SUBJECT: WOMAN SAYS CLOSE ENCOUNTER LEFT SCARS FILE: UFO1276 NEWS CLIPPING SERVICE DATE OF ARTICLE: March 15, 1989 SOURCE OF ARTICLE: Post-Herald LOCATION: Birmingham, Alabama BYLINE: Kathy Kemp ======================================================== (C) Copyright 1989 ParaNet Information Service All Rights Reserved. THIS FILE WAS PROVIDED BY THE UFO NEWSCLIPPING SERVICE AND PREPARED BY PARANET ALPHA -- PARANET INFORMATION SERVICE PARANET INFORMATION SERVICE BBS PARANET ALPHA DENVER, COLORADO NOTE: THESE FILES ARE NOT FOR REDISTRIBUTION OUTSIDE OF THE PARANET INFORMATION SERVICE NETWORK ======================================================== WOMAN'S CLOSE ENCOUNTER WITH UFO LEFT LASTING SCARS By Kathy Kemp Post-Herald Reporter Cr: L. Phillips LINCOLN--Betty Cash thought the world was coming to an end. In the Bible, she knew, it was written that a great flame would destroy the Earth. And all she could see as she stood on that lonely stretch of Texas road and stared toward the heavens was scorching ball of fire. "It lit up the sky like it was daylight," Mrs. Cash says, sitting in the den of her sunny mobile home on Lake Logan Martin in rural Talladega County. "That's the first thing that came into our minds, that the world was ending. That thing was so bright, it took us a while to get our sight to where we could see it was actually an object. "I have never been so terrified. All we could think of was how are we going to get out of here without being burned alive." Eight years have passed since Mrs. Cash--along with her friend Vickie Landrum and Mrs. Landrum's grandson, Colby-- confronted what they thought was the apocalypse. The group had gone out the night of Dec. 29, 1980, in search of a bingo game, forgetting that the halls would be closed for the Christmas holidays. They were returning to their homes in Dayton, Texas, on a deserted stretch of road near New Caney when they had what UFO researchers would later refer to as a close encounter of the second kind. After their eyes had adjusted to the ball of fire, the women and the young boy began to make out a diamond shaped object that was spitting flames toward the ground. As the flames shot out, they could hear a whooshing sound, and the object--which Mrs. Cash says was about the size of a country water tower--would rise a bit higher in the sky. Later, while she lay in a hospital bed with burns and what appeared to be radiation poisoning, Mrs. Cash would tell a fantastic tale. Mrs. Landrum and Colby, who were treated for similar symptoms, would confirm her story. They said that 23 helicopters--the sophisticated double rotary models that they later identified as CH-47 chinooks--were flying around the fiery object, as if they were trying to either pull or escort it to another location. They said that although the temperature at the time was in the 40's, their car got so hot that Mrs. Cash had to use her leather jacket like a potholder as she opened the driver's door to get back in. An indentation in the dashboard of Mrs. Cash's 1980 navy blue Cutlass is actually the handprint of Mrs. Landrum, who rested her palm on the dash as she stared out the windshield, they said. Since then, both women have developed numerous health problems, and Mrs. Landrum's grandson has shown signs of emotional distress. Mrs. Cash said she was in the hospital for six weeks with blisters, burns, headaches, vomiting and diarrhea, and she has photographs of herself that show great clumps of hair missing from her scalp. Mrs. Cash, who grew up in Birmingham and had lived in Texas 30 years, returned to Alabama in early 1981 to live with her mother, who provided the nursing the hospital told her she needed. Divorced from her first husband in 1979, Mrs. Cash married again several years ago and moved into the mobile home by the lake. Although many have dismissed their experience as imaginary, Mrs. Cash and the Landrums have a strong ally in the Texas based Mutual UFO Network, a international non profit organization that investigates and documents UFO sightings. "As far as I'm concerned, it's one of the most spectacular cases I've ever seen," says John Schuessler, a Houston engineer and MUFON deputy directory. Schuessler, who has been with MUFON since the late 1960s, investigated the Cash-Landrum case shortly after it happened and has followed it ever since. "It's a very real situation. Something happened to them. They were mistreated by some kind of object. You can call it a UFO. That doesn't mean it was from outer space. "Whatever it was, I'm convinced that their health state changed drastically right after it happened. I have doctor's statements confirming (Mrs. Cash's) burns. And we also had a number of people in the area who saw what they saw, only not so close." Convinced that the fiery object was something the United States military was moving from one location to another, Mrs. Cash and the Landrums filed a multimillion dollar lawsuit against the government. A Texas judge refused to hear the case, but the women haven't stopped trying to get their story told in either a courtroom or--better yet, they believe--a congressional hearing. Encouraged by MUFON and Schuessler, Mrs. Cash has written dozens of letters--mostly to government agencies and politicians, who thus far have been able to offer little more than sympathy. The government has denied any knowledge of the incident Mrs. Cash has described. Schuessler says MUFON investigators weren't able to find any military personnel who would acknowledge that a group of helicopters was in the area that night in 1980. Most recently, Mrs. Cash has been writing to U.S. Sen. Howell Heflin, D-Ala. In a letter dated Jan. 31, Heflin told Mrs. Cash that he has contacted the U.S. Department of Defense and asked for an investigation of Mrs. Cash's claims and a full report. "I honestly don't think we'll have to go back to court," she says. "I think the government's going to break down and do something." In the meantime, she and Mrs. Landrum, who still lives in Texas, continue to talk publicly about their experience. Articles about their ordeal have appeared in newspapers and magazines around the world. Several television shows have featured them, including "That's Incredible," "Good Morning, America" and a syndicated special called "UFO Coverup." In the latter show, which aired last year, two other participants whose identities were concealed said they worked for the government and that the Cash-Landrum incident was a top secret maneuver in which the U.S. military was transporting the alien craft. Mrs. Cash says she isn't convinced that what she saw came from another planet. She believes the diamond shaped object was a military project--perhaps a nuclear powered torch designed to light up a modern day battlefield, as one MUFON investigator has suggested. If the government was responsible, Mrs. Cash says, it should have to pay her medical bills. Since the incident, she developed breast cancer that required mastectomy, and she still has bouts with diarrhea, headaches and stomach cramps, she says. MUFON's Schuessler believes Mrs. Cash may never learn what happened that night. "It had to be something very unusual," he says. "It burned the road below, and it burned the trees. My personal theory is that it was some kind of helicopter unit, like the one in Iran, when they attempted to rescue the hostages." Mrs. Cash, 60, says she won't give up until someone in Washington gives her some answers. "Before 1980, when I heard somebody talk about UFOs, I'd laugh about it," she says. "I'd think, 'Boy, these people are ready for the little men in the white coats.' "But honey, this made a believer out of me." ================================================================= 5/89 ********************************************** * THE U.F.O. BBS - http://www.ufobbs.com/ufo * **********************************************