CHAPTER 1


A Glimpse Into the Lives of
Betty and Barney Hill


When Betty and Barney Hill planned their impromptu “honeymoon”
trip to Niagara Falls in mid-September, 1961, they were fulfilling the final
stage of their marriage commitment and seeking a relaxing and intimate,
albeit short, vacation. Although they had married on May 12, almost 16
months earlier, time and distance had obstructed their mutual goal to
spend time together. Betty, with a chuckle, once told me that she had
never intended to marry Barney. It had nothing to do with the fact that
he was black. In all probability he proposed to her because he’d grown
tired of the drive from Philadelphia to Portsmouth. They had planned to
“just be friends.” But as they spent more and more time together, they
began to change their minds. What had been a friendship developed into
a strong, loving bond, and they were married in Camden, New Jersey, on
May 12, 1960. However, job commitments forced them to remain apart
for the next 10 months. Betty, a social worker for the State of New Hampshire,
made her home in Portsmouth, while Barney, a city carrier for the U.S.
Post Office, resided in Philadelphia. The long-awaited job transfer from
Philadelphia to a location closer to Betty had come through on March 17
of that year. The job offer was in Boston, a 60-mile commute each way,
and Barney would be required to work the graveyard shift—a huge sacrifice
and major adjustment. However, his desire to be with his wife, if only
for a few hours a day, spurred Barney on, and he decided to accept the
new position.
The couple had met five years earlier in the summer of 1956, when
Barney, his then wife, and their two children vacationed at the home of
mutual friends. Formerly from Philadelphia, their friends ran a boarding
house where Betty had rented a room while her own home was being
moved and remodeled into apartments. For many years, New Hampshire’s
beaches had enticed the Hill family to flee from the sweltering summer
city heat to the warm sands and brisk breezes along Hampton Beach.
Betty and waitresses of Rudy’s Farm
Kitchen in Hampton, summer of 1938.
Courtesy of Kathleen Marden.
Although their encounter was brief
and formal, the Hills exchanged addresses
with Betty and they occasionally
corresponded.
As a precursor to her return to
college for a degree in social work at
the University of New Hampshire,
Betty was working as a cashier and
hostess at a favorite beach lunch spot.
Her summer employment would help
to cover her college tuition and purchase
her books. She told the coauthor,
Kathy, that she enjoyed the Hills
but had little time to spend with them
because she was working from 11 a.m.
until 8 p.m. seven days a week. The
Hills expressed an interest in renting
a room at her home on a later vacation, if one was available on a short-
term basis.
Early the following year, when
Barney and his wife separated, he contacted
Betty, and soon their friendship developed into a romantic relationship.
They spent long weekends and vacation time in each other’s
company, sharing common interests, a keen intellectual bond, and a sense
of adventure. One weekend, Betty’s parents invited her to dinner, and
she took Barney along to meet the family. Soon, she introduced him to
her extended family, and all but a couple of racially prejudiced individuals
took an immediate liking to him. From Kathy’s perspective, as a young
adolescent, it seemed that assimilation into her family was an easy process
for Barney. He was kind, gregarious, genteel, and well-informed about
the social and political issues of the day. The Barrett family was politically
involved, and they enjoyed others who shared their common interest.
This made for many hours of interesting conversation, spirited debate,
and cheerful commiseration.

Betty, also a divorcée, had struck out on her own after 14 years of
marriage. She had met her first husband during the summer after her
sophomore year at UNH, when a prolonged bout with an abdominal infection
had prevented her from returning to college. After a period of
recuperation, she worked as a waitress at Rudy’s Farm Kitchen, a restaurant
in Hampton, N.H. Full-course dinners were served for the price of
$1. That is where she met Bob, a young, divorced chef to whose warm
personality she was immediately attracted. In a taped interview with Kathy
she stated, “Bob Stewart seemed like the best thing on the horizon, so I
grabbed him. Either you went to college or you got married, so I got
married. I thought he was a pretty good guy, frankly, and it took me years
to find out different. These were the days when most people didn’t even
have jobs. We were coming out of the depression. He was hard-working,
and anything that I wanted he got for me.” They were married on June 7,
1941, in a small ceremony at the town hall in Alton, N.H. Betty’s parents
gave them their blessings and stood up for them.

Shortly after she married her first husband, his three biological children
were put in her custodial care, a completely unforeseen event. Betty
and Bob had intended to support them and to see them during weekend
visitations, but a turn of events necessitated a change. Their biological
mother had remarried and just given birth to twins. Betty said that “when
she found out that Bob had remarried she picked up the three kids and
dumped them at Bob’s mother’s house.” Bob’s mother found that she
was incapable of caring for three children under the age of 8. So Betty
and Bob took them in, and three years later, Betty legally adopted them.
Bob transferred to a higher-paying job as a machinist at the Portsmouth
Naval Shipyard, and Betty started a full-time job as a mother and homemaker.
She said that she found the job extremely challenging, but she
adjusted to her new circumstance and made the best of it. She nurtured
them through their formative years, and as they gained their independence,
she followed suit. Tired of Bob’s philandering, she decided he
would be happier with his girlfriend, and she would be better off alone.

