Original subtitles

(radio chatter ....tv broadcast sounds)

..take 3....ready camera 13...full..

...nuclear explosions are caused by H bombs or atom bombs..

…soviet tanks and soldiers, moved into the town of Hara 3 days ago…

…the fortunes of the Iran/Iraq war, if that war drags on…

…the man accused of murdering John Lennon…

…we especially like Space Invaders… (bleep, bleep)..

…my attitude is positive and though I can’t be with you this holiday season..

…saw Santa Claus zooming about, in his star studded jet plane..

…it streaked across the sky, brighter than any comet..(screech)

As the Christmas of 1980 passed many of by

In one sleepy corner of the British Isles, a strange series of events had begun to unfold

Exactly what took place over that holiday period, has been widely debated and analysed ever since

Involving 3 nights of encounters in the forests surrounding the twin bases of RAF Woodbridge and Bentwaters

The Rendlesham Forest Incident, has grown to become one of our great modern mysteries

But what was the genesis of this bizarre story and is it deserving of it’s legendary status

In January of 1981, this area of Suffolk, had become accustomed mysterious goings on

Gripped by the Cold War, the work at secret research facilities such Orfordness and Cobra Mist, were often the subject of local gossip

But amongst a small group of locals, rumours of a different kind began to surface

One of these stories ended up in the lap of local UFO enthusiast, Brenda Butler

It was at a New Years party, on January the 1st, 1981

and we had a party at the farm in Aldringham and we several American friends off the base who we knew

cause there were several Americans living around here then

They all came and one of the guys, um Steve Roberts, went up to Chris who was with me at the time and said

"I've got something to tell Brenda, do you think I should tell her or not?"

He told Chris this story about a craft coming down in the forest, on December the 27th, 1980

And I go, yeah, yeah! Cause Steve and I had known each other for quite a while, he knew I was into UFO’s and we were always talking UFO’s

I thought he was just joking and pulling my leg!

He phoned me up and said, have you heard any more? And I said yes He said I don’t mind you talking about it, but don’t give my name out

Quite a lot of British people, who were coming home between 11 & 1 o’clock saw this great big huge craft going over

Brenda began to make local enquiries, which resulted in a number of leads.

It seems that there were multiple sightings of objects in the sky over the Christmas period

From reports of animals disturbed and becoming sick, to people seeing strange objects flying over the Forest

With what seemed like a story worth pursuing, Brenda approached friend and fellow UFO enthusiast, Dot Street

The duo began to dig further into the story

We had the NSA or the CIA, or whatever they were. Nobody seemed to know what they were, except they were government men

Their early days of investigation, seemed to be plagued by weirdness

car engines would cut out and mystery men in suits, seemed to shadow their every move

Well they didn't really seem to be interviewing these people!

Everyone that Dot and I had been interviewing, that was quiet a few, about 30-40 people around the area

had had visits from these gentlemen

and they weren’tt really asking them anything. Well, the questions they were asking were basically

Did see anything, did you hear anything and if you did…keep quiet!

With mounting evidence that something had happened and growing list of confusing paths to pursue

the girls enlisted the help of writer and UFO researcher Jenny Randles

Jenny had also been fed a story about UFOs being tracked on radar over the Christmas period.

The stories that the girls had put to her, were too close to be coincidence

Initially, they were met with stoney silence. But through persistence, it became clear that both the USAF and the MOD new something

“Art Wallace” supplied a very similar story to the ones fed to Brenda and Jenny

Wallaces real name “Larry Warren” would later be revealed and his involvement, hotly debated

Armed with a statement from Warren, the 2 teams worked either side of the Atlantic applying pressure to the USAF and the MOD

The 2 teams had hit jackpot. Through persistent FOI requests, the USAF eventually released the MOD documents they held on the case

A memo passed to the MOD, by the then deputy base commander, Charles Halt

outlined multiple sightings of unexplained lights

The U.S.A.F passed the buck..and the media had a field day

Finally the big story many had been waiting for, had literally landed!

But there were a few doubtful voices..

I don't recall hearing anything about this story before, until it hit the front page of the News of the World

I think UFO specialists had talked about it amongst themselves, but there wasn’t’t any real evidence

But what made this story really stand up, from the News of the Worlds point of view

was the release under the Freedom of Information Act in America, of Colonel Halt’s memo, to the British Ministry of Defence

His 3 paragraph memo, which recounted the events that happened on the 1st night, when he wasn’t involved

and a subsequent night, when he was involved

So this documentary evidence, from a high ranking Air Force officer, made this seem like a very significant case indeed

I thought, well I’ve got to look into this one. It seemed to me either, this was going to be the final proof positive, or aI could never take UFO’s seriously again!

