Rendlesham Forest…, A Christmas Story from 1980 - Can We ‘Let it Be’?

I lived in Orford England for 3 years, my father was stationed at Bentwaters.

I watched that light house almost every night, and I can honestly say that the light those men saw that night was not Orford lighthouse.

Secondly the reports made it very clear the lights seen that night turned RED and the Orford lighthouse does not beam red lights.

a reply to: Informer1958

How interesting! Can I ask two questions?

- Did the base run on / offer US 110v power or UK 250v only supply? In other words would either US or UK electricals run without converters?

- Did you often experience Tv interference?

a reply to: KellyPrettyBear

Maybe they kept the cattle on board whilst doing a round trip to nuclear facilities?

a reply to: ctj83

Did the base run on / offer US 110v power or UK 250v only supply? In other words would either US or UK electricals run without converters?

I do not know, I was a kid at the time, I was 10 years old.

Did you often experience Tv interference?

No, I never saw any TV interferences.

We lived on a farm right next to the keys, the waterway. and you can visually see the lighthouse.

I used to play at the famous Orford Castle, I used to walk past it going to school there.

Orford is a small town a fishing town, and makes its money on tourism and fishing. I love that little town, I would love to go back there again.

a reply to: ctj83

It's interesting that large numbers of otherwise "very high up insiders" don't
know what's going on with animal (and the rare human) mutilation.

You can talk about security compartmentalization and all that all you want..

but as you see in reading Forbidden Science Volume 3.. once more than
3 people knew a secret, it was basically impossible to keep it completely
contained. This issue was brought up multiple times in the book.

(As you might have ascertained.. I'm enjoying the book.. it's giving me
additional backstory that I didn't know).

Kev

a reply to: Informer1958

Thanks for the reply

a reply to: ctj83

The reason my father was stationed in Bentwaters is because my mother is from London and this gave her a chance to be with family, I used to spend my summers in Shepherd Bush, London with my grandmother

We were stationed in England twice in my father 25 years of Service.

My father was a paper pusher in the Air Force, he took a lot of secrets to the grave when he passed away.

However I did ask my father, who never talked about his work, did he believe in aliens, his answer shocked me, he said yes, and that he knows that mankind was created by an alien species over two hundred and fifty thousand years ago.

I laugh at what he told me, however about 12 years ago I stumbled on different credibal information that does support his claim.

Then a year ago a blind study was done by three retired military remote viewers and they recorded their sessions.

The RV did not know what their blind study was, one remote viewer was overseas and the other two were in different States when they did their session.

What they all witnessed and drew on a white board was all the same for all three RV they saw humans being created from the last hominoid species, that we call today bigfoot.

They saw aliens in lab coats in a very advance setting in a camouflage dome building in the country we now call Africa.

There was more than one species involved in the creation of man according to the RV.

It is interesting the story my father told me over 45 years ago is very close to what the RV witnessed.

[Quote]
Not that I’m aware. At that time the Orfordness lighthouse was one of the brightest in the country and from the forest they would have been looking almost directly into its beam. I have the advantage of having seen it in the 1980s and I know how startlingly bright it was. The guards had never been out there before at night and didn’t expect to see a lighthouse in a forest!


Apologies, but I find this highly implausible. Any nearby geographical / manmade features of note would have been well known to the base staff, especially guards responsible for base security.

The questions I have regarding the lighthouse supposition are:
* why, given that the lighthouse would have shone continually, Halt's team abandoned the investigation into the mysterious repeating light beam. Given that they were out there to investigate it, would they not have continued to pursue its source until it were discovered - something which would have been eminently possible given the stationary and regular nature of the lighthouse beam?
* why, given that the lighthouse shone every night, the only 'event' concerning its beam occured during the RFI - why was this not experienced any night before or after? Simply returning to the scene should have elicited the exact same experience night after night, if this were the solution.

Apologies if these have been covered previously, been a little distant to the topic for a while and beginning to catch up :-)

a reply to: GovernmentSauce

Objections to the lighthouse as a stimulus usually fall into one of two categories:
1. You can’t see the lighthouse beam from the forest.
2. They would have seen it all the time and hence would not have been fooled.
I hope everyone on this thread now realizes that the first objection is wrong.
Your objection clearly falls into the second category. Let’s see why this is wrong, too.

Firstly, the light from the lighthouse became visible only towards the eastern edge of the forest, well away from the base. There was no reason for the guards to have gone out there at night as part of their duties, so they would not be familiar with the lighthouse at all.

