The Echo Flight UFO Incident: James Carlson is Still Wrong After All These Years

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By Robert Hastings www.ufohastings.com 11-3-13

     Saying that the moon is made of green cheese doesn’t make it true, even if one repeats that claim over and over, hundreds of times, or finds a small band of like-minded believers who parrot the claim.

It’s not entirely clear why James Carlson continues to post countless comments online, denying the existence of UFO reports during the Echo Flight missile shutdown incident at Malmstrom AFB, Montana, on March 16, 1967, in the face of witness testimony to the contrary—including from one of the missile launch officers present that day.

Carlson knows about the tape recorded conversation (see below) between myself and now-retired Col. Walter Figel, the deputy missile commander at Echo during the incident, in which he told me that he had indeed received a radio call from a security guard at one of the Echo missile silos, saying that he was observing “a large, round object” hovering “directly over the site.”

Robert Hastings/Walt Figel Audio Interview Clip (2008)

Figel also confirmed that he had, in response to the call, sent out two Security Alert Teams to investigate the report and that at least one of them confirmed seeing the object hovering over the missile silo. Figel also said that he and James’ father, Captain Eric Carlson, had been debriefed back at Malmstrom and told not to talk about the incident.

While my recorded conversations with Col. Figel took place between 2008 and 2010, he had made nearly identical statements in another taped phone conversation,(see below) with former Minuteman missile launch officer Bob Salas, in 1996.

Robert Salas/Walt Figel Audio Interview Clip (1996)

There are other U.S. Air Force veterans who have also gone on the record about a UFO involvement in the Echo Flight incident, as well as a Boeing Corporation engineer, Robert Kaminski, whose job it was to find out why the missiles malfunctioned.

In 1997, in a letter to researcher Jim Klotz, Kaminski wrote that, “There were no significant failures, engineering data or findings that would explain how ten missiles were knocked off alert. In other words there was no technical explanation that could explain the event.”

Kaminski also wrote, “Meanwhile I was contacted by our representative at OOAMA [Office, Ogden Air Material Area], Don Peterson, and told by him that the incident was reported as being a UFO event—that a UFO was seen by some airmen over the Launch Control Facility at the time E-Flight went down.”

Actually, the large round object sighted by the missile guard and reported to launch officer Lt. Walter Figel, had been hovering over one of the Echo missile silos, not the launch control facility itself. Nevertheless, Boeing engineer Kaminski’s revealing testimony essentially confirms Figel’s account of a UFO-presence during the incident.

Of course, if James Carlson were ever to admit that Kaminski’s letter is important, or that Figel’s tape recorded statements to me and Bob Salas do indeed contradict his father’s now-discredited claim that there were no UFOs reported at Echo Flight, he would in effect be admitting that he has been making a complete fool of himself online for the past several years, by championing his dad’s untenable position and, in doing so, viciously insulting the other veterans and researchers who dare challenge it.

This is one reason why Carlson will never, in his many online rants about Echo Flight, provide a link to the tape recorded admissions by Col. Figel that are available online.

After all, one can hear Figel tell me that, while he was skeptical of the UFO report he received from the security guard, it nevertheless did indeed occur. Figel also says, clearly on the tape, that while he thought the guard might be joking, that individual’s demeanor was calm and businesslike. “He seemed to be serious and I wasn’t taking him seriously,” Figel told me.

When I posted the transcript of this conversation-excerpt in 2008, James Carlson doubted it’s accuracy and chided me to post the actual tape recording. When I eventually did, Carlson then claimed that I had doctored it to make it prove my points. All challenges by me, to have a team of audio experts examine the tape—to verify that it is pristine and unaltered—have been ignored by Carlson and his supporters. Of course, they would have to pay for that expensive analysis so, it seems, they are not prepared to put some money where their skeptical mouths are.

Another reason James Carlson does not want others to listen to my tape recorded conversations with Col. Figel is because he refutes Carlson’s claims, calling them “off-base”. Figel also says that Carlson “has an ax to grind,” something that James certainly does not want others to hear—given that Carlson incessantly cites Figel as someone who supports his own position. Regardless, James’ relentless hate campaign is quite obvious to anyone who reads his breathless tirades against me and Bob Salas.

Even Carlson’s handful of supporters have urged him to tone it down, given the manic, often hysterical tone of his blog comment postings in which he wildly attacks anyone who supports the notion of a UFO presence at Echo Flight during the shutdown incident. Other, unaffiliated readers of his rants—who have no strong opinion about the case, one way or the other—have called him a “nut”, “wacko”, “fruitcake” and the like.

Years ago I myself accused James Carlson of “foaming at the mouth”. However, that was before I learned that he had been medically discharged from the U.S. Navy due to a diagnosis of epilepsy. One symptom sometimes exhibited during epileptic “fits” is indeed a frothing at the lips during the seizures. Once I had James’ medical situation brought to my attention, I never again used that unkind characterization of his online outbursts.

Nevertheless, James’ usually bizarre, over-the-top tirades against me and Bob Salas—he has called us “liars and frauds” countless times—raises the issue of his state of mind. When I spoke with his father Eric, in October 2008, he continued denying that UFOs had been reported at Echo Flight, however, when I asked why his son was so out of control in his online posts, Eric responded, “James has some problems.”

That same month, in a phone conversation with an associate of mine, Eric told him that he was concerned that James would “have a nervous breakdown.” (I am willing to testify under oath in a court of law that the elder Carlson’s comment to me was exactly as I have portrayed here, and that I have accurately related the other conversation as it was presented to me.)

So, does James Carlson incessantly lie about the facts relating to the UFO events at Malmstrom Air Force Base because he is psychologically unbalanced, or is it just due to his complete lack of ethics? Or both?

Regardless, the questions remain: Why is James Carlson so unwilling (or perhaps unable) to accept the fact that his father misled him when he said that there were no UFO reports at Echo Flight at the time of the mysterious, full-flight missile shutdown? Why does James continue to deny or, in some posts, twist Col. Figel’s candid, taped remarks to me and Bob Salas?

