"the rendlesham incident"
by janine rosenburg

in december, 1980, lt. col charles halt of the united states air force, reported that he witnessed a UFO sighting in suffolk, england, while stationed at a USAF base in the area. with rumors flying, thousands of people began to search the sky over england in hope of spotting their own UFO. the briton ministry of defense investigated the incident and then sealed their findings, which resulted in additional apparent "proof" that a UFO had in fact landed in england during the christmas holiday. this sighting has become as infamous as the 1947 roswell incident in the united states, resulting in enormous public pressure on the government to reveal any information they had discovered. in december of 2002, the british parliment ruled that these ministry of defense (MOD) documents be made public so now the true story of the rendlesham sightings can be revealed.

from the memo of lt. col charles holt to the US department of the airforce re "unexplained lights", dated 13 jan 81: "early in the morning of 27 dec 80 (approximately 0300l), two USAF security police patrolmen saw unusual lights outside the back gate at RAF woodbridge. thinking an aircraft might have crashed or been forced down, they called for permission to go outside the gate to investigate." three patrolmen (none of which are named in the memo) were dispatched to check the rendlesham forest, and "reported seeing a strange glowing object in the forest. the object was described as being metallic in appearance and triangular in shape, approximately two to three meters across the base and approximately two meters high. it illuminated the entire forest with a white light. the object itself had a pulsing red light on top and a bank(s) of blue lights underneath. the object was hovering or on legs. as the patrolmen approached the object, it maneuvered through the trees and disappeared. at this time the animals on a nearby farm went into a frenzy." the next day, three depressions were found where the object had "landed" and radiation was recorded in the area. the following evening (december 29), "a red sun-like light was seen through the trees. it moved about and pulsed. at one point it appeared to throw off glowing particles and then broke into five separate white objects and then disappeared. immediately thereafter, three star-like objects were noticed in the sky." these elliptical star-like objects moved rapidly and had red, green, and blue lights. "the object in the south was visable for two or three hours and beamed down a stream of light from time to time."

in addition to the US military sighting and subsequent investigation, local police in woodbridge were called out at 4:11 am on 27 december 1980 by civilians living in the area who claimed to see strange lights. the police reports that long-time residents had mistaken a nearby lighthouse for a UFO. these civilians were unconnected to the base and were not made aware of the simultaneous sightings at the nearby USAF base until rumors of UFOs began circulating the next morning.

this report is from an official memo penned by a deputy base commander of the usaf. it describes three us soldiers seeing an unidentifiable object take flight from a landing in the forest, an investigation of the scene, and subsequent sightings of light the next night. these lights remained for up to three hours, long enough to be observed through a telescope. their movements were carefully recorded and witnessed by multiple military personnel. they do not describe anything that can be dismissed as meteors or a crashed satellite. the memo makes no mention of "little green men" or UFO hysteria. the incident was investigated by the MOD but they denied all knowledge of the incident and refused to report any findings under the UK's official secrets act. in 1983, the MOD released a statement that they were aware of holt's memo but had no further information. in 2001, a 155 page file was released according to the new freedom of information act, but five documents were withheld until december 2002.

new information released with the remaining files indicate that the MOD did not begin their investigation until two weeks after the incident and that their radar recorders were not switched on during the nights in question but logs reveal nothing unusual, yet in 1989 tapes of that night were discovered but were determined to be "faulty". however, later their radar station would report that the USAF base contacted them on the night in question to ask if they had seen anything strange - this also is not reflected in the logs. they admit that the radiation readings were nearly ten times the expected level, but claim that the USAF radiation meters were probably inaccurate and the results could have been easily faked. the RAF is now reporting that around 3:00 am on december 28, the USAF did contact them to report a flashing light over the forest. they use this notation to "prove" that the original sighting was in fact one day later than was reported in the memo.

the newly released files attempt to show that there is no cover-up of this alleged sighting by the british government. they acknowledge that unusual lights were reported in the sky but there is no evidence to point to this being an alien encounter. they point out that an anti-nuclear defense system in the area has caused satellites to crash in the rendlesham forest before. but the holt memo doesn't mention a crashed satellite, something that would have been easily identified by the investigating soldiers, it mentions a triangular craft that was seen taking off from the ground, a statement that is later supported by physical indications of a landing site and radiation traces. the MOD documents also focus on trying to move the second sighting back a day, when there was a meteor shower reported. however, the holt memo also documents movements of lights that can not be confused with short bursts of shooting stars. the new MOD release, while attempting to prove that there has been no UFO coverup, only adds fuel to the conspiracy fire and the rendlesham incident remains as one of the strongest cases of proof of alien visitation.