On the 1st night of a 3 night episode Airman John Burroughs was the first responder

We were on patrol, two different units, supervisor asked to meet up with me parked my vehicle up at the main gate

went on patrol, driving around talking to each other. We were coming down the East Gate road by the control tower

He saw something strange..that immediately said, it didn’t crash..it landed! Just simply said..did you see that?

And I was like..no and he said…it’s in the forest!

The gist of it was.. we down ( there ), I opened up the gate, we took off, went down the road

all the way to the end of it, where you can go left or right.. left to Bentwaters, right to this way

We made a u turn in the car

I jumped out the vehicle, looked out to see if I could see hear, or see, or figure it out

I’ve said that, most of the time most people don’t have it, but once in a while, you get this experience, where just don’t feel comfortable, nervous

I don’t know if you’re freaked out, you’re just scared!

I called it in, to let the desk sergeant know, that something strange, you know was just outside the back gate

At that point, they dispatched Sgt. Penniston, the security supervisor for the area down to the site

He came down, got out the vehicle, looked in the forest and saw the same strange lights that we were

He talked to Bud. He told me and he said now, that Bud told him, it didn’t crash, it landed

So, it was me, Jim’s first ride, who happened to be ( on ) his first night, Ed Cabanasaq

We left our weapons with Steffens and proceeded out into the forest

to try to figure it out…..( footsteps, breathing sounds )

We went into the forest, to try to see whatever it was….What I saw, was what I drew in my statement

I never saw a craft, I saw like an orangish, oval object, um there was some white lights, blue lights, even some green lights in it at one point

All I remember at that point…the lights got bright! Sgt. Penniston was up in front of me like this

I was more centre, with Cabanasaq, we were like in a line formation, spread out a little bit

so we spread out and we hit the ground That’s what I remember, hitting the ground, cause it got really bright

Then eventually it dimmed…shot up through the trees like this, kind of through the trees, up above us

then shot out that way……..and everyone know’s Jim’s story?

Jim Penniston, whose story would prove to be highly controversial in later years

had accompanied John into the forest that night

His original account came to light, thanks to UFO researcher James Easton, who uncovered statements made by the witnesses

His original account came to light, thanks to UFO researcher James Easton, who uncovered statements made by the witnesses

on the morning following the first sighting These included drawings made by Jim Penniston

which described a craft seen through the trees

With this plethora of documentation, Bentwaters case as it was referred to at the time

was quickly becoming established as the mother of all UFO cases

But there was one piece of evidence, which some have taken to be final proof of visitation

On a subsequent night, Colonel Halt, the Deputy Base Commander, was called out by his men

apparently, they were still very excited by the events of the previous night

They went out into the forest, they saw the light again They called him out

So he took a team of men out there and they began to take, they had a geiger counter with them and they began to take

radiation readings on, on the landing site

( radio clicks and crackle, a low quality recording ) “150 feet or more, from the initial, I should say suspected impact point

( click ) towards the woods, 7..what? .. it just jumped up 7/10ths there…7/10ths?

7/10th’s right there in the centre?….uh huh

we’ve found a small blast..what looks like a blasted or scrubbed up area here

we’re getting very positive readings

( click ) we just bumped into the first nightbird we've seen… we’re about a 150 to 200 yards away from the site

( click ) everything else is just deathly calm…( click )…there’s no doubt about it there’s some type of strange flashing red light ahead

it’s yellow..I saw a yellow tinge in it too…weird!

(click) it appears to maybe moving a little bit this way?…it’s brighter than it has been

yellow…it’s coming this way!…it is definitely coming this way!”

(interference, TV news broadcast voice ) national security implications of those same airmen, guarding a strategic facility

where nuclear weapons are reportedly stored. If they weren’t hallucinating, then what are the implications of what they actually did see?

DeCaro and his team, carried out one of the most thorough investigations into the incident

Managing to trace numerous witnesses to the events for the first time

But one important piece of the puzzle, still needed to be placed

I found from the local police, that they had actually been called out by the airbase, on the night of the first incident

And it turned out to have been in the early hours of December the 26th and Colonel Halt’s memo had actually got the date wrong, by a day

The discovery of the police file would prove to be a turning point in the case, for many reasons

The dates recorded in the Halt Memo, have created a huge amount of confusion,

exacerbating problems researching the case

and also hindering disclosure attempts for files, believed to be held at the MOD...

I knew that there was this unit, at the Ministry of Defence that had been responsible for collecting these stories and investigating them

because I’d actually written to them, I’d sent some of the stories through And had a response!