Similarly, why does Carlson repeatedly lie about Salas’ former missile commander, Col. Frederick Meiwald, who has made emphatic remarks supportive of Salas? In 2011, Meiwald told me during a taped conversation (see below) that UFOs were indeed present at a different flight—Oscar—when those missiles malfunctioned eight days after the Echo incident.

Robert Hastings’ Call to Col. Frederick C. Meiwald

Although Meiwald had been on a rest break in the launch capsule when the ICBMs began “dropping off alert status”, once awoken by Salas, he witnessed most if not all of the missiles malfunctioning.

Meiwald also confirmed that moments later, in response to triggered alarms at one of the silos, Salas had dispatched a two-man Security Alert Team to the site. Those men, said Meiwald, saw “a bright, flying object at low-level.” near the missile silo and immediately fled back to the Oscar Launch Control Facility. One man was so distraught that he had to be transported to the base hospital before completing his shift.

James Carlson has for years loudly proclaimed that Salas was lying when he said that he had witnessed a UFO-related missile shutdown at Malmstrom in 1967. True, until Salas located Meiwald in 1996, he couldn’t remember the designation of the flight and thought that he might have been at Echo or November.

Nevertheless, by the time Carlson started his public vendetta against Salas in the late 1990s, Col. Meiwald had already discussed the UFO-related events at Oscar Flight with Salas during a taped telephone conversation (see below). Meiwald later wrote him a follow-up letter (see below) containing more details.

Bob Salas’ 1996 Telephone Call to Col. Frederick Meiwald

Meiwald Letter 10-1-1996
-click on image(s) to enlarge -

Fortunately, James Carlson has a relatively small audience, even though he has posted hundreds of comments about these topics at various websites over time. Unfortunately, his hard core supporters, whose strong anti-UFO biases apparently allow them to endorse a delusional (or, perhaps, merely dishonest) person’s baseless charges, keep egging him on, rather than urging him to seek the help he obviously needs.

Now, in the wake of Bob Salas’ recent revelation about having had an apparent UFO abduction experience in 1985, the usual critics are gleefully sharpening their knives. Given their blanket rejection of anything UFO-related, Carlson and his crew can be expected to go after Salas with renewed viciousness.

Importantly, six other former U.S. Air Force personnel have provided similar accounts to me in recent years. Those individuals had previously been involved in a nuts-and-bolts UFO incident in one of the nuclear missile fields operated by various Strategic Air Command bases. Then, weeks, months or years later, they allegedly had an experience comparable to the one now being revealed by Bob Salas. In short, his account is not unique.

I will have more to say on this last subject at some point in the future. At the moment, I am still gathering data. While the number of military veterans who have told me of their strange follow-up experiences is quite small, compared with the number who make no such claim, their accounts obviously deserve serious, unbiased investigation.

Visit Robert's Site . . .

See Also:



James Carlson Gets it Wrong Again

Cutting to the Chase: Robert Hastings Exposes James Carlson’s Chief Falsehood Regarding The Echo Flight UFO Incident

UFOs & NUKES | James Carlson’s Desperate Question: “Who Are You Going to Believe, Me or Your Lying Ears?!”

The Echo Flight ICBM Incident: Retired USAF Officer Confirms Receiving A UFO Report Just as the Missiles Failed

The Echo/Oscar Witch Hunt

My Evidence: The Account of Minute-Man Missiles Being Disabled, While UFOs Hovered Over The Launch Facilities

Telephonic Interview with Colonel Walter Figel (USAF Ret) of March 8, 2010 (Link 1)

Telephonic Interview with Colonel Walter Figel (USAF Ret) of January 8, 2009 (Link 2)

Telephonic Interview with Colonel Walter Figel (USAF Ret) of October 20, 2008 (Link 3)

VIDCAST: Former Boeing Engineer, Robert Kaminski Confirms UFO Activity at Echo Flight Missile Launch Control Facility in 1967

Malmstrom Air Force Base Picks Up UFO on Radar; "Sabotage Alert Team Located Another UFO Directly Over The Base"

UFO Lands Near Minuteman Missile Base; Affects Radio Transmissions - Defensive Measures Taken!

UFO Sightings at ICBM Sites and Nuclear Weapons Storage Areas

Air Force Staff Message: Malmstrom AFB Receives Multiple Reports of UFOs in The Great Falls, Montana Area

UFOS & NUKES | U.S. Air Force Fighters Chased UFOs at Malmstrom AFB in the 1960s and ‘70s

Whatever It Is The Air Force Must-Hunt For The Flying Saucer

UFOs & NUKES | Missile Shut Down at Malmstrom Confirmed By (Civilian) Veteran of Minuteman Program

UFOs & NUKES | UFOs Have Penetrated Restricted Air Space Over Nuclear Missile Sites; Jammed Vital Electronic Equipment & Eluded Fighter Aircraft

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The Echo and Oscar Flight Incidents: UFOs Disabled American ICBMs

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By Robert Hastings www.ufohastings.com October, 2012

Robert Hastings writes: As previously noted, my research is now featured monthly in the MUFON UFO Journal in a column devoted to reports of nukes-related UFO activity. The organization’s administrators have authorized the subsequent publication of those articles here at The UFO Chronicles. My October 2012 contribution appears below:

     On March 16, 1967, ten Minuteman-I nuclear missiles operated by Malmstrom Air Force Base, Montana, suddenly malfunctioned one after the other, just as a “large round object” was reported to be hovering “directly over” one of them—according to retired USAF Col. Walter Figel, one of two launch officers on duty at Echo Flight during the incident.

Figel received the startling news while in the flight's underground launch control center, via a two-way radio call from an Air Force security guard posted at the missile silo in question. Although skeptical, then-Lt. Figel dispatched a couple of two-man Security Alert Teams to the field to investigate. They subsequently confirmed the presence of the UFO.

These astounding admissions were audio-taped, with Col. Figel's permission, during three of our telephone conversations—in 2008, 2009 and 2010—in which he discussed the incident in great detail. One may listen to those at:

Telephonic Interview with Colonel Walter Figel (USAF Ret) By Robert Hastings - 1 of 3

Telephonic Interview with Colonel Walter Figel (USAF Ret) By Robert Hastings - 2 of 3

Telephonic Interview with Colonel Walter Figel (USAF Ret) By Robert Hastings - 3 of 3

On the 2008 tape, Figel said that he and his missile commander, then-Capt. Eric Carlson, were debriefed about the UFO encounter back at the base and ordered not to talk about it. In an earlier conversation with me, Carlson himself claimed to have no recollection of a UFO report during the full-flight missile shutdown and further claimed that he recalled no mention of UFOs during the debriefing.