Burroughs and Cabansag admitted as much in their witness statements when they reported that they chased an unidentified light for about two miles before realizing it was the lighthouse. In an interview on The Paracast in 2009 Burroughs stated he had never been out in the woods before that night. Penniston and Cabansag were newly arrived on base and were no more familiar with the woods than he was (scroll to 08:40, 25:35 and 33:15 in the Paracast interview, here www.theparacast.com...).

Chris Armold, the USAF security policeman who called out the British police on the first night, told researcher James Easton: “We did not know about the lighthouse on the coast at the time.”

Halt actually did know about the lighthouse, but he expected it to be in the southeast. Hence when he saw it more or less due east, across the field in front of him, he didn’t recognize what it was.

For years he has been telling us that the lighthouse was off to the right from where he was standing, but a glance at any map shows you it isn’t. There was another light out that way, called the Shipwash lightship, which I think is what he confused it with.

As you can see from my photographs taken from the forest edge, the lighthouse is directly visible only through a relatively narrow gap in the trees on a distant ridge. Unless you are in the right spot, the light is concealed from view by the trees.
www.ianridpath.com...
And when you are in the right spot, the lighthouse is almost in line with the farmhouse on the far side of the field — just where Halt and Burroughs described the flashing UFO. Once Halt and his team moved away from that spot, they lost sight of it. However, Burroughs and Cabansag did pursue it, as they tell us in their statement, but never reached it because it was a lot farther off than they originally thought (a common misperception with bright lights at night).

The page in the link above should answer any other questions you have — a lot to read, I realize, but it will save me reposting everything here.

Ian

a reply to: ianrid

On a less related note, as an astronomer can you help me understand what would likely have caused the green fireballs?

Also, have you ever encountered laser based focus assistance for telescopes, whereby a laser is fired at target such as the moon, and it's diffraction is used either to physically or digitally remove atmospheric distortions?

originally posted by: ctj83
On a less related note, as an astronomer can you help me understand what would likely have caused the green fireballs?

There is probably more than one cause. Bright fireballs do appear blue-green which is related to their high temperature and also their composition. One was seen on St Patrick’s day this year.
According to this BBC report www.bbc.co.uk... John Mason of the BAA attributed the colour to oxygen in the atmosphere, which also causes the green colour of aurorae.

Also, have you ever encountered laser based focus assistance for telescopes, whereby a laser is fired at target such as the moon, and it's diffraction is used either to physically or digitally remove atmospheric distortions?

What you are talking about is called adaptive optics, which uses a laser to produce an artificial guide star.
en.wikipedia.org...
The artificial star is formed in the upper atmosphere, not on the Moon.

originally posted by: ianrid
a reply to: GovernmentSauce

Objections to the lighthouse as a stimulus usually fall into one of two categories:
1. You can’t see the lighthouse beam from the forest.
2. They would have seen it all the time and hence would not have been fooled.
I hope everyone on this thread now realizes that the first objection is wrong.
Your objection clearly falls into the second category. Let’s see why this is wrong, too.

Firstly, the light from the lighthouse became visible only towards the eastern edge of the forest, well away from the base. There was no reason for the guards to have gone out there at night as part of their duties, so they would not be familiar with the lighthouse at all.

Burroughs and Cabansag admitted as much in their witness statements when they reported that they chased an unidentified light for about two miles before realizing it was the lighthouse. In an interview on The Paracast in 2009 Burroughs stated he had never been out in the woods before that night. Penniston and Cabansag were newly arrived on base and were no more familiar with the woods than he was (scroll to 08:40, 25:35 and 33:15 in the Paracast interview, here www.theparacast.com...).

Chris Armold, the USAF security policeman who called out the British police on the first night, told researcher James Easton: “We did not know about the lighthouse on the coast at the time.”

Halt actually did know about the lighthouse, but he expected it to be in the southeast. Hence when he saw it more or less due east, across the field in front of him, he didn’t recognize what it was.

For years he has been telling us that the lighthouse was off to the right from where he was standing, but a glance at any map shows you it isn’t. There was another light out that way, called the Shipwash lightship, which I think is what he confused it with.

As you can see from my photographs taken from the forest edge, the lighthouse is directly visible only through a relatively narrow gap in the trees on a distant ridge. Unless you are in the right spot, the light is concealed from view by the trees.
www.ianridpath.com...
And when you are in the right spot, the lighthouse is almost in line with the farmhouse on the far side of the field — just where Halt and Burroughs described the flashing UFO. Once Halt and his team moved away from that spot, they lost sight of it. However, Burroughs and Cabansag did pursue it, as they tell us in their statement, but never reached it because it was a lot farther off than they originally thought (a common misperception with bright lights at night).

