Showing posts with label Vickie Landrum. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Vickie Landrum. Show all posts

Sunday, December 29, 2013

Remembering Betty Cash and Vickie Landrum


Betty Cash

Betty J. Cash 1929 - 1998

Betty J. Cash, 69, of Fairfield, Alabama, died December 29, 1998, in Birmingham, Alabama. She was born on February 10, 1929, in Birmingham to Jack L. (Jesse) and Pauline (Lockhart) Collins.

Betty moved to Dayton, Texas where she operated a business with her husband James F. Cash, taking sole ownership after their divorce. After developing health problems, she moved back to Alabama to be cared for by her mother. 

Betty was survived by her son, Toby Howard, daughter Mickey Geisinger, sisters Lois Green, Midge Helms. Sister Shirley Ann McNair, and brothers, James H. Collins, Jesse W. Collins and Charles Wayne Collins have all since passed.

She was buried at Cahaba Heights Baptist Church Cemetery in Birmingham, Alabama.



Vickie Landrum


Vickie Landrum 1923 - 2007

Vicie “Vickie” Marzelia Landrum, 83, of Liberty, Texas passed away Wednesday, September 12, 2007.  She was born on September 19, 1923 in Laurel, Mississippi to Johnny and Emily Holifield.  Vickie liked to play bingo, computer games and sew, but above all she loved to play with and take care of her grandchildren. 
  
Vickie is preceded in death by her parents; loving husband, Ernest Wilson Landrum, Sr.; and 2 brothers. She is survived by her children, Ernest Landrum, Jr. (deceased), Gloria Jean Roper, David Landrum, Paul Landrum, and Jayne Landrum; fourteen grandchildren; twenty-four great-grandchildren; and nine great-great-grandchildren. 

She was buried at Ryan Cemetary in Tarkington Prairie, Texas.


(Note: Betty Cash's obituary is my creation based on the scant details available.
Vickie Landrum's obituary appeared in the East Texas News.) 

Thursday, December 19, 2013

Flaming UFO: An Examination of the Cash-Landrum Original Testimony

UFO Fire: Flames or Glow? Separating the Heat from the Light

"… more glowing than on fire…"   -Colby Landrum, 2013

“In addition to lighting the whole area like daytime, the UFO periodically belched flames downward. Each time the object would shoot flames downward it would rise. As the flames stopped it would drop in altitude. The intense glow, however, never changed.
-John Schuessler, MUFON Journal November 1981
MUFON Journal April, 1981 illustration of the UFO,

Whatever it was, one thing that seemed definite about the Cash-Landrum UFO is that it "belched flames downward." When investigator Chris Lambright shared the transcript from his 1985 interview with witnesses Vickie Landrum and Betty Cash, it became apparent that there were problems with the details circulating about the UFO's description and characteristics. Examination of the case documents shows that there is much confusion in separating the UFO itself from the light, and the flame-like effects it produced. When Colby Landrum appeared on Martin Willis’ Podcast UFO, he was questioned on specific details about the object: 
“To me, it was like a diamond shape with flames coming out the bottom, not just massive flames, the whole thing looked [like it] radiated bright orange and it actually looked like it was more glowing than on fire. As a kid, that seems to stick in your head... a lot of things I don’t remember, but this particular thing about the object I do remember.”
Colby Landrum, Podcast UFO, Dec. 4, 2013
Identifying this pyrotechnic characteristic could prove to be a vital clue in either identifying or eliminating a terrestrial craft as a suspect for the UFO. This prompted me to review the records, with emphasis on the earliest reports with direct statements from the witnesses. What did the witnesses originally say about the fire, and did it change over time?

(Note: Abbreviations used, VL= Vickie Landrum, BC= Betty Cash, CPL= interviewer Chris Lambright.)


First reports: the best evidence


“a deal came down and it was like fire was coming from it.” (Referring to Betty’s illness) “...could it have had anything to do with that thing that we stood and watched, ‘cause we were close enough to it that we felt a fire from it."
VL’s call to Robert Gribble at NUFORC Feb. 2, 1981
“It was bright, the lights were bright. And there was a lot of heat coming from this object.”  (No mention of fires or flame.)
BC - Parkway Hospital Tape Early Feb. 1981
"The whole road ahead and around it glowing as if by fire. I believe it was fire because it glowed down and let up a little."
VL- Parkway Hospital Tape Early Feb. 1981
“this bright object that made the sky just split up & it looked like the world was coming to an end, it was a very bright red.”
BC’s handwritten account of the encounter, Parkway Hospital, Feb. 7, 1981 
There is a gap in the record from February 8th until the 21st. During this time, the case was being managed by Bill English (a rogue member of APRO), who sold the story to the tabloid Weekly World News, providing them with Betty's and Vickie's taped statements from Parkway Hospital.

