The Hill case presents probably the most important study in the phenomena of alien abduction. While many of these cases remain dubious in nature and can be explained by normal occurrences such as sleep paralysis to cite but one example, the Hill case defies such mundane explanations.

         On a clear night on September 19, 1961, Barney Hill, a 39-year-old postal worker and his wife Betty, a 41-year old child welfare director who held a Master's degree were traveling on Rte. 3 South back to their home in Portsmouth, N.H. after a visit to Niagara Falls and Montreal. Around 10:15 that night Barney noticed what he first thought to be a bright celestial object like a planet or star moving around in the night sky. Quickly dismissing that notion, he pointed out what he was seeing to Betty and together they watched the object for a period of time.

         The Hills believed at first they were watching a plane or another form of aircraft as they drove down the highway. Betty was the first to speculate that this might be something beyond that, something much stranger. As the couple neared The Flumes, a popular tourist attraction just north of the town of North Woodstock, the object began to move much more erratically. When they reached Indian Head, Barney stopped their car and pulled out a pair of binoculars to take a closer look at what they had been tracking. What he witnessed struck fear into him. What had been thought to be a light, he could now make out to be a structured craft with multi-colored lights and a row of windows. Much more terrifying - he could see figures through those windows. The object closed to about 100 feet of him and, panic-stricken, he ran back to the car, got inside with Betty and sped off away from the craft.

         Missing time (Wikipedia): a controversial phenomenon reported by some people in connection with close encounters with UFOs and abduction phenomena. The term "missing time" refers to a gap in conscious memory relating to a specific period in time, from several minutes to several days in length. The memory of what happened during the missing time reported is often recovered through hypnosis or during dreams.

         The Hills eventually noticed as they drove away from the spot where they had witnessed the craft that it was no longer following them or in sight anywhere. What they did notice was a strange beeping sound once...and then again. It was at this point that they realized they were now in Ashla, N.H. which was approximately 35 miles further down the road than they had started. What was more puzzling was that only a minute or two had passed since Barney climbed back into the car and drove away from the UFO. Nonetheless, they finally arrived at their home in Portsmouth and, exhausted, went to bed - not waking until the following afternoon.

         Upon awakening, Betty called her sister Janet and told her about their encounter the previous night. Janet suggested she call nearby Pease Air Force Base and report what they had witnessed. Against Barney's protestations (he feared ridicule) Betty in fact did call the base and spoke to Major Paul W. Henderson who astonishingly told her that they had tracked the UFO the Hills had seen.

         Betty soon after began to have very vivid dreams of her and Barney being taken aboard a craft of some sort against their will. During this time, she wrote a letter to Maj. Donald Kehoe of NICAP (National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena), who passed on her letter to Walter Webb of the Hayden Planetarium. Webb was also on the staff of NICAP

         It was a few weeks later that some reporters showed up at the Hill's home to interview them about the events of Sept. 19. Apparently they had heard something strange had happened to them and wanted the story. In meticulously piecing together the details of that night, they created a timeline which showed that two hours were missing from the Hills' story. They took into account every bathroom stop made for them as well as their dog, who had accompanied them. The "writers" (who remain unidentified) were accompanied at the interview by Maj. James McDonald, a former Air Force intelligence officer.

         It was Maj. McDonald who suggested that the Hills undergo regressive hypnosis in an attempt to determine what happened during that two-hour gap in time. (It should be noted that Barney merely wanted to forget the whole incident, while Betty was determined to seek answers for what had happened that night.) In the Spring of 1962, the Hills contacted a psychiatrist about scheduling a session, but put it off for a while. During that time an ulcer that had been affecting Barney got progressively worse and he had also developed hypertension. Betty however, was still plagued by her dreams of an abduction.

         During this time, after researching various psychiatrists, they chose Dr. Benjamin Simon, a well-known Boston psychiatrist and neurologist. Dr. Simon's preliminary diagnosis was "anxiety syndrome. The next challenge was to find the cause.

Over a 6-month period, Dr. Simon conducted regressive hypnosis on the couple. First Barney, then Betty. It was his opinion upon completing the process that the Hills had been abducted and taken aboard an alien space craft on the night of September 19, 1961. The details as related by the Hills under hypnosis were both stunning and disturbing.

