Tag: Malmstrom AFB

Doubts Cast on 1967 Malmstrom AFB UFO Incident

Article by Ryan                                   November 6, 2020                                (topsecretwriters.com)

• In 2008, Robert L. Hastings published his book entitled: UFOs and Nukes: Extraordinary Encounters at Nuclear Weapons Sites, detailing the shutdown of ten nuclear missiles at the “Oscar-Flight” control center underground silos at Malmstrom Air Force Base near Great Falls, Montana on the morning of March 16, 1Post967. The same thing reportedly happened that same day at Echo-Launch missile control center twenty miles away.

• Hastings took most of his information from former Lieutenant Robert Salas, who was the Oscar Flight Launch control center commander at the time. Salas claimed that base security patrols on the surface above him phoned to report seeing UFOs hovering above one of the E-Flight silos at the Air Force base. Then an alarm sounded indicating that one of the Minuteman missiles had become ‘inoperable’. Then nine more missiles at Oscar Flight went inoperable as well.

• Salas acknowledged that members of the Echo-Flight missile and maintenance crew included Captain Eric Carlson and First Lieutenant Walt Figel. Salas indicated that they had also seen the UFOs directly above their base.

• James Carlson is the son of Captain Eric Carlson who was a maintenance officer at Echo-Flight. James Carlson contends that while ten of the Malmstrom missiles did shut down that day, both his father and retired Colonel Walt Figel denied seeing any UFOs. Hastings responded by saying that James’ father simply didn’t tell him the truth, and that James had never spoken with Figel at all. James Carlson responded to Hastings’ accusation by providing uncontroverted evidence of his correspondence with Figel. And James insisted that his father, Eric Carlson, “never lied to (him) about anything”. James Carlson states: “I can say with complete confidence today that both Robert Hastings and Robert Salas have knowingly mislead their entire audience into believing a lie they were well aware of in order to sell their books.”

• In his documented conversation with Walt Figel, James Carlson related that Figel had read Hasting’s book and he told the authors that “there are many inaccurate statements and events in the books”. He goes so far as to say that Salas was never involved with the Echo Flight, and that neither Echo-Flight nor Oscar-Flight at Malmstrom ever had any UFO incident “or any other equipment failures”. Figel confirmed that he doesn’t believe in UFOs, has no interest in Ufology, and he is not a fan of Salas, Hastings or the “whole UFO crowd”.

• James Carlson says that Hasting’s primary source for the UFOs over Echo-Flight base, according to Hasting’s own statements – is Walt Figel – and that Figel’s assertions are proof that Eric Carlson has lied about this event. James calls Hastings and Salas out accusing them of making knowingly false statements. James Carlson stated publicly that Hastings has said ‘over and over again’ that James’ assertions are lies, and that Hastings can easily prove this. And yet, Hastings has produced nothing to dispute James’ father Eric and Walt Figel’s account denying any UFO interference at Malmstrom.

• Walt Figel recalls that after the first missile silo shut down, he and Eric Carlson were ran maintenance checklists when the second missile shut down. Shortly thereafter, the other eight missiles shut down as well. Figel said that there was no “large gathering” of people on site that morning. No one from any UFO office in the Air Force ever interviewed or debriefed him or Eric Carlson. In fact, Figel said he didn’t even know that the Air Force had a UFO office that monitored “UFO sightings”. Back then, whenever someone mentioned UFOs, Figel just laughed it off as a joke.

• Then James Colson turned to his father, Eric Carlson’s account of the incident. “[T]here is no doubt in my mind that there were no reports of UFO’s and no incident at Oscar flight,” said Eric Carlson. “The report that we had lost ten missiles is accurate. It was not uncommon to lose one missile or even two to no-go status. It was unheard of to lose all ten.” Eric said that Figel never spoke to a security guard above them on the surface who told them about hovering UFOs, as Salas claims. And neither Carlson nor Figel were “visibly shaken” as Salas claims.

• Eric Carlson says that the “voice reporting system did report a guidance and control system malfunction”. But subsequent investigations by Boeing engineers turned up no explanation for what could have caused the shutdown, and some speculated that only a high-energy electromagnetic pulse could have entered the shielded system to cause the failure.

• Since the USAF frowned upon the reporting or even internal acknowledgement of UFO events or sightings, could it be that Air Force personnel would not provide an accurate accounting? “I never felt constrained in any way regarding reporting any unusual activities around missile sites,” said Eric Carlson. “In fact, I believe we were encouraged to report unusual incidents or events.”

