'X' Zone Broadcast Network - Brian Dunning on Belt, Montana and Cattle Mutilations

 

As I mentioned during the interview, I had found a reference about the Belt, Montana, UFO sightings and its relation to a shutdown of an entire flight of Minuteman Missiles in March 1967. Brian Dunning of https://skeptoid.com suggested that he had investigated the events and was less than impressed. I reached out to him and he agreed to come on the program to talk about his research. You can, of course, listen to it here:

https://www.spreaker.com/episode/51021375

And, as I say, those of a more visual mindset, you can watch the discussion here:

https://rumble.com/v1h7vqz-a-different-perspective-with-kevin-randle-interviews-brian-dunning.html

I mentioned the Belt, Montana, sightings at the beginning of the show, but he wasn’t that interested in them. He was more interested in the tale of the missile shutdown.

Brian Dunning

For those interested in the UFO sightings, which were investigated by the Air Force, and are carried as unidentified… or I probably should say, more accurately, the sighting is carried as unidentified, I have provided the statement from the witness. According to the Air Force, there was but a single witness, Ken Williams, who also reported his sighting to NICAP. He wrote to NICAP which shared the information with the Air Force:

Gentlemen:

Object was first observed approximately 5 miles southeast of Belt, Montana. I was traveling North on Highway 87 enroute to Great Falls, Montana. Object was approximately 1 mile to my left and appeared to be about 5 or 6 hundred yards [1500 – 1800 feet] altitude. I would estimate its speed to vary from 40 to 50 miles per hour. I am judging this speed by the speed I was traveling as object seemed to be running evenly with me. Its appearance was that of a large doomed [sic] shaped light or that of a giant headlight. Upon climbing up the Belt Hill in my truck, I looked to my left and about ½ mile up a gully. I witnessed the object at about 200 yards [600 feet] in the air in a still position. I stopped my truck and the object dropped slowly to what appeared to me to be within a very few feet from the ground. [Underlining in original]. It was at this time that I felt something or someone was watching me. As a very bright effecting light emerged from the object it momentarily blinded me. This extremely bright light seemed to flare three times. Each time holding its brightness. By the third time the light was so bright [underlining in original] that it was nearly impossible to look directly at it. It was at this time that I drove my truck onto the top of the hill which was about another ½ mile. I stopped a car and asked the people [Don Knotts of Great Falls] if they would stop at a station at the foot of the hill and call the Highway Patrol. I went back down the hill and viewed the object for several more minutes. It was while watching it the second time that it rose and disappeared like a bolt of lightning. I went back to the top of the hill where my truck was parked and just as the Highway Patrolmen [sic] Bud Nader, arrived the object appeared once again. About 2 miles away and traveling in a Northeast direction, whereas it stopped once again and appeared to drop to the ground [Underlining in the original.]. There are several deep gullys [sic] in the area where it appeared to drop out of sight. This was my last sighting of the object.

The Project Blue Book file on this case contains what was known as a Project Record Card, which was a 4 x 6 card that outlined the details of the case. While the case is labeled as “unidentified,” it also noted that there was “(1 witness),” which they believed to be so important that it was underlined. Even with that, they still labeled the case as “Unidentified.”

The important point here is that the sighting took place about a week after the missile shutdown that caused the national security uproar. Brian suggested that the week, and the fact that the UFO sighting near Belt was about a hundred miles from there suggested the two events, are unrelated.

The real problem is that most of the information about the missile shutdowns at both Echo and Oscar Flights is a bit confusing. While it seems that all the missiles at Echo were shutdown, those at Oscar, only part of them went off-line, at least that’s what Robert Salas said to me a number of years ago. There is no documentation to back up the claim.

Anyway, the shutdown was apparently caused by a transient event, that is an electrical spike sent as a power substation failed, according to Brian. Salas seemed to suggest that the missiles were off-line for hours while the evidence seems to suggest seconds, as the back up generators cut in and the missiles rebooted. At any rate, there is some controversy about all this, meaning that there are those who believe that some sort of UFO event was the cause. Listening to Brian, and going back through the documentation I have on this, I’m not so sure there is much in the way of controversy about the missile shutdown. Brian’s point of view, you might say his different perspective, is outlined during the program.

We also had an interesting discussion on cattle mutilations. We both are on the same page there, suggesting that the evidence points to terrestrial solutions rather than anything in the paranormal or alien. I have been looking into this for, literally, decades, and have yet to see anything that points to other aspects of this, other than natural and terrestrial causes. I’ll have more to say about it in a couple of weeks.

At the end of the interview, we did talk briefly about Brian’s attitude about NASA entering into UFO investigation and Dr. Avi Loeb’s Galileo Project. I was a little surprised at his attitude.

Next week, I’ll be talking with John Greenewald about the UAP/UFO information he has recovered through FOIA, and his latest victory about the Hottel FBI memo. He just received an unredacted version, which really doesn’t tell us much more about the case, but is interesting.