The True Story of the Worlds First Documented Alien Abduction: A Glimpse Into the Lives of Betty and Barney Hill
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 committee- man 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 time that they could spend in New Hampshire. The summer weeks that his sons spent in New Hampshire were some of Barney’s happiest times.
When he relocated to New Hampshire, Barney had to leave family, friends, and the city way of life behind.
Except for the small com- munities 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 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. Ports- mouth 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 Hamp-shire. 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 Ports- mouth 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.