Better Than Nothing...Wikipedia and Oscar Flight's UFO Saga

Wikipedia has now added a separate category for Oscar Flight's UFO allegation.  At first I was somewhat dismayed, but after looking at the entire entry, I've come to accept it as better than nothing.  Sure, Wiki lists the Oscar incident as an alleged UFO incident, but this may give Hastings, Jamison, Salas, et al, some modicum of legitimacy, but they also allowed a counter-argument so that readers may be able to make up their minds regarding the factual nature of the story. 

I've attached the entire Wikipedia write up.  The way things have been occurring with the editing process of this story (a constant changing story) I wanted to have a written record just in case...

On March 24, 1967, it is alleged that ten of the base's Minuteman ICBMs known as Oscar Flight became inoperative, supposedly after UFOs were seen hovering over them.^[18] Personnel who have reported the UFOs include Captain (then First Lieutenant) Robert Salas,^[19][20] Colonel Frederick Meiwald, First Lieutenant Robert C. Jamison,^[21] and Staff Sergeant Louis D. Kenneweg.^[22 

For the record, it should be noted, however, that none of these men actually saw anything themselves, so all of the information in regard to the alleged UFOs is second-hand. In most cases, the information originated with unnamed individuals who have never come forward to speak on their own behalf, making the claims of these so-called "witnesses" impossible to verify. It's true as well that noneof the men listed reported the alleged UFOs within the first quarter-century after the fact. There is also no evidence whatsoever to support the claim that any of the Oscar Flight missiles actually failed in 1967 (or on any other date, for that matter) 

First Lieutenant Robert C. Jamison claims to have overheard mention by a conveniently unnamed individual that a UFO had been sighted by Air Force Security Police at one of the missile silos. He never voiced this claim prior to 1992, and it wasn't until 2006 that he decided the incident took place at Oscar Flight, having been persuaded to reach that conclusion by UFO researcher Robert Hastings. He asserts as well that he overheard mention on a nearby two-way radio that a second UFO had been "sighted on the ground in a canyon near the town of Belt".^[23]

 Regarding the failure of all ten missiles at the flight, Jamison apparently has no direct knowledge of that alleged "fact", having participated in the restarting of only 3-4 missiles. He claims to have heard from an unnamed NCO that the entire flight had been disabled, but this testimony was never mentioned prior to July 2010, just before Robert Hastings and Robert Salas started openly taking donations for a September 2010 press conference in Washington, DC that Jamison also participated in.^[24] Although Jamison claimed before this that an entire flight of missiles -- which he confidently assigned not merely to Oscar Flight, but to one of fourpossible locations -- had failed, the introduction of the originating source of this information -- the unnamed NCO -- had never been discussed prior to July 2010.

In addition to Jamison, Robert Salas has also claimed that the entire flight of ten missiles failed, but it is a matter of record that his story has changed significantly since he first went public with his claims in 1996. It is no exaggeration to assert that Salas' documented inconsistency is the only consistent aspect of his claims. He has changed the date of the incident, the location of the incident, the number of missiles involved, the time of the incident, the order of events, the details of telephone calls made both during and after the incident, the number as well as the names of the individuals who either initiated or participated in the communication of those details (both during and after the incident), both the personal and official responses to the incident, as well as the complete record of USAF personnel who have allegedly confirmed the claims he has made.^[25] It's also very hard to ignore the fact that Robert Salas' commander at Oscar Flight, Colonel Frederick Meiwald, has stated that he remembers no more than four missiles ever failing while he was on duty.^[26]

 Staff Sergeant Louis D. Kenneweg, who is admittedly uncertain in regard to the date, has not associated the incident he recalls withany specific flight. His entire testimony, in fact, is somewhat ambiguous. He states only that "[o]ne of the guys" mentioned that "some very weird things were going on". It wasn't until later, at the barracks well after completing his assigned tasks, that he "heard a story that [UFOs] were seen on radar, then they were gone.”^[27] His testimony, for the most past, is useless.

Even the Oscar Flight location of the incident is in doubt. Robert Salas originally claimed to have been on duty at Echo Flight, and later at November Flight, when the incident he has affirmed took place.^[28] It should be noted that during the three years he claimed to have been on duty at November Flight, he was notably aware that his commander, Colonel Frederick Meiwald, had -- since October 1996 -- strongly insisted that he, at least, had only served duty at Oscar Flight.^[29] During this entire 3-year period, Salas nonetheless insisted that Meiwald, as his commander, had confirmed his story of a UFO coincident to the failure of missiles at November Flight,where Frederick Meiwald never served.

 As for Jamison, for at least fourteen years he claimed that he could not recall the exact location of the first UFO -- this being the one that was apparently never sighted, reported, or investigated by the USAF. He could only state that he was "certain" the incident occurred at one of the flights near Lewistown, Montana, which could indicate Echo Flight, November Flight, Mike Flight, or Oscar Flight.

All of the above changes to the details of this alleged event does, however, prove without even the slightest doubt one salient fact: Colonel Frederick Meiwald is the only witness testifying to this incident who has insisted from the very beginning that the location was Oscar Flight. None of the other witnesses can make this claim.^[30] Unfortunately, Meiwald also insists that he remembers nothing in regard to a UFO sighted during a missile failures incident, which apparently occurred on a date he also does not recall.^[31]

 It should be noted as well that it was only upon the instigation of UFO researcher Robert Hastings that Jamison and Salas finally agreed that the event they recalled took place at Oscar Flight on March 24, 1967.^[32] This suggests that any analysis of testimony that concludes with an apparent confirmation by Jamison of the story originally presented by Salas reveals a group effort to establish these claims. This in turn suggests that the resultant changes these men eventually adopted could very easily have been applied in order to invent confirmatory testimony that never actually existed prior to 2006.

The fact that there is nothing to indicate or otherwise suggest that the slightest iota of reason supports the claims addressed above does not reflect the same dearth of evidence in regard to contrary arguments. It is very easy, for instance, to establish the falsity of the March 24, 1967 date so clumsily recommended by researcher Robert Hastings. All that's required is the most cursory examination of USAF Project Blue Book records available since July 1967. These records state very clearly that there were no equipment failures throughout Malmstrom AFB on March 24, 1967. These records have been unclassified since their inception.^[33]Add to this the remarkably conflicting details reported by these alleged "witnesses", even between those isolated together within the small, underground capsule of the Oscar Flight launch control center, and the resulting obstacle of utter disbelief becomes excessively difficult for even the most brazenly credulous analyst to overcome. 

If you take the time to review the references for the counter-argument, you'll find that James Carlson has made an admirable attempt to set the record straight.  James is the foremost expert on both Echo and Oscar Flight's and his work carries heavy weight on my blog site.

Food for thought...how do you think Robert Hastings feels knowing that Echo Flight (his tar baby) has been shot down by Wikipedia, but Salas' folklore has been chosen to be told?


James Carlson's listed references:

Carlson, James (13 November 2010)."Echo Flights of Fantasy - Anatomy of a UFO Hoax"

Carlson, James (10 February 2010)."Americans, Credulous"