By Lea Kahn, The Packet Group
BORDENTOWN TOWNSHIP — Travis Walton is the first one to admit that getting out of the pickup truck on that cool November night 36 years ago was not the smartest move he ever made, but certainly one of the more impulsive ones.
Had Mr. Walton not allowed his curiosity to overcome him, he would never have ventured close to the bright light source in the middle of the Arizona woods — nor would he have been swept up into the hovering craft, or unidentified flying object.
Mr. Walton related his experiences Saturday night before a crowd of about 60 people at the 50th annual UFO/ET Paranormal and Metaphysical Conference, which was held at the Ramada Inn in Bordentown Township. The event was coordinated by Lawrence resident Karin Marcattilio and her father, Pat “Dr. UFO” Marcattilio of Hamilton.
Mr. Walton was a 22-year-old logger on a crew working in northeastern Arizona in November 1975. The crew was on its way home after a long day of work when he noticed a glimmer of light through the trees. At first, the men thought it could have been the sunset — but the sun had set about a half hour earlier.
”We knew it was deer hunting season, and I was thinking maybe it was a hunter’s camp. There was a dirt track through the forest. I could still tell that the glow was higher than ground level. The crew realized it couldn’t be a hunter. Maybe it was a crashed airplane in the trees,” he said.
The pickup truck reached a clearing, and the men could see a white light. Mr. Walton said he stepped out of the truck, and one of the men yelled out, “it’s a flying saucer.”
It was unmistakable. It was a metallic disc that was hovering over the ground, shaking the earth.
Impulsively, Mr. Walton got out of the truck and headed for the light. One of the crewmen told him later that it appeared as if he was in a trance. He said the crew was a little anxious about his “taking off” toward the craft, but he said he did not want to show them he was scared, too.
The object gave off a “weird” glow, and he heard a sound that could best be described as a mixture of tones. One of the crew said he felt the earth vibrate. Meanwhile, Mr. Walton said he was looking up at the craft as it began to rise and the sound became louder.
Thinking better of it, Mr. Walton jumped behind a log. Then he started to run toward the pickup truck and safety, but before he could reach it, he felt a charge that was similar to static electricity. The shock went through him, and the crew watched as he was thrown up into the air and landed on the ground.
”One of the guys said it lit up the forest, brighter than daylight. The force of it was so great, they called out, ‘It killed him. He’s dead.’ They hot-rodded out of there. They were afraid it was following them. I find no fault with the guys for taking off like that. There were all kinds of reasons not to risk themselves further,” Mr. Walton said.
The men debated their next step and went back to look for Mr. Walton. When they could not find him, they contacted the sheriff’s office. A search party was organized, but there was no trace of Mr. Walton or the craft.
The “lawmen” were skeptical of the crew’s claims, and began to suspect someone had killed Mr. Walton, and they created an elaborate cover-up story.
Meanwhile, Mr. Walton regained consciousness and found himself on his back on a table. He said was in pain and drifting in and out of consciousness. He said he thought someone had taken him to a hospital emergency room, but when he could finally see who was attending to him, and he saw the face of the creature — “I was instantly totally out of my mind with fear.”
He jumped off the table, grabbed a rod or tube and tried to defend himself against the humanoid creatures. They eventually retreated from the room, and he, too, tried to find a way out. He ran from that room into another one, thinking maybe the craft was still on the ground in the woods and he could escape.
In the room, he found a chair and moved a lever on it. A man appeared in the doorway, and he believed he was on the verge of being rescued. But the man took him by the arm and escorted him into another room. The creature seated him in a chair. None of them seemed hostile or threatening, but they would not answer Mr. Walton’s questions.
The creatures forced him back onto a table, but in his panic, he was able to remove a mask they had put on his face. Then he blacked out.
”I woke up on a hard surface. It was dark. I saw the craft hovering in the dark. The main thing in my mind is the trauma. I ran down into the town. I was in a panic,” Mr. Walton said.
He found a telephone booth — this was in the era before cell phones — and made a collect call to his family. They did not contact the sheriff’s office. They took him to a doctor for a medical evaluation. Tests showed no traces of drugs or alcohol in his blood. Other tests, which included a psychological evaluation, were normal, he said, adding he passed a series of polygraph tests.
In the three decades since “that day that changed my life forever,” Mr. Walton said, debunkers have tried to “explain away” the abduction. Don’t worry, they say, there are no bogeymen, Mr. Walton said.
”Maybe it was swamp gas, any explanation they can latch onto,” he said.
But Mr. Walton knows what happened to him, and there is evidence left at the scene that bears it out. For instance, the trees in the vicinity of the craft have changed. They have grown much more quickly. Those trees also are more resistant to forest fires, he said, adding a fire had swept through that area.
The federal government also has tried to discredit him, Mr. Walton said. His experiences and the book he wrote documenting them — “Fire in the Sky” — were viewed as the biggest threats to efforts to discredit him and others who have reported similar experiences.
Mr. Walton suggested government officials have had an interest in discrediting such reports because the military was developing stealth aircraft. But there is much less resistance to reports of UFOs because scientists are aware of thousands of planets, some of which may be inhabitable, he said.
”The people in this room — we are ready for the truth. Look at the people in this room. They are normal people. You know what would happen if (other people outside of the convention) were confronted with reality? They would collapse,” Mr. Walton said.