When told of this, Col. Figel was quite incredulous about his former missile commander’s supposed memory lapse, as one may hear on tape. He said that Carlson “was sitting two feet away” from him when Figel took the frantic call from the guard about the hovering UFO. Figel also said that Carlson—as the senior officer in the two-man Missile Combat Crew—actively participated in the debriefing, again while sitting next to him.

Col. Figel had first gone on-the-record about the incident during a 1996 audio-taped conversation with former USAF Capt. Robert Salas, the Minuteman missile launch officer who co-sponsored my September 27, 2010 “UFOs and Nukes” press conference in Washington D.C. That event was streamed live by CNN and the full-length video is at:

In spite of these very important, tape-recorded admissions by Col. Figel to Salas and me, Eric Carlson’s son, James, has spent the past several years posting comments at countless blogs, claiming that his father is being truthful when he says that no UFOs were present at Echo Flight during the shutdown incident. However, James further claims—falsely—that Col. Figel insists the on-site guard was only joking when he reported a UFO hovering above the silo. In reality, Figel clearly told me on tape that the individual in question “was serious but I wasn’t taking him seriously.”

Over time, the younger Carlson has told a great many other falsehoods about the incident. During Figel’s 2009 taped conversation with me, the obviously frustrated colonel said that James’ claims are “off-base” and that “he has an ax to grind.” True to form, James ignores these documented statements and alleges that I have misrepresented Figel’s remarks, going so far as to charge that I have doctored the tapes.

In response, I have repeatedly stated online that if James will pay the costs involved, I will have the tapes scientifically analyzed, to prove that they are unaltered. Not surprisingly, Carlson has ignored this offer. Instead, he continues to claim that I am “a liar and a fraud” because I persist in publicizing Col. Figel’s important revelations, which contradict his father’s own claims.

Importantly, other persons have substantiated Col. Figel’s account of a UFO-presence during the Echo Flight incident. The late Robert J. Kaminski, who headed the Boeing Company missile engineering team that investigated the case, says he was told by a Boeing-Air Force liaison that UFOs had indeed been sighted in the vicinity of the flight’s launch silos at the time of the missile malfunctions. Kaminski unequivocally states that his team could find no prosaic cause for the failures.

Kaminski further says that the Air Force interrupted his investigation in mid-stream and ordered him not to file a report on the full-flight shutdown—an unprecedented and still-unexplained development. One may read Kaminski discussing all of this in a 1997 letter to researcher Jim Klotz in the article titled “The Echo/Oscar Witch Hunt”.

Additionally, a former Minuteman Electro-Mechanical Technician, Henry Barlow, has stated during two interviews with me—one audiotaped, the other videotaped—that while bringing some of the Echo Flight missiles back online he had been informed that UFOs caused the malfunctions.

Barlow further said that he and other members of the 341st Missile Maintenance Squadron had observed UFOs on several occasions, both prior to and following the Echo incident, while working in Malmstrom’s missile field during 1966-67. Excerpts from the audio interview appear in my 2008 book UFOs and Nukes; portions of the video interview will be included in a documentary film I am currently producing, due to be released in 2014.

The Oscar Flight Incident

Shortly after the Echo event, a second large-scale, UFO-related ICBM shutdown incident occurred at another of Malmstrom’s missile flights, Oscar, according to former Capt. Robert Salas and now-retired Col. Frederick Meiwald, who were the launch officers on duty when it happened.

A third former officer, Capt. Robert Jamison, says he was involved in re-targeting those missiles after they had malfunctioned and had been briefed beforehand, together with several other targeting team members, that “UFOs had been messing things up.” He also provides information which strongly suggests that the incident occurred eight days after Echo, on the evening of March 24, 1967. Jamison participated in my CNN-streamed press conference and his testimony may be viewed in the video referenced above.

With the passage of time, Bob Salas had forgotten the alphabetical designation of the missile flight where his experience occurred. After reading about the ICBM-shutdown incident at Echo Flight in Timothy Good's 1989 book Above Top Secret: The Worldwide UFO Cover-Up, Salas assumed that the event described was the one he had personally witnessed. However, a subsequent investigation by researcher Jim Klotz revealed the actual identities of the launch officers who had been at Echo—Walter Figel and Eric Carlson—thereby ruling out that possibility.

Then, after Klotz secured an Air Force document via the Freedom of Information Act which stated that “rumors” of UFO sightings at November Flight had subsequently proved to be untrue, Salas wondered if he had been at that flight instead. This seemed reasonable because Klotz also interviewed the author of the document, former USAF historian David Gamble, who revealed that his superiors had later altered his own comments about the sightings, inserting the written claim that they had been “disproved”, something Gamble implied amounted to censorship.

In any case, in the summer of 1996, Salas finally located his former missile commander, Frederick Meiwald, who told him that the pair had actually been at Oscar Flight when their missiles went down. A fuller discussion of the UFO-related events at Oscar may be found in the “Witch Hunt” article referenced above, but the basic facts follow here:

Then-Lt. Salas was at his missile-status console in the underground launch capsule when he received a call from a guard at ground-level, saying that a strange, rapidly-moving light had been sighted in the sky. Salas told the guard to monitor the situation and to report back if there were any noteworthy developments. A short time later, the guard called again and screamed into the phone that a large, glowing, orange-colored, oval-shaped object had suddenly appeared and was silently hovering over the Oscar Launch Control Facility.

Salas quickly woke then-Capt. Meiwald, who was on his rest break, but before he could tell him about the phone calls with the topside guard, they were both shocked to see multiple warning lights indicating the missiles were dropping-off alert status—that is, malfunctioning.

During a tape-recorded telephone conversation in August 1996, Meiwald, by then a retired colonel, told Salas that shortly after the missiles failed—he remembered six-to-eight, whereas Salas recalls all ten going offline—a two-man security team had been ordered into the field in response to an intrusion alarm at one of the silos.