To date, no records of the conversations between the witnesses and English or the tabloid have surfaced. It was during the tabloid involvement that the definite descriptions of fire begin to appear.
The light  from it was glowing, lighting up the whole road like it would set it on fire.
 VL- The Courier (Conroe TX) Feb. 22, 1981
"It looked like the whole sky had split and fire was coming down almost to the road.”
VL- Weekly World News March 24, 1981
"this fire was coming out of the bottom of it. And it wasn't just one little streak.'' 
VL- Feb. 28, 1981 interview, The Cash-Landrum UFO Incident by J.F. Schuessler
“a bright silver... an aluminous thing. It was diamond-shaped with fire coming out of the bottom,” flames produced “air brakes” sound, but louder. Asked if flames were like a rocket, “That’s the way it was, but it didn’t fly off.” No smoke was noticed. Flames produced a roar compared to tornado, big winds, big engine, “air brakes” sound, but louder.
BC- 1981 undated interview, The Cash-Landrum UFO Incident by J.F. Schuessler
“ ... fire was shooting out the bottom of it ... and then it would let up, when it would let up... it made... I don't know what kind of sound to tell you it was making, it... similar to air brakes... or?... a whooshing sound.”
BC- Bergstrom AFB Interview, Aug. 17, 1981
“... it was hanging up, you know, over the trees... when the fire'd comedown, it would lift up, and when the fire'd let up, you know... when the fire'd kinda go away... that's when it would come back down... and finally when big gust of fire came down and the sound was so shrill, that's when it lifted to where it would get up and go away.. the flame come down, you know? ... just like, just like a rocket” 
VL- Bergstrom AFB Interview, Aug. 17, 1981
Night rocket launch.

1985 Interviews of the Witnesses

July 10, 1985, Chris Lambright interviewed Vickie Landrum in her Dayton home, seeking further details. He tried to determine when and from where the object emitted the glowing light.


Vickie Landrum from 1985 interview with Chris Lambright
CPL: Were the flames coming down all the time? 
VL: No, no. They would let up and then come back down.
CPL: How could you see it if the flame went out?
VL: It didn’t go completely out. It went up and then it would come back down. It was like something, like a motor or something that was in trouble. And finally, when the flame come whooshing down, there was a loud noise…the loud noise it made…it lifted slowly.
CPL: Was the flame more or less constant, or did it just cease?
VL: It never did just completely cease. It was permanently…It was just a big light. It was glowing over the road so much we saw the object.
Two days later, Lambright followed up by talking to Betty Cash by telephone.


Betty Cash compares flame to blowtorch.
Blowtorch flame, warming up and in operation.
CPL: When the light came out, it came out only from the bottom?
BC: That is right. 
 Lambright asked for clarification on the color and characteristics of the light.
BC: I have described it on several occasions myself as a blow torch light. You know, a welding light…they don’t all come out one color…you can look at them and they are different colors. 
CPL: Are you talking about an arc-welder?
BC: Well, one of them welding torches that shoots flames out. A propane torch.
CPL: Right, a blow torch cuts a nice sharp flame and it’s real brilliant bluish color. 
BC: Yes, and if you will look you can see the yellow and white…you know. 
CPL: Did you notice anything about the flame itself that would have made it look very red, so you would have described it as red? 
BC: Well…not really as a red. But there was a reddish-yellowish looking color. 

Chris Lambright detail. Different versions attempting to show witness descriptions of object and lighting.

As a boy, Colby Landrum was rarely quoted at length in the press coverage, and he later withdrew, refusing to discuss the events. In his first television appearance as an adult, he described the object.
”It was a bright red, glowing object. Kind of looked as if you took a piece of metal and heated it up with a torch. It kind of looked like it was on fire, but it was kind of floating.”
Colby Landrum, UFO Hunters, “Alien Fallout” aired January 14, 2009

Conclusions

Betty Cash, who witnessed the encounter the most closely, did not mention fire or flames in the earliest two reports, just heat and light. Vickie Landrum initially said the object produced heat and was glowing as if by fire  As they were asked to repeat their story, it appears the glow and the heat may have combined into a description of “flames.” Admittedly, it’s a bit unclear and confusing, as are many details reported in the case. Often, eyewitness testimony can become unintentionally contaminated by external influences or just grow in the retelling.