         The Hills related that their car had stalled and the craft had set down in the middle of the road, blocking the vehicle. The Hills were taken inside the craft by ". . . bald-headed alien beings, about five foot tall, with grayish skin, pear-shaped heads and slanting, cat-like eyes." (It should be noted that this was the first reference to the "grays" in alien lore.)

         The Hills were then subjected to various physical and psychological exams. The Hills said they were told under hypnosis by the beings not to relate any details of this event to anyone. These are some of the details as related to Dr. Simon:

a. Some tests consisted of extraction of skin, hair and nail samples.

b. Betty had a needle inserted into her navel and was told it was a pregnancy test.

c. Barney, with reluctance, said he had given a semen sample.

d. Betty said she was given a "book" as a token gift, but it had been taken back.

e. The aliens had no concept of time or of colors

f. They were surprised that Barney's dentures could be removed.

g. When asked by Betty where they came from, they produced a "star map"

         The Hills then said they were escorted back to their car and remembered an orange glow in the night sky and nothing more. Dr. Simon's statement as relating to these events is as follows: "The experience actually happened, or, some perceptive and illusory misinterpretations occurred in relationship to some real event." The case was investigated later by two giants in UFO research, Dr. J. Allen Hynek and Dr. Stanton Friedman.  Both

came to the same conclusion: the Hills were both reputable, credible people who independently stated accurate details of the event which had occurred to them. Other prominent scientists coming into contact with the Hills arrived at the same conclusion.

         In 1969, after Barney's death, a schoolteacher and amateur astronomer named Marjorie Fish became intrigued with the "star map" Betty had drawn under hypnosis in 1963. She set out to see if there was any validity to it and did this by being granted an interview with Betty Hill. This is the map Betty drew. It is three-dimensional and represents how the stars would look like from out a window:

         Three stars in this cluster were unknown until 1969 and no astronomer knew of their position in 1963, yet Betty had drawn them in 1963. Later on, astronomers at Ohio State University had a computer put them in their proper location out beyond Zeta Riticuli 1 and Zeta Reticuli 2 - which are some 220 trillion miles, 37 light years from Earth.

         TThe computer duplicated exactly what Betty Hill had drawn years before.

3. THE PHOENIX LIGHTS

         To the serious UFO researcher, nothing is quite as compelling as photographic or video evidence of a sighting. Except for one thing: multiple photos and videos by various people of the the same object taken from different locations.

         Such a rare event took place beginning on March 13, 1997 in the skies over Phoenix, Arizona. Although this particular sighting is commonly known as "The Phoenix Lights", it is important to note that the phenomena was witnessed in five different cities that we are aware of, with Phoenix being the first city in Arizona to actually report the sighting.

         The lights were first seen over the Superstition Mountains which are located east of the city at about 7:30 pm. Initially it was reported that six points of light had been seen floating above the mountains, which growing to eight lights and then nine when another joined it. The lights were reportedly grouped in a very distinct  "V-formation", while other witnesses described it as "crescent-shaped". These reports seemed to vary based solely on the viewing angle of the witnesses. One intriguing item of note is that some photographs and videos seem to show a circular object whose lights were shaped in the configurations that people reported.

         Just before 10:00 pm that night, the lights were seen again over the Gila River. It was shortly after this sighting that the lights moved over the city of Phoenix. By now literally thousands of people were witnessing the scene with many snapping still photographs and others capturing the event on video cameras. The lights continued on to Rainbow Valley where the final sightings were reported at around 2:00 am the following morning.

         The size and speed of the object is another subject of great interest. The lights reportedly sped over the Henderson/Las Vegas, Nevada area at an estimated speed of Mach 2 and slowed to a mere 10-15 mph upon entering Arizona. Over Sky Harbor, the object seemed to hover for several minutes. The reported shape and formation of the lights did not vary from state to state, but over Arizona, some reports claimed the object changed speeds, shape and colors. Because it flew rather low to the ground, and mountains were visible in photos and videos taken, it was easy for experts to judge to scale the altitude, distance from the camera and relative size of the object. As a result, the object was determined to be one mile in length.

