MAGONIA Extra

Robert Hastings is a liar and a fraud who shouldn't be trusted in regard to anything, including what he had for breakfast this morning. As soon as you start questioning his witnesses, you find out almost immediately that they are either not willing to establish the claims that Hastings has made for them, or have nothing to say that qualifies as valid evidence. Hastings, aware finally that his witnesses can be tracked down and reinterviewed, is now using anonymous witnesses to validate his claims. He's a fraud and a petty con-man trying to sell an idea, his book, and nothing more.

His own witnesses have, on occasion, accused him of lying, taking statements out of context, and refusing entirely to properly assert their claims that UFOs were not involved in the incidents they've discussed. Even his methods for documenting the transcripts of telephone interviews have shown a deceptive streak, allowing him to hide the actual claims of such witnesses (see http://www.realityuncovered.net/blog/2011/08/strategic-editing/).

He's even gone so far as to invent a number of medical publications and articles establishing a fictional association between epilepsy and violent mania for no other purpose then to raise the issue of credibility in reference to those who have established claims contrary to his own, and he did so without even attempting to refute, explain, account for, or, in some cases, acknowledge the evidence presented. A man who fails to defend himself or his claims, merely attacking the credibility of his critics with disgusting insinuations and personal insults is not a man who can defend his assertions honestly.

I would recommend that if you are truly interested in understanding something about Hastings' credibility, you go to the following URLs, where you can download at no cost supporting articles discussing in some detail exactly how far he can be trusted:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/26641522/Americans-Credulous-by-James-Carlson

http://www.scribd.com/doc/42303580/Echo-Flights-of-Fantasy-Anatomy-of-a-UFO-Hoax-by-James-Carlson

http://www.scribd.com/doc/49495918/The-Bunny-s-Retort-by-James-Carlson

I would also recommend that you examine the numerous interviews and articles at the Reality Uncovered website: http://www.realityuncovered.net/ -- many of the top articles referenced discuss the events at Echo Flight in March 1967, and include interviews with both the commander and the deputy commander at Echo Flight on March 16, 1967 when the missiles were taken offline by an electronic noise pulse, an incident that was thoroughly investigated and very well documented, contrary to what Hastings and Salas have always insisted.

It's a sad thing indeed when the resources that so many consider to be so credible have refused to examine 95% of the evidence available, including over 80 pages of FOIA documentation, the statements repeatedly issued by the only actual witnesses at Echo Flight, the statements originating with Salas' own crew commander during the alleged incident at Oscar Flight, and the statements of literally dozens of ex-missileers regarding the supposed event at Oscar Flight, including absolute and verified proof that no equipment failures occurred anywhere on Malmstrom AFB during the same period of the Oscar Flight failures insisted upon by both Salas and Hastings.

Tim Hebert, an ex-USAF missileer himself, has also written some enlightening articles regarding the case on his blog at: http://timhebert.blogspot.com/

Dr. David Clarke, for many years an accepted expert regarding the British military forces' investigations of the UFO phenomenon, has also discussed this case in the context of the "UFO and Nukes" connection asserted by author Robert Hastings. You can read his article on the subject at http://drdavidclarke.blogspot.com/2010/11/flat-earth-nukes.html.

Thank you,
James Carlson
jtcarl@yahoo.com
Albuquerque, NM
 

Thanks for your comments. Hastings is not the only well-known ufologist who tends to be taken seriously by people who ought to know better. For example, Leslie Kean is another who has recently gained notoriety by spreading misinfomation about UFOs, aided by pilots, generals, etc. Certain "serious" ufologists have somehow failed to notice that some of the allegedly baffling well-known UFO reports which she cites were solved many years ago. I hope to say more about this later.
 

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:

http://www.ufohastings.com/articles/the-echo-flight-icbm-incident

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, Carlson has claimed that I altered the tapes. If so, why hasn't Figel said that online, in an affidavit, etc.?

The reason is because the tapes are legitimate and unaltered. I have recently challenged Carlson to pay for a professional analysis of the tapes, 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.

BTW, Mr. Harney, former nuclear missileers talked about their UFO experiences at a press conference 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:

http://www.ufohastings.com/articles/the-ufos-nukes-connection-press-conference

Lots of folks worldwide can't seem to deal with this startling info and so continue to hide their heads in the sand. That's human nature, I suppose. Too bad, however, that some of those same folks are so easily duped by the likes of Mr. Carlson.

--Robert Hastings
www.ufohastings.com
 

Just thought I would add a few extra details into this ongoing debate.

I was assigned to the 490th Strategic Missile Squadron at Malmstrom AFB, Mt from 1981-1985 as a Minuteman II launch officer. True, the events at Echo Flight occurred some fourteen years prior to my arrival on station and I only came to know of the alleged claims some two years ago when Robert Hastings was posting on a forum site for current and former missileers.

