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Travis Walton-Fire in the Sky


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Decker

Decker

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Staff member
In November of 1975 one of the most famous UFO abductions (?) ever happened involving a "logger" named Travis Walton near Snowflake, Az. This case was examined by UFO researchers and skeptics from all over the world, not the least of which was Phil Klass. (In a humerous side-note during an interview with Travis and his then brother in law, Mike Rogers, Klass exploded on the air calling Mike Rogers a "God-Damned Liar" on the Larry King show. Sound familar?)

On March 28, 1993 I interviewed Walton on UFOs Tonite! for one hour. At that time UFOs Tonite! was still only an hour in length, but we covered most of his experience. You will hear callers that were not happy with how the film depicted the abduction experience ... well that is Hollywood. At anyrate you will hear my take on it and of course Waltons.

Also, as an aside, I was hired by one PR company to escort a group of British movie fans that won a contest in the UK, and took them to where Walton claimed his abduction experience. Buddy, it was out in the boondocks ... but the upside was ... one of the winners was their example of a city councilman who was a fan of Irish Whiskey. One night after bumming around the countryside we joined up in this guys room and put a dent in his bottle of Irish. :D They were a really nice group of people. Enjoy....

Show Opening

https://www.theparacast.com/darkmatters/WaltonOpen.mp3

Travis Walton Show

https://www.theparacast.com/darkmatters/TravisWalton.mp3

Travis Walton -Wiki
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Fire in the Sky - Wiki
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Film Trailor
 
One thing you can say about Walton is that he really has grown up as a human being since the incident. At the time he was a wild long-haired pot-smoking rabble rouser from the sticks. He's now cleaned up considerably and turned into an articulate and calm person. Of course, he's now middle-aged, too, so that might have something to do with it.
 
Schuyler said:
One thing you can say about Walton is that he really has grown up as a human being since the incident. At the time he was a wild long-haired pot-smoking rabble rouser from the sticks. He's now cleaned up considerably and turned into an articulate and calm person. Of course, he's now middle-aged, too, so that might have something to do with it.
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Seems like a nice guy - I don't get any phony feelings about him at all. I don't know if he's telling the truth or not, but I don't get the usual 'liar bell' ringing in my ears!
 
Cailean said:
Seems like a nice guy - I don't get any phony feelings about him at all. I don't know if he's telling the truth or not, but I don't get the usual 'liar bell' ringing in my ears!
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I agree. The more I have seen Travis and heard him tell of his account, the more I believe him.
I also appreciated Don's comments about taking the movie as a movie, nothing more. Movies like these are made to appeal to a wide audience and, like it or not, they are not documentaries.
 
Personally I believe his story, Travis would make a great guest on the Paracast. Would love to hear more of the story, since the callers really dragged in this particular show. Don you were to nice to them ;P. I think about 66% of the show were callers going on and on and on...
 
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I listened to the program and have been trying to complete a sort of "crash course" in the Travis Walton incident. But after listening to the program, and before searching out the other side of the story, there were some things that didn't feel right to me about Mr. Walton's interview:

First, on the issue of callers' objections to the very disturbing on-ship scenes being so different from Walton's story. Walton very nonchalantly replied by saying those scenes are "truthful" in the sense that they help evoke in the viewer the kind of horror he felt on board the ship.

But think about this. Put yourself in the shoes of someone who had been the victim of a criminal abduction. Your abductors messed with you, and then returned you to your former life. Now decades pass by, and the offer comes along to make a movie about your experience. Here's a chance to reach millions of people with your story, some of whom may have been dealing with a similar painful experience. Seeing your story might help other abductees feel like they're not crazy, and they're not alone. But the scenes having to do with exactly what was done to you by your kidnappers were totally different from what you had reported. I'd think anyone would be pretty pissed off about that! But Walton seems to take it all in stride. You really can't detect any emotion, any strong feelings whatsoever about being stolen by strangers, physically restrained and messed with before being set free. Was it really that horrible, or maybe did it never happen at all? Oh, but you can buy his book to learn more about what really happened, he adds.

Then there was one female caller who claimed to be an experiencer, and she obviously felt betrayed by the movie. Just from listening to her for those few minutes, absorbing the deep hurt she was expressing, I tend to believe that something really happened to her, and that she was looking to Mr. Walton and this movie with some sort of hope that she might be helped, that she might gain some inner sense of validation. But if I had to pick a word, Mr. Walton seemed really indifferent to her, a fellow victim, and again just passed the buck on to the movie producers. No leadership roles in support groups are in Mr. Walton's future, I can see that!