She purchased her new home with the settlement from her divorce
and worked for a time at the W.T. Grant Company, a local department
store. Then the Gulf Oil Company approached Betty with an offer for
the sale of her house. At a meeting at a downtown restaurant with her
real estate agent, Charlie Gray, and the oil company representative, Betty
struck a heavily negotiated deal for a good sum of money—at least double
the initial offer. Later, when she inquired about the fate of her house, the
company informed her that they planned to demolish it. In turn, she
offered them a dollar for it on the condition that she would move it to a
different lot. When they accepted her offer, she had to find land close to
the original location. With the help of her real estate agent she purchased
a large vacant lot on a nearby corner. But before she could move the
house to it, a new foundation and utilities had to be installed, and she had
to find a temporary dwelling. This is when she moved into the boarding
house where she met Barney. The profit from the sale of her land made it
financially possible for Betty to return to college to finish her baccalaureate
degree.
In the summer of 1957, just prior to her senior year in college, she
completed fieldwork at a home for delinquent girls, The Leighton Farm
School near Philadelphia, where she worked as a counselor. She and
Barney had already begun a romantic relationship, and this position made
it possible for them to be together. She finished near the top of her class
in her social service major and was inducted into the Alpha Kappa Delta
Sociology Honor Society. After graduating, Betty found employment with
the New Hampshire Division of Welfare, a job that she absolutely loved.
She decided to remain in New Hampshire because she owned a house in
Portsmouth and wanted to be near her family, with whom she had a close,
mutually supportive relationship.
Little is known about Barney’s early adult life. His records reveal that
he dropped out of high school and served as a store clerk in Philadelphia
before he enlisted in the U.S. Army during a peacetime draft. He was 18
years old on May 10, 1941, his conscription date, just seven months prior
to America’s entry into World War II. He served in the Army for nearly
three years, where he qualified as a marksman and truck driver. During
his tenure in the service he married his first wife, Ruby, and fathered a
son. An accident with a grenade caused Barney to lose his teeth, necessitating
dentures, and he was discharged in fair condition from the Aberdeen
Proving Ground on May 8, 1944. His enlisted record gives him a
character reference as “excellent.” In July 1944, after his discharge, Barney
secured a position with the U.S. Post Office as a city carrier. Four years
later, his second son was born. By all accounts he was a devoted and
involved father. We have not been able to locate records concerning his
early level of community involvement, with the exception of his participation
in the Boy Scouts of America. In 1957, he served as a committeeman
for Troop 133 in Philadelphia.

Barney was a nurturing uncle who was involved in the education and
socialization of his nieces and nephews. He and Betty were frequent visitors
to Kathy’s childhood home and were always cheerleaders for their
personal and academic success. They joined immediate family members
on educational excursions to museums and involved young family members
in their own social and political activities. From an adult perspective,
Kathy thinks that Barney’s participation in youthful family activities
helped to ease the pain that he experienced due to his physical separation
from his sons in Philadelphia. He saw them as often as he could, but their school
schedule limited the timethat they could spend in New Hampshire. The summer
weeks that his sons spent inNew Hampshire were some of Barney’s happiest times.
When he relocated toNew Hampshire, Barney had to leave family, friends, and
the city way of life behind.Except for the small communities that had sprung up
along the Massachusetts border, New Hampshire was a sparsely populated agrarian
state with an economic base in lumbering, dairy and poultry farming, textile and
Betty and Barney Hill in the late 1950s. Courtesy of Kathleen Marden.
leather manufacturing, stone quarrying, and tourism.
Portsmouth was an exception
to the rule, but could not compare to Philadelphia. Pease Air Force
Base had assumed control of a 4,365-acre parcel of land in the greater
Portsmouth region in 1951 and completed base construction in 1956. In
1961 it housed the 100th and 509th Bombardment Wing Units. The Air
Force Base and the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard boosted Portsmouth’s
economy and added a heterogeneous, multicultural flair to the area. Portsmouth
was, at that time, a small city with a strong military influence.
Additionally, the proximity of the state’s largest university had a positive
impact on the social, cultural, and intellectual environment of Portsmouth.1
Barney’s warm, gregarious personality, combined with the gift of humor,
quickly endeared him to a large group of friends. He and Betty had
developed an excellent relationship with their tenants, Dot and Henry
and their three children, who lived in one apartment. Jean, Bill, and their
two children lived in the second. Both were airmen, stationed at Pease
Air Force Base, and both were from the Deep South. A familial atmosphere
filled the tenement house as the couples gathered in the evenings
to exchange thoughts on the events of the day. Their children played
together while the adults drank coffee and snacked on whatever the wives
had baked. Friendly cooperation filled the building and all enjoyed each
other’s companionship. Betty said that the most difficult task for Barney
was to curtail their social activity when he had to prepare to leave for his
job in Boston.2
But this fellowship did not temper the longing that Barney had for his
two sons. His daily four-hour commute to Boston and back and his difficulty
adjusting to an upside-down sleep schedule compounded the stress
of his move. Additionally, racial prejudice was no stranger to New Hampshire.
It may not have been overt, but it boiled slowly beneath the surface.
Needless stops by small-town police officers and whispers of racial
prejudice in housing and employment rattled this proud, Virginia-born
African-American. As can be expected in anyone who undergoes major
life changes in conjunction with approaching middle age, Barney’s many
adjustments were beginning to increase his level of anxiety. Because Betty
had a weeklong vacation from her job as a child welfare worker, Barney
decided that he would like to join her for a chance to rest and enjoy her
company.
On his drive to the South Boston Postal Annex on Friday evening,
September 15, 1961, Barney decided to request a few days off from his
new job as a distribution clerk in order to surprise Betty with a trip to
Niagara Falls and Montreal. His request was granted, so on Saturday
morning, while Barney rested, Betty prepared for their trip. The banks
were closed on weekends and these were the days before credit cards, so
the Hills pooled their funds of less than $70. They decided that if they
were frugal, not eating in many restaurants or staying at fancy hotels,
they could afford to leave on Sunday morning. Betty borrowed a cooler
from her friend Lei, shopped for provisions, and prepared the car for their
trip. That afternoon, Barney packed his suitcase and asked his tenants Dot
and Henry to “look after things” while they were gone. Their tenant Bill
had gone to Pennsylvania, and his wife, Dot, was staying with friends for
a few days.
On Sunday, September 17, Betty and Barney cheerfully packed their
remaining belongings into their car. For protection, in the event that they
were forced to sleep in their car, Barney slipped Betty’s pistol under the
floor mat of the trunk. Betty put their dog, Delsey, into the back seat,
and they left for their holiday. First they traveled across Vermont to
Niagara Falls and Toronto, then to the Thousand Islands area, and finally
to Montreal. On Tuesday, September 19, they planned to book a
hotel and take in the nightlife in the bustling city. However, Barney took
a wrong turn, and after failing in his attempt to interpret directions given
in French, he decided to drive to the outskirts of the city, hoping to
locate a motel that would accept Delsey. When he realized that he was
too far away from Montreal’s downtown area, he continued to drive east.
When the radio announced that tropical storm Esther was whirling its
way up the east coast toward New Hampshire, he and Betty decided to
head for home. Esther’s winds had reached 130 miles per hour as she
boiled off the Virginia coast, and her projected path would have landed
her full impact on Cape Cod. The Hills felt an urgency to return to Portsmouth
before it, too, became engulfed in wind and rain. Although they
would be required to travel into the early morning hours, it seemed necessary.
They agreed that if they grew tired, they would stop for the night
in New Hampshire’s White Mountains.


