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night after their UFO encounters. Such people are now becoming regulars on radio and TV talk shows all across the country. One night in November 1958, an Arkansas truck driver was unexpect- edly introduced into the shadowy half world of the ultraterrestrials. R. D. Smallridge was making a routine trip to deliver a truckload of eggs from Hardy, Arkansas, to Memphis, Tennessee. He stopped for a cup of coffee, as was his habit, at an all-night truck stop near Black Rock, Arkansas. When he left the eatery, he checked his watch with the wall clock. It was exactly 2 A.M. After looking over his tires and truck routinely, he started his engine and headed for the highway again. The next lap of the trip covered 60 miles to Trumann, Arkansas, where he usually stopped for another cup of coffee. But, according to his story, he never remembers reaching the high- way. The next thing he knew he was pulling up in front of the luncheonette in Trumann. When he walked into the restaurant and looked at its clock, he was astounded. It was 2:15 A.M. “‘I had traveled sixty miles in eight minutes,’’ he declared. This trip normally required changing highways (from Route 63 to Route 67) and passing over a state weight scale near Jonesboro. He could not remember doing any of this. Somehow he had traveled 450 miles per hour between Black Rock and Trumann! A wide variety of strange, inexplicable events engulfed Mr. Small- ridge after this. Eventually he gave up truck driving and became a minister, traveling about the country and preaching. December 1967 found him in California. Late one night he put aside the book he was reading and strolled over to the clock on the mantel in the home where he was staying. It was exactly 12:05 A.M. Suddenly, he swears, a bright blue light materialized and drifted toward him. Just as it touched him the room faded away, and he discovered himself standing in another room surrounded by a group of strange humanlike beings. He claims that these people were conversing in an odd language he had never heard before— yet he was able to understand every word and could communicate with them. They told him, among other things, that Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy would die suddenly in 1968 and that there would be widespread rioting and civil unrest. After about two hours of this, Smallridge was instantly transferred back to the California living room. He was still standing in front of the clock. It was still 12:05 A.M.! Here, once again, we have a case that can be easily dismissed as too absurd for consideration. But, believe it or not, there is nothing excep- tional about Mr. Smallridge’s claims. Similar incidents are being reported 254 / Operation Trojan Horse