At Bentwaters-Lakenheath, they took their teletype messages, checked the star charts, and let it go. There are some statements from some of the witnesses, but they take up only a few pages. No other investigation was completed. Nothing else was done. At least that is the evidence available in the Blue Book files.
McDonald, after reviewing the case, wrote, "Doesn't a UFO case like Lakenheath warrant more than a mere shrug of the shoulders from scientists?"
And to that I add, "Didn't it warrant more of an investigation than that given to what is essentially a single witness case in Florida?" Here was just another of the missed opportunities in the Air Force files.
September 19, 1961: The Strange Case of Barney and Betty Hill
This is not going to be an argument about the legitimacy of the Hill abduction case. It is going to be a look at the Air Force attitude to the subject they were supposed to be investigating. The case file reveals some very interesting attitudes and suggests what was happening in the UFO project in 1961.
For those who are unfamiliar with the case, it began late at night as Barney and Betty Hill were heading home after a vacation. As they drove through the mountains, Betty Hill noticed a bright star near the moon. She was sure that it hadn't been there before, and she was sure that it was getting brighter. Finally, she pointed it out to Barney and he told her he thought it was nothing more than an artificial satellite.
The bright "star" intrigued them both. Several times during the next hour, they stopped. Once or twice they got out a pair of binoculars to try to see any detail behind the light. Betty was now convinced they were looking at something out of the ordinary, but Barney kept insisting that it was nothing more unusual than an airplane or a satellite, or maybe just a very bright star.
During one of the stops, Barney used the binoculars to study the light. He saw red, amber, green and blue lights rotating around it. To Barney it looked like an aircraft fuselage with no wings. He could hear no sound from engines. When he returned to the car, he realized that he was frightened. He didn't want Betty to know that and tried to tell her again the object was nothing more exciting than an airplane flying along the terrain.
The object swooped down and began to pace the car. Betty watched through the binoculars. She demanded that Barney stop the car but he refused for a several minutes. Finally he stopped in the middle of the road and when Betty handed him the binoculars, he got out, leaving the engine running. Now he took a good look at the object, seeing for the first time that it was a large disc. Again he told Betty, "It must be a plane or something."
Although he was afraid, he stepped away from the car and began to walk across the road, toward the object. He kept walking until he was deep in the field where he could see the craft which was hovering just above the trees. Through the binoculars he could clearly see a double row of windows, and behind them were six beings. One, who Barney thought of as "the leader," wore a black leather jacket.
As he watched, five of the six turned their backs and seemed to manipulate controls. The saucer began a slow descent. Fins holding red lights spread along the craft, and something, possibly landing gear lowered from the belly of the object.
Barney now focused on the remaining face behind the windows of the object and was overwhelmed with the feeling that he was going to be captured. He jerked the binoculars from his eyes, spun, and ran back toward Betty and the car. Shouting that they were going to be kidnapped, he threw the binoculars on the backseat and slide beneath the wheel. He slammed the car into gear and roared off as fast as possible. He ordered Betty to watch for the thing, but it had apparently disappeared.
As Barney began to calm and slow, they heard a series of strange electronic beeps. Both seemed to feel drowsy. The beeps came again and they saw a sign that told them Concord was seventeen miles. They continued home, arriving about five in the morning.
Once they reached home, they unpacked before going to bed. Betty took a bath and according to Coral Lorenzen of APRO, who spoke to Betty many times, "for no reason whatsoever, bundled up the dress and shoes she had been wearing and shoved them into the deep recesses of her closet."
Six days after the event, Betty Hill wrote Major Donald E. Keyhoe, a writer and director of the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP), describing what had happened to her and her husband. She also suggested that she was thinking of finding a reputable psychiatrist to perform hypnotic regression to recover memories because Barney was having trouble remembering parts of the story.
In December 1963, more than two years after they had seen the strange light, after Barney began to have stomach trouble, and after he had consulted with two different doctors, he was sent on to Dr. Benjamin Simons, a well-known and highly qualified neurosurgeon who eventually used hypnosis on both the Hills.
Under hypnosis, conducted as part of the therapy session to find a reason for the stomach trouble, Barney Hill told of what happened after they heard the first set of beeping sounds. For some reason, Barney turned down a dirt road and drove up to a roadblock where the engine quit. Several "men" appeared around the car who guided both the Hills through a wooded area to the craft which was sitting on the ground.
Betty Hill later described the beings as having a Mongoloid appearance with broad, flat faces, large slanting eyes, and small, flattened noses. Barney added to the description, saying that the "leader" had very large, almond-shaped eyes that seemed to wrap around to the side of his head. The mouth was a slit with a vertical line on each side. The skin, according to Betty, had a bluish-gray cast to it.
According to the Betty, Barney kept his eyes closed during most of the time they were on the craft. Some researchers have suggested that this is why his tale was never as rich in detail as that told by his wife. He did, however, mention a medical examination and that he was put on a table that was too short from him.
Betty described her examination, saying that unusual instruments touched her body in various places, that samples of skin and fingernails were taken and hair was pulled from her head. A long needle was pushed into her navel. She screamed at the "examiner" and the "leader" passed a hand over her eyes, stopping the pain.
Betty communicated with the "leader" though there is no real indication that they spoke out loud. She had the impression that the "leader" was keeping the rest of the crew away from her. She was also told that she didn't have to worry about Barney, he would be all right. During the discussion, she asked where they came from, and the "leader" showed her a map but asked Betty where the sun was. When Betty failed to identify it, he told her that the map would do her no good.
Betty was then escorted from the ship and joined Barney in the car. There was the second series of beeps, and they "awakened" traveling down the road, nearing Concord.
The hypnotherapy by Dr. Benjamin Simons took several months. When it was over, Simons said that he thought the Hills were recounting a fantasy. He believed that Betty had originated the tale and shared it with Barney by telling him of her dreams. Simons believed this because Barney's account was less detailed than Betty's.
There is one additional fact. The letter that Betty wrote detailed much of the story. Later, investigators reported that Barney often sat in listening as Betty told of the experiences with them. While it may be said that Barney and Betty didn't discuss the case between themselves, Barney was always there when Betty was talking about the sighting. He certainly had plenty of opportunity to learn the details of Betty's dreams if that was, in fact, the source of the abduction portion of the sighting.