 CHAPTER 2

An Evening’s Journey

On the evening of September 19, 1961, the skies over New
Hampshire’s western slope did not foretell the rain and winds that tropical
storm Esther would deliver on southern New Hampshire’s seacoast
region only two days later. It was a warm, starry, moonlit night, and Betty
and Barney were taking in the familiar scenic views that they had grown
to love. The Hills were relaxed and enjoying the view during the last leg
of their journey home. As Betty sat in the passenger seat of her 1957
Chevy, Barney maneuvered south along the state’s major north–south
route, connecting New Hampshire’s wilderness region to U.S. Interstate
Highway 93 in Ashland.
Betty’s interest was aroused by what she at first thought was a falling
star, until it suddenly came to a stop in the southwestern sky. As it inched
its way upward, she thought she was taking in her first observation of a
satellite (her father was excited about the space program, frequently venturing
outside at night to search the sky for satellites, but Betty had not
joined him in that activity). When it left its even course, ascended toward
the moon, and stopped, Betty’s curiosity piqued. This unique craft so
sparked her curiosity that she insisted that Barney stop at the side of the
road in order to look at it himself. She was dumbfounded as she observed
it take on an unconventional, erratic flight pattern and travel across the
face of the moon. By the time she handed the binoculars to Barney, the
object had again changed course, and seemed to be rapidly descending in
their direction.
Barney, a conservative, pragmatic thinker, planned to explain away
Betty’s interest by assuring her that she had spied a conventional airliner
en route to Canada. Yet when he viewed the craft through binoculars, he
too observed its unconventional flight and lighting patterns. As he drove
south on Route 3, Betty and Barney were awestruck by the perplexing
object. It rapidly changed direction, ascended and descended vertically,
and hovered motionless in the sky. This enigmatic phenomenon both
piqued Barney’s interest and confounded his sensibility. His intelligent,
no-nonsense attitude left no room for the nonsensical belief in flying
saucers. However, although he remained cool for Betty’s sake, he was
quietly ruminating about the remarkable sight. He entertained the idea
of ending their dilemma by stopping at a cabin for the night. However, he
continued to motor his way along Route 3, stopping briefly from time to
time to take in the game of cat and mouse that the ever-descending, silent
craft seemed to be playing with them.
Then, as they motored around a slight curve near Indian Head, a
natural granite rock formation resembling a Native American profile just
south of the narrow valley through Franconia Notch, they entered a wide
expanse. Almost directly in their path, the couple encountered the flattened,
circular disc, hovering silently an estimated 80 to 100 feet above
their vehicle. Barney rapidly brought the car to a halt in the middle of the
road and grabbed his binoculars for a closer look, opening the car door
for a less encumbered view. Quickly, in an arcing movement, it shifted
from its location directly ahead and rested above the treetops in an adjacent
field. Barney pocketed Betty’s handgun and walked toward it. The
silent, enigmatic craft was huge—maybe 60 to 80 feet in diameter—with a
double row of rectangular windows extending across its rim. As he approached
it, two red lights at the end of fin-like structures parted from the sides of
the craft, and it tilted toward Barney. Lifting his binoculars to his eyes,
he spied a group of humanoid figures moving about with the precision of
German officers. As the craft tilted downward and began to descend
toward him, one of the strange creatures that remained at the window
communicated a frightening message. Barney had the immediate impression
that he was in danger of being plucked from the field. Overcome
with fear, and with all of the courage that he could muster, he tore the
binoculars from his face and raced back to the car. Breathless, trembling,
and in near hysterics, he told Betty that they needed to get out of
there or they were going to be captured.
As Barney rapidly accelerated down the highway in an attempt to
escape from the craft, it shifted directly overhead. Suddenly, rhythmic
“buzzing” tones seemed to bounce off the trunk of their vehicle, and they
sensed a penetrating vibration. They drove on without speaking until,
somewhere down the road, they heard a second series of buzzing sounds.
Vague memories of encountering a roadblock, of seeing a huge, fiery
red-orange orb resting upon the ground, and feeling a desire for human
contact preoccupied their thoughts. They looked for an open restaurant
to no avail, so they drove on through Concord, picked up Route 4, and
made a beeline to Portsmouth, expecting to arrive at approximately 3 a.m.
The Hills were surprised to notice that, as they crossed into Portsmouth,
the dawn was streaking the sky in the east.
Betty, a prolific writer, chronicled much of her adult life in daily
diaries and typewritten accounts. After her death, more than 43 years
later, Kathy found an excerpt in which she wrote, “We entered our home,
turned on the lights, and went over to the window and looked skyward.
We stood there for several minutes. Then, Barney said, ‘This is the most
amazing thing that has ever happened to me.’ We both wondered if ‘they’
would come back.” She recorded Barney’s comment that their arrival
time (shortly after 5 a.m.) was later than expected. “We felt very calm,
peaceful, relaxed. We sat at the kitchen table, looked at each other, shook
our heads in puzzlement, and asked each other, ‘Do you believe what
happened?’ We agreed that it was unbelievable, but it had really happened.
We would return to the windows and look skyward.”
Barney said that he felt “clammy,” so he took a shower. Then, while
Betty showered, Barney retrieved their personal articles from the car.
She called out to him to leave them on the porch, and he agreed that it
was a good suggestion. Moments later, they retired in an attempt to get
some restorative sleep.
When they awoke, Barney offered two suggestions: First, they would
enter separate rooms and attempt to draw the object that they had observed.
After they completed their drawings they noted the uncanny similarity
between them. They were remarkably alike in detail. Second, he
suggested that they should refrain from ever telling anyone, anticipating
that because their experience was so fantastic, they would never be believed.
Betty, a strong-willed, independent woman, promptly disagreed.
