UPC guest speaker tells tales of the Third Kind

By: Gene Ramsey

Three Unidentified Flying Objects carrying three human-like bodies were recovered in New Mexico in 1950, according to a UFO researcher who spoke to New Mexico State University students in the Corbett Center Auditorium Wednesday night.

Sponsored by the Union Program Council, Robert Hastings gave a presentation entitled, "UFOs: The Secret Story," in which Hastings used documents obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests and interviews with former Air Force, CIA and FBI personnel as evidence the UFOs and bodies were recovered. Hastings said UFO sightings began to occur in Los Alamos after initial testing of the atomic bomb.

Hastings also said he was personally involved in a UFO sighting in 1967 and believes they are extraterrestrial objects.

"I was present at the Malmstrom Air Force Base, Montana air traffic control tower when five unidentified aerial targets, as they are called, suddenly began to be tracked on multiple radar scopes," Hastings said.

Corina Ramirez, a biology major, said "yes" when asked whether UFOs and aliens exist.

"Robert Hastings presented reliable information about UFO sightings," Ramirez said. "Now I am more convinced about extraterrestrial existence than before."

However, Heather Anderson, an education major, said she was on the border line of believing the information presented by Hastings.

The first massive waves of UFO sightings began in 1947 in every state except Georgia and West Virginia, according to Hastings. Most documented sightings have occurred in the air space above nuclear weapons facilities and power plants.

There is a UFO-nuclear weapons connection, Hastings said.

Hastings displayed one document that described UFOs as "round shaped objects or phenomena moving at a fast velocity and emitting a brilliant white or reflective light."

Government documents also show the sightings in New Mexico were reported to former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover. Hastings wants more documents held by the U.S. government to be released to the American public.

"I do believe the public is entitled to facts," Hastings said.

Hastings also said the government does not want to inform and has misinformed Americans on this issue for fear of creating a panic like the one caused by the 1938 "War of the Worlds" broadcast.

Hastings referred to the Orson Welles play in which a radio broadcast of ballroom music was interrupted by reports of UFO sightings and attacks. In reaction to the play, some people went to church, packed their belongings and sought safety. According to Hastings, the U.S. government sighted the reaction to the play as reason to withhold information from its citizens.

Hastings also said a producer in Spain broadcasted a play similar to that of Wells to coincide with the 1996 release of "Independence Day" and caused hysteria. Americans will be less hysterical on the arrival of extraterrestrials if the government releases such information, Hastings said.

Martin Rivero, a criminal justice major, said if the government is hiding information on this topic, they should release it and make it public.

Hastings said the government acknowledged the existence of Area 51 in 1996.

No one has all the answers concerning UFOs, Hastings said. However, he assured listeners what they heard Wednesday night is more valid than what the government has told them.