2015. The introduction places 'Area 2' at the Nevada National Security Site on Yucca Flat, but the details, a 2009 Nellis release and Hastings all put it at Nellis Area II. A bolide has been offered for the disc; natural cause proposed, not demonstrated.

How plausible · Moderate

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Access He was there, on patrol and later as central security controller.
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Cost of speaking Named on television after career warnings, and on record to the FBI.
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Restraint Does not claim to know what it was; forgot the disc until shown his old account; frames it as a security gap.
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No gain sought Nothing evident sold.
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Consistent over time Dates and the running figure match Hastings's 2015 account; the figure's height differs (6 to 7 ft now, 8 to 9 ft then).
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Checkable details check out Unit, dates and the 2008 closure check out; blotter, statements and the FBI file are not public.

Plausibility weighs how well an account fits where secrecy hides the documents by design, so missing records never count against it. Strength measures what is documented. Assessed 2026-10-29.

Claims

Shelton served with the 99th Security Support Squadron at Nellis AFB from April 2002 to April 2008 as a patrolman, then entry controller, then for about two years central security controller, under the Personnel Reliability Program, through two nuclear surety inspections, at a site where live weapons were stored and serviced.Joshua Shelton Reality Check Rewind: Joshua Shelton on orbs, a disc and shadow figures at Nellis Area IIfirsthandSourced, unconfirmedJoshua Shelton (Reality Check, about Oct 2025)

On his first night in October 2002 a perimeter sensor alarmed and a bright white sphere about 3 ft across sat on the sensor atop the innermost of three fences, lighting nothing around it. When patrol Whiskey 8 radioed it in, it matched the vehicles' speed to hold an exact distance; three vehicles and eight men chased it about 1.5 miles along the fence 'as if on a rail' until, at 'Covert 10', it turned hard into the desert.Joshua Shelton Reality Check Rewind: Joshua Shelton on orbs, a disc and shadow figures at Nellis Area IIfirsthandSourced, unconfirmedJoshua Shelton (Reality Check, about Oct 2025)

Outside the alternate security control center he and five others watched a disc about 45 to 50 ft across, 200 to 300 ft up, glowing red 'like magma' over about a quarter of its front, with a smooth reflective underside. It deadened all sound beneath it 'like when you stick your head underwater', lost height, crossed the perimeter and went down behind the bluffs with a huge orange-red flash and no sound or shock wave. Exterior patrols searched 300 to 400 m beyond the fence and found nothing.Joshua Shelton Reality Check Rewind: Joshua Shelton on orbs, a disc and shadow figures at Nellis Area II Robert HastingsfirsthandSourced, unconfirmedJoshua Shelton (Reality Check, about Oct 2025)

Robert Hastings checked for bolide reports in Nevada and the neighbouring states for the time of the disc and found none.Robert Hastings Ross CoulthartsecondhandSourced, unconfirmedRobert Hastings, via Ross Coulthart

In fall 2004 two 'headlights' bobbed on the mountainside and switched off at the line where patrols would intercept. He, his partner and a main-base K-9 team waited in a dry riverbed about 300 m out; overwatch called lights at their 12, 3 and 9, Security One confirmed 'this is real', then 'the lights are rushing you'. The three saw and heard nothing and the dog never indicated. Their radios came back on all at once as they walked back, overwatch had not seen them cross open desert, and the flight chief showed him clock and blotter: 20 to 30 minutes more had passed than they thought.Joshua Shelton Reality Check Rewind: Joshua Shelton on orbs, a disc and shadow figures at Nellis Area IIfirsthandSourced, unconfirmedJoshua Shelton (Reality Check, about Oct 2025)

After an exercise, 16 men at the old chow hall watched a solid black, roughly 6 ft humanoid pace a flat roof about 40 m away. Thinking it was the flight chief, Shelton put a spotlight on it and it vanished 'as soon as the light hit the legs'; the gravel roof showed no marks.Joshua Shelton Reality Check Rewind: Joshua Shelton on orbs, a disc and shadow figures at Nellis Area IIfirsthandSourced, unconfirmedJoshua Shelton (Reality Check, about Oct 2025)

Where

Area II weapons storage area, north-east edge of Nellis AFB, Las Vegas, Nevada (not NNSS Area 2 on Yucca Flat)

37.2°N 115.8°W

In The picture

They came when we split the atomUnder oath in 2024, Luis Elizondo said it plainly: 'advanced technologies not made by our government or any other government are monitoring sensitive military installations around the globe'. Inside one of them, Joshua Shelton, a security controller at Nellis's Area II nuclear weapons storage from 2002 to 2008, descr…

Nellis Area II nuclear weapons storage: orbs, a disc, shadow figures and missing time (2002-2008)

How plausible · Moderate

Claims

Where

In The picture

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