Betty wrote, “When we woke up in the afternoon, Barney asked me if
I had the feeling they were still around. I agreed with him and we watched
the skies, going to the windows and looking up; going out on the back
porch. Looking, looking, and seeing nothing. It was beginning to rain so
Barney brought our belongings into the back hall.”
Later that day, from her Kingston, New Hampshire home, Kathy
overheard Betty’s telephone conversation with her sister, Janet Miller.
She was beginning to lose her feeling of “peace and calm, and was starting
to feel an uneasiness.” She felt that her sister, who observed an unconventional
craft in the mid-1950s, might be “the one person to whom
she could tell [her story] without prejudice.” Janet listened carefully,
asking Betty questions throughout the conversation. Then she announced
that she would “check around” and return her call in a few minutes.
Excitement boiled through the Miller house as the word began to spread.
Curious, Kathy prodded her mother for the details of the conversation.
As she recounted it to those present in the room, she added that she
had once witnessed an unconventional craft. She was returning home
from a shopping trip when she observed a silent, blimp-shaped craft hovering
over an adjacent field. In amazement, she and the residents of a
neighboring house watched as several smaller, disk-shaped objects approached
the craft from several directions, and entered it. Then, almost
instantaneously, the mother ship ascended vertically and disappeared from
sight. This conversation was Kathy’s introduction to the topic of flying
saucers.
Janet phoned a neighbor whose husband was a physicist, seeking professional
advice to convey to Betty. Coincidentally, a family friend, the
former chief of police in neighboring Newton, New Hampshire, arrived
on the scene. He advised Janet that all UFO sightings should be reported
to Pease Air Force Base. Moments later, Janet repeated to Betty the
directions that she had received both from the family friend and from the
physicist via his wife. He suggested that she conduct a simple experiment
with the aid of a compass. She was to place the instrument near the car’s
metallic surface in several locations as she circled around it and report
her findings back to Janet.
In her diary, Betty described what happened next:
I took the compass and went out to the car. Barney refused to go,
saying that he was trying to forget what happened. It was still
raining but I could see my car clearly under the street light in
front of my home. I walked around it, holding the compass and
not knowing what I was looking for. When I came to the trunk
area, I saw many highly polished spots, about the size of a half-
dollar or silver dollar. The car was wet from the rain but these
spots were clearly showing. I wondered what they were. I placed
the compass over them, and it began spinning and spinning. I
thought it must be the way I was balancing the compass, so I
placed it on the car and took my hand away. The compass was
really spinning and continued to do this. As I was watching this I
was filled with an unexplained feeling of absolute terror. I was
standing there in the rain, under the street light, and telling myself,
“Don’t scream, keep calm, and don’t be afraid, everything is all
right.”
Moments later, a reluctant Barney and his upstairs neighbors all experimented
with the compass and observed the strange markings on the
trunk of the car while Betty phoned the Miller household, 19 miles away
in Kingston, to report what she had found. She agreed to phone Pease
Air Force Base, and the Miller family made plans to visit her.
By Thursday, September 21, 1961, tropical storm Esther boiled off
Maine’s rocky coast, lashing New Hampshire’s seacoast with gusty, gale-
force winds that downed tree limbs and caused power disruptions. The
Miller family was preparing to join the Hills in their Portsmouth home
as soon as the storm subsided. Kathy and her two younger brothers
always looked forward to their visits with Betty and Barney with excited
anticipation. They respected Betty for her intelligence, achievements,
and leadership skills, and enjoyed listening to her pearls of wisdom and
sage advice. But Barney made them laugh. He always had a good-natured
joke or a magic trick that elicited a multitude of cheerful giggles and kept
them coming back for more. He played games of chess or checkers with
his nephews and listened contentedly as the group talked with him about
school, friends, activities, and interests. But, on the day in question,
Barney’s mood had changed. He was quiet and contemplative.
Don Miller joined his brother-in-law in the living room while Betty,
compass in hand, led Janet, with children in tow, in the direction of her
blue and white Chevy Bel Air. Kathy and her brother Glenn peered curiously
at the several highly polished, half-dollar-sized circles while they
took turns lifting their youngest brother, Tom, high enough to see them.
Betty held the compass against the side of the car, along the wheels, and
finally up to the trunk. The group watched in amazement as the needle
spun wildly over the spots. Janet spied her older children futilely attempting
to rub the spots away and cautioned them not to touch them. Suddenly
she became apprehensive about the spots, thinking that they might be
radioactive, and quickly shuffled her charges back into the house.
Once inside, Betty passed her watch around the living room urging
each family member to attempt to fix it. When she and Barney checked
the time on their wind-up watches on the morning of September 20, they
discovered that both had stopped ticking. However, they placed no particular
significance upon the apparent coincidence, because wind-up
watches frequently stopped if they were not wound on a daily basis. They
simply reset and wound their watches, expecting them to function normally.
Both were amazed to discover that their watches were broken. We
will never know if they were destroyed at exactly the same time, because
both thought that their watches merely needed to be rewound. But one
fact is irrefutable: Both watches sustained irreparable damage on the
night of September 19–20, 1961.
Curiously, on the morning of September 20, Barney’s pant legs were
speckled with “pickers” and plant matter, and the tops of his good dress
shoes were badly scraped. The plant debris could have deposited upon
his pant legs when he entered the field to view the UFO at close range.
However, there was no reasonable explanation for the ruined shoes. Somehow
he had broken the leather strap that fastened his binoculars around
his neck, and his upper back was sore. Additionally, Betty’s new blue
dress was torn....