         Witness reports (from an article in the Arizona Republic): 

         Bradley Evans, 47, is a clinical psychiatrist from Tucson. He and his wife, Kris, were driving north on Interstate 10 to a swimming meet in Tempe. They watched the lights for 20 minutes or so move slowly south in a diamond formation and pass over them at an estimated 1,500 feet. Even then, with the car's moon roof open, they heard not a sound from the sky. He was "awed" by the experience and has no idea what he saw. Kris said she couldn't explain it either and guesses it was "something military."

         However, the most credible report would come from two former pilots, one retired from an airline (Mr. Johnson) and the other a Vietnam veteran and now a U.S. Marshall. The men witnessed the object at different times and from different places, but both reported it to be enormous, a mile in length. The U.S. Marshall noted the lights of Phoenix reflected off the bottom of the craft and it "blocked out the stars." One of the pilots reported he took video of the event, but had it confiscated by some mysterious government operatives (MIBs?) It was also reported that an America West airline pilot flying overhead radioed the control tower at Sky Harbor Airport to ask what those nine lights were below him.

         Another report of note took place two weeks prior to the event when witnesses said a disc-shaped object of enormous size which was "larger than Sun Devil Stadium at Arizona State University" hovered above the tree tops at Sky Harbor runway between 2 and 3 am.

         In a bizarre twist, a truck driver reported as he was driving down I-17 from Camp Verde, he witnessed two amber-colored UFOs moving south ahead of him for two straight hours. He was making a pick up at a materials plant located near Luke Air Force Base. While being loaded there, he could clearly see the UFOs hovering near the runway at Luke. Suddenly two F-16 jets took off from Luke and soon were joined by a third and all flew directly toward the location of the UFO.

         As the first two jets flew toward the object, the driver reported it shot directly up into the sky and disappear in an instant. The jets then actually flew directly through the same spot where the UFO had previous been. A ground crew member would later confirm to the National UFO Reporting Center (NUFORC) what the driver had witnessed and went so far as to say that one pilot was helped from his aircraft and was visibly shaken by the event.

         NUFORC also would go on to report the following which should be taken at face value. They say a young airman at Luke called them them at 3:20 am after the event and reported

that two F-15c fighters had been scrambled from Luke AFB and intercepted the object. According to NUFORC, the details provided by the airman were accurate based on their investigation of the events of March 13. Two days after that call, the airman phoned NUFORC again to report he had been transferred to Greenland.

         Some controversy surrounds the Phoenix Light phenomena, much of it based around what is called "The Flare Theory".  In May, 1997, officials at Luke AFB said that after an investigation of the event they had determined what happened that night. They claim that flares dropped from an A-10 Warthog were the cause of the sighting and it was not a UFO at all. This seems dubious at best as flares cannot move up and down and certainly not hold a position over a period of miles. This coupled with reports of sightings before the time given that the flares were dropped brings up many questions about that explanation.

2. THE PINEY WOODS INCIDENT

          Near the town of Huffman, Texas is a place called The Piney Woods of Texas. It is a rather desolate stretch of wooded area and quite secluded. On the night of December 29, 1980 two women, 51-year-old Betty Cash and 57-year-old  Vickie Landrum along with Landrum's 7-year-old grandson, Colby were driving through Piney Woods looking for a Bingo hall. Unfortunately, they could find none because most had closed for the holiday season.

         After stopping for a bite to eat, they continued their journey home through the thick pine forest's roads. On the way they noticed a glowing object above the tree line. Initially they thought it might be an airplane or helicopter from one of the nearby airfields. Then suddenly, they saw a diamond-shaped object hovering in the middle of the road directly in front of their vehicle. The object gave off a beeping sound and appeared to be shooting out flames in bursts from the bottom toward the road. Betty's first thought as a devout Christian was that they were witnessing some divine, perhaps even apocalyptic event.