• “The crew members of the 10th SMS were a tight group,” said Eric Carlson. “We were the first minuteman squadron activated and did a lot together. …At no time were UFOs mentioned to me.” Hastings has publicly questioned Eric Carlson’s memory, and stated that Eric Carlson told Hastings that his son, James, has suffered with “severe mental problems that have worried my family”, implying that James cannot be trusted. James says that he is “seriously considering a lawsuit directed at Robert Hastings for slander and defamation of character”.

 

                     Robert Hastings

According to Ufology researcher/writer Robert Hastings, on March 16, 1967, the appearance of UFOs at Echo-Flight nuclear missile facility allegedly shut down the missile silo. Robert Hasting’s information came from a man named Robert Salas who claimed he had witnessed the event.

Background of the Malmstrom AFB Missile/UFO Case

The son of one of the officers who was involved in the Echo flight incident, named James Carlson, took Hastings and Salas to task for those claims. Carlson contends that both his father and retired Col. Walt Figel, the other officer involved in the incident, both reported that there were no UFOs.

Hastings denied that James was ever in touch with the second witness, Col. Walt Figel. James Carlson provided us with records of his correspondence with Figel, which proved that Figel actually confirmed James Carlson’s interpretation of how the event actually occurred.

                   nuclear warhead

In March of 2010, James Carlson wrote:
Robert Hastings has made much of the fact that I have refused to interview his witness, Col. (Ret.) Walter Figel, Jr., regarding his recollections of the Echo Flight Incident on March 16, 1967.

I have, in fact, contacted Col. Figel, but didn’t feel that it would be very ethical to discuss in detail the event he recalls without securing first his complete cooperation, authority, and permission to do so. Having secured that this very evening, I am now prepared to discuss the matter in full. I can also add, very strongly, that my father never lied to me about anything, as Hastings claims, and that his recollections match exactly those of Col. Figel’s. I’ve “slandered and libeled” nobody, and I can say with complete confidence today that both Robert Hastings and Robert Salas have knowingly mislead their entire audience into believing a lie they were well aware of in order to sell their books.

James reported that Col Figel reported:
1. Col. Figel does not believe UFOs were “even remotely associated with the Echo Flight Incident, or any other equipment failures at Malmstrom.”

              Robert Salas

2. Col. Figel confirmed that he has no interest in Ufology and is not a fan of the UFO crowd.
3. Figel stated, “I have read both of their books. There are many inaccurate statements and events in the books. I have told them both that.”
4. He also stated that Salas was “never involved in any of them (the flights) at all.

The Figel Communications

In August of 2010, James learned that there were rumors floating about that his communications with Figel had never taken place. To set the record straight, James Carlson wrote the following commentary in a post on RealityUncovered (a now defunct UFO forum):
“I’ve discovered that there a lot of people out in the world who are convinced that I have not had any discussions with COL.(Ret.) Walter Figel, Jr., […] This is patently untrue and can be easily shown as such. Robert Hastings has knowingly published versions of this event that he has been told are false by both my father and Walt Figel, and his claims to the contrary are little more than silly attacks that are intended to delay the ruination of his and Robert Salas’ Echo Flight claims until after his pathetic little dog and pony show at the National Press Club in Washington, DC next month. The fact that he would do so at the expense of another man’s reputation doesn’t surprise me.

This back and forth between Hastings and Carlson set off a firestorm of debate on UFO forums at the time. Either Figel denied claims made by Hastings about the Malmstrom AFB UFO incident, or he didn’t.

Debate and drama aside, this was the one issue that needed to be confirmed or denied — because such a source denying Hastings claims cast doubt upon all of the rest of the claims about the incident.

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Aliens Are Sabotaging Nuclear Weapons, Says Conspiracist

by Joy Basu                     May 26, 2018                      (dailystar.co.uk)

• Several years ago, a former U.S. Air Force lieutenant, Bob Jacobs, was interviewed on CNN’s Larry King Live. Jacobs said that he had witnessed a UFO at Vandenburg Air Force Base. When he told his superiors, “We got a UFO”, he was ordered by his senior officer to “…never to speak of this again”. “As far as you’re concerned, this didn’t happen.”

• In March of 1967, witnesses at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana saw a red glowing UFO hovering just outside the front gate. Malmstrom is responsible for a large amount of nuclear weapons. When the UFO appeared, all of their nuclear missiles shut down and went completely dead.