CHAPTER 3

The Project Blue Book Report

Betty phoned the 100th Bomb Wing at Pease Air Force Base in neighboring 
Newington, New Hampshire, to report an unidentified flying object 
on September 21, 1961, the day after the sighting. She and Barney 
gave the interviewing officer a general description of the craft they had 
observed. Barney omitted his observation of the humanoid figures that 
communicated with him through a double row of windows, fearing that he 
might be thought a “crackpot.” Later that day, Major Paul W. Henderson 
phoned the Hills and questioned both of them extensively. According to 
Betty, he seemed very interested in the wing-like structures that telescoped 
out from each side of the pancake-shaped craft, and the red lights 
on their tips. Betty wrote, “Major Henderson asked to speak with Barney, 
who was hesitating about taking the phone. But, once he was on the phone, 
he was giving more information than I had. Later, Barney said he had 
done this, for Major Henderson did not seem to express any surprise or 
disbelief. Later, Major Henderson called back and asked if we would be 
willing to be put through to somewhere else, and have our call monitored. 
We agreed to this. One call was transferred to another place and 
today we do not know with whom we were talking.”1 The next day, Major 
Henderson phoned to inform the Hills that he had been up all night 
working on their report and that he needed a few more details. It was 
Betty’s contention that he took their report very seriously, making it quite 
clear that the Air Force was aware of the existence of unidentified flying 
objects. 
Major Henderson, on Air Force Form 112, No. 100-1-61, officially 
reported to Project Blue Book that “on the night of 19–20 Sept between 
20/0001 and 20/0100 Mr. and Mrs. Hill were traveling south on Route 3 near 
Lincoln, New Hampshire, when they observed, through the windshield of 
their car, a strange object in the sky. They noticed it because of its shape 
and the intensity of its lighting as compared to the stars in the sky. The 
weather and the sky were clear at the time.” 
In a supplement to Form 112, Major Henderson transcribed the following 
information: 

A. Description of Object 
1. Continuous band of lights—cigar-shaped at all times 
despite change in direction. 
2. Size: When first observed it appeared to be about the 
size of a nickel at arm’s length. Later when it seemed 
to be a matter of hundreds of feet above the automobile 
it would be about the size of a dinner plate held at arm’s 
length. 
3. Color: Only color evident was that of the band of light, 
which was comparable to the intensity and color of a 
filament of an incandescent lamp. (See reference to 
“wing tip” lights.) 
4. Number: One 
5. Formation: None 
6. 
Feature or details: See 1 above. During periods of 
observation wings seemed to appear from the main 
body. Described as V-shaped with red lights on tips. 
Later, wings appeared to extend further. 
7. Tail, trail or exhaust: None observed. 
8. Sound: None except as described in item E. 
B. Description of Course of Object 
1. 
First observed through windshield of car. Size and 
brightness of object compared to visible stars attracted 
observers’ attention. 
2. Angle of elevation, first observed: About 45 degrees. 
3. 
Angle of elevation at disappearance: Not determinable 
because of inability to observe its departure from the auto. 
4. Flight path and maneuvers: See item E. 
5. How the object disappeared: See item E. 
6. Length of observation: Approx. 30 mins. 
 
The Project Blue Book Report 

b 

C. 
Manner of Observation 
1. 
Ground-visual. 
2. Binoculars used at times. 
3. Sighting made from inside auto while moving and 
stopped. Observed from within and outside auto. 
[D is missing] 

