Rendlesham Incident

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UFO FILES:

Britain’s Roswell

The History Channel, Sunday 22nd

January2006

The second episode of The History

Channel’s new series, UF O F iles, featured

what some believe may be the sinle most

important !"# case in history, most

certainly the biest case in the !$% That

event has become &nown as the'endlesham (ncident, or )ritain’s 'oswell%

(n *ecember of +-0, peculiar lihts were

reported over the twin '." bases of

/oodbride )entwaters in Suffol&% 1any

!S .ir "orce personnel reported these

obects, physical evidence was found, on3site recordins were made and official

documents were filed and classified%

'umours abounded for three years until the

famous Halt 1emorandum was released

throuh the !S "reedom of (nformation .ct,

thus crystalli4in the 'endlesham (ncident in

the minds of !"# researchers around the

lobe%

This proram featured many, but not all, of

the main players in the story, focussin on



the men that were, or claimed to be, there%

/e also heard from researchers that

helped push this startlin event into the

public domain, althouh the people that

bro&e the story, to such an e5tent that it

briefly made the front paes of national

newspapers, were stranely absent%

/e bean with an overview of the

)entwaters base% (n +-0, it was one of the

larest, most important in urope, with over

+2,000 personnel servin and protectin a

sinificant nuclear arsenal% (t was the heiht

of the Cold /ar, with tensions between

7.T# and the Soviet !nion at boilin point%

8iilance was not only necessary, it was

imperative%

John )urrouhs told of how he

and his sereant saw odd lihts

in the dense forest that

separated the two bases%

.larmed by what they had seen, they

headed bac& to the security point and

phoned in their sihtin on a secure line%

Tech% Sereant Jim 9enniston was

dispatched to their position and the roup

headed out into the forest%

9enniston saw the lihts and at first thouht

he was loo&in at a downed aircraft% He

called in his fears and :uestioned the two

men present% )urrouhs and 9enniston,

alon with the sereant’s driver, drove

deeper into the trees to investiate%

)urrouh’s sereant was to afraid to assist

and he was left behind%

)urrouhs and 9enniston left their eep and

wal&ed towards the lihts% Their radios

suffered from stron interference and the



closer they ot to their oal, the more

certain they became that this was no plane

crash%

(n a clearin, they were

illuminated by a blindin liht%

9enniston approached the lihtand it dimmed to reveal a

lare, dar&, pyramidal obect, rouhly nine

feet wide by eiht feet hih% He too&

several photoraphs and constantly made

notes, but his handwritin became more

illeible the closer he ot to the obect% He

saw peculiar symbols on the ob ect and he

drew these into his notepad% #ther than

these mar&ins, he could ma&e out no other

features% He reached out and touched the

craft, findin it warm to the touch and as

smooth as lass% ;iht emanated from the

fabric of the hull%

There was another blindin flash

and the men dove for cover% The

craft lifted up out of the trees and

sped away into the niht s&y% 9enniston

said that he had never seen an aircraft

move as fast in his .ir "orce career%

Then they saw another liht flashin in the

trees, but they almost immediately realised

that this was the beam from the #rford

7ess lihthouse, some five miles distant%

Their radios bean wor&in normally and

they called in a report%

#n returnin to the base, they were

debriefed, but fearin for their careers, the

men ave a <sanitised’ report, omittin themore weird aspects to their e5perience%

Their superior officer warned them that

<some thins were best left alone’%



!nable to put the event out of his

mind, 9enniston returned to the

site in 'endlesham "orest the

ne5t day and found depressions in the

round where the !"# had been seen%

They were in a trianular formation, e5actly

%- feet apart% He made plaster of 9arismoulds of the indentations% He decided not

to hand over his moulds to his superiors%

Two nihts later, *eputy )ase Commander,

;t% Col% Charles Halt, was en oyin a

rela5in evenin at an officer’s Christmas

party when one of his men arrived in an

aitated state and reported to Halt that =(t’s

bac&>?