Salas had forgotten that development over the years so Meiwald provided the details, saying that when the team approached the missile site, they saw a UFO hovering above it. Badly frightened, the two men raced back to the launch control facility. Apparently, one of the guards was so shaken by the experience that he couldn’t continue his shift and had to be taken directly to the Malmstrom AFB hospital.

Col. Meiwald subsequently elaborated on the events at Oscar in a letter to Salas. That item, as well as the taped 1996 conversation referenced above, may be accessed via my “Witch Hunt” article. The recording of my own May 6, 2011 phone conversation with Meiwald is presented in another article, “Echo Flight UFO Incident Not Unique”, also available at my website.

In response to James Carlson’s many unfounded charges against Salas—he continues to call the former captain “a liar and a fraud” in hundreds of blog posts—Col. Meiwald unequivocally told me that Salas had presented the events at Oscar “very accurately” during his public statements about the incident in recent years. Meiwald said that the UFO sighted by the security team had been described as a “bright, flying object at low-level” and also confirmed, just as Salas has said, that the two launch officers were debriefed by an agent from the Air Force Office of Special Investigations (OSI) and required to sign national security non-disclosure statements.

While Bob Salas has been quite open regarding his belief that the American people should be told, at long last, the truth about UFO activity at nuclear missile sites—a philosophic position that I obviously share—both Col. Meiwald and Col. Figel have been far less proactive in their public discussion of the two ICBM-shutdown events.

Indeed, if one listens to the tapes of my conversations with them, it’s apparent that I had to press them repeatedly to provide the details, which they did only reluctantly. Nevertheless, their taped admissions are now part of the public record and provide important anecdotal evidence for the reality of the UFO-Nukes Connection.

As I was writing this article, I received an email from Bob Salas, saying, “I just spoke with Eric Carlson. He told me that he did not recall having been told about ‘credible’ UFO reports during the Echo shutdown. I asked him how he could be sure they were credible or not and he could not answer that.”

This comment by Carlson is only the latest example of his disingenuous statements regarding the incident and completely ignores the fact that—according to Col. Figel—both officers were thoroughly questioned about the UFO sighting by their squadron commander, thereby confirming that he considered it to be credible. Moreover, Figel told me he was later flown to Strategic Air Command Headquarters at Offutt AFB, where he was further questioned about it.

As far as I am aware, the most recent example of a reported UFO-presence during a large-scale ICBM-malfunction incident occurred at F.E. Warren AFB, Wyoming, on October 23, 2010. See my article on that event, titled “Huge UFO Sighted Near Nuclear Missiles During October 2010 Launch System Disruption.”

Continue Reading . . .


See Also:

Launch in Progress!

Did UFOs Cause the Shutdown of ICBMs at Malmstrom AFB, in March 1967?

UFOs Did Shutdown Minuteman Missiles at Echo Flight and Oscar Flight at Malmstrom AFB in March 1967

The Echo/Oscar Witch Hunt

James Carlson Gets it Wrong Again

VIDCAST: Former Boeing Engineer, Robert Kaminski Confirms UFO Activity at Echo Flight Missile Launch Control Facility in 1967

Huge UFO Sighted Near Nuclear Missiles During October 2010 Launch System Disruption

UFOs Reported Near Malmstrom AFB’s Nuclear Missile Sites in September 2012: Two V-Shaped Craft Sighted Southeast of Oscar Flight Launch Facility O-03

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UFOs at Nuclear Missile Sites:

The Witnesses Speak, A Debunker Deceives

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By Robert Hastings www.ufohastings.com © 1-23-12

     Here’s an important news story that bears mentioning again and again: On September 27, 2010, seven U.S. Air Force veterans talked about their nuclear weapons-related UFO experiences at a press conference in Washington D.C. which CNN streamed live. The video of that event, the witnesses' affidavits, and a small number of declassified documents confirming UFO activity at nuclear weapons sites may be found here:

The UFOs-Nukes Connection Press Conference:

Witness Affidavits and Declassified Documents

Four of the seven participants spoke of UFOs at Malmstrom AFB, Montana in the 1960s, including an incident involving several ICBMs mysteriously malfunctioning just as an unknown aerial object—oval in shape and glowing reddish orange—was observed hovering above their launch control facility.

One vocal debunker, James Carlson, hotly disputes all of this. His father, Eric, is a former U.S. Air Force ICBM launch officer who was involved in a second UFO-related missile shutdown incident at Malmstrom—on March 16, 1967—although the elder Carlson continues to deny it.

Nevertheless, I’ve interviewed other former/retired officers and enlisted men who’ve stated that a UFO had indeed been hovering over one of the Echo Flight ICBMs early that morning, when the entire “flight” of ten mysteriously malfunctioned.

I subsequently published those persons’ testimony and, still later, some of the actual tape recordings of their conversations with me—thereby convincingly contradicting Eric Carlson’s claims of no UFO-involvement in the incident.

In response, son James has been libeling me all over cyberspace ever since. His daddy is telling the truth, he claims, and all of those other guys are full of it.

My taped conversations with Eric Carlson's former Deputy Missile Combat Crew Commander, now-retired Col. Walter Figel, may be heard here.

Figel states that he did indeed receive a report from one of his guards of a “large, round object” hovering “directly over” one of the Echo ICBMs seconds after it dropped-off alert status and became unlaunchable.

Figel further says that he and Eric Carlson were told not to talk about the incident by their squadron commander.

James Carlson continues to claim that Figel and others I have interviewed have disputed my published remarks, however, he never posts those supposed objections online. Gee, I wonder why?

Indeed, despite my repeated challenges to him, Carlson has failed to produce a single email or affidavit from Figel (or anyone else) in which he disavows my written summary of our conversations or, more importantly, my posting of our taped conversations.

Because they support my contentions completely, James Carlson has even claimed that I altered the tapes. If that’s so, why hasn't Figel himself said that online, in an affidavit, or other written statement?