         As Betty stopped the car, she noticed that the inside of the vehicle was becoming unbearably hot, so hot that she, Vickie and Colby had to get out of the car. The object in the road now gave off a loud roaring sound. This truly frightened Colby and Vickie had to take him back into the car to calm him down. Betty, now becoming more in awe by what she was watching, stayed outside and continued to stare at the object.

         It was then that Betty heard the sounds. Looking up to find the source of the sounds, she saw the sky literally fill with helicopters "They seemed to rush in from all directions...it seemed like they were trying to encircle the thing." As the choppers circled, the vehicle rose straight up and proceeded to head in a southwesterly direction, followed closely the helicopters, which seemed to Betty as if they were not in escort, but in pursuit.

         Betty, returning to the car, grabbed the handle to open the door, but quickly pulled her hand away as it was too hot to touch. Finally getting in, she turned on the air conditioner to cool the car off, even though the night air had been very chilly earlier and started again to drive them all home. As they got on the freeway, they again noticed the object in the sky, but this time it was so bright it was actually illuminating the helicopters that, to their amazement, were still chasing it. By their count, they could see 23 helicopters in the air, from the larger Chinook type to smaller single-engine types.

         Soon after arriving home, all three became ill after a matter of a few hours. Betty especially displayed the worse of the symptoms. Her head and neck were blistered and her eyes were swollen to the point of shut. She because extremely nauseous and became close to comatose by the next day. Vickie and Colby experienced similar but milder symptoms.

         A couple of days later, Betty checked into a hospital and was placed in the burn section for treatment. There she remained for 15 days. In short time she began to lose her hair and could not see because of the swelling in her eyes and they remained that way for about a week. Colby was having eye problems and Vickie also began to lose her hair. All three were now being treated for radiation poisoning.

         Eventually it got worse. Sores developed, they began to lose weight and finally, skin cancer developed.

         At this point, answers were being sought. The military denied having any knowledge of the event that night and said no aircraft had been assigned to that area. Maj. Tony Geishauser a public affairs officer from Fort Hood told the Corpus Christi Caller that,

         The asphalt surface of the road, which had been damaged by the flames that emanated from the craft were quickly repaired and investigators said only that the three of them had encountered a craft "of unknown origin". Perhaps a government experimental craft. Or something else. . . . but what?

         Eventually Betty, Vickie and Colby sued the government for damages, but that was rebuffed when, in a congressional hearing, the U.S. Army Inspector General denied any military involvement in the case. This despite the presence of other witnesses to the event that night. To wit:

         An off-duty Dayton, Texas policeman who was driving home with his wife that night and saw a large number of C-47 Chinook helicopters.

         A man from Crosby, Texas who reported seeing a large number of military helicopters flying directly overhead.

         Mr. Jerry McDonald, who worked the oilfields and witnessed a UFO fly directly overhead while out tending his garden. He described it as being "kind of diamond shaped and had two twin torches that were shooting brilliant blue flames out the back".

         They remain the only people ever to sue the U.S. government for injuries suffered by a UFO.         

         In a touch of sad irony,  it was by accident that an actual verification of the object that appeared that night came to be. In April, 1981, a C-47 landed in Dayton for a public showing. Young Colby spotted the machine flying into town and became visibly upset. Vickie Landrum brought him to the vehicle to help him get over his fears and it was there that they and another friend waited in line with the locals waiting their turn to view the inside of the helicopter.

         It was inside that Vickie began to talk about their experiences that night. The pilot, who was listening, told Vickie and her friend that he had been in the air that night, being sent out to check out a UFO that appeared to be in trouble over Huffman. When Vickie began to speak of her injuries, the pilot went silent and said no more about the event, hustling them out of the vehicle.

         The UFO group VISIT eventually located the pilot and questioned him about his involvement. He admitted nothing of his presence in the area that night, but did admit he had heard of the Cash/Landrum case.

         Betty Cash eventually contracted cancer and had to give up her business as she could not work anymore, enduring a long series of hospital stays. While she did recover from the disease, she eventually suffered a stroke in November of 1998 and died on December 29, 1998 at the age of 69, eighteen years to the day of her UFO encounter.