It was like weird, you know, you get this brown envelope “ on Her Majesty’s Service” you know, from the UFO unit

I thought well, there’s all this stuff about Rendlesham Forest we’d known about it since the News of the World, broke the story in ‘83

There’d been all this speculation about, what does the government know? Why are they covering this up?

And I thought, well why has no one actually tried to make a request, to see what they’ve got on file?

So, one of the first times I made a formal request under this pre FOI legislation, which must have been about 2000, was for the Rendlesham Forest Incident

And I thought, well I could make a good story out of this

Many of the attempts made to access the Rendlesham files, had been largely misplaced

This led to speculation, that a cover up had to have been in place

But it was still quite a big breakthrough at the time, I just couldn’t believe my eyes when this, big thick envelope dropped through my letterbox one day

and I opened it up and it was…this is the Rendlesham file that people had been looking for for years!

( interference, TV news broadcast ) An incident called the Rendlesham Forest Incident, also known as Britains Roswell, this was in 1980

( interference ) For almost 60 years the Ministry of Defence logged our fuzzy pictures and close encounters

( interference ) More than 4,000 pages of material from the National Archives have been released, covering much of the 1980’s ( fading away )

At the time, it was widely assumed that the smoking gun evidence for Rendlesham would be radar records

However when Dave Clarke began to prepare the files for release, he discovered an alternate picture

A key problem with the radar evidence, is that the actual dates for the event that are recorded in Colonel Halts Memo…in the famous Memo

Were wrong! So, because the MOD didn’t take the opportunity to actually interview Colonel Halt and get him to itemise

exactly what had happened and when it had happened they were relying upon what he’d put in the memo

The 27th of December 1980, is the initial sighting and the 29th of December as the second sighting, now we now know

in hindsight, that both of those dates were wrong So when the Ministry of Sound circulated Col. Halts memo

to the various air defence stations, whose job it was to check if anything had been seen on radar

They were obviously working, to two wrong dates

Several radar stations had tracked objects across southern England on Christmas evening

hours before the first sighting in the memo. Although these may have been significant, as we’ll learn later

the remaining evidence was scant at best

Eastern Radar was the other radar station, RAF Watton, who were involved

They responded…the Squadron Leader, Derek Coumbe who was in charge on that particular night

He does actually say in his response, that on the night of the reported sighting this was the night that Col. Halt was out in the forest

and he actually patched through a call to Eastern Radar via the control tower at Bentwaters

And he says in this memo and this is a contemporary document 26th of February, 1981

“On the night of that reported sighting, our controller on duty was requested to review the radar..nothing was observed..the facts are recorded in our log book”

So we now know..we can say for certain, that on the night that Col. Halt was out in the forest in particular

that the RAF did actually check the radar picture at the time the events were unfolding and that nothing was seen on radar

Now, we now know in retrospect, that there was two incidents so there’s nothing in these papers that actually

tell us..you know, whether any checks were made on that initial evening

It does seem that…all down to the fact that they didn’t follow up Halt’s memo

If they’d have gone and actually done a proper investigation they would actually got to the facts in the first place

and they didn’t even seem to be aware, from this file, that the local police.. the Suffolk police, had gone out there and been called in the early hours of Boxing Day

The overturning of the MOD files on Rendlesham, if anything, seemed to highlight the MODs bemusement and confusion

Their investigation appeared to be a blunder, rather than cover up

There’s a document that dates from about 1984, a policy document which they used to brief Lord Hill Norton

who was a retired Admiral, who was absolutely obsessed by UFO’s in retirement

and he was constantly asking questions in the House of Lords about Rendlesham

and they actually briefed him on the subject, secretly at the MOD, around 1984 and that to me, is the most significant document

because they effectively say..” The reason we didn’t take it seriously

is because Col. Halt didn’t take it seriously!”

The MODs lack of urgency on the subject, seems to have stemmed from the presentation of the Halt Memo

Halt wrote the memo to present to Donald Moreland, RAF liaison officer for the twin bases, in January

... a full 2 weeks after the incidents occurred!

If..Col. Halt and his men, when they’d seen these lights in the sky had taken it seriously, they wouldn’t have just spent all night

wandering around in the fields and then effectively gone back to bed!

They would have pressed the panic button They would have scrambled the RAF…there would have been escalation

The Ministry of Defence’s attitude that you can piece together from all these

bits of paper, was that…he didn’t do that..he didn’t escalate

he kept it really low key, he waited for the British Base Commander to come back from Christmas holiday, two weeks later

sort of walked into his office and said “ oh by the way Don, the aliens landed over Christmas, but I didn’t want to disturb your holiday” you know!