The reason is because the audio tapes are legitimate and unaltered. I have recently challenged Carlson to pay for a professional analysis of them, to verify all of this. He, of course, ignores my offer. It's much easier to go on making unfounded claims about me and my work. Unfortunately, some people—who are too biased and/or too lazy to investigate the facts—fall for his many falsehoods.

On the other hand, a random Google search reveals that the UFOs and Nukes topic is fairly hot and gaining ground in popularity. And that’s a good thing.

. . . More


See Also:

James Carlson Gets it Wrong Again:
Reuters Was NOT Paid to Publicize Robert Hastings’ Investigation of UFO Activity at F.E. Warren AFB in October 2010

Telephonic Interview with Colonel Walter Figel (USAF Ret) By Robert Hastings - 1 of 3

Telephonic Interview with Colonel Walter Figel (USAF Ret) By Robert Hastings - 2 of 3

Telephonic Interview with Colonel Walter Figel (USAF Ret) By Robert Hastings - 3 of 3

Early Figel & Meiwald Audio Interviews

VIDCAST: Former Boeing Engineer, Robert Kaminski Confirms UFO Activity at Echo Flight Missile Launch Control Facility in 1967

The Echo/Oscar Witch Hunt

Malmstrom Air Force Base Picks Up UFO on Radar; "Sabotage Alert Team Located Another UFO Directly Over The Base"

Twenty Year (Civilian) Veteran of Minuteman Program Confirms UFO Activity & Nuclear Missile Shut Downs!

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James Carlson Gets it Wrong Again:

Reuters Was NOT Paid to Publicize Robert Hastings’ Investigation of UFO Activity at F.E. Warren AFB in October 2010

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By Robert Hastings www.ufohastings.com © 1-6-12

James Carlson's father, Eric, is a former U.S. Air Force ICBM launch officer who was involved, decades ago, in a UFO incident at a missile site operated by Malmstrom AFB, Montana—although the elder Carlson continues to deny it.

Nevertheless, I’ve interviewed other former/retired officers and enlisted men who’ve stated that a UFO had indeed been hovering over one of the Echo Flight ICBMs early on the morning of March 16, 1967, when the entire flight of ten mysteriously malfunctioned.

I subsequently published those persons’ testimony and, still later, some of the actual tape recordings of their conversations with me—thereby convincingly contradicting Eric Carlson’s claims of no UFO-involvement in the incident. In response, son James has been libeling me all over cyberspace ever since. His daddy is telling the truth, he claims, and all of those other guys are full of it.

My taped conversations with Eric Carlson's former Deputy Missile Combat Crew Commander, now-retired Col. Walter Figel, may be heard at:

Telephonic Interviews with Colonel Walter Figel (USAF Ret)

Figel states that he did indeed receive a report from one of his guards of a “large, round object” hovering “directly over” one of the Echo ICBMs seconds after it dropped-off alert status and became unlaunchable. Figel further says that he and Eric Carlson were told not to talk about the incident by their squadron commander.

James Carlson's latest posted nonsense about me can be found here. It involves, among other things, his claim that I paid the prestigious Reuters news agency big bucks to publish a press release relating to my article on UFO sightings during the October 23, 2010 missile communication-disruption incident at F.E. Warren AFB. My exposé on that dramatic event may now be read at:

Huge UFO Sighted Near Nuclear Missiles During October 2010 Launch System Disruption

Carlson claims that Reuters’ alleged prostitution lent my investigation an aura of legitimacy that it did not deserve. However, by hurling this charge, James Carlson has only succeeded, once again, in demonstrating his inability to accurately report facts, in any given UFO case he attempts to discuss authoritatively.

In reality, I paid PRNewswire, a publicity-for-hire group, to post my press release on the incident at F.E. Warren—whereupon Reuters and many other news organizations picked it up and distributed it on its merits, not because they were paid to do so. (But, as James correctly noted, all of my sources for the story were, and remain, anonymous—just as all of the Watergate investigation sources’ names were initially kept confidential, until unfolding events resulted in their identities being made known by Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein.)

The original PRNewswire press release is at:

Robert Hastings: Unidentified Aerial Object Sighted During October 2010 Nuclear Missile Incident

The Reuters version is here.

I am perfectly aware that it would have been more credible to cite the F.E. Warren AFB sighting witnesses and my other sources by name, however, I didn't have the option to do so in this particular case. (Approximately 95% of my ex-military sources over the years were identified in my book UFOs and Nukes. Carlson calls all of those guys liars or otherwise unreliable. In other words, heads he wins, tails I lose. In Carlson’s eyes, none of my sources—anonymous or not—are credible when they report their direct or indirect knowledge of UFO activity at USAF nuclear weapons sites.)

Unfortunately, regarding the October 23, 2010 incident at F.E. Warren, the two then-active duty missile maintenance technicians who spoke of UFO sightings on the day of the communications snafu were later discovered and punished. Someone, probably the Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI), had been monitoring their emails to my go-between, an already-retired ICBM maintenance tech. Consequently, after the two technicians retired in June 2011, a “flag” was put in their DD214 folders, chastising them for releasing still-classified information about the incident. This official admonishment effectively bars them from possible employment with defense contractors, a development which troubles me greatly. Nothing like this has ever happened to any of my ex-military sources during my 39-year research career.

To those who say that I should be far more troubled about the techs’ unauthorized disclosures, I will simply assert my belief that the American people deserve to know the facts about UFOs which the U.S. government continues to withhold from us and the rest of the world—including information about ongoing UFO incursions at nuclear weapon sites. Furthermore, my opinion is that any military or ex-military whistleblower who reveals his or her knowledge of those facts is a true patriot.

Regardless, the information provided by the pair—relating to the actual 26-hour duration of the comm disruption, the multiple, intermittent sightings of a huge, cigar-shaped UFO concurrent with it, and the subsequent warnings by the missile maintenance commander to his squadron to remain silent about the dramatic events—are all reliable disclosures in my view and I am hoping that other, on-the-record sources will materialize in the future who can substantiate the techs’ assertions.

