Mass UFO Abduction at an Army Base
Georgia on my mind...
Conspirators!
We thought it was time to bring back some alien love for this week’s Nibble, a tale by a former US soldier. And it’s, uh… pretty nuts.
Mass abduction? Check.
Memory wipes? Check.
Mysterious illnesses? Check.
An air battle between a UFO and a helicopter? (Wait, what?!)
Let’s not waste any more time. It’s time to discuss the incident at Fort Benning.
Panic! At the Barracks
In Fort Benning, Georgia on a “hot sticky southern night” during September of 1977, John Vasquez and around 1000 of his fellow soldiers were called outside of their barracks to an open field. It was unusual for this to occur at all, and John recalls the soldiers feeling nervous waiting to find out what was going on. (Should have just stayed inside, bud.)
As the soldiers stood waiting in formation, a strange cluster of stars started to move in odd formations, almost like they weren’t stars at all. Then, suddenly, there was a low rumbling followed by a bright, white and blue light. Some soldiers ran. Some screamed. Others seemed to be frozen, “asleep while standing in formation” with terrified or strange expressions on their faces.
Vasquez and some of the other soldiers (those who were able to move) darted back to the barracks and hid in a crawl space. Outside, they heard that same rumbling in addition to the screams of soldiers. Then blinding lights streaked into the building and a female, “robotic” voice said, “It’s okay. Don’t be afraid.”
They eventually left the crawl space and Vasquez noticed a small dark figure scurry around. Then he heard a pop and felt like he’d be shot, and blacked out.
E.T. probe home
Vasquez went in and out of consciousness, all the while feeling like he was being lifted upward. He remembers being asked “how do you feel” by that strange robotic voice, then opening his eyes. He was in an unknown location, surrounded by rows and rows of metallic slabs (like the one he was on) that held men from his unit and others from the field. The voice piped up again at this point and said “go to sleep.” He blacked out again. (Bottle that voice! And short Ambien stock!)
When Vasquez awoke again, he was in a separate location but still laying down and unable to move. Oh and there was a “creature” visible this time. He described it as having a large, lumpy head, no ears, a small mouth and nose, and extremely large, dark eyes.
And even though the alien didn’t move its mouth, Vasquez could hear it telepathically. It “demanded” that he look in its eyes. He obeyed and in its eyes, he saw visions of oceans and himself surrounded by water. Then he saw a planet destroyed in a violent, fiery explosion. (By the way, we’ve seen reports of people seeing climate disaster through alien telepathy before…)
Then Vasquez saw a humanoid being with pale, white skin, a small nose and mouth, no hair, and “liquid eyes.” It was wearing a white uniform. He slipped back into unconsciousness.
Yo, where’s this helicopter UFO fight you mentioned? That’s the only reason I’m reading.
When Vasquez came to once more, he was standing in the formation outside of the barracks, just like he had been before all of this started. Only he wasn’t in the same place he was standing before (was in the front, but now in the back).
The soldiers walked back to the barracks where they noticed their uniforms were buttoned unevenly and covered in a weird material. Some of the soldiers were sick and disoriented. Their watches all displayed different times -- 7:30 pm, 3:00 am, 4:45 am. Vasquez noted that some of the soldiers spent all night with sheets over their heads like scared children (some with flashlights on underneath the covers). Some saw hallucinations. No one really slept at all.
Over the course of the next week, it gets even weirder. The soldiers at Fort Benning noticed their commanding officers were gone. They thought it was some sort of training exercise and began conducting war games with neighboring camps. Here is some of the strangeness reported during these war games:
The sky “turned around like a gyroscope” as if they were stationary but it moved.
Invisible force fields kept them from moving down a hill but if they all pushed on it together, they could move it. (Many hands make light work I guess…)
They saw an entire unit of doppelgängers, identical to themselves, standing in a circle at the bottom of a hill. (*insert Spider-Man pointing meme*)
A blinding light came down from the sky and soldiers who crossed under it were teleported to another location, hundreds of yards away.
A large object with different lights moved across the sky. They fired on it with a missile (I mean, hey, why not right?). But the missile was “consumed by a massive ray of light” and instead of exploding, it fell back to earth and hit the ground harmlessly.
They fired with guns at that same large object and it fired back “balls of light.” When one of these balls hit a military helicopter that had come to aid the camp and it lost mechanical function and crashed to the ground.
Some soldiers were hit by the balls of light and immediately erupted in red, painful welts.
Vasquez climbed back into the barracks’ crawl space and inside there, was grabbed by something “definitely not human” that appeared to be bleeding. When touched, his mind “left his body” for a period of time.
Ha, aliens? Oh that was just...uhh...a Rubella outbreak. -- US Military
Most of the soldiers were left with severe psychological trauma and "missing time" gaps. Military documents from that time only state that there was a Rubella outbreak in September 1977 that was responsible for the rashes found on the soldiers. But the CDC was never contacted despite being less than 2 hours away in Atlanta...
So fast forward to 1989. Vasquez started remembering these events in dreams. And he wanted to investigate further. So he tried hypnosis therapy and it all came back to him. He also found one other serviceman who remembered the events.
Additionally, Vasquez has medical records from his injuries that prove he was a part of Delta Company, First Battalion, First Infantry at that time. Yet official military documents from that unit are non-existent.
Dive, duck, dip, dive, and dodge
If you’re interested in some deeper dives into this one, there’s a few:
Here’s the book on the event that was co-written by John Vasquez
Here’s part 1 and part 2, a double feature podcast by Conspiracy Theories pod
Sure, this one comes from repressed memories of one (or two) people. But it’s so crazy we had to tell you about it. Have another, non-alien explanation you’d like to share? Let us know in the comments!
And as always,
Stay ‘spicious.