The lack of urgency is even more surprising given that physical evidence was being offered by Halt from the alleged landing site

( click..radio recordings )” each one of these trees that face into the blast what we assume is a landing site, all have an abrasion..

I’ve never seen a tree, a pine tree that’s been damaged, react that fast…( click ) need a bottle to put that in “

The radiation readings, in particular, have become a point of contention

with the type of meter being used, called into question

Now, there's been a lot of controversy about this, but if you listen to the tape it’s very clear

( click..radio/tape recording ) “ up to seven tenths, or seven ( chatter )..seven units that’s going on the point 5 scale..

It's at the very lowest level of what that radiation meter, was capable of detecting It was a meter that was supposed to be detecting major nuclear blasts

radiation spills..for civil defence purposes not normal everyday levels of radiation

( tape recording )”..this is an awkward thing to use isn’t it? “

With so many locals seeing lights over Christmas and the dates now known

the sightings increasingly became linked together as one event

I was able to approach Dr John Mason, of the British Astronomical meteor section

and I asked him “ were there any records of any bright fireballs around that time “

and he said " yes, there was one at 3AM on the 26th “ and he read the press reports too

and I still remember him this to me on the phone…he said “ I knew they’d got the date wrong! “

John Masons report, consisted of observations by amateur astronomers, who had observed several bright fireballs

The brightest of which, exploded in a shower of light at 02.50 on Boxing Day

The exact time that something was seen to land in the forest

The most significant sighting that night, came at 9.20 on Christmas evening

The booster stage of a Russian satellite ..Kosmos 749 had re-entered the atmosphere and slowly disintegrated over Southern England

It’s final remnants were thought to have landed in the North Sea, within 20 miles of Rendlesham

There was this spectacularreentry of this Russian Cosmos satellite over southern England

It was seen by hundreds of people and it was like big sort of fireball moving through the sky

and it was widely reported in the news It was on TV and all the tabloids and local and regional news covered this

The Cosmos re-entry itself, can’t have been responsible for the sightings in the Halt memo

But, it is possible, that this spectacular display of Christmas lights may of had at least.. some influence

( trailer narrator voice ) “ The title of the picture Close Encounters of the Third Kind

refers to an intriguing possibility

Well a close encounter of the first kind, is close but nothing really happens

Close encounter of the first kind, is visible contact with UFO

Forget the shape and how fast it’s going, it’s something you just can’t explain

Close encounters of the second kind, are those which leave a physical trace

holes in the ground…..

burn rings…..

broken tree branches…..

telephone lines down…..

animals disturbed…..

stopping of car engines…..

and the close encounters of the third kind are the most interesting of all

Close encounters of the third kind…

is really when you meet ‘em

On the run up to Christmas Close Encounters special edition had played in one of the local cinemas

It shares so many of the UFO cliches with the Rendlesham story, that it is hard to ignore

The films impact on popular culture at the time, was far reaching and along with Star Wars

spawned a new age of sci fi culture

One that even reached into the political realm

Our differences worldwide, would vanish, if we were facing an alien threat from outside this world

and yet I ask you, is not an alien force already among us?

It was in a school yard with about 20 other men

and we saw a bright light appear in the distant, western skies

Along with Saturn 3,The Man Who Fell To Earth and Return from Witch Mountain

playing in local theatres that December, was the cult sci fi film...Hangar 18

Significantly, the plot of the film revolved around a captured alien spacecraft, held at USAF base

The spacecraft contained hieroglyphic insignia

Not completely dissimilar to Jim Pennistons sketches that he “claims” to have made during the sighting

While it’s difficult to prove a direct link between pop culture at the time and the sightings....

it does at least set the stage, for some dramatic theories

The twin bases of RAF Woodbridge and Bentwaters, were leased to the USAF in the 1950’s

In 1980 they were home to the 81st Tactical Fighter Wing, operating close air support during the cold war

The 81st’s key asset, were their squadron of A10 thunderbolts, commonly known as the “tank busters”

The principle witnesses were from base security and police, tasked with guarding the base

Close to the East Gate, where the incidents took place were the 67th Aerospace Rescue and Recovery squadron

Many of the 67th, known as the night owls, had returned from Vietnam, along with their C130 carriers and Jolly Green Giants

As well general rescue, they were tasked with special operations, arial refuelling

and recovery of space missions, including the Apollo and and Space Shuttle programs

It’s possible, they were involved in the capture of film canisters, from the then top secret satellite program...Hexagon

Hexagons design incorporated film pods, which when ejected, re-entered the earths atmosphere, and were captured mid air.