In the interview at Bergstrom Air Force Base, Vickie and Betty included details of John Schuessler's investigation in their description of events, such as the measurements of the UFO's position and size. Colby was the only witness who could originally describe a shape for the object, Schuessler emphasized the diamond shape in his initial report. The witnesses absorbed the report, and this new information was incorporated into their story.

In examining the original testimony, the witnesses reported seeing the brilliant light and feeling heat produced by the unidentified flying object. The more dramatic description of fire and flames may have been a later interpretation.


Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Vickie Landrum's Phone Call to Report a UFO Encounter

The Call that Started it All

Vickie Landrum, 1985 AP photo
The Cash-Landrum encounter occurred the evening of December 29, 1980. Afterwards, the witnesses agreed not to tell others about it, fearing ridicule. When they began to feel ill, they did not initially associate the illnesses they were developing with the encounter, and it is not clear when they made the connection.

Betty was in such bad shape after a few days that they she was taken to Parkway Hospital in Houston. Doctors were unable to determine the cause of her illnesses, only treat her symptoms and release her after two weeks. When her problems forced her to be readmitted, Betty's cardiologist expressed frustration, saying if they knew the cause, she might be helped. At that point, seven-year-old Colby Landrum blurted out their secret. 

The details and sequence of events are not precisely known, but shortly afterwards, Vickie contacted Dayton police chief Tommy Waring. He was apparently at a loss as to what to do (the sighting was near Huffman, out of his jurisdiction), but he remembered having a business card with a contact number call for UFO reports. It took Waring two days to locate the number for Robert Gribble's National UFO Reporting Center (NUFORC) and give it to Vickie. On February 2, 1981 Vickie Landrum placed a long-distance phone call: 
"Yes sir, this is Vickie Landrum from Dayton, Texas..."
Video slideshow of Vickie Landrum's NUFORC Report


Transcript of Vickie Landrum’s call to Robert Gribble at NUFORC Feb. 2, 1981
(Recording edited only to remove contact info.)

“RG” indicates Robert Gribble of the National UFO Reporting Center in Seattle Washington.
(Note- Betty Cash was treated in Parkway Hospital, not Parkview)


Yes sir, this is Vickie Landrum from Dayton, Texas.

RG: Yes.

Uh, a deal came down and it was like fire was coming from it

RG: Uh huh. 

It got ahead of us and we had to stop, and we got out of the car,
which I didn’t stay out but just a minute ‘cause I had my 
little grandson with me, which I got custody of and I got back in the car.
There was nothing happened to me but my but eyes is burned.
But, but Betty Cash that was with me that night,
knots started coming and she had a real terrible headache.
and so she’s been in Parkview Hospital over two weeks, 
I got her out she stayed two weeks and I had to put her back.
And all of her hair has come out.
They can’t find out exactly what is wrong with her, they keep saying
it could be this, or it’s a possibility of that.
But, instead of her getting better, she’s getting worse,
and could it have had anything to do with that thing that we stood and watched,
‘cause we were close enough to it that we felt a fire from it.

RG: How close do you feel you were to that?

Uh, I’d be safe to say it wasn’t more than maybe a block and a half from it.
It lit up the whole element, and I thought that the World was coming to the end, I really did.
I told my grandson not to be afraid, that if he saw something come out 
of it, that it would be Jesus.
I thought that way I could explain to him to keep him from going into [unclear] 
(a little failure? heart failure? or possibly hysteria?)

RG: Was this a fairly large object?

Yes sir!

RG: Would it be larger than your car?

Yes sir!

RG: and did it land on the ground?

No sir. It come down almost to the treetops, and then it went back up and went to the right of us.
And we counted 23 helicopters. It might have been more. 
Come in on 1960 over here...

RG: Uh-huh

We counted those helicopters up there, so there has to be somebody that knew about it.
It was because from that, I don’t want her to die, I want her to get better.

RG: What roadway were you on at the time?

We was on the cut-off road, something called New Caney and Huffman road.
My name’s Vickie Landrum and her name is Betty Cash and she’s in Parkview hospital. Now, one of the doctors believes that we might have got some
radiation, but he is not positive.
He taken her blood and it didn’t show up in any of her blood but, in less than two weeks time she has lost all her hair- except down there at the bottom. And she has- she had hair that you wouldn’t believe.
And I mean this is not a hoax- I’m not calling you for a hoax.
Call the Parkview Hospital and verify what I’m telling you.
I’m not putting you on. I wish somebody would go to the hospital- and see that lady.

