The basic structure of the typical abduction scenario has been well-known, ever since the publication of folklorist Eddie Bullard’s massive two volume study of the phenomenon in 1987. Drawing on almost 300 cases then extant in the world UFO literature, Bullard isolated and identified eight discrete, sequential stages as follows: capture, examination, conference, tour, otherworldly journey, theophany, return, and aftermath. 
General John A. Samford, director of Air Force intelligence, put the official position in crystal clear terms in this statement to the press after the Washington D.C. flap of 1952: "Air Force interest in this problem has been due to our feeling of an obligation to identify and analyse to the best of our abilities anything in the air that may have the possibility of threat or menace to the United States.
In Magonia 42 Hilary Evans and Peter Rogerson take me to task as they speak out again in favour of a psychosocial explanation for UFO abductions. Their interests are friendly, but they leave me in need of saving myself from my friends, and my friends from themselves. To begin on an agreeable note. I agree with much of what they say. Peter Rogerson is quite right to point out that variation is present in abduction narratives. The beings described are far from copies of one another, the plots and details differ as well.