Walter Figel

Walter “Walt” Figel was the Deputy Missile Combat Crew Commander in the Echo Flight thread of the 1967 Malmstrom shutdown. Later accounts connect him with field reports and the question of whether unusual aerial objects were observed at the same time as the technical failure. For FBS, Figel matters because his role sits close to the operational core of the Echo Flight outage. At the same time, he belongs in a source-tension field: statements, interviews, and later summaries must be read against the official Unit History and other witness accounts, not treated as a simple unqualified confirmation.