The James T. Carlson Problem Robert Hastings Requests Your Assistance

By Robert Hastings
www.ufohastings.com
10-24-10

Over the past 37 years I have interviewed more than 120 former or retired U.S. military personnel regarding their knowledge of UFO incursions at nuclear weapons sites during the Cold War era. On September 27, 2010, seven of those individuals participated in a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington D.C. to discuss their personal experiences in such cases. The event was streamed live by CNN and thousands of articles and broadcast news stories—the great majority of them accurate and objective—have been generated worldwide over the past month.

Four of the press conference participants discussed UFO activity at Malmstrom AFB’s ICBM sites in 1966-67:

Patrick McDonough USN Command Master Chief (Ret)

Dr. Patrick McDonough revealed that one night, while working as an Air Force geodetic surveyor at a not-yet activated missile site, a disc-shaped UFO had raced in and briefly hovered, silently, some 300-feet above his head.

Retired Lt. Col. Dwynne Arneson, the Officer-in-Charge of the 28th Air Division’s Communications Center at Malmstrom in 1967, told of reading a secret message about a UFO hovering over a missile site just before it and nine other ICBMs mysteriously malfunctioned.

Former Captain Robert Salas, a missile launch officer at Malmstrom, spoke of being on alert at a 10-missile group designated Oscar Flight, probably on March 24, 1967, when his missiles failed—moments after his head security guard had called the launch capsule to report a glowing oval-shaped object hovering over the Launch Control Facility. Salas has publicly spoken about this incident since 1995 and was the co-sponsor of the press conference.

Finally, a former missile targeting officer, then-Lt. Robert Jamison, spoke of being involved in the re-start (retargeting) of the Oscar Flight missiles. Jamison said that all of the targeting teams involved in the action were briefed before going to the missile sites and were explicitly told that UFOs had been involved in the ICBM shutdowns.

All of these individuals spoke out because they believe, as do I, that the U.S. government needs to be candid with the American people, and humans everywhere, about the reality of the UFO phenomenon and, in particular, the UFO-Nukes Connection.

Now, although these courageous individuals have come forward and divulged their involvement in still-classified incidents, in the hope of raising public awareness, a UFO debunker named James T. Carlson has been posting countless items online over the past two years, calling these veterans (and others who were involved in the missile shutdown incidents) liars, or worse. In particular, Bob Salas and I have been singled-out for his wrath. Carlson’s father, Eric Carlson, was one of two missile launch officers who were present at Malmstrom’s Echo Flight on March 16, 1967, when all 10 of their ICBMs shut down.

While the senior Carlson claims not to remember any mention of a UFO being present at the time, the other officer, now-retired Col. Walter Figel, has told me, and Salas, that he received a report of a “large, round” UFO hovering over one of the missile sites just moments after it failed, and shortly before the other nine malfunctioned as well. Figel also verified that other security personnel subsequently corroborated the presence of the UFO. All of these admissions are on audio tape and one may listen to them via links in my article “The Echo/Oscar Witch Hunt”, posted at The UFO Chronicles website.

Unfortunately, James T. Carlson believes his father’s version of events—that no UFOs were present at Echo Flight when the missiles went down—and has spent the last two years slandering and libeling anyone who contradicts this claim. James has further alleged that Bob Salas has completely fabricated the story of his own involvement in a second shutdown incident, at Oscar Flight, even though the other officer present at the time, retired Col. Fred Meiwald, has verified its reality.

In any case, the time has come for me to take inventory, in preparation for a possible legal action: While I am aware of numerous posts by James Carlson about all of this—on blogs at several websites—I’m certain that I’ve missed many more, given that they run into the hundreds at this point. So, I am seeking the reader’s assistance:

I am asking that persons who want to the truth about the incidents at Malmstrom AFB in 1967 to be established—once and for all—to scour the Internet and locate posts in which Carlson has referred to me (or Bob Salas) as a “fraud”, a “liar” a “hoaxer” or similar defamatory terms. I am also interested in posts where James claims that he has “proved” that Mr. Salas and I have misrepresented the facts. Those willing to assist me in this regard should send me links to the offending posts via ufohastings@aol.com.