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

reply to post by FireMoon

Oh right and Ridpath calling people liars is fine and he's somehow immune from accusations himself?

In this thread, Absolutely. This thread is about the Rendle-Sham incident and the liars there, not YOU and what you think about people commenting on this case. But as long as we are commenting about each other, you sound like a retard. I actually liked some of your commentary in other threads but that was before I saw how absolutely retarded you can be. honestly, you sound retarded.

Why don't we all take turns commenting on each other?

Do you get it yet or do I have to write a 1000 word essay about how retarded you are?

“There will be an answer Let it Be….?”

Or will there?


We are now into the 4th decade since the Rendlesham incident. So far there is no answer, no one all encompassing theory that puts everything to bed and convinces a big enough majority to close the book on it.

The hardened sceptics seem sure that there is nothing more to the case than a bunch of American servicemen who got confused by a meteorite falling to earth and went traipsing in the woods for hours chasing a lighthouse beam and a few unusually bright stars. Then the Deputy Base Commander decided to cover his ass in case of repercussions from the British for venturing off the base by writing a memo. Unbelievably getting the dates wrong and , despite Halt’s protestations that the RAF did nothing, neither asking for a response nor requesting any further action from the British authorities.

What were the real motivations behind that Halt memo? Was he really subtly telling the British that something strange went on but now a couple of weeks later we’ve (i.e the USAF) now got things under control?

A lot of sceptics are very careful about calling people liars but that is exactly what they are calling a number of witnesses by implication. How else can you explain the dismissal of Penniston’s notebook and claims of touching a craft with glyphs, Halt’s declaration in 2010 that it was intelligently controlled craft and “extraterrestrial in origin”, and Adrian Bustinza’s and Larry Warren’s more extreme claims of an encounter with small beings and a landed craft followed by heavy interrogations.
If there is absolutely nothing more to the case than natural events then the sceptics must believe they are all lying.



Yet all of the first hand witnesses who have gone on the record have strongly denied that the sceptics are right. Although for 30 years some have also disputed the claims of their fellow servicemen.

Burroughs ,who was alongside Penniston on that first night, quite clearly thought Penniston was embellishing his story for years. He was also dismissive of Larry Warren’s claims and believed Colonel Halt was being manipulative and knew a lot more about the case than he has ever publicly stated.

Halt has often tried to keep Larry Warren (and others like Burroughs) out of TV productions. At first by dismissing that he could have been there and slowly changing his story to saying he believed that, along with others, Warren been ‘meddled with’. Larry Warren concedes as much himself.

As for Jim Penniston , well his story expands with the pages of his infamous notebook. It starts with an incorrect date and shaky handwriting. Then we had glyphs that no one ever really made sense of. So next came a mysterious binary code which was transmitted to him after touching a craft. This apparently included the co-ordinates of a mythical island and other locations of which few have been able to make sense of. All of this was recorded in a loose leaf filofax type notebook which poses a credibility problem due his evidence.

However in recent years, the dynamics of the relations between the main witnesses have all changed, whilst their confusing, conflicting stories haven’t. Again we must question their motivations as well.

The whole case has become a complete mess whilst there seems to be a kind of Machiavellian type game going on between the main players. 

The sceptic in me says Mr. Ridpath has covered this case in detail and I find a lot of it convincing. The Soviet Rocket Booster falling to earth accompanied by the celestial events in the early morning of 26th Dec 1980 may well have kicked it all into action. I am certain that the lighthouse played a part in deceiving the USAF men at times as well. I also seriously doubt this whole event was anything extra-terrestrial in nature.