But, there is no evidence that these missions took place over the UK

A crashed Soviet satellite recovery has also been alluded to Again involving the 67th

but no records exist to explain this. Even though the remnants of the Russian booster stage fellinto the sea that night

Was there an incident involving stealth?

The early Stealth fighters were being flown at the time and any recovery would have involved the ARRS

But again, no records

So what about a hoax? Pranks were certainly a thing at the twin bases?

Considering their proximity to the forest... Why have no members of the 67th come forward and spoken about this event?

Could it be they knew something?

As part of their training involved preparation for space rescues the unit had an apollo capsule at their disposal

These capsules, known as boilerplates were used for demonstrations and training missions

So, here’s the idea...

The boilerplate was hung from one of the helicopters and flown over the forest ... as an “exercise”

By mistake, it was somehow dropped and a recovery operation from the forest was required

With base security truly left in the dark

The facts are thin, but if anyone could have created the hoax, it would have been the 67th ARRS

( military film narrator ) " Let's just say I prayed a little... on my own account and for those guys at search and air rescue “

Along with barn owls and burning manure. One of the more bizarre theories seems to have come from an attempt to fool researcher Dave Clarke

An anonymous letter..post marked the 30th of March, 2015 which arrived on the 1st of April

draw your own conclusions, but anyway, quite an elaborate two page letter

The anonymous source, claimed to be a member Britains notorious special ops unit, The SAS

And on one occasion, this must of been in the summer of 1980

We were airlifted in..middle of the night, dropped on to the perimeter of the base

and our mission was to penetrate the American defences get into the base without them seeing us

to see how good they were at defending Unfortunately they were very good at defending the perimeter and we were captured

treated them really off handedly and basically referred to them as “Enemy Aliens “

and he said that this word “Aliens” stuck in their minds

So after this ordeal and they’d got back to their base they thought right, we’’l show these Americans a thing or two

and we’’l show them some real aliens

So, what they decided to do, was go back a few nights later penetrate their defences again

and they took all these sort of flash bangs and pyrotechnics and they sent up balloons with lights attached

and showed them a real alien invasion

So, this letter was basically saying, this is what caused the UFO incidents we the SAS

were playing a hoax on the Americans, to get our own back for what they did to us

I have been able to ascertain, that there was some kind of incident where the SAS did get into some kind of confrontation from the americans

when they were actually testing the defences of the base I think about August 1980

So that incident did actually happen

and Georgina Bruni wrote about it in her book

So I wouldn’t be at all surprised if somebody who’s very familiar with the story

So I wouldn’t be at all surprised if somebody who’s very familiar with the story had read that in Georgina Bruni’s book

and then concocted this elaborate tale and sent it to me based upon that

thinking that if I checked it out, I’d find the reference in Georgina Bruni’s book and think..ooh! That corroborates what this guys saying

( alien voice ) You are a clever man doctor…perhaps too clever

Despite these and a mountain of alternate theories put forward to explain the events, there is only one that has really stuck

and it could be argued, it has become …Rendlesham’s Nemesis

I spoke to one of the foresters, who was called Vince Thurkettle who lived within about a mile of the incident

and, er..he said to me..he’d obviously been thinking about it himself and he said “ do you really want to know the answer or are you a journalist looking fro a story?”

I said well no, I really would like to know the answer

and he said to me “ I think it was the lighthouse “

and I nearly fell of my chair! Because the News of the World no-one who’d investigated this case before

had said anything about a lighthouse!

On the face of it, it seems absurd that military personnel, guarding a strategic facility

could be fooled by the beam of a lighthouse

And it turned out as well that the police who’d been called out on the first night

They came to the site and the only lights they could see were the lights from the Orfordness lighthouse

and the marks in the ground that they were shown looked to them, like they were made by some kind of an animal

So we had the locals, the local police and the local forester coming to exactly the same interpretation of what it was the airmen had seen

So really this case was starting to seem not very mysterious after all

Ian Ridpath’s lighthouse explanation, has been ridiculed by many Ufologists,

so why has it stuck so hard to the story?

