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

The story that Bustinza tells to Bruni and Boeche includes a landing in a clearing in the forest after the object flew to the wooded area. It does not include any conversation between Halt and ‘beings’ and it does not include any hints of Halt helping them repairing their ship. The clearing apparently was not very big, because Bustinza states: “It [the object] was a tremendous size. It even surprised me that it was able to fit into the clearing.”

Larry Fawcett confronted Bustinza with Larry Warren’s story. It involves a red light moving on top of a yellow mist in a large field and the sudden appearance of a craft. This is not the same as an object flying to a wooded area and landing in a clearing in the forest.

Bustinza, however, confirms Fawcett’s leading questions. When asked about “the beings”, he first becomes a bit evasive and then tells Fawcett:

“To tell the truth, I remember seeing the craft. I remember Colonel Halt talking, and I remember looking to who he was talking to and I couldn’t see nobody.
I couldn’t see what, I mean, who he was talking to, and for a minute there I thought everybody there was going crazy here or something, you know. And I do remember him saying he would contact the electronics division, which would be CRF, I think it was, the call letters for the group. And they would possibly have to get the part from another world.”

In his later interview with Bruni, however, Bustinza does not remember anything about Halt talking about ‘getting parts from another world’.

Why is Larry’s story consistent with the rumors that were spreading on the base? And why does Bustinza more or less confirm it to Fawcett but tells a different story in his other two interviews?

My theory:
Right after the incidents, a rumor was spreading that a craft had been repaired by aliens and the base commander communicated with them and even helped them to repair it!
It was told to the RAF Watton radar operators when US personnel confiscated the radar tapes, it was told at a gas station on the base, and it was told at a New Year’s Eve party to Brenda’s partner. Whether it came from the rumor mill or was spread deliberately as disinformation, I think it also reached Larry Warren. Bustinza may have been one of his sources. When Fawcett confronted Bustinza with this story, Bustinza had already painted himself into a corner since he had encouraged Larry to go public with the story.

My theory concerning Halt:
Yes, Halt seems to be watering down the story. Battram’s message in LEAG states that “Halt should review the regs on posting”. I think Halt may have been aware of what Bustinza, Ball, and Englund saw before his arrival but he may not even have been aware he was investigating a new landing site (Battram and his patrol had already been sent away by Englund when Halt arrived). Halt is smart enough to only talk about what he himself has seen with his own eyes. He may have changed his story a bit to prevent probing questions.
I think Bustinza is confusing the first two sightings (when Battram came running from the woods and Bustinza, Ball, and Englund went after the object) and his third sighting (the one Halt and Nevels describe). That is why he thinks Halt was there when he saw the craft up close.
But still, there is a strange gap in Halt's tape after they are watching the glowing object from a few hundred yards, so who knows? But this implies that Nevels, too, is part of the coverup.

reply to post by Rob48


Rob makes some very valid and interesting points. This is also my first post here, and I would like to make the following observations about the supposed coordinates for Hy Brasil.

Hy Brasil first appeared on a map which some have attributed to Angelino Dulcert, a Majorcan mapmaker of Genoese origin, whilst others attribute it to his collegue Angelino Dalorto. The two people may be one and the same person. Precisely when the map appeared is uncertain, but the majority of cartographic historians place it at about 1330. Although Irish oral traditions for Hy Brasil exist before this date, none give any coordinates for its precise position. On the Dulcert map, Hy Brasil appears in the Atlantic Ocean, off the southern coast of Ireland at approximately latitude 51ºN. The operative word here is “approximately”, and 51ºN is as close as anyone is going to get. To even think about putting in a decimal point followed by more figures is totally ludicrous!!! It’s utter madness to even consider it!!! Anyone who claims that they have the precise coordinates for Hy Brasil is either lying or seriously deluding themselves. You might just as well claim to have found the precise coordinates for Atlantis! Where is the cartographic evidence that places Hy Brasil exactly at 52.0942532N? Such evidence, cartographic or otherwise, doesn’t exist!!! How can anyone possible obtain precise coordinates for what is, after all, a phantom island? If anyone thinks that they can produce such evidence, I would certainly like to see it. Moreover, as far as the longitude coordinate is concerned, it would be impossible for a map produced in 1330 to include a precise longitude coordinate of 13.131269W because the problem of establishing the west-east position of longitude wasn’t solved until 1730 by John Harrison.