I had found it somewhat strange that such an event was never talked about by anyone while I was at Malmstrom so I started to look into the claims myself.

Robert Hastings had based his UFO theory solely on one launch officer on duty at Echo Launch Control Center, Walter Figel, receiving a verbal report of a UFO sighting over one of his sights while the entire flight was "dropping" off alert. It is clear that Walter Figel took the verbal report as joke.

From all of the evidence that is currently available (the same evidence afforded to Mr. Hastings) the cause of the incident was an electronic pulse noise generated from the LCC that effected the missile guidance system of Echo's ten sorties.

During this time period other similar issues were being experienced at Whiteman AFB, Mo. Subsequent investigations by Boeing and OOMA (Hill AFB) resulted in an Engineering Change Proposal for all six Minuteman wings which included the installation of EMP suppression kits for all of SAC's launch facilities including the Titan II system under Project Loggy Ebb. Since the institution of the ECP, no wing has ever experienced a similar situation as that of Echo Flight.

From my professional standpoint, there was no UFO involvement at Echo Flight. There has never been any direct witnesses that actually saw a UFO in the flight area...not one individual has ever been named nor have they come forward after 40years since the incident.

My apologies for being rather long winded on this matter. Should your readers be interested in a more in depth description of my investigation they can visit my site at: timhebert.blogspot.com/

Tim Hebert
 

Hastings’ comments in regard to Walt Figel’s assertions are blatant lies. If you go to Reality Uncovered, you can read the statements Figel has made in regard to this issue. He is clear: Hastings has lied about his claims in order to reach false conclusions, and has ignored Figel’s own claims and conclusions. The following is merely a small part of the record:
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James,

First – your dad has not lied about anything nor do believe that he is even capable of lying about anything at all. He was, is, and always will be an honorable man. You should remember that always – I will.

Second – Bob Salas was never associated with any shutdown of any missiles at any time in any flight and you can take that to the bank. Just think about this for a split second. He is a person wrapped up in UFOs to the Nth degree. Yet he could not remember he was not at Echo. Then he thought he was at November – wrong again. Then he thought he was at Oscar – wrong again.

Third – There is no record about anything happening at November or Oscar except in people’s minds that are flawed beyond imagination. Salas has created events out of the thin air and can’t get the facts straight even then. My best friend to this day was the flight commander of the 10th SMS at the time. He and I have discussed this silly assertion in the past couple of years – he thinks it is all madeup nonsense for sure. I put both Salas and Hastings in touch with him and he has told them both that an incident at November or Oscar never happened. In addition he was subsequently stationed at Norton AFB where the engineers tested the possible problems. No little green men were responsible.

Fourth – I have always maintained that I do not nor have I ever believed that UFOs exist in any form at any place at any time. I have never seen one or reported that I have seen one. I have always maintained that they had nothing to do with the shutdown of Echo flight in Montana.

Fifth – The event at Malmstrom has a hand written log from me that was turned in just like all the other logs that I wrote over several years. I would think that if I wrote something like that in the log, there would be copies, it would have been classified at the beginning and then released along with the classified SAC messages and base reports. Nothing in that urgent SAC message even hints of UFOs at all and I think that it would if the official logs or telephone calls had referenced that fact.

Sixth – When it happened, neither your dad nor I were “visibly shaken” by the events. It was just another day with a unexpected event in our lives. It was rather underwhelming at the time. No one rushed out to see us, no one made us sign any papers, no one interrogated us for hours on end.

There is no Air Force “cover-up” it just did not happen the way Salas and has portrayed the course of events. I am sorry that you are all caught up in a pissing contest with these people, I really am. They are just not going to let go no matter what you say or do. He has made a 15 year career pandering about the country talking about things he has no knowledge about. I am not at all interested in taking them on – it’s not worth my effort – I have more important things to do with my life. I much rather just stay out of it.

Hopefully, we can move on. I did read about a briefing on the 27th here in DC. I am here in VA about 10 miles away. Interesting. Hopefully this helps you and confirms to you at least that your dad is a straight shooter and does not lie to anyone.

Sincerely,
Walt Figel
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Figel was not invited to the press conference Hastings organized. Why not? He has insisted that Hastings’ book is full of errors, and has pointed this out to him. He was ignored. Why?

There were only 2 witnesses at Echo Flight in March 1967: Eric Carlson and Walt Figel. Both insist that there was no UFO. Robert Hastings is NOT a witness; he is merely a liar who has misrepresented the claims of better men. He's a petty con-man and a fraudulent huckster -- nothing more.