But there are still a lot of puzzling parts to the case:

• What were those coloured lights all the witnesses saw? Especially the blue lights. Can we really dismiss them as a lighthouse and reflections from a church?
• How could so many people remain deceived by a lighthouse for so long? There was a meteor early morning Boxing day. But that does not explain the hours wasted on investigations afterwards.
• The testimony of the civilian witnesses always seems to be ignored.
• What was going on during the late, dark afternoon of Boxing Day 1980? What scared Lt. Tamplin so much she had to be relieved from duty and why were the lightalls taken out into the forest later on in the evening? This sounds like the USAF were already looking for or waiting for something .
• If the UFO was back and Lt. Bruce Englund really uttered those words to Senior Officers (possibly only Halt) then where had the UFO(s) been during daylight?
• Was there really a partial evacuation at Woodbridge and if so why?
• There are massive gaps in the Halt tape which could indicate that it was heavily edited. The standard micro-cassettes of the day were 60 minutes in length. Only 18 minutes have ever publicly been released of Halt’s tape.
• Even in the aftermath Halt left things a long time to file a somewhat “inaccurate” report to the British authorities.
• Then there are the stories from the witnesses of being questioned, drugged and even threatened.
• Even now Senator John McCain is involved in trying to get John Burroughs 1979-83 medical records released because they are "classified" for reasons unknown.


Rendlesham is now covered in layers and layers of mis-information. I am not sure it can all be attributed to a bunch of US airmen confused by a lighthouse and then enjoying the attention of being on TV and radio every now and again. Something else was going at the twin bases in my opinion.

My gut feeling is that something peculiar really did happen at the back end of 1980 in Suffolk to a number of United States Air Force personnel. As to what it was..well that is probably known only by certain elements of the US military.

All we have is the Halt Memo, tape and witness testimony to go on.

So all we can continue to do is speculate....

mirageman
• There are massive gaps in the Halt tape which could indicate that it was heavily edited. The standard micro-cassettes of the day were 60 minutes in length. Only 18 minutes have ever publicly been released of Halt’s tape.
• Even in the aftermath Halt left things a long time to file a somewhat “inaccurate” report to the British authorities.

Actually, Halt has said that the tapes were 20 minutes long.

He has also explained that he waited for the British base commander, Don Moreland, to come back from his Christmas holidays before discussing the matter with him. Moreland advised Halt to write the memo, which he forwarded to the MoD. That’s why it was dated over two weeks after the events. Halt was evidently working from memory when he wrote the memo, and remembered the dates incorrectly.

So the answer is no, Ian is not an astronomer. More of an autodidact it seems, but I personally do count such as education/expertise and his contributions are impressive. I wouldn't let anyone mislabel me as such if I weren't though. I'd be embarrassed as heck to be misrepresented as to my bona fides.

Still and all, I'd say there's more evidence here for "other," whatever that other turns out to be. Vallee, too, has proffered some type of black-ops shenanigans in the forest and I'm quite surprised that hardcore skeptics haven't seemed to have given it much thought in light of the numerous "oddities" that can't be easily explained away. And Vallee is/was an astronomer as well as having held numerous clearances in DOD work and a Computer Scientist of note to boot.

The above scenario seems more inclusive and the lighthouse explanation could certainly come into partial play.

Ian William Ridpath (born 1 May 1947, Ilford, Essex) is an English science writer and broadcaster made famous for his investigation and explanation of the Rendlesham Forest Incident of December 1980.

He attended Beal Grammar School in Ilford where he wrote astronomy articles for the school magazine. Before entering publishing he was an assistant in the lunar research group at the University of London Observatory, Mill Hill. He now lives in Brentford, Middlesex.

He is editor of the Oxford Dictionary of Astronomy and Norton's Star Atlas, and author of observing guides such as The Monthly Sky Guide and the Collins Stars and Planets Guide (the latter two with charts by Wil Tirion, and both continuously in print for over 25 years). His other books include Star Tales, about the origins and mythology of the constellations, and the children’s book Exploring Stars and Planets, now in its fifth edition. He was a major contributor to the Dorling Kindersley encyclopedia Universe. He is a former editor of the UK quarterly magazine Popular Astronomy.

In 1990 he won an award in The Aventis Prizes for Science Books (in the under-8 children's books category) for The Giant Book of Space. In 2012 he received the Astronomical Society of the Pacific’s Klumpke-Roberts Award for outstanding contributions to the public understanding and appreciation of astronomy.[1]

His early books on the subject of extraterrestrial life and interstellar travel – Worlds Beyond (1975), Messages from the Stars (1978) and Life off Earth (1983) – led him to investigate UFOs. But he rapidly became a sceptic, a position reinforced by his findings about the Rendlesham case. He was one of the first to offer an explanation for the so-called Sirius Mystery[2] involving the supposedly advanced astronomical knowledge of the Dogon people of Mali, west Africa…

en.wikipedia.org...

