by UFO History Buff & Author, Charles Lear
While 1973 was dubbed “The Year of the Humanoids,” by David Webb in his publication for the Center for UFO Studies titled, 1973 – Year of the Humanoids, according to the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena 1978 UFO Chronology, that year had its fill as well. The compiler of this chronology was Fran Ridge, and he wrote the following as an assessment for that year:
I picked 1978 (to start with), by the way, because that’s my judgement for the year that the phenomenon generally took away the rich CE2s and old fashioned CE3s and left us with a much tougher research project. P.S. you remember 1978 was about the time when Bloecher’s Humanoid Catalog project was getting word of a puzzling rise in claims of on-board experiences, and Budd Hopkins became his understudy, collected the core cases for Missing Time, and the field soon ran away to Abduction and Strieber Land. There’s something important that happened there, but how much of it was “us” and how much of it was “them” is the mystery.
There are 49 humanoid reports in the 1973 chronology, 36 in the 1977, and 1978 comes in third with 27, but 1978 is a bit unique. There are commonalities throughout the descriptions of the reported humanoids, and this could also be said to be the year of silver spacesuits and helmets with antennas.
At the beginning of the year, January 5, 1978, there is a case from Santo Antonio de Caparica, Estremadura, Portugal, involving two men who had just left a beachfront café. According to the account, they saw a light descend into the woods near a campground, ran to check it out, and encountered a 2.1-meter-tall humanoid in a shiny, silver suit, with “a large white helmet with a narrow black visor across the eyes.” The creature is said to have seemed surprised, and to have turned and walked “with a heavy and slow motion” towards a hovering metallic-blue saucer with a dome on top. One of the men is reported to have heard a buzzing sound in his head during the encounter and to have suffered from insomnia afterwards. An eight-meter-diameter circle is said to have been discovered in the area the next day.
According to an account out of Cheshire County, England, dated January 27, 1978, four men saw “a silvery balloon-like object” that emitted a purple glow that made it difficult to look at. They watched it land on a riverbank and saw two “normal-sized” humanoids come out that were wearing silver suits and had miner’s lamps on their heads that also glowed purple. Cows in a nearby field became paralyzed, and the creatures penned one in a metal cage “and seemed to measure it.” As the men ran away frightened, “they felt a strange tingling sensation in their groins.”
Another case dated February 1 involving two silver-suited creatures comes from Lincolnshire, England. These creatures were reported to have been seen standing next to a landed disc.
May 10, Pelotas, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil: A witness reported being grabbed by two humanoids in tight-fitting shiny white suits and white helmets that had visors and two small antennas on top. After being taken aboard their craft, he reportedly saw two female humanoids wearing the same suits and helmets as the others, but they had “attractive capes” as well. They are described as being taller than the other two, with shoulder length hair, one blonde and one black-haired. They black-haired creature is said to have told him that he was going to be taken to their planet. The witness reportedly “declined the invitation and begged to be released,” was allowed to go, and watched as the craft took off and left at high speed.
July 4, Mt. Etna, Sicily, Italy: A report by “four Italian Air Force Witnesses” of a 40-feet-diameter saucer with a dome, two human-looking creatures with “long, golden hair wearing white robes, and “Three or four smaller beings with spacesuits and helmets.”
July 8, Lempdes, Puy-de-Dome, France: Witness reported seeing “numerous human-like figures wearing helmets and tight-fitting suits” through a transparent wall of a landed dome-shaped object.
July 11, 1978; Can Cifre, Ibiza, Spain: Two young boys reported an encounter with a robot-like creature with a bright metallic body and two things like antennas on its head that moved towards them in “incredibly long jumps.” As they ran away towards a barbwire fence, they reportedly saw a man that was over 2.5 meters tall with long black hair and a beard and “wearing a long white cape that was flowing in the wind.” They believed both creatures came from “a huge landed UFO.”
August 1, 1978; Clarksville, TN: A pregnant woman and her husband reportedly saw a UFO hovering outside an upstairs window. The woman is said to have fainted and then to have heard a voice with a Middle Eastern accent telling her to open her eyes. According to the account, when she did, she saw thin, white insect-like creatures in dark jumpsuits in the room. She communicated telepathically with “the leader” asking about its origin, panicked, screamed and started to faint. Moments later a needle was reportedly inserted into her belly, she passed out, and woke up to see “the taller creature talking to the others. She is said to have “claimed that she saw several helicopters flying around the hovering craft.”
Sept.15, 1978; Carpentersville, IL: A woman reportedly saw a six-feet-tall man in a silvery suit near a silver, domed disc sitting on the grass.
Sept. 17, 1978; Torrita di Siena, Tuscany, Italy: Report of car engine and lights failing, disc landing, two humanoids coming out of it and examining car, and then re-entering disc, which then took off. Following this is a report “shortly after” of the same sequence of events by R. Farelli, except that he was reportedly paralyzed, and the creatures are described as floating, five feet tall, wearing green coveralls, helmets with antennas, and face masks. Farelli is said to have suffered “eye irritation.”
Oct. 25, 1978; Tagliocozzo, Abruzzi, Italy: A farmer looking for a stray cow is reported to have come upon a “a large light brown object shaped like a shoeshine box on the ground” surrounded by lit windows. He is said to have seen six to seven small male and female humanoids inside. The females reportedly “were blonde and had beautiful pink skin and smiled at him” while the males are described as elderly, dark skinned, and ignoring him.
Nov. 25, 1978, Trier, Germany: A metallic oval-shaped object with a flashing red light reported over the car of a German couple with a pregnant nineteen-year-old American woman named Owens along with them. All are said to have experienced 90 minutes of missing time with Owens reporting under hypnosis that she was abducted by creatures with “huge” bald heads, deep-set eyes, greenish skin “with a roughness like mummy wrapping,” and hands with four fingers twice the size of a human’s.
The rest of the chronology seems to indicate that there was a flap in Italy throughout December that culminated with a security guard, Fortunato Franzetta, claiming with corroborating testimony from his co-workers, that he’d experienced a series of abductions from 1978 to 1981 by creatures over nine feet tall, with triangular yellow eyes.
Next week: The Italian flap.