E. 
Location and Details 
On the night of 19–20 September between 20/0001 and 20/0100 
the observers were traveling by car in a southerly direction 
on Route 3 south of Lincoln, N.H., when they noticed a brightly 
lighted object ahead of their car at an angle of elevation of 
approximately 45 degrees. It appeared strange to them because 
of its shape and the intensity of its lights compared to 
the stars in the sky. Weather and sky were clear. They continued 
to observe the moving object from their moving car for a 
few minutes, then stopped. After stopping the car they used 
binoculars at times. 
They report that the object was traveling north very fast. 
They report it changed directions rather abruptly and then 
headed south. Shortly thereafter, it stopped and hovered in 
the air. There was no sound evident up to this time. Both 
observers used the binoculars at this point. While hovering, 
objects began to appear from the body of the “object,” which 
they describe as looking like wings, which made a V-shape 
when extended. The “wings” had red lights on the tips. At this 
point they observed it to appear to swoop down in the general 
direction of their auto. The object continued to descend until 
it appeared to be only a matter of “hundreds of feet” above 
their car. 
At this point they decided to get out of that area, and fast. 
Mr. Hill was driving, and Mrs. Hill watched the object by 
sticking her head out the window. It departed in a generally 
northwesterly direction, but Mrs. Hill was prevented from 
observing its full departure by her position in the car. 
They report that while the object was above them after it 
had “swooped down” they heard a series of short, loud 
“buzzes,” which they described as sounding like someone had 
dropped a tuning fork. They report that they could feel these 
buzzing sounds in their auto. No further visual observation 
was made of this object. They continued on their trip and 
when they arrived in the vicinity of Ashland, N.H., about 30 
miles from Lincoln, they again heard the “buzzing” sound of 
the “object”; however, they did not see it at this time. 
Mrs. Hill reported the flight pattern of the “object” to be 
erratic; [it] changed directions rapidly, [and] during its flight 
it ascended and descended numerous times very rapidly. Its 
flight was described as jerky and not smooth. 
Mr. Hill is a civil service employee in the Boston Post 
Office and doesn’t possess any technical or scientific training. 
Neither does his wife. 
During a later conversation with Mr. Hill, he volunteered 
the observation that he did not originally intend to report the 
incident but in as much as he and his wife did in fact see this 
occurrence he decided to report it. He says that on looking 
back he feels that the whole thing is incredible and he feels 
somewhat foolish—he just cannot believe that such a thing 
could or did happen. He says, on the other hand, that they 
both saw what they reported, and this fact gives it some degree 
of reality. 
Information contained herein was collected by means of 
telephone conversation between the observers and the preparing 
individual. The reliability of the observer cannot be judged, 
and while his apparent honesty and seriousness appears to be 
valid, it cannot be judged at this time. 
As an “additional item,” Major Henderson included the following 
information on the front page of his intelligence report: 

During a casual conversation on 22 Sept 61 between Major 
Gardiner D. Reynolds, 100th BW DCOI and Captain Robert O. 
Daughaday, Commander 1917-2 AACS DIT, Pease AFB, NH it 
was revealed that a strange incident occurred at 0214 local on 20 
Sept. No importance was attached to the incident at that time. 
Subsequent interrogation failed to bring out any information in 
addition to the extract of the “Daily Report of the Controller.” 

It is not possible to determine any relationship between these 
two observations, as the radar observation provides no description. 

Time and distance between the events could hint of a possible 
relationship. [Note: emphasis by author.] 
Signed Paul W. Henderson 
Major USAF 
Chief Combat Intelligence 

The Project Blue Book 10073 Project Record Card regarding the New 
Hampshire sighting reads as follows: 

1. Date: 20 Sep 61 
2. Location: Lincoln, NH 
3. Date-Time Group: Local 0001-0100 GMT: 20 0401-05002 
4. Type of Observation: Ground-visual, Air-Intercept radar 
5. Photos: No 
6. Source: Civilian 
7. Length of Observation: 30 min. 
8. No. of Objects: 1 
9. Course: N 
10. Brief Summary of Sighting: Continuous band of lights. Cigar-
shaped at all times despite changes of direction. Wings seemed 
to appear from main body. Described as V-shaped and red 
lights on tips; later wings appeared to extend further. Appeared 
about 45 degrees. Varied direction abruptly and disappeared 
to the north. 
11. Comments: Both radar and visual sightings are probably due 
to conditions resulting from strong inversion which prevailed 
in area on morning of sighting. Actual source of light viewed 
is not known but it has all the characteristics of an advertising 
searchlight. Radar probably was looking at some ground target 
due to strong inversion. No evidence indicating objects were 
due to other than natural causes. 
12. Conclusions: Optical condition. [Later changed to 
“Inversion.” Later changed to “insufficient data.” All crossed 
out and written in longhand on the original card.] Aircraft, 
Balloons, Airships, etc. [blank] 
13. Other: Observation due to unusual optical condition resulting 
from atmospheric conditions. [Written in longhand on card.] 
14. Evaluation of Source Reliability: Probably good. 
15. Analysis and Conclusions: Both the radar and visual sightings 
are probably due to conditions resulting from the strong 
inversion which prevailed in the Lincoln, N.H. area on the 
morning of the sighting. The actual source of light viewed by 
the witnesses who reported the visual sighting is not known 
but it has all of the characteristics of an advertising search 
light. The radar probably was looking at some ground target 
due to the strong inversion. There is not evidence which would 
indicate that the objects in these sightings were due to other 
than natural causes. [Written in longhand.] 
The original Project 10073 Record Card for the sighting lists the “Type 
of Observation” as Ground-Visual and Air-Intercept Radar—not Ground-
Radar as later reported (see Appendix). However, this page was removed 
from later reports. Betty has always contended that she was told that jet 
interceptors were scrambled to chase the unidentified flying object. This 
page seems to give supporting evidence that Betty was indeed accurate in 
her statement. 