Ever since I saw Penniston in some documentary rambling about his ASCII message received, with Linda Moulton Howe around (I think) the case lost ANY credibility for me.

Surprising...sarcasm...since literally ANY player in this tale is....TAATTAA!! military. Even Nike Pope (which I otherwise rather like)...the one writing the "new book with more untold revelations" is former EX MILITARY.

And you expect one ounce of truth there? Lol

NoRulesAllowed
Ever since I saw Penniston in some documentary rambling about his ASCII message received, with Linda Moulton Howe around (I think) the case lost ANY credibility for me.

Penniston is pretty much a big fat liar(with his pants on fire). Although he was probably paid by the history channel to spice up the story. Everyone has a price point. Mine is about 100 bucks. for 500, I would have made it an mp3 file instead of plain text. If they put some thought into it, they could have made it much more exciting.

Lets think about this. why send plain text in binary straight to his brain? if these were supposed to be people from the future and that's the best they could do? Were they sending it to him or were the ones and zeros "leaking out" from the space ship?
hey Penniston!
01100111 01101111 00100000 01100110 01110101 01100011 01101011 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 01110010 01110011 01100101 01101100 01100110

I disagree that the RFI is a ‘mess of layers upon layers of disinformation’.
I think the timeline posted earlier (bentwaters1980.proboards.com...) pretty well covers the whole sequence of events including most apparent inconsistencies. It shows that most witnesses and officers are simply telling the story as it was from their perspective.

Most witnesses have stuck to their accounts. The only problem areas are ‘Bustinza/Warren vs Halt’ and ‘Penniston’s version’.

The timeline shows that Bustinza probably went into the forest before Halt arrived and had his first encounter there, when the object hovered for some time in a clearing in the woods. That is why he can describe the object in more detail. Warren may have been with him, or he may have stayed in the background.
Warren helped Bustinza get the story out, that is why Bustinza felt an obligation to more or less support Warren’s version in the Fawcett interview.
Warren’s anger made him add elements to the case purely for provocation. He wanted a response from the officers in charge that night. Burroughs is angry with him because of that.

This leaves ‘Penniston’s version’ as the only real remaining problem area. When his book with coordinates of magical places is finally published, it will be the final blow to the RFI as a serious UFO case.

Nobody knows exactly what these men encountered. Most of the witnesses opt for an extraterrestrial explanation. There is no absolute proof of that, but it cannot be ruled out.

I enjoyed this forum, but as always there is no way of coming to a conclusion. I wish you all the best and one thing is certain: If it really was ET, they are not planning on landing here soon – and who can blame them?

mirageman
All we have is the Halt Memo, tape and witness testimony to go on.

So all we can continue to do is speculate....

Or you can try to work out what further material is/was available and whether that can be obtained.

There is quite a long list of possibilities.

Following up such a list is rather time consuming and can be VERY frustrating. I know, I've been down that track...

mirageman

All we have is the Halt Memo, tape and witness testimony to go on.

So all we can continue to do is speculate....

Hi mirageman, here is what interesting additional information/evidence provided to me by Peter Robbins about the investigations at Springborn laboratories on some of the soil samples which were taken at and close to the landing site at Capel Green as was being shown to him by Larry Warren.

Peter Robbins,

As is to read in Left At East Gate was Larry quite certain that the site that he identified was the exact location. Equally, if not more important, was the fact that the soil on the (exact) site he identified looked 'different' than the soil in the surrounding field. So much so that I did a rudimentary 'text' on it back at the B&B we were staying at - it was indeed different. This occurred in February 1988

This in turn resulted in my returning to the area in June 1990, almost a year and a half later, and nine and a half years after the original event. Much to my shock the grass in the field was now bright green on the exact site and already yellow ('hay') in the rest of the field. I had come prepared to take pounds of soil, from 'ground zero,' and control samples from the surrounding field. These samples were transported back to the USA and analyzed by a respected laboratory in the State of Massachusetts. It established that:
Soil from the 'affected' are took longer to grow and only produced 'mutant' strains of the plant seeds they tested.
That the affected samples contained more than 4 times the amount of tiny metallic particles naturally occurring in the soil, suggesting to the laboratory technician who conducted the tests that an extremely powerful electromagnetic force created this otherwise unexplainable anomaly.