In the many maps that followed the 1330 chart, Hy Brasil sometimes appears hundreds of nautical miles away from Ireland. In other maps there are sometimes two or three islands of Hy Brasil appearing in different locations on the same map! In fact, the mythical island of Hy Brasil tends to appear regularly in four different locations; one location is in the Azores, another is west of Brittany, another is east of Newfoundland, and yet another is west of Ireland. Whilst it is true that the location west of Ireland is fairly, although not entirely, consistant in appearing “approximately” at latitude 51ºN, it is, and can only ever be an approximation. Any coordinates for Hy Brasil that includes figures beyond a decimal point are, in my humble opinion, total and utter fabrication. This is especially so with regard to longitude for the reasons outlined above. In fact the earliest longitude coordinate for Hy Brasil appears in 1791 when the island was reputedly sighted by the master of an English merchant ship who, describing the island as really being a high rock or an islet, computed its longitude as roughly 16ºW. Not only is this figure at odds with the longitude coordinate in the “binary code”, it is also only an approximation. So, we are still left with the question as to how the so called “precise” coordinates for Hy Brasil were obtained when even contemporary maps were unable to give such accurate information.

reply to post by Rob48


Rob makes some very valid and interesting points. This is also my first post here, and I would like to make the following observations about the supposed coordinates for Hy Brasil.

Hy Brasil first appeared on a map which some have attributed to Angelino Dulcert, a Majorcan mapmaker of Genoese origin, whilst others attribute it to his collegue Angelino Dalorto. The two people may be one and the same person. Precisely when the map appeared is uncertain, but the majority of cartographic historians place it at about 1330. Although Irish oral traditions for Hy Brasil exist before this date, none give any coordinates for its precise position. On the Dulcert map, Hy Brasil appears in the Atlantic Ocean, off the southern coast of Ireland at approximately latitude 51ºN. The operative word here is “approximately”, and 51ºN is as close as anyone is going to get. To even think about putting in a decimal point followed by more figures is totally ludicrous!!! It’s utter madness to even consider it!!! Anyone who claims that they have the precise coordinates for Hy Brasil is either lying or seriously deluding themselves. You might just as well claim to have found the precise coordinates for Atlantis! Where is the cartographic evidence that places Hy Brasil exactly at 52.0942532N? Such evidence, cartographic or otherwise, doesn’t exist!!! How can anyone possible obtain precise coordinates for what is, after all, a phantom island? If anyone thinks that they can produce such evidence, I would certainly like to see it. Moreover, as far as the longitude coordinate is concerned, it would be impossible for a map produced in 1330 to include a precise longitude coordinate of 13.131269W because the problem of establishing the west-east position of longitude wasn’t solved until 1730 by John Harrison.

In the many maps that followed the 1330 chart, Hy Brasil sometimes appears hundreds of nautical miles away from Ireland. In other maps there are sometimes two or three islands of Hy Brasil appearing in different locations on the same map! In fact, the mythical island of Hy Brasil tends to appear regularly in four different locations; one location is in the Azores, another is west of Brittany, another is east of Newfoundland, and yet another is west of Ireland. Whilst it is true that the location west of Ireland is fairly, although not entirely, consistant in appearing “approximately” at latitude 51ºN, it is, and can only ever be an approximation. Any coordinates for Hy Brasil that includes figures beyond a decimal point are, in my humble opinion, total and utter fabrication. This is especially so with regard to longitude for the reasons outlined above. In fact the earliest longitude coordinate for Hy Brasil appears in 1791 when the island was reputedly sighted by the master of an English merchant ship who, describing the island as really being a high rock or an islet, computed its longitude as roughly 16ºW. Not only is this figure at odds with the longitude coordinate in the “binary code”, it is also only an approximation. So, we are still left with the question as to how the so called “precise” coordinates for Hy Brasil were obtained when even contemporary maps were unable to give such accurate information.

reply to post by DaveE66


im sure i've seen somewhere that someone cracked the binary code he rit down in his book and it gave coordinates to an island sunk of the coast of ireland and even a message but i cant be 100% sure

reply to post by DaveE66


im sure i've seen somewhere that someone cracked the binary code he rit down in his book and it gave coordinates to an island sunk of the coast of ireland and even a message but i cant be 100% sure

Guest101
The story that Bustinza tells to Bruni and Boeche includes a landing in a clearing in the forest after the object flew to the wooded area. It does not include any conversation between Halt and ‘beings’ and it does not include any hints of Halt helping them repairing their ship. The clearing apparently was not very big, because Bustinza states: “It [the object] was a tremendous size. It even surprised me that it was able to fit into the clearing.”

Regarding his saying about that clearing I did tried to figuring out what he could have meant with that, but what do you think of this possibility.
I think that he assumed that the object which they encountered later on in that farmers field and which was so tremendous in size has been the same object that left those triangular indentations burned into the ground at three different standpoints they found in that clearing in the forest.
That’s why I assume he was so surprised.
I came to that idea because he thought that the object that was seen over a two night period was one and the same object.