It is interesting to note that Project Blue Book commented that the 
object that the Hills observed had the characteristics of an advertising 
searchlight. Advertising searchlights are used to attract attention to all 
types of events, including grand openings and movie premiers. The searchlight 
is generally mounted on a ground mobile unit and it sends spikes 
of light miles into the air to attract crowds. An advertising searchlight 
at 11 p.m. during the off-season in a sparsely populated area? Hardly. This 
is incongruent with the Hills’ description of a brightly lighted, structured 
object only hundreds of feet above their car, that projected V-shaped 
wings with red lights on their tips and an unconventional lighting pattern. 
Section 11 seems to ignore the information contained within 
Section 10. 

A form titled “The True Extract of ‘Daily Report of the Controller,’ 
ACS [Air Communications Service] Form 96 for the Date of 20 September 
1961” outlines the actual ground-visual report. It informs us that the Air 
Force personnel observed an unidentified aircraft on precision approach 
radar 4 miles out from the control tower. It continued its approach and 
pulled up at half a mile. Shortly thereafter, radar picked up a weak target 
downwind, and then radar contact was lost. The tower was advised of the 
aircraft’s presence when it was on final approach, and also when it made a 
low approach. However, the tower was not able to see any aircraft at any 
time. The Air Intelligence Information Report failed to mention an 
Air-Intercept Radar observation at any time, although that box is 
checked off on the form, suggesting that there may have been one. The 
“Daily Report of the Controller” reads as follows: 

0614Z (0214 a.m.) OBSERVED UNIDENTIFIED A/C [aircraft] 
COME ON PAR [precision approach radar] 4 MILES OUT. A/ 
C MADE APPROACH AND PULLED UP AT 1/2 MILE. 
SHORTLY AFTER OBSERVED WEAK TARGET ON 
DOWNWIND, THEN WHEN IT MADE LOW APPROACH, 
TWR [tower] UNABLE TO SEE ANY A/C AT ANY TIME...JC 

CERTIFIED TRUE. 

Signed 

ROBERT O. DAUGHADAY 

Captain, USAF 

Commander 

b 

 
44 b Captured! The Betty and Barney Hill UFO Experience 

The Headquarters of the 817th Air Division at Pease Air Force Base 
did not transmit the Hills’ UFO sighting to the Air Technical Intelligence 
Center (ATIC), Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, until September 29, 1961— 
eight days after the report was transcribed. It stated, “Non-availability of 
observers for early interrogation precluded electrical transmission of the 
report.” It was sent by E.B. Lobato, CWO W2, USAF. This delay was 
not consistent with Air Force procedure. Also, because the Hills were 
readily available for early interrogation, reporting the UFO the day 
after they returned home from their trip, one must ask, who were the 
other observers who weren’t available? This Air Force statement suggests 
that either a cover-up was already in progress, or there were additional 
witnesses. In 1965, when reporter John Luttrell was doing research 
for his Boston Traveler articles, he located additional witnesses. Unfortunately, 
when he left his job as a reporter, he handed over all of his 
files to his editor. Those files have never been located and were probably 
destroyed. 

Project Blue Book received a ground-radar sighting report of another 
unidentified flying object from the North Concord, Vermont, Air 
Force Station on September 22, 1961. This ground-radar sighting occurred 
on September 19, 1961, at 5:22 p.m., eastern standard time, less than six 
hours prior to Betty’s first observation of the UFO. The Project Blue 
Book 10073 Card regarding the Vermont sighting reads as follows (transcribed 
from Brummett/Zuick Air Command and Staff College Research 
Study): 

1. Date: 19 Sept. 61 
2. Location: N. Concord AFS, Vermont 
3. Date: Time Group-GMT 19 2122Z September 19 at 
5:22 PM 
4. Type of Observation: Ground-Radar 
5. Photos: No 
6. Source: Military 
7. Length of Observation: 18 min. 
8. Number of Objects: 1 
9. Course: S 
 
The Project Blue Book Report 

b 

10. Brief summary of sighting: Return on H/F [heightfinder] 
radar size of a/c appearing as normal target at 
62,000 appeared 196 deg. At 84 mi, lost on contact 199 
deg. At 80 mi, going NW then S and gradually S on 
scope 18 min. [The original TWX on file at Project 
Blue Book describes the UFO as a “large aircraft.”] 
11. Comments: Relative low speed and high altitude coupled 
with erratic course including weather balloon. 
12. Conclusion: Probably balloon. 
On September 25, 1961, Project Blue Book’s Director Major Friend 
sent an information request regarding the North Concord, Vermont Air 
Force Station radar sighting report to the USAF’s Foreign Technology 
Division (FTD). On September 28, 1961, Colonel Paul J. Slocum, chief 
of electronics at the FTD, replied in the following memo (also transcribed 
from Brummett/Zuick Air Command and Staff College Research Study): 

1. The relatively low speed and high altitude of the subject 
UFO, coupled with erratic course (including hovering), 
appear to rule out a normal aircraft target and 
favor some target as a weather balloon. 
2. It is suggested that if it is desired to pursue the investigation 
further, a check might be made of the activities 
in the area responsible for launching and tracking 
weather balloons. 
On November 22, 1961, Captain Pallas L. Tye, Jr. of the USAF’s 
Climatic Center in Ashville, North Carolina supplied the following report 
to the USAF’s Foreign Technology Division: 

ATTN OF: CCDPD 
SUBJECT: Copy of Selected Rawinsonde Observations 
TO: Air Force Technical Intelligence Center 
Foreign Technology Division, TD-E 
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio 

1. Reference: Your telephone call at 1415 EST 
15 Nov 1961. 
2. We are sending copies of Rawinsonde observations 
(WBAN 31 ABC) from Portland, Maine, for 
17 through 22 Sep 1961. 
 