Halt was determined to put this nonsense to

rest% His men were supposed to be

protectin billions of dollars worth of military

hardware, not chasin phantom lihts

throuh the trees% He oranised a security

detail and they headed out into the forest%

#n arrivin, Halt found that a security

cordon had been set in place and lare,

mobile units &nown as ;iht3.lls deployed,

althouh they would not wor& properly for

some reason%

.lthouh the !"# was no loner visible,

Halt and his men headed into the trees,

armed with a still camera, a @eier

counter, a niht vision scope and Halt’s

personal cassette recorder, upon which he

captured one of the most ama4in pieces of

audio footae ever% Halt was certain that he

could find a loical e5planation for the !"#

reports%

Then we were treated to the actual

recordin Halt made on his recorder Aa



copy of which can be found on the free C*

with the first issue of the !"#*ata 'eportB%

The ;iht3.lls refused to wor&,

so they headed into the woods

without the illuminationafforded by the mobile units%

They soon found that their radios became

subect to the same interference that had

plaued )urrouhs and 9enniston two

nihts previously% Halt saw that several

trees had been damaed as thouh

somethin lare had moved throuh the

forest, snappin off branches and scourin

off bar& as it went% He ordered for

photoraphs to be ta&en% The @eier

counter bean reisterin hih levels of

radiation on the sides of the trees that had

been damaed, the sides that faced the

alleed landin site%

Suddenly, the animals on the adacent farm

bean ma&in a reat deal of noise and a

lowin, red liht appeared in the trees%

Halt described it as loo&in li&e an eye

win&in at them% (t moved throuh the trees

towards their position% Halt said that it

loo&ed li&e it was drippin what loo&ed li&e

molten metal% Then it moved out into thefarmer’s field and hovered there for about

twenty or thirty seconds before silently

e5plodin into multiple white ob ects that

sped away% #n investiatin the field, Halt’s

men could find no evidence of burn mar&s

or debris that miht be left behind from

what they had witnessed%



The obect then reappeared,

headin their way from the

south and stoppin overhead%

(t shone down what Halt

described as a beam that was laser3li&e in

its intensity% Halt’s shoc& at what he is

seein is clearly evident on the tape% Thebeam then oes out and the obect moves

on over the base, specifically, some said,

the nuclear weapons storae area, and

beins shinin its beam down to the round

aain% (t was here that Halt’s recorder ran

out of tape%

/ith the craft still hoverin over the airfield,

Halt decided that they should return to the

base% They were met by John )urrouhs

and .drian )ustin4a% )urrouhs was

concerned about Halt’s men, they seemed

very sha&en, he said% Then he saw a blue

liht in the field and pointed it out to the

colonel% Halt ave him permission to chec&it out and he and )ustin4a headed into the

field, while Halt and his team went bac& to

the base%

)urrouhs and )ustin4a ran towards the

blue low and ust as they reached it, with

)urrouhs in the lead, it vanished% )ustin4a

told him that he had seen him enter the blueliht and disappear% He could not believe it%

)urrouhs had more :uestions than

answers%

)y January of +-+, the bases were full of

rumours about what had one on ust after

Christmas% "ormer head of the 1#* !"#

des&, 7ic& 9ope, asserted that these menwere hihly3trained professionals, e5pert

witnesses with many years of e5perience in

most cases% The investiation that followed



remains controversial twenty3five years

later%

.ccordin to the airmen, they became

involved, aainst their will, in a overnment

cover3up% .t first, routine was conformed

to% Halt debriefed his men, as reulationsre:uired, and statements were ta&en%

9enniston claimed that after the meetins

with Halt, thins <bean to et heavy’%

Two wee&s after the debriefins, 9enniston

said he was interroated by hih3ran&in

officials from the #ffice of Special

(nvestiations A#S(B% @eorina )runi, author of Y ou Can’ t T el l T he P eople, e5plained