RG: We’re going to see if we can’t get some help for you and they’ll call ahead of time and make an appointment.

I- I mean, I- I’ve been afraid to call- afraid that somebody would think I was- you know, that it was a hoax. But since she’s had to go back in the hospital for the same thing and she’s not getting any better.
I have to have help from somewhere, if don’t she’s going to die.

RG: Okay, we’re going to do everything we can to help
Okay, thank you a lot.

RG Thank you.
(Ends)

Robert Gribble reported the contacted APRO and MUFON, which launched the beginning of the case as a UFO story.

(Note: John F. Schuessler erroneously dates this call as taking place on Feb. 17. Vickie makes reference to making more than one long-distance call to NUFORC, so he may have the date of a later call.  No recording of any later calls are currently available.)


Acknowledgments:
Wendy Connors first presented the NUFORC recording on SDI.
Thanks to Giuliano Marinkovic, for preserving Vickie's report and enhancing the audio clarity.

For details on Wendy Connor's original presentation, please see this earlier post:

Cash-Landrum: Phone Report of UFO to NUFORC








 © Curt Collins

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

From their own lips: Betty, Colby & Vickie tell their story

Below is a documentary-style narrative of the experiences of Betty Cash, Vickie Landrum, Colby Landrum told in their own words, primarily based on the transcript of their interview at Bergstrom Air Force Base on August 17, 1981. 

CAUTION: The words below are 99.5% those of the witnesses, but edited and reordered for into a chronological narrative. Some comments are derived from other contemporary documented statements.

Words in parentheses are either added from a question asked to turn a fragmentary answer into a complete sentence, or in some cases, to help define a reference. The language has been edited for readability, but care was taken to preserve the context and intent by the speaker. It is intended to be used as an informational aid, not a substitute for the original case documents.

WARNING: For historical accuracy, read the full Bergstrom interview transcript archived at CUFON:
CUFON: Bergstrom Air Force Base C-L Interview Part 1
CUFON: Bergstrom Air Force Base C-L Interview Part 2

DISCLAIMER: You should weigh original evidence and testimony whenever possible instead of relying on pre-digested, packaged products, even this one.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: Thanks to Betty Cash, Dale Goudie, Jim Klotz, Chris Lambright and George Sarran for making the Bergstrom AFB interview available to the public.


Betty, Vickie and Colby tell their story


THE ENCOUNTER

Betty: My name is Betty Cash, 52 years old from Dayton, Texas, now living in Fairfield, Alabama. Prior to the incident, I was feeling fine, and I was not sick until this happened. I had heart surgery in Birmingham Alabama in 1976. Nothing (else) other than just a hysterectomy when I was 29. I'm five-five and a half feet tall,  and I weigh 112 pounds now, because I have lost some weight. At the time of the incident, I weighed 118.

Vickie: My name is Vickie Landrum, and I'm live in Dayton, Texas, and am 57 years old. (Before the incident I was healthy,) about 22 years ago, I had hysterectomy. Other than that, I have never had nothing really wrong with me till this. I'm five feet exactly and I weigh about 138 pounds. I weighed 162 pounds, I was too heavy, so I guess my weight loss has done me a little good. I had a son that was a diabetic, my mother was a diabetic, but there's never been cancer in our family. This is my grandson, who I have legal custody of, Colby Lee Landrum, he’s seven years old.

Colby: I’m going to be eight in January.

Betty: I had a restaurant, well James did, I didn't, and I got a divorce. I had filed for it in January, or February, and I had gotten it in, July or August of 1980.  It was a restaurant and a grocery store. Couldn't make no money. Closed it up. I wasn't (working) that’s the reason we was just out tooling around.

Vickie: I was working after work, at a little place she had out on the (road into Dayton) and we were moving, in the process of moving to a bigger place, and we were just out riding around, you know like friends do, and we run into this thing.




Betty: It was on Farm Market Road 1485 between New Caney and Huffman approximately between nine and nine-thirty at night on December the 29th. I was driving, the three of us were in my 1980 Cutlass Oldsmobile. We hadn't thought about it being a Monday night because we'd had so many holidays, and we had gone to Cleveland that night to play Bingo. We got to Cleveland there was no bingo game. We figured out, well it was through the holidays they had canceled it. So we thought well, we'd go on to New Caney, 'cause they had Bingo over there also. We got to New Caney and there was still no bingo, not realizing that it was on a Monday night instead of a Tuesday, and we stopped at the truck stop restaurant there on 59 and 1485, must have been about eight, eight-thirty.