The light that Col Halt saw flashing, he described as lying across the adjoining farmers field, almost in line with the farmhouse

The light that Col Halt saw flashing, he described as lying across the adjoining farmers field, almost in line with the farmhouse on the other side of a field

The route taken by the airmen on the 1st night is well documented in the statements from the time

But this is complicated by large parts of the forest being unrecognisable now, compared with 1980

Thanks to planting data from the period, it’s now possible to match their approximate route out from East Gate, on a more or less easterly course

Upon reaching a clearing, the 3 airmen saw the object in the trees ahead and then proceeded in

It’s in this lower area of the forest, where we now find the now well known landing site

After this encounter the airmen then moved out to the edge of the forest and the farmers fields beyond, in pursuit of a light

And, as we find from the eye witness reports, of one of the eyewitnesses

he said “ well we got..we followed it so far and it was coming from a lighthouse

John Burroughs has always maintained that he viewed something else, as well as the lighthouse

Jumped over, got down by the farmers house, saw the beacon

kept going out, cause we were trying to see if we could see it again

cause we wanted to see what we saw again

but we went towards the beacon..and I call it a beacon by the way!

but I clearly have a memory of coming up, chasing it seeing a beacon on and off

you know..flashing..we didn’t loose it a lot, but there were points when you got a little lower and didn’t see it

but we climbed up to the top of a hill and I remember looking down into a valley, seeing the lighthouse itself and saying “ that’s the lighthouse “

The lighthouses visibility from the forest has been hotly contested, mainly due to the shielding of the beam

The beam shield was put in place, to protect the nearby village of Orford from the bright light

But the shield, still allowed the beam to shine directly to the east, in the direction of Rendlesham forest

This confusion, plus John’s admission, both in his statements and testaments

has made it difficult to match his sightings of the object with those of the lighthouse

However, with Colonel Halts testimony and subsequent claims from the second night

it’s become clearer to see how he and his men, could have mistaken the lighthouse

He was standing at pretty much the same place, on the forest edge He was seeing the same light

and from his tape recording, we hear that he..he takes a a compass bearing on it, of 110 degrees

which is within about 10 degrees of where the lighthouse actually is

and he also sees it flashing like a winking eye, every 5 seconds and 5 seconds is the flashing rate of the Orfordness lighthouse

( click..radio/tape recording ) You just saw alight?..Where? ..Slow down..where?

right on this position here..straight ahead, in between the tr…there it is again

watch straight ahead off my flash light there..there it is..yeah I see it too

The clearing was used as a staging post for investigations by Halt and his team

which went on into the early hours of the 28th

( click..radio chatter/tape recording ) East Gate ( click )..you don’t have a lightlall?..(indistinct)

( click )..2 other personal requesting to ride out ( indistinct )..at your location

It’s assumed that there were up 20-30 personal in the forest that night, with some wanting to join the main investigation

( click )..okay well why don’t you take a picture of that and then be writing this down.. it’s gonna be on the tape

Halt’s group eventually move out to the edge of the forest, into the farmers fields beyond

( click )..let’s move out the edge of the clearing so we can get a better look at it..

..okay we’re looking at the thing, we’re probably about 2-300 yards away it looks like an eye winking at you..it’s still moving from side to side..

..when you put the starscope on it.. it sort of has a hollow centre a dark centre..like the pupil of an eye. looking at you winking

One point worth making, is that when I did my first investigation Col Halts tape recording hadn’t been released

and when Col Halts tape recording came out, it could have completely demolished my explanation, because

they could have said something like “ oh there’s the lighthouse and the UFO is just 10 degrees off to the right “

But the remarkable thing is, on Col Halt’s tape they never the lighthouse

( tape recording )..it is coming this way..it is definitely coming this way… pieces of it are shooting off..there is no doubt about it..this is weird

And at one stage on his tape, Col Halt, as they go towards it they loose sight of it

Col Halt says it’s broken up, but it hasn’t broken up because later on he says we’ve caught sight of it again

( click )..2.44..we’re at the far side of the second farmers field..

made sighting again at about 110 degrees, this looks like it’s clear off to the coast, it’s right on the horizon

and it looks like it’s clear off to the coast Now what lays on the coast and flashes?

Following the Halt Tape, the MOD document release, the patchy radar evidence and theories such as the lighthouse becoming established...

It appeared that the promise of this becoming the Holy Grail of UFO cases had really come to an end

It’s initial impact in the media, falling flat over the following few years probably to become a small footnote history..

but some stories are just too good to let the facts get in the way

They are the ones born to become legends..

( Wind blowing in trees..voice echoes )

Well we thought we had it all sewn up, you know..with what had happened what the British witnesses saw and everything

then as soon as the News of the World came onboard they started saying things and that and then got in touch with the American witnesses

that’s when it all went sort of like pear shaped, that’s when one was telling one thing and one was telling the other, you know..their stories didn’t gel

( music/wind sounds...)