that the #S( had the power to :uestion

anybody% They could wal& into a eneral’s

office and arrest him if the li&ed%

9enniston ave the #S( his statement and

offered them the s&etches he had made

durin his sihtin% .fter this, 9enniston

cannot remember much about the

interroation, but he believes that he may

have iven consent for truth drus such as

sodium pentathol to be administered%

*urin the #S(’s investiation, in which

more and more people were called in,

.drian )ustin4a was :uestioned so

aressively that he refuses to spea&

publicly about the incident to this day%

@eorina )runi says she has spo&en with

him, however, and he told her that the #S(

forced him to aree, with a thinly3veiled

threat of death, that what he saw was the

liht from #rford 7ess% #ther witnesseswere also told to drop their stories about a

!"#%



. short time later, )urrouhs and Halt said

that they saw activity oin on in the forest,

with personnel parta&in in covert activities

at the landin site% Halt’s and 9enniston’s

photoraphs came bac& from the

processin lab completely foed out%

9enniston believes that the photos wereintentionally whited3out% ven Halt, the

hihest ran&in eyewitness, believes he

was &ept out of the loop of the

investiation% He was as&ed to type up a

memo describin the incident% He did so,

believin it would be shared with the )ritish

authorities% The memo was not meant to be

a definitive account of the incident and Halt

made several mista&es and omissions, but

he assumed that it would create enouh

interest for a proper investiation to be

started% The memo was filed away%

Three years later, the News of

t he W or l d ran a headline storyentitled !"# ;.7*S (7

S!""#;$ .nd That’s

#""(C(.;% The article was based around

Halt’s memo that had been released via the

!S "reedom of (nformation .ct% The

proramme claimed that the memo was

brouht into the open by ;arry /arren, a

former security policeman at the base%9eter 'obbins Awho co3authored with

/arren the boo&, Lef t At E ast Gat eB

e5plained how it was /arren’s information

that led to the memo bein released to the

public%

/arren’s story is somewhat different to the

one described in the Halt 1emo



#n *ecember, 2th +-0, a

nineteen3year old /arren was

ordered from his security post

and told to o into the woods

to assist with Colonel Halt’s investiation%

#n reachin a clearin, he saw a roup of

military personnel standin around a

lowin obect%

He described .ir "orce officers conversin

with three, small, child3li&e fiures% /arren

said that it seemed li&e some sort of

protocol was bein enacted, but before he

could witness further, he was dismissed

from the scene% The ne5t day, he was ta&en

for debriefin with several other witnesses

and shown film footae of militaryD!"#

interactions oin bac& to perhaps the

+E0s% .fterwards, /arren’s memories

become disointed% He recalls bein in an

underround facility with medical personnel

and of bein in some sort of mess hall allalone% He thin&s that these may have been

implanted memories, used in an attempt to

fo his actual recall of the !"# sihtin%

/arren’s pronouncements

infuriated the other

witnesses% They said that

/arren’s story was a purefabrication and that nothin he said can be

believed% .lthouh his story does match

with some of the events described by the

others, he is the only one sayin that he

saw aliens% .lso, nobody else can recall

him bein on the scene at the time of the

incident% /arren remains firm, however,

that what he has told us is the truth%

/hile the reports from these hihly3trained

witnesses are compellin, it is, the narrator



told us, the discrepancies in their stories

that cause concern%

.stronomer and retired .ir "orce maor,

James 1c@aha, was convinced that what

the witnesses saw on those nihts was the

#rford 7ess lihthouse% He e5plained thatat niht, the beam from the lihthouse can

be scattered by the trees, creatin weird

effects% John )urrouhs disareed and

reminded us that in his report, he clearly

stated that they saw and :uic&ly reconised

the beam from the lihthouse% @eorina

)runi told us that no lihthouse can move

throuh the trees, dart about the s&y and

shine beams down to the round% 1c@aha

countered this by sayin that on the niht of

the 2Fth *ecember, a Soviet Cosmos

satellite re3entered the arth’s atmosphere

and would have loo&ed li&e a very briht

fireball% He fails to account for the

discrepancy in the dates, however, plus thefact that such an event would be transitory

and not last for several hours, as described

by the witnesses%

(n 2002, declassified overnment files shed

new liht on what happened that niht in

+-0% The documents showed that an '."