After we got through eating, we got in the car and started home, and we drove approximately twelve miles, when we spotted this object, and we kept watching it, we couldn't figure out what it was, not ever dreaming that we were going to run dead into it. But all of a sudden, when we got out on this country road, it just set down, almost level with the treetops. They measured, and I think it was about 60 to 80 feet (high) and we had stopped about 130 to 133 feet from the object.


I guess maybe I would have tried to have gone on under it, that's how scared I was. But Vickie screamed for me to stop, and right where she put her hands, her fingerprints are still on my dash, it melted my dash in the car with her fingerprints imbedded. I guess that the dashboard melted, her fingerprints right where she pressed on my dash, when I threw on my brakes to save, to keep from going under it, they're imbedded in my dash.

Well, it had lit up the entire sky. Well it was seen as far as fifty miles away from where we were. But tell you the truth, we thought the end of the world was coming. I mean we'd,  I'd never in my life gone through such a situation. But I knew that there was no way we could go under it the way the fire was shooting out the bottom of it.

But, on that country road, the lights were so bright, and the heat was so intense, I got out of the car. I don't know what my purpose was unless it was just normal instinct to think well, maybe I'd be safer outside than I would be inside. I had not killed the motor on the car, I had put it park. The radio was playing on low, but the car completely went dead. I mean, it was like somebody had turned a switch off on it.

We could not get up close enough to detect what the figure was. Or I couldn’t at least, the lights were too bright in my eyesight. (Colby said) it was a diamond shape. The only thing that I can believe that I can establish, maybe it was as large, if not larger than a water tower. It was over the road, it was- they have real huge tall pine trees in that area and it was hanging down over the pine trees. (There were no markings on the object) that I could see, the light was so bright. (There was a) shrill beeping sound the object was making. it was just like it was deafening. That's how shrill it was.

C. Lambright, based on witness testimony
Betty Cash's sketch of UFO
Vickie: The object was about the size of, I'd say a big water tower. Not at the top, you know, but I mean it come kinda down this a way, but it was long (vertical), it wasn't short, it was long. There was so  much light, the flame came down,  just like, just like a rocket, just like you'd shoot off a rocket or something.

Colby: I don't know what it was, but all I know is it was some kind of object, kinda yellowish-red. It stayed there for about 15 to 20 minutes.  I just wondered what it was, sitting there wondering what it was.

Betty: I walked toward the front of the car, and the light was so bright, and the heat was so intense, I didn't know whether to run, to get back in the car, or what, and I stood there for few minutes. Not too long, because it was so hot and the light was so bright. And then I started to get back in the car, and when I did, I had to use the bottom of my leather jacket. I touched the door handle, and the door handle was so hot I couldn't stand it with my bare hand, so I got the pocket of my leather jacket to open the car door and get back in. At this time fire would shoot out of it and then it would let up, when it would let up, it made- I don't know what kind of sound to tell you it was making, similar to air brakes or a whooshing sound.

Vickie: Colby Lee was screaming and crying and everything so, and I thought the world was coming to an end, and I believed that sooner or later we'd gonna have to meet somebody. I was telling him, look right in it. The object was was kinda like a flat... aluminum, I guess, you know, the inside of it looked dark, the object did, and I was telling him to look right inside if he saw a big man it'd be Jesus. And we set there and I kept talking to him to watch for that man to come down inside. And I looked at it from the time Betty got out of the car until she got back in, I got out for just a few minutes and burned my arm on top of the car, and this one (left hand) has always been a lot worse than this one. I was holding Colby Lee in and had my arm up on the car, you know, like you kinda hold somebody in the door, and I guess I looked at it too long. Because I was trying to keep him quiet and show him something that would be more pleasant that what he was seeing.

Betty: I was looking for a way out, and when the thing began to lift up, well we were all horrified. I finally got the car started and it was so hot I had to turn on the air conditioning in order for us to get cool. And by that time we were all burning up. It was just well it's just something really you've got to experience to really describe.

Vickie: There's something that Betty didn't tell when she was talking about the fire. When it was hanging up over the trees, when the fire would come down, it would lift up, and when the fire would let up, kinda go away, that's when it would come back down. Finally, when a big gust of fire came down and the sound was so shrill, that's when it lifted to where it would get up and go away.

THE HELICOPTERS

Betty: There was helicopters completely around the object, and its the type of helicopters that I've never been used to seeing. They were the ones that had two deals, two rotors on them, and they were quite a few. We drove on up the road and pulled over and stopped, and I counted twenty three. They had round (markings saying,) "United States Air Force". Vickie says she counted 26. Who knows? We were all so sick and burning and hot and scared till- that I don't say that we didn't vary.