(Interestingly, it seems in these interviews Walton always says things like, "I'm not responsible for what they did with the movie." Why, he was just as shocked as anyone when he saw the final product in the theater. However, in this interview he gave to UFOAZ, he claims he constantly wrote letters and sent faxes objecting to all the script changes, giving you the impression he was a watchdog on the whole project, trying to get the story "back on what actually happened; and I think I was successful to some extent," he says. "You should have seen the stuff they wanted to do [starts at minute 4:25]." So was he powerless and kept in the dark or not? Just doesn't add up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6V46-O1ysAI&NR=1&feature=fvwp"
 
Then, there was the 12-year old boy, Eric, who called in. He and his mother, who had called in earlier, had seen the movie together--Eric saw it TWICE--and it sounds like it provoked many lengthy dinner table discussions between them. He was obviously excited to talk to Walton, and you could hear the softening in Mr. Ecker's voice at the arrival of this young fellow on his show. But Walton just seemed to blow Eric off completely. Eric had questions he wanted to write out and mail to Walton, and as Eric departed, I don't think Walton said anything! Or at best he made some sort of faint grunt that you might interpret as a weak "Yup". I just wanted to reach through my iPod and belt the guy!!! But, always on message, Walton didn't miss the chance to plug his book again before Eric was gone.

Lastly, the ONLY place in the Dark Matters interview where Walton shows any sort of strong feeling is when the discussion turns to Phil Klass' efforts to debunk Walton's story. Nothing else really bothered him or got him off message until that name was uttered. Just thought that was telling.

I think of Walton, and I think of the guest, "Doug", who Dave and Gene had on their latest show. Doug sold me on his experiences. Maybe he's just a better actor than Walton ... I don't know. But Doug seemed affected even up to this very day by some sort of presence that had intruded upon his life. Walton just seems like he's bored by his own story.

Just my impressions, for whatever little they are worth ...

Travis.jpg


Z Z Z Z Z Z​
 
I just happened to follow this case from the beginning. It was badly mishandled from the start by so-called self-appointed experts intruding themselves on the scene. Here's Travis, who at that time was a young shit-kicker long-hair country kind of guy who smoked a little weed, drank a few brews, was uneducated, out of High School, maybe, in a jeans & boots job in the woods. Not saying he wasn't hard working, but he was at the time of life when young men have a lot of testosterone, little sense, and if they make it through their twenties without a little jail time they are damn lucky. In other words, I feel a little affinity for him. He did a cameo in the movie where he walks by the camera to saunter across the street and looks back. You can see the whole thing right there.

In short, he is a very unsophisticated guy who gets thrown into this turmoil of a case where everyone says they are going to 'take care' of him. So he gets involved in a book deal. Someone else writes a book about him, and there's this movie thing.

So the movie gets made, but it's out of his control. This happens A LOT. Ursula LeGuin, the science fiction author, was so pissed how the movie guys did her Wizard of Earthsea series that she was speechless with rage. The same thing happened to Walton, but the thing is, Walton thought it was between the movie guys and him. He did not realize that people expected him to make a movie that satisfied what they thought the movie should be about. This gal who called in and said she was offended by the movie because it didn't meet HER expectations must have just floored Walton. WTF???? Are you serious? Do you believe Walton was OBLIGATED to make a movie this 'experiencer' wanted to see? That's basically what she wanted. She was angry because his movie did not express HER experiences the way she though HER experiences ought to have been expressed.

Well, geez, sorry we did not consult you lady! Did it ever occur to you that his experiences may have been different than yours and that just maybe he wasn't doing a movie to satisfy you? I mean, it's just a possibility, ya think? I just thought her comments were entirely off the wall. If she wants to relate her experiences to the world, have at it. Call Budd. He'll believe anything. Otherwise just STFU.

So today, MANY years later Walton has grown up. I don't know what he does, but it is not unusual to see him in a suit and tie. He's well groomed, obviously had a family and a social network. He's nowhere near the young man he was when that stuff happened. It's not that I believe or disbelieve him. It's just that I think he was thrown into the limelight having no idea what to expect. And he managed to survive it and turn out okay.

Good on him.
 
Schuyler said:
I just happened to follow this case from the beginning. It was badly mishandled from the start by so-called self-appointed experts intruding themselves on the scene. Here's Travis, who at that time was a young shit-kicker long-hair country kind of guy who smoked a little weed, drank a few brews, was uneducated, out of High School, maybe, in a jeans & boots job in the woods. Not saying he wasn't hard working, but he was at the time of life when young men have a lot of testosterone, little sense, and if they make it through their twenties without a little jail time they are damn lucky.

This gal who called in and said she was offended by the movie because it didn't meet HER expectations must have just floored Walton. WTF???? Are you serious? Do you believe Walton was OBLIGATED to make a movie this 'experiencer' wanted to see? That's basically what she wanted. She was angry because his movie did not express HER experiences the way she though HER experiences ought to have been expressed.


So today, MANY years later Walton has grown up. I don't know what he does, but it is not unusual to see him in a suit and tie. He's well groomed, obviously had a family and a social network. He's nowhere near the young man he was when that stuff happened. It's not that I believe or disbelieve him. It's just that I think he was thrown into the limelight having no idea what to expect. And he managed to survive it and turn out okay.
Good on him.
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Okay Schuyler. Not too bad ... Not to Freaken' Bad At All ... ;)

Decker
 
Don when you get your DM radio show up and running again this year *cough* I think you should try and interview Walton again. See what hes up to and if he has anything new to add, or thinks about his experiences differently, or maybe had more experiences.

I assume he is like Lazar and doesnt do interviews any more. Would be interesting though.
 
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