That the soil itself had lost its ability to retain moisture to some degree

And - that the sand in the soil, reasonable in that this location is not far from the coast and the sea - had been reduced to "an interim form of glass." In short, that it had melted.

That is why - combined with Larry's forceful and sure testimony - I am convinced that this location in the field called Capel Green was the site of the third night's incident.

I am attaching the following to underscore the above points, all of which you are welcome to use however you wish:

1. The photo I took of the field on our first visit there, Sunday February 21 1988. The 'affected' area is at the right-center. If you 'squint' your eyes slightly the discoloration is very apparent.



2. A photo montage of Capel Green as it appeared when I returned in June 1990. The green area is exactly the same location as the darker area in the Feb 88 photo.



3. The cover sheet for the laboratory which conducted the soil analysis.



4. Some basic notes on the analysis, written up by the scientist who conducted the procedures, Matthew Moniz.

ianrid

Actually, Halt has said that the tapes were 20 minutes long.

He has also explained that he waited for the British base commander, Don Moreland, to come back from his Christmas holidays before discussing the matter with him. Moreland advised Halt to write the memo, which he forwarded to the MoD. That’s why it was dated over two weeks after the events. Halt was evidently working from memory when he wrote the memo, and remembered the dates incorrectly.

I must have missed that point. Halt has also said that he has more tapes to a number of people.

reply to post by Guest101


Thanks for your contributions to the thread. And yes Penniston's account of what happened is a major problem in this case.

reply to post by spacevisitor


Thanks for that addition - spacevisitor. I think the sceptics claim that it's the product of a medieval settlement and the darkened patch of grass was there before 1980.

Are there any photos of the area before 1980?

IsaacKoi


Or you can try to work out what further material is/was available and whether that can be obtained.

There is quite a long list of possibilities.

Following up such a list is rather time consuming and can be VERY frustrating. I know, I've been down that track...

Thanks for the advice Isaac.

Although I will probably give the whole topic a bit of break for a while before seeking out more material.

miragemanHalt has also said that he has more tapes to a number of people.

He has said that, but he seems to be referring to recordings of the security radio traffic that night, not anything he recorded himself.

But of course we have no actual evidence of the existence of such tapes, beyond what he has said.

Doctor Brian May PHd Astro physics who published a paper on observations of the kinematics of the zodiacal dust cloud has never allowed himself to be referred to as "An Astronomer" in the media, because he simply doesn't believe he has the right to do so. Given that is the level of expertise, of some self styled "amateurs" in the field, then it plainly shows why Ian simply cannot be trusted. As per usual the Pelicanists on this forum adopt one set of criteria for establishing credibility for the likes of Bob Lazar however, the moment someone agrees with their opinions they are free to style themselves as whatever they so choose and speak with authority. Enid Blyton use to edit a famous series of encyclopaedias, can't quite see her as some 1930s version of Stephen fry though.

So, Ian is not an astronomer and he's not a UFO expert, which begs the question, on what authority does he speak other than his own ego?; and his presence in all those documentaries is based on an intellectual deceit. My point exactly, he's merely a Pelicanist with an eye for a media opportunity.

mirageman
reply to post by spacevisitor

 

I think the sceptics claim that it's the product of a medieval settlement and the darkened patch of grass was there before 1980.

Your welcome mirageman, and regarding what the sceptics claim, I have no idea if a medieval settlement could have been there and could have caused the same differences between the soil samples, such as a higher content of silica that is indicative of exposure to high temperatures of energy.
That looks highly unlikely to me.

mirageman
Are there any photos of the area before 1980?

Not that I am aware of.

reply to post by FireMoon

So, Ian is not an astronomer and he's not a UFO expert

so it seems you are still don't understand this isn't about you and what you think of other people. Quite honestly there seems to be something going on with you other than Ian. Ian has a web site, you don't. Ian is on TV, you aren't. Ian has a some notoriety, you don't. He is Ian Ridpath, UFO expert and you are firemoon, just another nobody on ATS.

so your biggest contribution seems to be your jealous of another poster. Why not put your real name and credentials here so we can all examine them in all their glorious mediocrity. Seems fair to me.

ianrid

miragemanHalt has also said that he has more tapes to a number of people.