( racing car sound approaching )

In 2005, to mark the 25th anniversary of the incident, The Forestry commission created a UFO trail

The trail passes some of the sighting locations It includes themed play areas and since 2014, a UFO sculpture

The trail helps to bring thousands visitors to the forest centre, which become a major tourist attraction

The undeniable beauty of the area, seems at odds it’s mysterious and strange past

Over the intervening years the forest seems to have evolved, much like the story itself

a story that has helped it become a must see in this area of Suffolk

And indeed, the story has evolved

( Wind in the trees..voice echoes.. )

I wasn't happy with the alien part, the way it came out, cause I never felt I saw aliens or anything like that

and I also wasn’t happy with the debunkers saying we saw the lighthouse just wasn’t happy with it

So the years went by, I came over here once, did something with Strange But True

you know and at the beginning, people need to understand this too they say the stories evolved, well it has, because at the beginning

most people are trying to say something happened

But my goal was, about 4 years ago to try and get us all together there was always something that ate away at me

that there was a lot more to this you know and I wanted to find some proof to it to help justify it and I thought getting us together would be the first step

How Penniston was able to have this unique experience, when only separated from the other witnesses by a few yards, has become yet another twist of the story

Penniston also believes they had 45 minutes of missing time which John Burroughs can’t account for

I said I don’t remember him doing it and now sure how it could have happened

Now, over the years you put together…Buran said there was 45 minutes where they lost us on the radio…didn’t say it was missing time

when we came back, I kew that my watch was 45 minutes slow

The timings are noted in the statement by Fred Buran, who was monitoring their radio signals from the forest

But his watch was the same way, so we were 45 minutes behind in real time?

But, Pennistons claims seem so at odds and fantastical, that many followers have begun to have serious doubts

Compounding the fallout from this, a statement was to emerge from the man in charge of the twin bases

and it would be far from confirmatory

The actual Base Commander was a guy called Ted Conrad, who was from Texas

and he was there throughout the incident and he was the person who was actually in charge during this whole period

and if there was any sort of investigation or inquiry, he would have been the one who launched it

in fact, he was the one who actually sent Col Halt out into the forest with the other security police

Following years of radio silence, Conrad eventually responded to Dave Clarke

He made a statement, giving his own account of the events, as he remembered them

Whilst it seemed he roughly backed up Halts timeline his recollection was at odds with the later accounts

He basically said that while Halt was out in the forest….

Basically there had been an investigation, that he’d ordered it, an informal one but he’d not escalated it

Penniston had told him that he’d never got close enough to this thing to see what it was

but that it looked mechanical and it looked like the shape of a jeep

Now..if you read Jim Pennistons story now, he actually went up to it, touched it he had this download of binary code into his head and all this kind of thing

that’s all come out subsequently, but Conrad was saying “ This just sounds like science fiction to me “

You know..at the time no-one came out with any of this we just had this basic thing about lights being seen in the forest

But most damning of all, was the revelation that Conrad and other senior officials had a very different memory of Halts encounter

Conrad and all these other special constables and what have you, were out looking in the same direction that Halt was looking, couldn’t see a thing in the sky

They were talking to each other on radio, they were speaking to the control tower they were asking the radar operator, can you see anything, where Halts looking?

Since Ted Conrads account became public, Charles Halt has countered some of his claims

in a book titled the Halt Perspective, Halt refutes many of the claims made against him

While Halt would not go on camera for this film, he did express his feelings about the way others had responded to him

It's a shame, because what they need to do, is all get together, get their stories straight

you know..and so maybe we can get an answer

Jim Penniston has diverged further from the other witness accounts

publishing his own book, attempting to offer further proof of his contact story

Larry Warren, whose book Left at East Gate, gives his own differing account

Warrens involvement, has been widely disputed by fellow witnesses and researchers

It actually floated….to make it more complicated…umm..

Beings?….beings, exactly

He is widely acknowledged as being the whistleblower for the story

but his account of alien beings and his involvement have increasingly been called into question

Larry has given us different directions, different times, different witnesses nearly every time

We actually got him on tape saying he wasn’t there until the 30th

In an attempt to confirm his story, Larry is currently involved in the production of a film on the incident

I didn't imagine 30 years ago, that you know 2 people would be interested in this let alone all you people on a bank holiday weekend

If you’ve come to the conclusion that this story has grown a lot of branches

well, the Rendlesham Incident is truly, the gift that keeps on giving

In a new twist, it appears that John Burroughs has made in roads with the US Gov. over health claims

which he says are related to the incident

Immediately after the incident, I didn’t feel good. You know, I kind of felt tired, dragging, not the greatest

And I started having some throat problems, some vision problems and ..um

At one point my mouth, my whole mouth turned white and my gums turned white and stuff

John was diagnosed some years later with a heart murmur.During his medical treatment, multiple other issues became apparent

It was during this period, that he was to discover that something was amiss with his medical file

The first response back was, your medical records aren’t where they belong and your personel files, where they should be..you’re retired