A fuller discussion of this topic, including other examples of James Carlson’s unreliable assertions and often bizarre behavior, may be found at:

New Reports of UFO Activity Near F.E. Warren AFB’s Nuclear Missile Sites
At Least Two More Sightings During the Last Half of 2011

. . . More

See Also:

The Echo/Oscar Witch Hunt

Cutting to the Chase: Robert Hastings Exposes James Carlson’s Chief Falsehood Regarding The Echo Flight UFO Incident

UFO & NUKES | F.E. WARREN AFB: UFOS Spotted Over Nuke Missile Sites; One Hits The Ground - Security Teams Dispatched!

BREAKING UFO NEWS | Numerous UFO Sightings Near F.E. Warren AFB's Nuclear Missile Sites Have Recently Been Reported | 3-26-11

UFOs & NUKES | Civilians Report UFOs in F.E. Warren's Missile Field

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New Reports of UFO Activity Near F.E. Warren AFB’s Nuclear Missile Sites

At Least Two More Sightings During the Last Half of 2011

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By Robert Hastings www.ufohastings.com © 1-3-11

     Those familiar with my UFO-Nukes Connection research already know about the long history of UFO incursions near nuclear weapons facilities, including ongoing incidents at various U.S. Air Force ICBM sites.

F.E. Warren AFB, in Cheyenne, Wyoming, has experienced such events since the early 1960s, when the base hosted first-generation Atlas missiles. One witness from that era, then-Airman 1st Class Arthur McEnaney, had been an Air Policeman assigned to the 809th Combat Defense Squadron, which provided security for the 566th Strategic Missile Squadron. One evening in August 1964, McEnaney and his fellow guards sighted a UFO above the four-silo Atlas launch complex they were patrolling.

“We were at Site 1, Pad 1,” McEnaney told me during a 2003 interview, “Around midnight we saw an object hovering over the site. It was round and shone brightly. After we reported it to the NCOIC (Non-Commissioned Officer in Charge), we were informed that interceptors had been dispatched from Denver and reported it to be a weather balloon. The only problem with that explanation was that no aircraft were seen in the area, and we were later told to keep quiet about it as it was national security. Our NCOIC, Staff Sergeant Fred Coffer, told us that.”

One year later, after the new Minuteman I missiles had been installed at F.E. Warren, UFOs spent several hours maneuvering around some of them during the period of July 31 to August 2, 1965. An intriguing declassified document about those incidents may be found at:

1965: Unprecedented Wave of Sightings
Reported By Over 140 Minute-Man Missile Personnel
Within 72-Hour Time Period

During interviews with former Minuteman launch officers and missile guards, conducted decades later, I was provided with many more details about these and similar sightings at the base. While the transcripts of several of those taped conversations appear in my 600-page book UFOs and Nukes, I will mention two of them here.

Several UFOs Simultaneously Hover Above F.E. Warren’s Echo Flight

In 2005, Jay Earnshaw told me, “I was a Captain, a Missile Combat Crew Commander or, early on, a Deputy Commander, primarily at Echo Flight. Between 1965 and 1968, except for assignments overseas, I was with all three squadrons at Warren—the 319th, the 320th and the 321st. Echo was assigned to the 319th. We did have [UFO] sightings at Echo Flight. There were times when our security forces up above would report strange things. Lights in the sky. Because I was a missile commander, the security people were required to call down to the [underground] capsule and report anything unusual going on up there. The information we got about the UFOs was that none of them came inside the fenced area [around the Echo Launch Control Facility] and none of them touched-down in the area outside the fence. As reported by the on-duty security controller, the [unexplained] lights visible from Echo Flight would have extended from the northwest to the southeast. So they were all just strange aerial lights, making no noise, that would stack on top of one another and then just disappear.”

Earnshaw continued, “The security people described them as oblong or, from the correct perspective, disc-like. No reported markings or navigation lights. If a color was reported, it was usually reddish or orange-ish shades. They were reported as ‘aloft’ or ‘up in the air’ but I don’t recall any mention of altitude—no reliable estimated distance other than ‘close.’”

Earnshaw then said firmly, “But we got reports from our security people that there were objects in the sky stacked up, one on top of the other, just hovering there. The Russians sure didn’t have the capability to do that! So that leaves only one other possibility. I am one who believes that we are not the only ones in the Universe and, well, I think someone might have been interested in what we were doing at our [nuclear missile] sites. I wasn’t one of the witnesses to these events, because I was underground in the capsule, but my second-hand information from the security people up above was that the objects were really there.”

Eight UFOs Hover Above F.E. Warren’s Quebec Flight

Another individual who has reported UFOs at F.E. Warren in 1965, then-Airman 2nd Class Robert Thompson, had been assigned to the 809th Combat Defense Squadron. He guarded the Quebec Flight Launch Control Facility, whose underground launch capsule controlled ten Minuteman I nuclear missiles. While on duty one night, Thompson got a strange call from the site’s Missile Combat Crew Commander, asking him and his partner to walk outside and look straight up.

“The launch crew in the capsule, and the guards topside, played practical jokes on one another quite often,” Thompson recalled, “When the commander called for us to step outside and look straight up, I thought that it was another joke.” However, as soon as he did so, Thompson’s attitude instantly changed. Directly overhead, he saw eight stationary lights, much brighter and larger than stars, grouped together in four pairs. Due to their altitude and brilliance, it was not possible to determine the objects’ shape or other details.

After a few moments, one light left its position and began to roam among the others, moving slowly from pair to pair. Thompson and his partner watched the mysterious aerial formation for about 10 minutes, before reporting the sighting to the missile commander. In response, Thompson was informed that NORAD, then located at Ent AFB, Colorado, had earlier notified F.E. Warren that its radars were tracking eight unknown objects hovering in the vicinity of the Quebec LCF. Apparently, the base’s Command Center had called the site and asked the missile commander to have his guards visually verify their presence in the sky.

Said Thompson, “I wasn’t sure what we were seeing until I reported back to the launch commander. When he told me of the report of UFOs from NORAD, I could tell by his voice that he wasn’t joking.” He added, “Please note, at that time, I was not a believer in stories of UFOs and little green men.”