Vickie:  I don't say the helicopters were from the Air Force.. I didn't see no sign, no name on them or nothing, I was too busy with the Colby, and when we stopped looking at them and everything, he was showing me, they had the twin rotaries on them. The only thing I can tell you is that, to me they, they looked just like this (photo of Army CH-47), and I couldn't see nothing on them. I might have counted more or less, but I was saying: 1, 2, 3, because they were coming, I mean, even when we got down there to the bank (back home in Dayton) we could look back and there were some that were going like they were going toward it. I mean some of them wasn't the double rotary type, some of them was the other type, they weren't quite as big, but what caught our eyes was the ones that had the double rotaries up there.

Betty: They’re weird looking.
Vickie: Well, they really were!
Betty: (The helicopters stayed with the object and) in fact, would you believe the first thing that entered my mind was about the pilots that were in the helicopters, because of the heat that we were feeling there. I was scared for them, to tell you the truth.

Vickie: I was too scared... put it that way, cause I ain't going to say I wasn't scared, cause  I was scared, I guess I'm a coward, but I was (too scared to notice many details).  I wish they would have asked me (about the object’s flame details) when I was under hypnosis. The reason I was hypnotized, because, I mean,  I knew I wasn't lying, and I did it because I wanted these other people to know I wasn't lying.

Betty: (As it left,) they drifted more to the west over toward Crosby and Intercontinental Airport was the way they were-  it was headed and the helicopters were on both sides of it and looked like they were trying their best to get around the top of it. It was unreal. In fact, even driving down 1960, when we stopped at the stop sign to turn onto highway 1960, we drove to the First National Bank in Dayton which, at the time, was under construction, and we could still see helicopters coming. Now whether they were going to help the other crews or what, I didn't take time to find out. I'd say (it lasted) about 15 to 16, 17 minutes, it seemed like hours to me, but it couldn't have been that long because when I got home it was ten minutes till ten.

THE INJURIES

(When I got home) I didn't report it to any of 'em, I was too sick, by the time I got home, I had blisters all over my head, my face, my back, my neck, I was burning from the inside out. I was completely blistered, in fact I have a scar over my eye where one of the blisters was.. Every time they would come up, they would break open and just run like water... just sticky water, there was no pus or anything, you know. I stayed in the hospital for a month, maybe a little bit longer at Parkway Hospital in Houston. I laid in that hospital and suffered that thirteen days before I would even level with my doctor. 

Vickie: I told Colby not to tell nobody...

Betty: Because I didn't want anybody to think I was crazy 'cause I had never believed in things like this. But it definitely didn't have little green men with pointed ears.

I had- still have diarrhea, I still have upset stomach, I still feel weak, I'm tired, I don't have any energy like I used to have, I have severe headaches- and I have- I'll bet I could count on my hand how many headaches I'd ever had in my lifetime, until this happened. But, it's unreal how my head hurts. My right ear is bothering me right now. Its the beeping sound, the shrill beeping sound the object was making. It was just like it was deafening. That's how shrill it was.

The only thing I know was that I was sick within 30 minutes after the time it happened, and burning up.  It was just like I had been blistered (sunburned) all over, like I had been laying on a beach, and it happened within 30 minutes after this incident. I was feeling fine before, then all this took place. The next morning I was so sick I couldn't even get out of bed to get myself a glass of water. I was craving water, dying of thirst, or I thought I was. I felt like I was so dehydrated.  
My lips were swollen, my ears were swollen about three times, in fact my entire body. My family didn't recognize me. When they came to the hospital, they were told what room I was in. Had they not known for sure that it was me, they wouldn't have known me.

(Dr. Shenoy and the others at Parkway Hospital) ran every test possible on me, and the said they could find NO problems wrong with my body anywhere, to cause me to be in that condition. 

After the incident, I'd get up to go to the bathroom, and I'd get so sick that I'd have to lay down on the bathroom floor until I got able to get back to bed.) I still have headaches, I still have upset stomach, I still can't take a hot bath, if I do, I look like a burn victim all over again. I can't stand the heat. I can't take the sunlight. I mean, it's just to the point where I have to stay in the house until it gets cool in the afternoon after the sun goes down, or either I am in the bed sick the next day. (I’d lost most of my hair after the incident, and)  I just got to pull my wig off about a month ago (July). I'm not retired, I'm just not able to go back to work. I would imagine that my medical bill has been around ten thousand dollars, or better.



Vickie: It seems like it's only my eyes and my arms affected. My eyes feel just like they've got sand in them, and I can get out in the sun or anything and it feels just like I want to just put my hand up there and just rub them out I guess, if I didn't make myself stop I could just rub them until I didn't have any eyes anymore.

You can see the scars on my arms, and when I get out in the sun you can see that this comes up in a big blister. My eye doctor said that there's a possibility that within a year or year and a half that he'll have to operate. The film is already has started forming a film, like cataracts, except that my eyes were burned so bad that they teared for about three months. Nothing but tears would pour, you know?, They was swelled so that I could hardly see. Dr. Chandler said that if they were regular cataracts hopefully that he could remove them and I'd yet have some of my sight. But if they're imbedded cataracts, that I won't never see again.


Vickie: When I went to the doctor there in Houston, I mean I was sick, I had the diarrhea and everything, but I was taking care of Betty, I was taking care of Colby, I didn't have time to go to the doctor, and I didn't have time to carry him 'cause he was like a little baby for over a month. I mean he had no control over his bowels, or his, you know, nothing, and I was taking care of him, and I wasn't going to leave him. The doctors down there asked me had I been around any poison oak or poison ivy on my arms. And when finally the blisters kinda cleared up and left, places healed up and looks terrible. They yet come up, and now the ones that come up is leaving knots.

This past Saturday we were out in the sun for quite a while, and the sun does it to me. Just like one's been right here it was a big old blister, you know, it'd go away and come up a like a scar. like this.


And my fingernails come off. They're they're back now, but they come completely off, my fingernails did. I saved the fingernails for some scientist. I've got them,  each one of them tagged and named.

Vickie: We was completely blistered (sunburned), and Colby's got scars on his face where he had hanging water blisters, on his little cheek and everything, over on that side. Just one, one side of his face because, the reason I believe its not on this side is because I was hugging that side to me, I think that other side is the one
that got it, the one that had the hanging blisters because one side wasn't blistered as bad as the other side.

Vickie: My hair didn't come out until about, it was about six weeks after the incident, about a month after the incident, my hair started coming out, and it's just come back, I mean this is the way it looks since it's come back, I had soft, manageable easy hair, extra fine hair, it was a little like baby hair, and it was kinda, you know, wavy, curly. I could do anything with it. After it come out and came back, this is what I got, I'm ashamed to even go to the grocery store.

Vickie: Dr. Chandler in Liberty is only an eye doctor, but I got all faith in him because he has a doctor that works with him that is one of the best I think, and he told me that when he felt he wasn't capable of giving me what I needed that he would turn me over to this doctor. You can't ask for nothing better than that.
I talked to (Betty’s cardiologist) Dr. Shenoy, but I never did see him as a patient, I was there now with Betty so much and talked to him. There was this doctor that saw me (in July, in connection with the filming of the television program, “That’s Incredible!”) Dr. Easley radiologist at the Medical Center in Houston.

Vickie: Nobody's never told me nothing. Except my family doctor told me that he couldn't doctor me because he didn't know nothing about it and that he would do me more harm than good, and he wasn't about to.

My eyes are bad and I can hardly see how to drive. I'd say I’ve spent approximately about six or seven hundred dollars on treatment for my eyes and Colby's eyes.

Colby: I didn't feel nothing until I got up the next morning.  I just had a bad virus.
(When I went to the bathroom) it was all runny. My stomach was just hurting real bad. I don't remember if I (threw up) or not. 

Vickie: Colby went from a size 6 slim blue jean and they fit him perfect, and when I went to buy him some clothes the other day, and I got them on him, and I had to go back to a 5 slim blue jean. But, what's so terrible about it, now this is what the doctor in Houston told me, and Dr. Rank from Wisconsin told me the same thing, that there's a possibility within the next eight to twelve years that Colby would come down with a form of leukemia, which wouldn't be leukemia, but if he was treated for leukemia, it could kill him. I mean, nobody knows how much radiation he might have consumed, or what kind it might could been, but it had to be radiation to have burned us like we were burned.

Colby: I lost just a little hair, a little bitty place started coming out, just that spot right there (the crown).



Vickie: I've been doctoring him at home for the simple reason that I always worked. When it got so I couldn't work anymore- my husband has a good job, but by the time we pay rent, bills and our car note and gas, there's very little left for groceries, much less for medical bills. So, I doctor him at home. 

Colby: (After it happened, I had some blisters.) They started popping every time I got in the sun they'd pop. Every time I get in the pool, my eyes start getting real red. I get sunburned after being out there for about a hour or 30 minutes. Sometimes (I still feel sick, and) my stomach was starting to hurt this morning when I was eating (breakfast).

Vickie:  They couldn't find out what was wrong with Betty, and I'm not going to put Colby through all this unless they come up with something without doctoring him for everything under the book.

Betty: You would be surprised of the people, the doctors even, that don't want to treat a person if they think you've had radiation burns. You would be surprised, and if you doubt me, get 'em and try to get a physician to test you.

REPORTING THE INCIDENT

Betty: Vickie is the one that called everybody and tried to get help for me. A policeman in Dayton is the one that gave her the number to call. We kept calling (Robert Gribble of the National UFO Reporting Center in Seattle) Washington. In fact I still have the phone number. They said that they would have someone come out and check. They got in touch with Bill English with APRO and he contacted us.

(NOTE: Near the end of February 1981, Betty called John F. Schuessler about the case, and they met the next day. The next week he met Vickie and Colby, then wrote up a preliminary report and filed it with MUFON and other UFO organizations. For some reason, during the Bergstrom AFB interview, Vickie and Betty make no direct mention of Schuessler, Project VISIT, only saying that “they” measured the UFO scene. Later, both Betty and Vickie refer to Schuessler, but say a “certain person”, deliberately not using his name. )

Betty: Allan Hendry (of the Center for UFO Studies), from Atlanta, Georgia contacted me and said he wanted to help any way he could and he's the one who asked me to write to Representative Charles Wilson, to Senator Lloyd Bentsen and to Senator John Tower, and he said he felt sure that that way I could get some help. Charles Wilson referred me to a UFO researcher or something in Van Nuys California, but Lloyd Bentsen wrote a real nice letter back and asked me to come here to Bergstrom Air Force Base and talk with y'all, and he felt sure that you-all would try to help in any way you could.

John Schuessler's Car Tag circa 1981
Vickie: I don't want no more uh, (UFO) investigators having me go over the deal, because the thing about is I was hypnotized, I have the tape if they want to hear the tape, that's fine, but I don't intend to go through it anymore. I don't, I don't, and there's a lot of quacks, there really is, that's supposed to be big UFO dealers and wheelers, and they're not after hunting the truth, they after something, proving something that's unreal. What was up there was real. It hurt us. It wasn't (from) outer space either.

Betty: And they're out for a story. And once they make their few dollars off their stories, which is not true nine times out of ten. Parts of it, I can say may be, if you're fortunate, but they misconstrue it quite often too.

Vickie: (After reporting the incident) I wrote (Texas Representative) Charles Wilson, he wrote me back a write-off letter. It was a thing where UFOs had been discontinued (cancellation of Project Blue Book) since 1973, I believe it said, and he gave me a whole list of who I might be able to contact. I turned it over and wrote him a letter on the back side of it and I told him exactly how I felt, and sent it back to him.

Betty: We don't need any legal advice. 'Cause, we have the proof, and when you have the proof, you don't need legal advice.

Vickie:  I wrote the Congress, and the way I feel, that if our government doesn’t know what that was that hurt us, then we're in a bad shape, because it had to be manmade. I don't think there are any little green men out there to make one. I never have believed in life on other planets.

Betty: I never have believed in it either. Who is responsible for us being injured? There has to be an answer somewhere, you know? I hope to find out what the object was, and what the purpose of it was, being there on the road at the time, and God forbid, I don't ever want anything to happen to any of my family or my friends, even to you or your family, even to an animal to what I've had to go through. It would satisfy my mind to find out what it was and what it was doing there. I believe that our federal government... we've got to have secrets, let's face it, in a very severe time like we are going through right now, but things that hurt the American people, then I think it's time they should be stopped.

Colby: Who’s supposed to protect us?

Betty: Well now, what can we do?

Vickie: Where... but where do we go?... What do we do? To put it point blank, we thought maybe you (the Air Force) could give us an answer of where to go from here, or what to do, because I'm gonna find the answer. 

We've been trying for seven, almost eight months now to get answers which we get in pieces, a little here, a little there, its pretty well like a puzzle you're putting together, and we’re gonna get it together, it's gonna be fit together. It might take me a lifetime,  but I intend to find it. I'm gonna find the answer, and it had to be something the government had up there, and I intend to find it.



(The meeting concluded with officers explaining that Project Blue Book was cancelled and the Air Force no longer investigates UFO cases. They were give damage claim forms and advised to get the help of an attorney to file them.)




Copyright 2013, Curtis L. Collins