46 b Captured! The Betty and Barney Hill UFO Experience 

3. Lincoln, New Hampshire does not take Rawinsonde 
observations, and Portland, Maine, is the closest 
station. 
FOR THE DIRECTOR 
Signed 
Pallas L. Tye, Jr. 
Captain, USAF 
Administrative Officer 
Atch: Photocopies of Rawinsonde Obs. 


According to U.S. government fact sheets, 6-foot-wide helium- or 
hydrogen-filled weather balloons carry a small rawinsonde instrument 
package, suspended below. The instruments transmit information regarding 
wind speed and direction, temperature, air pressure, and humidity. A 
weather balloon rises at about 1,000 feet per minute and bursts at approximately 
100,000 feet when it has expanded beyond its elastic limit 
(about 20 feet in diameter). 

It is interesting to note that North Concord, Vermont, is only 17 
miles west of Lancaster, New Hampshire, the area where Betty first sighted 
the anomalous craft. The radar target was about 80 miles to the south/ 
southwest of the Air Force base. 

Major Brummett and Captain Ernest R. Zuick, Jr., in an Air Command 
and College research study, noted that the Concord, Vermont, original TWX 
on file with original Blue Book material described the radar target as “a 
large aircraft.”2 Obviously, even if it flattened out at high altitudes, a 20foot-
wide weather balloon is not a large aircraft. Additionally, the balloon 
has a very small radar cross section, so only the instrument package 
shows up on radar. The one in question was tracked going northwest, 
then south for a period of 18 minutes. If it were spotted at 62,000 feet, by 
the time the Air Force station lost contact with it, its altitude would have 
been approximately 80,000 feet, assuming that it continued to ascend at 
the rate of 1,000 feet per minute. When a weather balloon enters the 
stratosphere it should travel in a west-to-east direction with the flow of 
the jet stream. However, the object in question traveled against the strong 
horizontal upper atmospheric wind currents. This raises concern that 
the object on the radar target may not have been a weather balloon. 
According to Major Brummett and Captain Zuick, there is no indication 
that additional requests were made for the Vermont radar sighting, 
and photocopies of the rawinsonde weather balloon observations were 
never found by researchers. Although no correlating data can be located, 
the time and location of the radar target in relation to the Hill sighting is 
an interesting coincidence. It is unfortunate that Project Blue Book failed 
to investigate the North Concord, Vermont, Air Force Station report, 
the Pease Air Force Base radar report, or the Hill UFO sighting report. 
Instead, it ignored the significance of these reports and assigned easy, 
prosaic explanations to them. 

Although on September 21 and 22, 1961, Pease Air Force Base seemed 
extremely interested in the Hills’ UFO encounter, by November of 1961, 
the cover-up was complete. The official Air Force release regarding its 
assessment of the Hill report, shown in the following list, requires a sentenceby-
sentence analysis: 

Information on Barney Hill sighting, 20 September 1961, 

Lincoln, New Hampshire 

1. 
The Barney Hill sighting was investigated by officials from Pease 
AFB. The case was carried as insufficient data in the Air Force 
Files. 
[Previously it had been listed as “weather inversion,” an atmospheric 
condition in which a layer of warm air overlies a 
cooler air mass and can cause an uncorrelated radar target or 
an optical mirage; “Jupiter”; and “optical condition.”] 
2. 
No direction (azimuth) was reported and there are inconsistencies 
in the report. 
[The Hills reported that they were traveling south when they 
noticed the object at an angle of elevation of approximately 
45 degrees. It was south of them and then headed north very 
fast. Then, it changed direction and headed south. There were 
no inconsistencies in the report.] 
3. 
The sighting occurred about midnight and the object was observed 
for at least one hour. 
[The Hills’ preliminary report states that the craft was observed 
for at least 30 minutes.] 
4. 
No specific details on maneuverability were given. 
[It changed direction abruptly, it hovered, and it ascended 
and descended numerous times very rapidly. Its flight was 
described as jerky, not smooth.] 
5. 
The planet Jupiter was in the southwest at about 20 degrees 
elevation and would have set at the approximate time the object 
disappeared. Without positional data the case could not be 
evaluated as Jupiter. 
[It departed in a generally northwesterly direction, according 
to Barney. Betty couldn’t see it when she stuck her head out 
of the window.] 
6. 
There was a strong inversion in the area. 
[This is a favorite Blue Book explanation. The Mount Washington 
Observatory reported, “It is possible a weak inversion set up 
in the valleys overnight, as the valley locations are more prone 
to the diurnal effects of the sun, but I think that the cloud 
cover would have prevented any radiational cooling in the 
valleys. The fact that warmer air was moving in on a steady 
west wind would lead me to believe that most all locations, 
valleys, and summits would have had similar warming trends.”3] 
7. 
The actual light source is not known. As no lateral or vertical 
movement was noted, the object was in all probability Jupiter. 
[The Hills reported lateral and vertical movement by a cigar-
shaped continuous band of lights that, at closest approach, 
was the size of a dinner plate at arm’s length. As it hovered, 
V-shaped “wings” began to extend with red lights on the tips.] 
8. 
No evidence was presented to indicate that the object was 
due to other than natural causes. 
[It is incomprehensible that an objective analysis of the Hills’ 
report could have yielded this conclusion.] 
It is evident that The U.S. Air Force’s Project Blue Book’s conclusions 
were inconsistent—not Betty and Barney Hill’s description of the 
object. They were an average couple who carried out their obligation as 
United States citizens to report an anomalous craft in New Hampshire’s 
skies. The Air Force did not conduct a real investigation. As it so often 
did, Blue Book ignored the unconventional aspects of the case and assigned 
it to one conventional category after another. When none fit, they 
assigned it to the category of “insufficient data.”