investiation had ta&en place in +-+ andthat the investiators were happy that what

the witnesses described was not the #rford

7ess ;ihthouse% The files also state that

the radar facilities at the time were faulty

and that no recordins were made of any

radar contacts% (n fact, the files say that the

radar camera recorder was switched off%

;isten to the fascinatin interview with @ary)a&er on the free !"#*ata 'eport C* for

more about this ama4in statement%



The files also showed that the

investiations had been based

around Halt’s memo, which

stated that the sihtins bean

on the 2Gth *ecember, when the sihtins

had beun on the 2Fth% The proramme is

wron here, because the first sihtin was

after midniht on the 26th *ecember, lon

after any sihtin of the Cosmos satellite

may or may not have been made% The only

photoraphs made available show the

clearin, but no evidence of a landed craft%

.ccordin to the investiation, what

happened that niht was <no threat tonational security’%

(f, ;arry /arren as&ed, !"#s beamin

down lihts onto a nuclear weapons

storae area isn’t of defence sinificance,

what is

James 1c@aha responded that if a real!"# had been hoverin over the base,

shinin down beams of liht, then

everybody would have been awo&en and

placed on a hih state of alert% That didn’t

happen, he said%

7ic& 9ope declared that, as a reat many

of the &ey staff of the base were on leave,there was a decision3ma&in vacuum% ( find

this an astoundin statement to ma&e% ;t%

Col% Halt was the deputy base commander%

He went on to become the actual base

commander% (f he can’t ma&e the

appropriate decisions durin an incident of

this nature, who can

The narrator went on to say that the

'endlesham "orest (ncident is li&ely to

remain a mystery%



/hat we are left with are a few

overnment documents that are

often contradictory or

incomplete, the stories of the eyewitnesses

and the physical evidence, li&e Jim

9enniston’s plaster moulds and drawins

and Halt’s tape recordin%

7ic& 9ope closed by sayin that everybody

has heard of 'oswell, but only !"#

researchers &now about 'endlesham% (t is

time that this case is placed alonside, or

even above 'oswell, as perhaps t he most

sinificant !"# encounter of all time%

Br it ain’s oswell ave us a serious, if

sometimes incomplete or erroneous portrait

of the events durin the 'endlesham

(ncident% 7o mention was made of

researchers such as )renda )utler and *ot

Street, who athered many eyewitness

reports from local people who also saw

strane lihts in the s&y at the same time,

and were amon the first people to brea&

the story%

That said, the proramme did try to focus

on the events as reported by the

eyewitnesses and any sceptical

e5planations were addressed, but notallowed to ta&e over the proramme, as

often happens with this sort of

documentary% The ambivalence shown

towards the events, thouh, is infuriatin%

To simply suest that the incident <will

remain a mystery’ is li&e sayin <ust foret

about it and it will o away’%

( aree with 7ic& 9ope that this incident

should be elevated hih above 'oswell and

any and all overnment documents related



to this event should be released to the

public% (’m sure you all aree% (’m also

certain that it ain’t onna happen> (f the

base commander can be &ept in the dar&,

then us plebs in the <real world’ most

certainly can%

All i !a"es ar e t he pr opert # of t he

r espe$t i%e $op#r i "ht hol der s and ar e used

her e sol el# f or r e%iew pur poses&

I Steve Johnson 2006

)ac& to .rticles (nde5

Updated 16th August, 2012

Rendlesham Incident

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