A Cigar-Shaped UFO Frightens USAF Security Policemen in 1976

Retired USAF Minuteman missile launch officer Capt. Bruce Fenstermacher discusses the still-classified incident at F.E. Warren during my UFO and Nukes press conference in Washington D.C. on September 27, 2010. CNN streamed the event live and a full-length video may be viewed at:

The Large-Scale Missile Disruption Event of October 23, 2010

Such sightings at F.E. Warren’s missile sites have also occurred much more recently. The last known case to be investigated by myself involved multiple sightings of a huge, cigar-shaped craft by Air Force missile maintenance technicians on October 23, 2010—the same day the base temporarily lost the ability to communicate with 50 of its Minuteman III missiles. My in-depth report on the dramatic incident may be found at:

Huge UFO Sighted Near Nuclear Missiles During October 2010 Launch System Disruption

Now, however, two new F.E. Warren-related sighting reports have come to light. An as-yet anonymous source posted the following account online, under the title, “UFOs Spotted Near Air Force Base Missile Silos: Five glowing orbs witnessed over F.E. Warren Air Force Base”. The full text reads:

I observed five round brightly colored objects moving SW to me quietly at great speed. On August 5, 2011, at about 18:10 to 18:15 MDT, I was facing east (nearly 90 degrees true). I just happened to be looking for the Moon which I observed south (nearly 180 true), when I observed two objects approximately 3 degrees east of the Moon and the same south. They were moving at about a course of nearly 15 true. The first seemed to be moving ahead a little faster and opening the distance between them that I adjudged to be several degrees at first. They appeared to have some color in the setting sun. I watched them as they continued to separate a little and then slowly veer to the east to a heading between 15 true and maybe 45 true. As they now moved away from me they appeared closer together, that is, less separation.

Shortly, another object appeared from the same location, so I went to get binoculars. With the binoculars I could not resolve anything but a ball-like object. That is, no wings. The third object had bright red markings and some black. The fourth object appeared out of the same location and followed the same path except these seemed not to veer off to the east as much. The fourth object was a brilliant green, and could only be resolved to be round. The fifth object seemed to be as the first three; bright red with some markings. Since I had only a 45-degree field of view, blocked by a tree, my estimates of speed and altitudes are just that, estimates. Speed I [now] adjudge to be greater than Mach 1. I first thought greater than 500 nm [nautical miles-per-hour]. Altitude I adjudge to have been greater than 50,000 ft. There was no sonic boom. There was no sound of propulsion system.

END OF REPORT

Because I have not interviewed this individual myself or conducted an investigation of his/her statements, I can not personally vouch for the report. Nevertheless, at first glance, it seems credible to me and the witness appears to have aeronautical navigation training which permitted him/her to describe the objects’ positions in technical terms and probably helped him/her rule out astronomical bodies or mere aircraft as the source of the sighting. I am, therefore, currently attempting to learn more about the case, including the witness’ identity.

Even more recently, a second report was posted at the National UFO Reporting Center by (presumably) another anonymous source:

National UFO Reporting Center: Sigting Report

Occurred: 11/5/2011 21:30
Reported: 11/7/2011 10:43
Posted: 12/12/2011
Location: Torrington, WY
Shape: Cigar
Duration: A few seconds

I was on a hill enjoying the sunset. I fell asleep [but] woke up because of a very bright light in the sky. It soared past; it was so bright I had to look away. It was cigar-shaped and I had never seen anything like it before.

END OF REPORT

While frustratingly lacking in details, the location of the sighting—Torrington, Wyoming—is significant given that it is situated on the northern boundary of F.E. Warren’s Sierra Flight, which is composed of 10 Minuteman missiles scattered across the countryside south of town.

Anonymous reports are always exasperating for researchers because they are difficult to follow-up on and are especially vulnerable to the charge of hoaxing by skeptics, justifiably or not. Once again, I have not interviewed this individual myself or conducted an investigation of his/her statements, so I can not personally vouch for the report.

My plan is to approach local law enforcement personnel in the near future—a strategy that worked quite well in my investigation of the October 23, 2010 50-missile communications-disruption incident—to attempt to learn whether anyone else had reported such an object in the sky near Torrington on November 5, 2011. Sometimes a town’s police department or a county’s sheriff’s department receives calls about such sightings which are then recorded in their official logs known as blotters.

Regardless, I am mentioning this still-unevaluated sighting—as well as the one occurring on August 5, 2011—in the hope that someone reading this will be able to shed some light on either case, or reveal similar sightings in the region in recent months. Such reports, should they materialize, will be thoroughly investigated by me on a case-by-case basis, in an effort to learn whether they are bona fide UFO sightings or merely misidentifications of prosaic phenomena.

More Falsehoods From The Notorious James Carlson

Over the past few years, a rather bizarre and disreputable individual, James T. Carlson, has polluted cyberspace with countless lies about me and my ex-military sources. He has accused me of fraud, of doctoring tape recordings, of misrepresenting my sources’ statements in my articles and book, and similar unfounded accusations.

Predictably, I suppose, just days ago I learned that Carlson now accuses me of perpetrating a hoax related to the dramatic events at F.E. Warren AFB on October 23, 2010, when the base temporarily lost the ability to communicate with (or launch) 50 of its ICBMs. According to two now-retired USAF missile maintenance technicians, a huge UFO was sighted that day by several technical teams in the field. Those revelations are discussed at length in the article at my website referenced earlier.

This kind of baseless allegation by Carlson is nothing new, given his long track record of blatant lies, gross distortions, and completely unsupported claims.

Carlson’s campaign of hostility against me commenced in 2008, shortly after I began discussing UFO activity at ICBM sites operated by Malmstrom AFB, Montana in the 1960s. Carlson’s father, Eric, had been a Minuteman missile launch officer at the base during that era and was on duty at Echo Flight on March 16, 1967, when UFOs were reported to be in the vicinity—at the very moment when all ten of the flight’s ICBMs mysteriously malfunctioned.

During several interviews, the elder Carlson has denied that any UFOs were present at the time of the incident, despite the tape-recorded confessions of the other launch officer on duty that day, now-retired Col. Walter Figel, who says that he did indeed receive a report from one of his guards of a “large, round object” hovering “directly over” one of the Echo ICBMs seconds before it dropped-off alert status and became unlaunchable. My taped conversations with Col. Figel may be heard at:

Telephonic Interviews with Colonel Walter Figel (USAF Ret) By Robert Hastings

Despite these dramatic revelations, James Carlson still insists that his father, Eric, is telling the truth, and that no UFOs were present at Echo Flight when the missiles failed.