1. THE RENDLESHAM FOREST INCIDENT

        The joint US/RAF airbases at Bentwaters and Woodbridge which are located inside the enormous Rendlesham Forest play host to the most compelling UFO incident ever reported. It involves almost every aspect of the classic and valid UFO encounter. Physical evidence, credible, professional witnesses and tangible electronic records of the event.

         Just after midnight on December 27, 1980, (just two days before the infamous Cash/Landrum sighting in the US), radar at RAF Watton in Norfolk showed an unidentified craft which then disappeared in the region of the Rendlesham Forest area. Bentwaters radar had also confirmed the sighting. Bentwaters is located north of the forest and Woodbridge to the south. Both bases were thought to house a large number of nuclear weapons.

         Various air traffic agencies were contacted to determine if any of their aircraft were up that night. None confirmed craft in the air, so a fighter was dispatched to check out what was showing up on the screens. At about a quarter mile, the pilot reported seeing a very bright light up ahead. As he approached, the object suddenly moved off at an incredible rate of speed. Within five minutes time it had reached an altitude of 90,000 feet and eventually disappeared entirely off the top end of the radar. No known manned craft was remotely capable of that.

         At that point, three security guards patrolling the twin bases, noticed a huge, glowing object in the forest and asked for and received permission to investigate. At first, fearing a crash landing by commercial or military aircraft, they were soon startled beyond words by what they came across instead.

         They saw a saucer-shaped craft with a beam coming out of the underside. More astonishingly, they saw beings being suspended off the ground within that beam. At first glance, they appeared to be working on the craft, performing some type of maintenance or repair to it. The guards, keeping themselves hidden, radioed the base and reported what they were seeing, requesting immediate help.

        (NOTE: It is here that fact from fiction must be separated. Time has spawned many stories about surrounding events that occurred that night and afterwards. Among those we must discount due to lack of real evidence are: the presence of an underground theater where soldiers were interrogated, debriefed and sworn to secrecy via threats and intimidation. The object was also said to have "time altering" effects when approached. None of these can be legitimately validated and therefore, right or wrong, be ruled insignificant.)

         A heavily-armed unit of soldiers quickly responded. Within that group were senior base officers.  Col. James Halt, who would eventually be promoted to base commander in 1984 and who among those present at the time,  filed an official report of the events of that night. Below is a copy of his official report:

         "Early in the morning of 27 Dec 80 (approximately 0300L), two USAF security police patrolmen saw unusual lights outside the back gate at RAF Woodbridge. Thinking an aircraft might have crashed or been forced down, they called for permission to go outside the gate to investigate. The on duty flight chief responded and allowed three patrolmen to proceed on foot. The individuals reported seeing a strange glowing object in the forest. The object was described as being metallic in appearance and triangular in shape, approximately two to three meters across the base and approximately two meters high. It illuminated the entire forest with a white light. The object itself had a pulsating red light on top and a bank(s) of blue lights underneath. The object was hovering or on three legs. As the patrolmen approached the object, it maneuvered through the trees and disappeared. At this time the animals on a nearby farm went into a frenzy. The object was briefly sighted approximately an hour later near the back gate."

         Col. Halt would  record the entire event on cassette tape. Walkie-talkie calls to other senior officers were monitored and you can hear panic-stricken voices describing  beams that were disrupting electrical devices. The tape also discloses that photographs and video were taken of the object.  He brought with him Lt. Bruce Englund, Sgt. Monroe Nevilles and Master Sgt. Bobby Ball. They would be joined later by Airman 1st Class John Burroughs. Shortly, other groups would join them as they chased the source of the lights through the woods.

         Staff Sergeant Jim Pennison, who was among the group that night that came upon the object and described the prevailing feeling thusly: "The air was filled with electricity. You could feel it on your skin as we approached the object."

         Pennison, after observing the object for some 20 minutes, finally approached it and actually touched it. He described it as a "smooth, black, glass-type fabric" and noticed some symbols on its side which he could not distinguish. The craft then suddenly rose off the ground and started to move away, weaving in and out of the trees. At about 40 feet away it rose higher and then shot off in the blink of an eye.

Jim Pennison's drawing of the object

          Here is a partial transcript of  Pennison's interview with journalist Sally  Rayl: