Travis Walton's first televised interview (November 11, 1975)

0:00 promise so perhaps the best thing to do would be to for the first time publicly can recount your story from the time you were driving in the truck and what happened four off the first part I've been told by all the witnesses that you know we count my view of that um we just finished working because it was getting dark we packed up to leaving all got in the truck and we were riding up the road and uh I think we looked off to the right side and I saw a glow that I thought was so sunset or something I was about to comment on we came past the thicket that we were looking through to where we could see

1:02 more clearly and we saw a UFO hopping in the air about 30 yards off to the side of the road everybody started yelling and they stopped the truck I uh I wanted to get a closer look and I got out of the truck and I started over everyone was yelling that I should come back to stop I stopped and to look back from somebody called my name and I turned back around and it started to make a noise and started to move and I took one step I I crouched down behind the alarm it was there

2:04 just as I started to raise up I was just going to stand up I didn't have any intention of going any closer but it was just as if I was struck I it was kind of a physical blow to It just knocked me back I don't remember seeing any flash of light or anything like what they described I just I just lost consciousness and I regain consciousness I would I was looking up at a light shining down on me from the ceiling I could tell I was leaning up on a bed or a table or something because the ceiling was close back hours in a lot of pain I I couldn't I couldn't quite bring myself totally awake what type of pain what parts of your body uh it was kind of like in my head but just

3:07 all over it I can't describe it I I believed that I was in the hospital and I was I was looking up at the ceiling and I I didn't make any attempt to move because of the pain I was in but I I felt something Laying across my and I I looked down and it was a it was sort of a a flat thing that kind of curved across like that my I couldn't focus my eyes very well but I I looked beyond the the top edge of the I think it was laying across me and I saw

4:08 two men leaning over me they were they were they weren't really men they were a lot like they were a lot like men but they weren't quite human what they physically looked like they had kind of underdeveloped features and no hair of any kind and they were dressed in kind of a brownish Orange about how tall were they were slightly shorter than myself what type of clothing is it dressed it was sort of a loose cover off I I didn't see any buttons or anything like that but I being in so much pain and everything I I

5:10 I didn't even think I just lashed out and uh knocked them back I could see that there was two on the right side and and one on the left jumped into the corner did you actually strike them did you actually touch them when you flashed that yes I did I kind of hit these two with the back of my arm they fell back really easily I feel like hitting a person would yes they seem light like they weren't heavy but uh I I couldn't stand up very well I leaned against there was a bench across the back wall I said the back wall I mean there was only one door and I grabbed a

6:11 two a clear piece of glass or something and I I tried to break off the end to get something sharp to defend myself with but they didn't try to approach they just kind of put out their hands like that and I I was leaning I couldn't stand up very I was breathing very heavily on they just they didn't try to approach or or anything they just left they just ran out real fast and I was alone there for for several minutes and I I couldn't catch my breath it's very hot and I I was afraid they'd come back and so I I left they'd gone there was a

7:11 corridor outside and they went to the right and I went to the left and went through the door you know there was no door it was just a whole doorway an and uh I it was a curving hallway because it went it curved to the right there was another door with no doorway it was just the whole and I went into a room there and had chewed on very far and very far distance at that point it was only about 30 feet or 40 feet I don't know not very far no not not even that far I don't remember it was very narrow cordless it was definitely lit I went into this room that you could see out it was it was you could even see the stars back

8:13 through the wall I just came through okay it was I could still see that that there was walls but I could see the stars at the same time and it didn't look like Windows no like that because there was nothing in the room but a chair with some controls and knobs and things I just kind of I was I was there when I was frantic and I I won just moved around there for a while and I am started fooling with the buttons there did you sat in the chair and I did later at first I just touched it man I didn't think I should be I was afraid

9:15 I'd mess something up and somebody would and um I heard somebody come in and I turned around and it was a man just just like people I mean maybe it wasn't like the other creatures or whatever at all he he looked just like you and I except he had a helmet on a sort of a clear helmet that they've got hair and everything started babbling questions tonight I ran over there and he wouldn't he wouldn't answer me he just took me by the arm and wanted me to go with him I thought he maybe he can't hear me through the so we went out to the door down to the right and and out to the it was a there was a small room there it

10:16 had doors on it and it was it was kind of like an airlock and it was just a small room with nothing in it and then there was a door that went outside and um I think it was a ramp that went down and it was cool out outside it was you know I could feel wind it was there was a draft or something it was a large room at this thing was oh setting on the floor in there and uh it was it was shaped like like the the drawing that they made like the things I saw the first time only when we bigger and it was there was two other things and then the other UFO looking things look like flying saucers kind of except they were grounded an oval shape in there and really shining like

11:18 it was a it was a big room like there was a lot more room in there and it was a it was a curved ceiling and it curved this way and it had a flat hands to the room I came out of the door out of that first ship facing this way and there was a doorway across the in in the far wall he's led me across there and and threw that doorway down a to a room in and there I'd had a burning in my chest and it was it was starting I I felt better I I was trying to get this this man to tell me what what you know I asked him if he was from Earth and just anything I could think of in and he wouldn't answer it

12:22 was the expressionless to the ebony expression no he looked friendly and he kind of he gestured and and smiled but I there was no words in this place that you were in could you see out at all no there was no way out there so you were going from actually from one ship to another was that essentially yeah yeah this must have been inside of the larger building or ship I don't know if it was a large ship or a building okay there's no way I never felt any motion or it was just like being in a large building all the time and everything's was led down the hallway the man sat me in a chair and in a room with three other people that were like himself they were dressed in blue

13:25 he went out there was a door on the other side and he went on through I sat in the chair and I tried to get the people to talk to me that were there and they didn't have things on their head and and so I thought that maybe they could hear me but they they wouldn't answer either I was two men and a woman in the room after the first man left a man and a woman came from around the table and they each took me by the arm they led me over to the table and it got me up on the table and they they put a a deal over my face it was kind of like an oxygen mask thing it was kind of clear plastic and it had a around black thing on it about that big just attached to it and I looked up at the ceiling which was

14:26 just it was all solid light there wasn't any light fixture or anything but like in the room just coming from the ceiling and that was last I remembered I I went to sleep until I woke up I was laying on the pavement it was very cold I woke up very suddenly and I was I looked up up the roadway I was laying outside it was night and I could see a on the bottom of a of a flying saucer that looked just like the rounded ones that were inside there and uh it was very shiny but the only light came out of the bottom but then that went off and it just went straight up really fast just without a sound what were your feelings at that point were you still in pain did you know where you were

15:28 I didn't know where I was immediately I recognized the roadway and I could see a light down the hills where I ran down that way it was about a mile or have a half a mile to Heber and I ran down to the phone boats with that is by the gas station there and I called my brother-in-law I don't know what I said I was I was hysterical and he answered and said who is this and I tried to tell him and he said I think you got the wrong number

16:29 and he started to hang up and I was screamed at him that you know it was me and so he said he stopped and he he said oh okay I'll get somebody here to to come and get you and I hung up and I just couldn't stand up anymore and I just sat down there doing physical pain no not not at the time I I didn't feel any more pain I just was so weak I couldn't stand up I was extremely thirsty and I didn't I've been able to make any purpose out of that or anything but that's the way it happened we'll be joined by Jim Lorenzen of Ariel phenomena research organization after these messages we've been joined Now by Jim Lorenzen who is the director of apro the aerial

17:31 phenomena research research organization before we get to you I think there's one question that uh I would like to pose to Travis and it's the question that's been bothering a lot of people Travis why did you why didn't you bring your story to the media well they my family uh uh told me about the news people and all the people that were crowding around and I was just in no condition to to talk to anybody especially you know I'm all of people like that I just I just couldn't handle it is that typical gym in Kansas we live in some cases yes I could I can vouch for what he said because uh when I saw it first saw Travis he was in a very unsettled state and uh he was really in no position to defend

18:32 questions or to respond you have listened to the description that he gave us of his ordeal what are your comments your reactions in comparison with past cases well I was struck by the fact that he described these beings that didn't look quite human he described them precisely the way another person who's describing who had a similar experience now this case has not been published anywhere and no case like it I know have been it's been part of it so it's something that Travis could not have read anywhere and this the descriptions are identical there was some apparent conflict between different organizations UFO organizations over Travis's story why are you defending it and why did the others seemingly discounted well some people get concerned about their image and they get they don't

19:33 realize that this subject has many facets to it that that can be well embarrassing in the sense that public acceptance is lacking the story s uninitiated pretty wild I think is the fact that we our organization has now going on 24 years experience I made us able to cope with this in a much more uh thing and realistic manner than people without that kind of experience could you tell us what kind of testing that Travis has undergone what the results were of that and what the plans are for the future well I can do this generally we have him checked by a couple of MDS and they they ran some tests I don't have all the results but I can say this that uh that there was a urine analysis done on the first urine sample after the incident and this completely does away with the idea that there was any drug involvement that some people brought up

20:35 uh that and the blood sample is really straighten that out there's there's none of that involved uh and uh he's been interviewed at Great and great depths by some very well respected uh psychiatrists and they have concluded that he is not a party to any hopes that he's telling the truth foreign witnesses to the Armenia calling experts like this to interview Witnesses of course we call them in because we feel they're qualified to make those judgments and uh I have no trouble accepting those judgments at all particularly as I mentioned since parts of the story really correspond with cases that we know of already was this under aggressive hypnosis now regressive hypnosis has been performed by still another man in the practice performed by Dr Jim harder of

21:37 Berkeley University of California at Berkeley and he's our research director and he is a real specialist in this sort of work and has been involved in quite a few other cases under the regressive hypnosis he relived this thing just essentially as you saw here probably with a little more detail what other kind of tests would he be going through in the future well you see we're really sort of past the testing stage in a sense in other words uh from now on I think you'd more you'd be more likely to call it research we hope to have this memory the blocked memory relieved so that we can get a full account of what happened this this may take time and there may be a program delay that we just have to wait for it'll just depend on how how he feels as time goes by why not the polygraph test this has been a major

22:38 criticism all right because uh a lot of people have criticized it because I think polygraph is a lie detector because it's called that but it's not and Travis was under that impression too he was anxious to take the lie detector a polygraph test uh I advise them not to and several other people advise him not to because what it actually measures is stress and questions about stressful memories would bring stress reactions just as well as anything else so it would have been meaningless to have him take that test at the time it could have been in one of the psychiatrists said it would have been a disaster for him to take it at the time it would have treated a lot of false Impressions how would you explain the the other six Witnesses taking a test and having passed it then well their their memory is of course are not blocked they remember what happened it wasn't the same sort of stressful situation that Travis has obviously gone through

23:41 what would you like for your future what would you like to have come of this acceptance of myself in the future I have had a lot of offers that of people trying to turn it into some kind of a profitable thing but I have no interest in any of those kind of offers I just want the truth to be known I right well I have intentions to cooperate with research with the reputable men that are you know scientifically interested uh like women with Apple as far as any kind of a big you know project like that yeah I think we've talked about this to the seven Travis doesn't want to make a big deal out of it he just wants to quietly find out what went on in that

24:41 period if it's possible if it'll help Advance the state of knowledge on this subject do you wish it had never happened to you well hindsight I don't know what happened Patton