It was 1962 and, being in a military family that seemed to move every year, we had just moved from Germany to Wurtsmith Airforce Base in Oscoda Michigan (Wurtsmith has been decommissioned – and Oscoda is now pushed as a vacation wonderland).

As a child of eight, I had no knowledge of UFOs or alien abduction. However, the year I spent at Wurtsmith changed me in many ways. The first incident occurred "by the book." I was sleeping, was somehow "taken," and found myself in a sterile looking room on a metallic table surrounded by tall (at least, they seemed tall to a little boy who was laying down) white creatures with large heads and enormous pitch black eyes.

This pattern repeated many times. In fact, I would somehow know in advance that they would make an appearance and, in terror, I would often wake in the middle of the night and lock myself in the bathroom where I would cower on the floor.

Eventually I lost my fear of the situation and actually began to feel close to these strange beings. They would communicate telepathically, and though they all looked the same to me, I "recognized" one in particular as always being there. Its presence soothed me, and in time I came to look at it as a parental figure.

One incident in particular has remained burned into my mind, still vivid and compelling. I was sleeping when I got that "I'm not alone" feeling. I opened my eyes and, as they became accustomed to the darkness, I saw several odd creatures all over the room. They were short, squat, powerfully built, and had a purplish/bluish pallor to them. In later years I referred to them as "purple apes." However, they actually looked more like the iconic troll image than apes.

Anyway, seeing these things freaked me out, so I closed my eyes and told myself (over and over) that I was just dreaming and that, when I opened my eyes again, they would be gone. Then I slowly opened one eye and there, to my horror, was one of these things with its head almost touching mine, its eye not more than an inch from my eye! This is the stuff of heart attacks, but I think I passed out. When I came to, I was on the usual metallic table, surrounded by "my" tall white creatures.

I told quite a few people about these "purple/blue apes/trolls" over the years, but was always met with derision. My wife in particular thought I was as mad as a hatter, and who could blame her? The whole idea of alien abduction is cracked enough, but when you add something like these trolls (which no other source ever mentioned), being laughed at becomes par for the course.

The abductions ended when I left Wurtsmith – I didn't have another experience of that nature until I was twenty. I had gone to visit a lumberjack friend in Oregon, and he put me up in a small cabin that was literally in the middle of nowhere. We were a great distance from the nearest road, and there were no other homes/cabins/people for miles. Of course, there was no electricity whatsoever. He took off for a couple days, and I was shocked by the total darkness that would descend on you when the sun went down (city people don't realize just how dark things can get).

I tended to sleep in the cabin's loft, a small room surrounded by glass windows and accessible by a six-foot tall ladder. One night I was laying there in pitch-blackness when an overwhelming light consumed the cabin from all sides. There was no noise at all. I was blinded and didn't know what was going on, when suddenly I heard the door open (being very anal, I always locked it). Still blinded by the light, my first option was to zip down the ladder and see what was going on. I chose option number two – I covered my head with the blanket and hoped it would all go away!

Oddly, I didn't have any recollection of this for about two months. Then suddenly, it all flooded back, though I still can't remember what happened once I covered myself with the blanket!

As always, life marches on. Decades after the Wurtsmith "troll" incident, I had gotten married, traveled the world, and become quite famous in my field. I had left the whole alien paradigm in the past (though I still tried to get my wife to believe me from time to time). One night I was randomly changing channels on my television set and came across a movie that seemed interesting. It was about alien abduction (the title was Communion), so I continued watching. My wife (a pragmatic, science-driven individual who would call herself "reality based") joined me and did her obligatory derisive laugh as the main character was taken, and then suddenly these purple/blue troll-like creatures appeared on-screen! I couldn't believe my eyes! I began to yell, "There they are! There they are!"

Today she still thinks I'm insane, and all incidents of "alien infestation" have ceased. But I know what I experienced, and I know that I did indeed come face to face with things that apparently do go bump in the night. I write this for one reason: if it happens to you, take some measure of peace in the knowledge that you're not alone.

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Published by the UFO Casebook, 01-23-07