The page in the link above should answer any other questions you have — a lot to read, I realize, but it will save me reposting everything here.

Ian

Thank you for your response, and for linking your website - there is a lot of interesting material there.

If true, I must say that I find the lack of local geographical awareness by the US military, stationed overseas in a country receiving sporadic terrorist attacks, and during a period of heightened tension with the USSR to be... incredibly naive. One would have thought that base security at least would have had access to and knowledge of a map. This doesn't tally with my personal experience of UK government practice, in which I received a local map with points of note identified as part of an induction process - one would have thought that a Cold War-era US military would have been more prepared than that...

I have enjoyed reading your website, although I admit that I have not read all the articles yet. I would be intrigued as to how you found the flash of light in the forest to have appeared during the April visit where there was little foliage - one would imagine that the flash must have been visible approaching and moving away from you in the motion of the lighthouse's rotation given the apparent perspective from the picture, and there being little else around to 'hide' the beam. Therefore this would have given Halt's team a significant clue as to the direction of the source; which again leads me to wonder why the team sent to investigate strange lights in the forest, and which - if you are correct - finding the regular strobing lighthouse beam, did not pursue this and called off the search.

I am also still unclear as to why further efforts by base staff to simply re-trace steps, and find the exact same conditions night after night, were not pursued.

a reply to: ianrid

I corrected the the italics issue. Thanks for the excellent information Ian.

a reply to: GovernmentSauce

I would be intrigued as to how you found the flash of light in the forest to have appeared during the April visit where there was little foliage - one would imagine that the flash must have been visible approaching and moving away from you in the motion of the lighthouse's rotation given the apparent perspective from the picture, and there being little else around to 'hide' the beam. Therefore this would have given Halt's team a significant clue as to the direction of the source; which again leads me to wonder why the team sent to investigate strange lights in the forest, and which - if you are correct - finding the regular strobing lighthouse beam, did not pursue this and called off the search.

When I first saw the lighthouse flashing between the trees I could easily believe that it was only a few hundred yards away, so I have no difficulty understanding how they were initially fooled by it.

We know from Halt’s tape that he and his men tried to approach the light but found that it was farther off than they initially supposed — just as Burroughs and Cabansag had on the first night. Once past the farmhouse Halt comments on the tape that the light looked to be “clear off to the coast”, which is a pretty big clue. Despite that, the penny never dropped with him, probably because he was convinced the lighthouse was in a different direction, in the southeast. (Why? Because he was based at Bentwaters, not Woodbridge, and from Bentwaters the lighthouse is in the southeast.)

After that their interest seemed to switch to the ‘starlike’ lights in the sky, which I think were just that — stars.
Then they turned around and went home, which suggests that no one was too bothered. As Halt has said, “We left those things out there.”

I am also still unclear as to why further efforts by base staff to simply re-trace steps, and find the exact same conditions night after night, were not pursued.

Jenny has mentioned some anecdotal stories that people did go out on subsequent nights to see the light flashing, but I don’t know of documented statements to back this up. I guess over time they just lost interest and the weather changed so that the lighthouse was no longer visible.

Off base was British territory, so they had no authority out there anyway. They did the right thing by calling the local bobbies, but as we know the police who turned up didn’t think there was anything worth investigating.

a reply to: ianrid

Thanks for the information Ian.

A few points that I'd like to ask your opinion on.

Firstly - The beam of light that Halt claims shone down about 10 feet from him like a laser beam.

At 3:30am is one of the most interesting moments from the Halt tape.

Lt. Colonel Halt: Now were observing what appears to be a beam coming down to the ground!
Sgt. Ball: …Colours…shhhh*****

Lt. Colonel Halt: This is unreal!

Halt does sound distressed on that tape.

Anyway another member found a video a while back that seems to give a similar effect. If Halt was using the starscope then it perhaps does explain the beams coming down over the Weapons Storage areas. However I am not sure it explains a laser like effect landing close by to Halt's feet. Any thoughts on that?



Secondly - This lighthouse photo on your website.



The lighthouse appears to be unnaturally large in the photo. Is that to do with photographic zoom? Or is it the 'mirage' effect that appears to magnify objects to look much larger and closer than they really are. I've noticed this effect myself near the coastline. Do you think this effect may have also contributed to the reports of strange lights?

