By Robert Hastings
www.ufohastings.com3-8-2010
This is my last taped interview with Col. Walt Figel, occurring on March 8, 2010. Figel confirms, yet again, that he did indeed receive a serious report from a security guard about a UFO hovering over one of Echo Flight's missile silos, seconds after that missile failed. He further confirms that other security teams sent out to investigate, together with missile maintenance personnel, confirmed a UFO presence.
Highlights
1:57-13:08: Figel confirms that he's read Bob Salas' book Faded Giant and Robert Hastings' book UFOs and Nukes and, while he found what he considered to be errors in each, none of those related to what the authors had written about the Echo Flight missile shutdown incident. James Carlson has repeatedly misrepresented this point in his own writings and continues to claim that Figel has said both books contained fundamental errors relating to the events at Echo.
Figel says that he listened to Bob Salas' presentation at the 2004 MUFON convention in Denver and confirms that he did not find any inaccuracies relating to Salas' comments about Echo Flight.
To make certain that Figel knows what Bob Salas has written about Echo, Hastings reads excerpts from Faded Giant and asks Figel to comment on them. Figel then corrects his earlier comment about finding no errors relating to Echo in the book and objects to two minor passages: 1) The time it took for all ten missiles to drop offline. Salas had written "within seconds" but Figel said it was actually "three or four minutes" and 2) The question of logs. Salas had written that Figel kept a personal log of the events but Figel says he only used the official Air Force log utilized by deputy missile launch officers. Other than these two minor discrepancies, Figel says that everything Salas had written about Echo, based on Figel's own taped comments to him, is accurate.
Figel further confirms to Hastings that the Security Alert Teams he dispatched reported seeing the hovering UFO, even though he had not told them what to look for when he sent them into the field. He again confirms that Salas had accurately written about these events in his book Faded Giant.
17:37-18:33: Figel agrees with Hastings that the UFO reported to Figel by the guard posted at the Echo missile silo, and Figel's skeptical response to that report, are two entirely different things and must not be perceived as identical. That is, the guard had indeed seriously reported seeing a "large, round object" hovering over the stricken missile, even though a skeptical Figel could not bring himself to believe that such a thing could be true.
24:20-24:43: Relates to a personal comment and has been censored with white noise.
39:43-41:48: Hastings tells Figel that former USAF missile technician Hank Barlow has said that he helped restart some of the offline missiles at Echo and was later told that UFOs had been involved in the malfunctions. Hastings also tells Figel that Barlow says that there was no "VRSA" error-code visible at the stricken silos-to indicate the nature of the problem-thus seemingly contradicting Figel, who recalls seeing a Channel 9 No-Go error displayed on his consol in the launch capsule. James Carlson has made much of this discrepancy, in an effort to undercut Barlow's credibility.
However, Figel admits to Hastings that he did not know the trouble-shooting system all that well and concedes that Barlow's statement about no VRSA indication being displayed at the silos themselves may have indeed been possible-despite the Channel 9 reading that Figel himself saw in the capsule.
44:00-50:18: Figel says that Hastings has not done anything to make Figel doubt his veracity. Hastings tells Figel that Carlson has misrepresented what Figel has said about Echo Flight. Figel again confirms that Salas only made two minor errors when writing about the incident and says that he has never accused Salas or Hastings of "malfeasance or anything else".
Comments:
Hastings ' comment about Project Blue Book not being an investigative group was a misstatement; he meant to say that, as a rule, Blue Book did not investigate national security-related UFO incidents-something confirmed after the project's closure, in the declassified "Bollender memo" which says that national security-related UFO cases were "not part of the Blue Book system."
Hastings mistakenly said that he first met Salas in 2003 or so; actually it was 1998.
The conversation has been skipped for 51 seconds in the middle of the last highlight when Hastings discusses Eric Carlson's comments to Hastings and two other individuals regarding his son James. I have already posted information about this subject at a couple of blogs. If James wishes to pursue the issue in court, with everyone involved presenting sworn testimony, I am willing to oblige him. In fact, placing Eric Carlson under oath is an excellent idea on many levels.
See Also:
Telephonic Interview with Colonel Walter Figel (USAF Ret) of October 20, 2008 (Link 3)
Telephonic Interview with Colonel Walter Figel (USAF Ret) of January 8, 2009 (Link 2)
Did UFOs Cause the Shutdown of ICBMs at Malmstrom AFB, in March 1967?
UFOs Did Shutdown Minuteman Missiles at Echo Flight...
Early Figel "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