• Toward the end of the 1970s and early ’80s, the U.S. attempted to put a nuclear weapon on the moon and explode it for scientific measurements. “[ETs] destroyed the weapon before it got to the moon.”

• Could it be that extraterrestrials are trying to prevent humans from using nuclear weapons because we simply cannot be trusted with such massive power?

• [Editor’s Note]   The article’s original title is “Aliens Are Sabotaging Nuclear Weapons, Says Wacky Conspiracist”. This is exactly the type of ridicule and deception that the government has employed since the 1940’s with regard to UFOs and extraterrestrials. It continues today. Paul Hertz, Astrophysics Division director at NASA Headquarters in Washington said last year: “The only life we know about is on Earth. NASA is always looking for life out there, and when we find it, we will tell you.” This is known as an institutional lie – a lie mandated by the government. Incidents such as those described in this article are always considered wacky until they are shown to be true. That is now happening with the Disclosure Movement. Will mainstream ‘journalists’ be regarded by future historians as ‘wacky’ when it is revealed that the mainstream media has been spouting Deep State propaganda and institutionalized ridicule for the past seventy years?

 

Conspiracy theorists have long believed the world’s governments are hiding knowledge of extraterrestrials.

The theory was boosted last year after it emerged the Pentagon had managed a secret multi-million dollar UFO programme for years.

And now an anonymous ufologist has claimed aliens are trying to prevent humans from using nuclear weapons, “because we simply cannot be trusted with such massive power.”

Writing on the website Alien Revelations, the author states the example of former US Air Force lieutenant Bob Jacobs’ interview on CNN’s Larry King Live show several years ago.

Bob claimed his seniors warned him to stay mum after they witnessed a UFO at Vandernburg Air Force Base.

He was told: “You are never to speak of this again”.

Bob had been the first officer awarded with an insignia for guided missiles in the Air Force.

On that evening, he claims to have witnessed something inexplicable, and told his superiors: “We got a UFO!”

However, Jacobs’ superiors did not seem as excited and he was immediately told: “As far as you’re concerned, this didn’t happen.”

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Montana and Military Involvement With UFOs

by Marie Cisneros         January 19, 2018          (openminds.tv)

• This article relates three UFO encounters, the first two occurring in Montana in 1950 and 1967, and a third in Afghanistan in 2004.

• On August 15, 1950, Nicolas Mariana filmed 16 mm color movies of two UFOs that appeared as shiny, circular craft. (see 3:25 YouTube video below) This video has withstood over sixty years of scrutiny without being debunked, and is believed to be one of the strongest cases supporting the existence of UFOs.

• In March 1967, at Malmstrom Air Force base, Montana, early morning maintenance crews reported seeing UFOs hovering over missile silos. By late morning, one of the missiles had become inoperable. Soon, all ten of the bases’ missiles became inoperable. It was found that each of the missiles had gone off alert status due to a guidance and control fault and not due to a power outage. The cause was unknown.

• Around midnight on May 10, 2004, an Army Special Forces unit of fifteen troops were on patrol near Kabul in eastern Afghanistan. Using night vision goggles, they suddenly saw a very large spherical UFO rise from behind a nearby mountain, about the size of the moon (from their perspective). It made no noise and was not visible by the naked eye. It was glowing and translucent, illuminating the surrounding area. Slowly moving at about ten mph, the UFO was about 100 yards from their base came, a quarter-mile away from the patrol, and hovering about 50 feet in the air. Their commander inside the base camp could also see the object. The patrol watched the UFO for about ten more minutes before they had to turn around and head back to base camp. The craft came to a stop about a quarter-mile northeast of their position and appeared to stop over campfire that some locals had made. The UFO then shot a beam of light at the campfire, but the patrol could not see the result as the patrol unit was driving away. They lost sight of the UFO altogether behind a hill. Then they saw it rise above the local’s campfire straight up into the night sky at a rapid speed until it was gone.

 

With the recent revelation by the Pentagon and their admission that there has been an ongoing program to investigate Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon; the fact that Montana has had several cases of interest within that context came to mind.

First and foremost is the Mariana UFO incident from August 1950 when Nicolas Mariana filmed 16 mm color movies of two UFOs that appeared as shiny, circular craft. It has withstood years of research conducted by a slew of investigators, including the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP), the Air Force, and Dr. Robert M. L. Baker, as well as others, without being debunked, and is believed to be one of the strongest cases supporting the existence of unidentified flying objects and remains unexplained.