James’ incessant blogging on this topic has grown increasingly disturbing over time. In one especially revealing incident, a few weeks ago Carlson engaged in a lengthy, contentious debate with an anonymous blogger who had been defending my work. Although I had absolutely nothing to do with that exchange, Carlson was unshakably certain that it was I who he was engaging in battle and the increasingly elaborate fantasies he wove when addressing “me” are weird in the extreme.

This strange episode pointedly illustrates James Carlson’s paranoid, reality-detached personality. He remains utterly convinced that I was responding to his own posts on that particular blog, even though I had been recovering from cataract surgery at the time and could barely focus my eyes for several days, let alone read. Nevertheless, the thought that someone else in cyberspace might actually want to defend my well-documented research was apparently an impossibility in Carlson’s obstinate mind and he remains convinced, even now, that I am lying about all of this.

And, I might add, James is equally convinced that his father, Eric Carlson, has told him the absolute truth about the Echo Flight missile-shutdown incident—that is, no UFOs were reported in the vicinity when it occurred—despite the tape recorded testimony to the contrary from the other officer involved in the still-classified event, Col. Walter Figel.

Among other things, Figel explicitly told me that he and James’ father had been directed not to talk about the presence of UFOs during the missile shutdown, an order he had complied with until 1996, when he privately confessed the facts to former USAF Captain Robert Salas during another audio taped conversation. (Salas had been involved in another missile shutdown incident, at Oscar Flight, eight days after the events at Echo, something confirmed by retired Col. Frederick Meiwald, who was Salas’ missile commander that day.) While Walter Figel’s personal skepticism about UFOs remains intact, he now readily admits that he had received multiple reports of a hovering UFO at Echo Flight from his deadly-serious guards in the field.

In any case, James Carlson’s deep-denial delusions aside, some rather interesting UFO-related events continue to occur in the U.S. Air Force’s missile fields—in particular the one operated by F.E. Warren AFB—nearly to the present day. I will update the reader on my impending investigation of the most recent reports from the Wyoming base in the weeks ahead.

. . . More

See Also:

The Echo/Oscar Witch Hunt

Cutting to the Chase: Robert Hastings Exposes James Carlson’s Chief Falsehood Regarding The Echo Flight UFO Incident

UFO & NUKES | F.E. WARREN AFB: UFOS Spotted Over Nuke Missile Sites; One Hits The Ground - Security Teams Dispatched!

BREAKING UFO NEWS | Numerous UFO Sightings Near F.E. Warren AFB's Nuclear Missile Sites Have Recently Been Reported | 3-26-11

UFOs & NUKES | Civilians Report UFOs in F.E. Warren's Missile Field

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UPDATE: USAF Col. Walter Figel Admits Receiving Reports of a UFO Presence During the Echo Flight Shutdown Incident

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By Robert Hastings
www.ufohastings.com
7-10-11

     It has now been five weeks since I posted links to my audio-taped telephone conversations with Col. Walt Figel (USAF Ret.) regarding his experiences at Malmstrom AFB in 1967. Nevertheless, Figel still has not written to me or called me to protest my doing so, or to challenge the authenticity of the tapes—even though I provided him with the links on June 5th and have emailed him at least three times since then to update him on one thing or another (including the desperate claims by some to the effect that the tapes are doctored).

In response to Figel's documented admissions, James Carlson has continued to claim that I am a liar and a fraud. Carlson has been doing this at countless blogs over the past few years, in an attempt to discredit the testimony of USAF veterans who have courageously come forward and divulged their involvement in UFO incidents at nuclear weapons sites over the years.

In particular, Carlson has claimed that there was no UFO-involvement in two separate large-scale missile shutdown incidents at Malmstrom AFB, Montana, in March 1967, even though three of the four ICBM launch officers involved—Captain Robert Salas, Colonel Frederick Meiwald and Colonel Walter Figel—have gone on-the-record regarding a UFO presence during those missile-disruption events. (Figel at Echo Flight; Salas and Meiwald at Oscar Flight)

James Carlson's father, Eric Carlson—who was the fourth launch officer involved—claims to have no memory of a UFO presence at Echo Flight, even though his deputy missile commander, now-retired Col. Walt Figel, has confirmed (repeatedly, on tape) receiving reports from his security personnel of a “large round object” hovering over one of the missiles, just as the entire flight of ten ICBMs malfunctioned.

Figel also says that he and the elder Carlson were later debriefed by their commander and told not to talk about the incident. Figel further acknowledges that his own skeptical views about UFOs have no bearing on the credibility of the reports he received from persons in the field at Echo Flight, who were “serious” when they informed him of the hovering UFO.

James Carlson, taking his cue from his, ahem, forgetful father, has brazenly and repeatedly misrepresented these startling facts, as one will hear by listening to my audio taped conversations with Cols. Figel and Meiwald, both of whom reveal the dramatic details of the shutdown incidents and, further, repudiate James Carlson's many falsehoods about them.

The article containing audio links to my (and Bob Salas’) taped conversations with Col. Figel is at:

The Echo Flight ICBM Incident: Retired USAF Officer Confirms Receiving A UFO Report Just as the Missiles Failed

The article containing audio links to my (and Bob Salas’) taped conversations with Col. Meiwald is at:

Echo Flight UFO Incident Not Unique: Retired Col. Frederick Meiwald Says “Bright Object” Also Sighted During OSCAR Flight Missile Malfunctions

While James Carlson will undoubtedly continue to claim that his father is the only person being truthful in this affair, one should carefully listen to the statements of the other launch officers involved in these amazing events before drawing conclusions.

. . . More

See Also:

UFOs & NUKES | Were Saucers [UFOs] Spying On Bomb Site?

UFOs & NUKES | Whiteman AFB, Missouri: UFO Explodes, Lands Near Missile Sites; Strike Team Dispatched

Malmstrom Air Force Base Picks Up UFO on Radar; "Sabotage Alert Team Located Another UFO Directly Over The Base"

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