After months of trying to find a proper commercial venue for a lifetime’s worth of research, Robert Hastings has given up on trying to put his documentary in multiplexes and living rooms. Beginning Monday, his “UFOs and Nukes: The Secret Link Revealed” will go online as a $4.99 rental at Vimeo. A disappointment, to be sure. “I tried to find some network to license it but to no avail,” Hastings states in an email to De Void. “I am told that indy producers have virtually no chance of getting their work picked up by most networks. Some (including History) won’t even accept emails from producers, only distributors. So, a month ago, I contacted Gravitas Ventures – a major film distributor – which did indeed offer us a contract. But its terms were terrible and so we passed. Finally, we just decided to go the Vimeo On Demand route.”

By Billy Cox De Void 4-9-16

Here’s hoping the new Vimeo listing will draw the sort of traffic that’ll make the suits rethink their omniscience, because the story is well told, no frills. To reiterate, Hastings adapted the documentary from his 2008 nonfiction book UFOs and Nukes. Some 150 military veterans and missile engineers have now stepped up to charge that, for decades, America’s weapons of mass destruction have been monitored and tampered with by what Hastings describes as “technologically advanced observers whose identities and intentions remain unknown.” Hastings followed it up in 2010 with a Washington press conference, where half a dozen of those eyewitnesses discussed the ease with which some of the world’s most restricted air corridors had been repeatedly violated, again and again, in brazen fashion. The story made a quick sploosh! of headlines before sinking like a pebble.

Short of springing for cleavage and lipstick, nobody’s figured out how to draw the MSM into a prolonged engagement with something as extreme as The Great Taboo. Not even receptive remarks by a presidential frontrunner have the ability to rouse the MSM from its deep lethargy on UFOs. But as Hastings’ suddenly urgent “Nukes” project makes diamond clear, the nuclear arsenal is exactly where Hillary Clinton’s widely publicized aspirations for transparency on UFOs – “Unless it’s a threat to national security, I think we oughtta share it with the public” – will come spewing out the woodchipper.

In 1994, with public interest in the 1947 Roswell dustup surging in the countdown to its 50th anniversary, Air Force Secretary Sheila Widnall granted amnesty to anyone whose security oath might prevent them from assisting the General Accounting Office in its reexamination of the controversy. Widnall’s initiative came too late; most of those in a position to know anything were dead.

Twenty years later, by attaching names and faces of retired USAF personnel to more contemporary official incident reports disgorged via FOIA, Hastings’ project poses a different sort of challenge to Clinton’s pledge — repeated two days ago on CNN by campaign architect John Podesta — to follow a credible open-records policy on UFOs. These veteran officers are very much alive and kicking; their testimony about insolent UFO behavior – hovering in fixed positions over launch control facilities, silencing ICBM communications, provoking futile scrambles by rapid-response teams – is the epitome of national security.

On the upside, the Internet medium does offer a silver lining to Hastings’ platform of lowered expectations.

Originally 47 minutes long, the online version of “Nukes” runs an additional 21 minutes after the credits, which gives three retired airmen an unhurried opportunity to elaborate on what happened in the Northern Plains during the Flower Power age. Maj. Gaylan King, Ellsworth AFB 1966, Capt. Robert Jamison, Malmstrom AFB 1967, and Capt. David Schindele, Minot AFB 1966, sound grateful for the chance to loosen the load.

“I think it needs to be told,” Gaylan tells the camera. “I’m sure a lot of civilians have no idea that there have been things like this happening on bases where nuclear weapons were involved. You hear the crazy stuff about the little green men, but this is probably a little more serious subject.”

For 40 years, long after leaving the military, Schindele followed orders to keep his bleepin’ mouth shut about a UFO-jangled missile disruption that occurred on his watch. Trying to forget about it was impossible. Then, lo and behold, in 2001, via the shiny new World Wide Web miracle, Schindele poked around and discovered a fellow veteran whose testimony synched with his own. His relief is palpable on camera.

“And when I saw that, I said …” Schindele has to pause to check his emotions. “It’s true.” The muzzle, off at last. “A lot of these people have not come out. There were at least a dozen people involved in my incident … There was initially a lot of trepidation because I was told to keep quiet. I had a top secret clearance. But I feel my obligation surpasses that.”

Indeed it does. These men are patriots. Their stories deserve a big audience. But if Hillary Clinton or anyone else advocating “disclosure” is halfway serious about polishing the genie’s lamp, they’ll need a small army of lawyers. And crocodile hide. And as much scrutiny as the Fourth Estate can bring to bear.
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