But they were able to get me to a doctor, a VA doctor, who got some information

that made em realise, exactly what they were dealing with

In 2018, John received a settlement for his health problems, from the DOD and VA.....

the search for his medical files is still ongoing

With this ever expanding narrative, the story has become increasingly difficult to navigate

Becoming a minefield, even for the most devoted students

Some of the witnesses have changed their story, new bits of story have come out which we hadn’t heard..

and really what we’re seeing, is the creation of a modern myth and I don’t think it will ever die

Much like the tree roots that run throughout the forest, the story has grown out in so many directions

that any sense of closure, appears increasingly unlikely

Leaving us to decide for ourselves, which version of the accounts please us the most

Now it may have been a lighthouse, it may have been some other natural phenomena

but that’s beside the point.

There's two things involved..there’s the few certain facts, that you can ascertain, from the original documents and from their statements

that they made at the time and there’s the legend, which it’s become

because the more they tell it, the more it becomes elaborated and that creates the legend

Unfortunately, we’ve reached this impasse..there are people who can only see it in black and white

It’s either..aliens or people from the future came here and landed in Rendlesham Forest

Or, it’s the sceptical version, which is people were all lying or they’d been mislead by ordinary things

It’s either one, or the other and I don’t see it like that at all I see it as the thing is a legend which is..

all they constituent parts of it, play a part in creating the legend

So does the Rendlesham forest Incident, deserve a place alongside tother great British legends

such as Loch Ness and King Arthur

Dave Clarke and others believe it to be worthy of the title

After all, it has grown legs and run for nearly 40 years

Despite it’s major inconsistencies

Or have the inconsistencies and embellishments helped to elevate the story

Tapping into the collective consciousness at just the right moment

When we actually look at what's the evidence for King Arthur, there isn't any

There’s a piece of rock with Arthur scratched on it that somebody found buried in Cornwall

There’s a couple of books, that have survived in the Welsh annals that mentioned a warrior called Arthur, who fought against the Saxons

Books that were written 200 years after the event That’s the evidence for King Arthur

The county of Suffolk is no stranger to legends

Black Shuck, the devil dog that roamed the Suffolk countryside is a tale well told

it’s reign of terror on Blytheburgh church, is even recorded in parish records

Be it the old man of Orford or the mysterious marsh lights seen throughout the ages

this region has always thrived on it’s strange tales

I absolutely no doubt, that people will be talking about the Rendlesham Forest Incident in the same way

That there was this mystical happening in the forest

and I don’t think it will ever be resolved because there is no way to resolve it

and that’s the definition of a legend

From what started as a simple Christmas tale of lights in the east

a legend has unfolded over the past 40 years and shows no sign of stopping

Facebook groups, forums, chatrooms and countless conferences have grown around Rendlesham

Some may point to Unlimited Financial Opportunity, exploiting the overwhelming need to believe…

.in something

But, as the factions have become more divided, so have the chances of ever finding the truth behind it

whatever that may be

I still think we should all get together, at least one time Agree to disagree on stuff

Not attack each other and get a chronology on everything and try to figure it out and based on all the evidence available now

Try to put it together as best we can. I think it’s the closest we’ll ever get to the truth

John Burroughs has continued his quest for answers, despite other witnesses becoming increasingly hostile

Some researchers have resigned themselves and moved on

But there remains the core storytellers, ever faithful to the Rendlesham cause

I know it’s took over my life, I know it has.

I’ve tried not to go down there and every time not to go down there somebody phones me asks me to go down there

or the newspaper or the radio ( people ) phones me up you know

I’m just drawn down there and when I’m down there, it’s like it’s part of me

Brenda remains committed to helping people look for a resolution

Even if that means ultimately means, never finding one

We can't go back..go back in a time machine, I wish we could and reconstruct what actually happened

People like…they want an explanation for it, but they want it to be a sort of “ Gee whiz! Is that the real explanation! “ “ How surprising “

and they’re not prepared to accept it’s just ordinary things, that people see in extraordinary circumstances

I must say that after I published my initial investigation In a newspaper…early in 1985

I really thought that would be the end of it

Although I shouldn’t be astonished because, you know.. for the UFO believers this is…you know the holy grail

It is regularly voted one of the 10 best cases in the world

I’ve said they call it the British Roswell, but to me it’s a great deal better than Roswell

because it has…good eye witness testimony, it has documentary evidence we know that something happened, the only question is what happened

If there is one irony to this tale, it’s that arguably, the critics and sceptics

have kept the story alive with their counterpoint

And without that, then this story could have been long forgotten

As it stands, this beautiful forest in Suffolk will continue to be visited by future generations

Looking for answers..

and maybe, posing new questions