Another extraordinary case in Montana happened at Malmstrom Air Force base in March 1967 when two maintenance crews reported seeing UFOs in the early morning hours over the E-Flight (missile) silos. Later that morning, one of the Minuteman missiles had gone off alert; meaning it had become inoperable. This was at one of the two sites where the maintenance crews had been stationed during the night.

Thinking this to be due to the crews doing maintenance or perhaps even neglecting their duty, crew commander, Figal, looked into the incident. Just as inexplicably, the entire flight of ten ICBMS went inoperable also; with all the missiles being reported a “No-Go” at this point. After a check was conducted, it was found that each of the missiles had gone off alert status due to a guidance and control fault and not due to a power outage. It has been conjectured that perhaps the UFO had caused the missiles to become inoperable, as the cause was unknown.

I discovered this next case, Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) Case #55741, after I became MUFON’s State Director of the Montana chapter through the Case Assistance Group. I was doing a bit of inventory and getting some background information on the types of cases that Montana had been dealing with. Even though I had been a Field Investigator for Michigan for over seven years, this was my first stint as a State Director, thus I wanted to be as prepared as I could. Montana, with its “big sky,” fewer city lights to block out the stars and breath-taking mountain ranges, is a sky-watcher’s dream and definitely different than what I was used to living in an urban area.

This incident, listed on the database as a CE-2, happened at around midnight on May 10, 2004 when an entire Army Special Forces unit saw an unknown spherical shaped object through night vision goggles while on security duty in Kabul, Afghanistan. Kabul, the largest city in Afghanistan, is the capital of Kabul Province and is located along the eastern sector of the country. It has a population of 3.3 million people and is the largest city in Afghanistan. Geographically it sits 5876 feet above sea level between the Hindu Kush Mountains along the Kabul River. The climate, which tends to be cooler than rest of the Southwest Asia due to the elevation, is semi-arid with most of the precipitation occurring in the winter months, usually as snow.

In his report, the Montana resident stated that while out on detail in Kabul, Afghanistan, he and an entire Army unit of fifteen men witnessed a UFO. The witness stated he was unsure of the exact date but felt it was around May 10th of that year. He stated that this craft was “huge” and was so close they could have thrown a rock at it and hit it. He said it seemed to come out of nowhere and floated over one of the mountains from the south which was east of the base they built. The object made no noise. The bizarre thing was that he could not see it with the naked eye, but it could be seen through his night vision goggles. He described the object has having the appearance of a light bulb but was a sphere and was about the size of the moon in comparison. He said it had a translucent appearance but was glowing, lighting up the surrounding area with its lights. When they saw it, they stopped and looked in amazement and awe.

As they watched it, it was hovering about 50-100 feet in the air, moving slowly about five to ten mph. It was about 100 yards from the outside perimeter of the base camp and as they were watching the craft, their commander was at the base camp, about a quarter of a mile to the southwest of their position. The commander could also see the object. He got on the radio and announced to the unit to “get back to work, its nothing,” meaning the craft they were looking at.

The squad leader was in the passenger seat and his friend was driving. He stated they were “pulling roaming security” from one traffic control point to the other from the south of the base to the north of their base camp. After their commander told them to go back to work, they watched this craft for about ten more minutes before they had to turn around and head back north. The craft stopped about ¼-mile northeast of their position and appeared to stop over campfire that some locals had made.

The UFO then shot out a beam at their camp, but they couldn’t see the base of the fire from where they were, just the flickering of it on the back of the mountain. They could not see what was happening down on the ground with that beam of light. In the meantime, their squad leader stopped watching and wanted to go back to work, so the specialist turned the Humvee around and they started driving north to the north T.C.P.

The witness stated he wanted to keep watching the object, but they lost sight of it when they left because a hill blocked their view; which was the same hill that blocked the beam they had seen. After a minute of driving north he observed that the object had taken off from over the local’s campsite. He stated it took off at a rapid speed, making in a 90-degree angle straight up until they could no longer see it. To him it appeared that the lights on the craft seemed to have a delayed reaction because the craft took off so fast, what he said was an alarming rate. It made dashes of light across the sky as it did, then it was gone. His report to MUFON was the first time that he had told anyone about this incident besides his family.

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