Finally - A British scientist did some work on the case and suggested that unusual weather effects may have contributed to the dripping molten metal effect Halt reported seeing as he followed a light in the forest and blue lights seen by others. Do you subscribe to any of these theories?



Clip from UFO Matrix Magazine


The one thing I still find hard to believe though is that the people on the base were fooled for 3 consecutive nights. Especially Halt who supposedly went out on the second night as well as the third night to investigate.

Ianrid, thanks once again for your reply. Certainly lots to consider there :-)

In addition to mirageman's questions, I would be interested to know your take on why the US DoD withheld Burroughs' medical records - a practice for those working on classified projects, when Burroughs never knowingly worked on such; and also why they have decided to pay out disability benefits to him in an admittance that his health issues have arisen from his line of work, when his work history does not appear to suggest that he would have been in danger of receiving such issues.

a reply to: GovernmentSauce

I would be interested to know your take on why the US DoD withheld Burroughs' medical records - a practice for those working on classified projects, when Burroughs never knowingly worked on such; and also why they have decided to pay out disability benefits to him in an admittance that his health issues have arisen from his line of work, when his work history does not appear to suggest that he would have been in danger of receiving such issues.

I have no idea why they would withhold records, but there was a huge cock-up in the veterans administration for years that affected not just him but many others — there’s even a big Wikipedia page about it
en.wikipedia.org...
So it’s wrong to think that he was in some way singled out.

Also, the payout does not imply that the USAF admitted his health problems were due to his Air Force service. They simply paid up as it was quicker and easier than arguing. I’m sure you know how that works. While it’s possible that his health problems could have arisen from his time in the USAF, I see no reason to link them with Rendlesham — why him and not all the others who were out there?

Ian

a reply to: mirageman

A few points that I'd like to ask your opinion on.

I’ll take them in the order you ask.

The beam of light that Halt claims shone down about 10 feet from him like a laser beam.

On the tape there is no mention of a ‘laser beam’ coming down at their feet, or over the WSA at Bentwaters, as Halt describes it now — he has changed his story over the years to make it sound more spectacular. [Note: when assessing Halt's story, _always_ go back to the original real-time tape.]

On the tape, the starlike object that seemingly sent down beams is described as hovering over Woodbridge base (not Bentwaters) about 10 degrees off the horizon. That’s all — not flying overhead, not sending down a beam to their feet, and not scanning the WSA at Bentwaters like he now tells it.

I have always identified this and the other ‘starlike lights’ as stars, and I explain why in detail here:
www.ianridpath.com...
The apparent ‘beam’ and colours were most likely due to a combination of glare in the eye and scintillation due to atmospheric currents — ‘twinkling’, as most people call it.

Secondly - This lighthouse photo on your website

That was sent to me by a local and is a super-telephoto shot, so inevitably the top of the lighthouse seems unusually large. Its point is to emphasize that the shield on the lighthouse does not block the light from the forest. My wider-angle view here gives a more realistic impression
www.ianridpath.com...

Finally - A British scientist did some work on the case and suggested that unusual weather effects may have contributed to the dripping molten metal effect Halt reported seeing as he followed a light in the forest and blue lights seen by others. Do you subscribe to any of these theories?

No.

The one thing I still find hard to believe though is that the people on the base were fooled for 3 consecutive nights. Especially Halt who supposedly went out on the second night as well as the third night to investigate.

Yes,it does seem difficult to believe, but all the evidence suggests that is exactly what happened. As I said in an earlier post, I have often wondered how differently the case would have turned out if someone had told Halt that the local police who came out on the first night said it was only the lighthouse.
Many incredible things happen each day, and if they hadn’t happened in this case then we wouldn’t have a UFO story!

Hope this makes sense.

Cheers,
Ian

a reply to: ianrid

Yes thanks for that.

As regards the lighthouse. The 2nd photo looks more natural I agree.

I was specifically referring to an optical illusion that happens fairly regularly up here in the North West around the River Mersey when the skies are clear. I have family live on the coast of the Wirral peninsula. When I visit them It is quite common to see the wind turbines towering above the skyline as if they are only a few hundred yards away. When in fact they are actually miles out in the estuary of the river where it meets the Irish sea.

As an example this what can from around a mile or two inland.



But then when you actually get to the coastal area itself the wind turbines are obviously miles out at sea.



I was wondering if perhaps this effect may have come into play with the lighthouse? Making it appear much closer and brighter than in fact it was? As it doesn't happen all the time it may also explain why it confused personnel on the base.