Hastings’ father was career U.S. Air Force and their family was stationed at Malmstrom AFB, Montana, during a peak period of UFO activity near Minuteman nuclear missile sites. In March 1967, Hastings witnessed five UFOs being tracked on radar at the base air traffic control tower. He later learned that these “unknown targets” had been maneuvering near ICBM sites located southeast of the base, and his experience ultimately led to his decades-long research into the UFO-nukes connection.
Hastings received a BFA in Photography at Ohio University in 1972, and worked as a photographic technician at Northern Illinois University for eight years. In 1981, after conducting numerous interviews with former US Air Force personnel regarding their knowledge of nuclear weapons-related UFO incidents, Hastings ventured out on the college lecture circuit to speak about the U.S. government’s cover-up of UFOs.
In 1986–88, Hastings retrained in Electron Microscopy at San Joaquin Delta College in Stockton, California, and received a certificate in Materials Science Applications. Between 1988 and 2002, he was employed as a laboratory analyst by Philips Semiconductors in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
On September 27, 2010 Hastings hosted the UFO-Nukes Connection press conference at the National Press Club in Washington D.C., during which seven U.S. Air Force veterans discussed UFO incursions at nuclear weapons sites during the Cold War.
Hastings believes UFOs are piloted by extraterrestrials who, for whatever reason, have taken an interest in our long-term survival. He contends these beings are occasionally disrupting our nukes to send a message to governments that their possession and potential use of nuclear weapons threatens the future of humanity and environmental integrity of the planet.
Hastings has interviewed more than 150 military veterans to date who were involved in various UFO-related incidents at U.S. missile sites, weapons storage facilities, and nuclear bomb test ranges. Now retired, he continues to lecture and promote public awareness of the reality of UFOs their connections to nuclear weapons sites.