He has said that, but he seems to be referring to recordings of the security radio traffic that night, not anything he recorded himself.

Hi Ian,

Halt has in fact referred to additional tapes that he recorded himself (not just the recordings of radio traffic), although seemingly after the event.

Halt has said that he arranged for several tapes to be "buried" in case anything happened to him. (Halt referred to these tapes in, for example, his Coast To Coast interview broadcast on 18 November 2012 - just after 43 minutes into that show).

For anyone picking this thread up at a later date here are the links to my main postings on the case as a summary.

=========================================================================================================

Introduction & Ed Cabansag’s story
www.abovetopsecret.com...

John Burroughs story
www.abovetopsecret.com...

Staff Sergeant James Penniston’s story
www.abovetopsecret.com...

Ding, Dong Scarily on High: Colonel Halt’s involvement
www.abovetopsecret.com...

The Halt Tape & Memo
www.abovetopsecret.com...

Larry Warren’s story
www.abovetopsecret.com...#

Questions in the House on Rendlesham, Prison Evacuations and UK Troops Confront Armed US troops
www.abovetopsecret.com...

Triangle Shaped Craft Seen from the Base
www.abovetopsecret.com...

Adrian Bustinza’s story
www.abovetopsecret.com...

The Civilian Witnesses to the Rendlesham Incident
www.abovetopsecret.com...

Theories (part 1) : The Burning Fertilizer Truck, Tractor and Police Car Lights , 67th ARRS Accident theories
www.abovetopsecret.com...

Theories (part 2): Satellite Rocket Re-Entry Theory, “Explained Lights” – The Orfordness Lighthouse
www.abovetopsecret.com...

Theories (part 3) : “Not of this Earth”
• Objects…Extraterrestrial in Origin (Col Halt)
• Technology ..Far, Far Above What We Could Ever Engineer (Jim Penniston)
• They Were Not Human At All (Larry Warren)
• We Just Didn’t Know What It Was..( Lori Rehfeldt)
• A Structured Craft of Some Sort..(Steve La Plume)

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Cobra Mist
www.abovetopsecret.com...

“You have been an involuntary participant in a top-secret Air Force experiment “
www.abovetopsecret.com...

Andrew Pike’s Scientific Investigation
www.abovetopsecret.com...

Chris Armold’s Comments
www.abovetopsecret.com...

Richard Sommerfelt’s Story
www.abovetopsecret.com...

Timeline of the Rendlesham Incident

www.abovetopsecret.com...


Resources for Further Research : Websites and Documents
www.abovetopsecret.com...

Resources for Further Research : Video
www.abovetopsecret.com...

Resources for Further Research : Audio
www.abovetopsecret.com...

Summing Up : There will be an answer Let it Be….?
www.abovetopsecret.com...

==========================================================================


I guess the next development in this case will come with the release of the book "Encounter in Rendlesham Forest" by Pope, Penniston and Burroughs in April.

Penniston, I believe,received a download about that as well :

01000010 01111001 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01110111 01100001 01111001 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 01110010 00100000 01100010 01101111 01101111 01101011 00100000 01110111 01100001 01110011 00100000 01110010 01110101 01100010 01100010 01101001 01110011 01101000 00100000 01001010 01101001 01101101 00100001





I dare say someone will create a thread about it when the time comes.



I feel like I've now put my collection of books, notes, magazine articles, podcasts and video on Rendlesham to a bit of use and learned a bit more along the way. Although I am probably not going to write up another UFO thread for a while.

Can I just say thanks to everyone who has participated , especially those who have added interesting information to it whatever your point of view. Finally I hope Steve La Plume is OK after losing a close buddy. As one of the guys who was at the twin bases at the time I really appreciate his contribution here.

MM

Thank you for this very interesting thread about a very interesting UFO case mirageman.
I am convinced that in some moment in time it will be very clear to many people on this planet whose views and believes about this kind of major UFO cases and the UFO phenomenon itself were right.