Adrian confirmed this question from Larry Fawcett;

LARRY FAWCETT - OK. As you got into the field, Larry said the field was ringed by military people and British personnel.
ADRIAN BUSTINZA - Yes.
LARRY FAWCETT - Is that right?
ADRIAN BUSTINZA - Yes.

Later on in the interview he said this;

LARRY FAWCETT - Well, then, how long was that machine there then?
ADRIAN BUSTINZA - I really don’t know. I mean, as far as out in the field?
LARRY FAWCETT - Yeah.
ADRIAN BUSTINZA - When we came in contact with it. Two nights.
LARRY FAWCETT - Two nights it was there.
ADRIAN BUSTINZA - Uh-huh. I went on my three days off after that.
LARRY FAWCETT - OK.
ADRIAN BUSTINZA - See because Larry’s shift and my shift intermixed.
LARRY FAWCETT - OK.

Guest101

My theory:
Right after the incidents, a rumor was spreading that a craft had been repaired by aliens and the base commander communicated with them and even helped them to repair it!
It was told to the RAF Watton radar operators when US personnel confiscated the radar tapes, it was told at a gas station on the base, and it was told at a New Year’s Eve party to Brenda’s partner.

It’s very logical to me that the rumor mill started to talk about crafts and aliens because many witnesses said they had seen ufo’s and beings over a three night period, although they were described as flying saucers and little green men.

Excerpt from the book “Left At East Gate”;

Larry; We got back to Central Security Control at about 4:30 A.M. I returned my weapon to the armory, then joined other groups from my flight in the lounge to drink coffee and stare at the walls. At 6:30, A-Flight reported for the day shift. Some of the men began making jokes about little green men and flying saucers.

Guest101

Whether it came from the rumor mill or was spread deliberately as disinformation, I think it also reached Larry Warren. Bustinza may have been one of his sources. When Fawcett confronted Bustinza with this story, Bustinza had already painted himself into a corner since he had encouraged Larry to go public with the story.

No doubt in my mind that that story was not spread deliberately as disinformation.
And again, how is it possible that if Larry wasn’t there himself and used instead other ones stories for his own he knows so much about it all until into the smallest details and writing a very detailed book about it?
Even the three major points he said to have seen since the beginning when he brought the story out in the public domain and which always were and still are denied to have taken place are being confirmed by other witnesses as well.
So that all was not only photographed but also filmed and that the Base Commander Gordon Williams was there as well as a landed craft with some occupants or beings.
So I believe without any doubt in my mind Larry's story as well as Adrian's to be true.

reply to post by lewviathanx

Yes, that has been claimed (just Google "Rendlesham Hy-Brasil" for info), but as I explained, and as DaveE66 also adds above, that claim doesn't stand up to scrutiny.

Hy-Brasil was a mythical island, whose position was never precisely fixed (mainly because it didn't exist!) but presumably covered quite a large area. Why then would the co-ordinates give so many decimal places - enough to pinpoint a location to with a few centimetres?

The answer, which I am reasonably positive is true, is simply that whoever concocted the "code" entered "Woodbridge UK" into a publicly available geo-data server on the WWW (or even quite possibly on Google Earth itself, as the co-ordinates never actually became public until well after Google Earth was available.

The resulting co-ordinates popped up, and said person then encoded them, rather sloppily, into binary, to the extent that they wrote "W" instead of "E". You can see that the coding was done sloppily as there are several other spelling mistakes in the code (COODINATES, the totally mangled spelling of CONTINUOUS, and so on).

As I said before, until quite recently (when Google changed its map data provider), if you searched for Woodbridge then the marker was placed at EXACTLY the same co-ordinates, to SIX DECIMAL PLACES, as the figures in the code (swapping E for W and the decimal points, which aren't given in the code and were inserted by the people doing the "decoding").

That is just too amazing to be a coincidence, and says to me that the code was undoubtedly devised after the fact by a rather careless human using the internet.

I am not the only person to have spotted this co-incidence. Have a look at this forum thread:

bentwaters1980.proboards.com...

Specifically, the posts from "lcdvasrm" and "redlite" about half way down that page.

Statistically, you can be confident 1000% that it is woodbridge. W or E or whatever..
The coordinates are right on where google places woodbridge town, with a precision of .... 1 in 3600000000 in longitude and 2 in 3600000000 in latitude
That's a precision of around 2*Pi*5370e3 m / 3600000000 (long)
end 2*Pi*5370e3 m /(3600000000/2) (lat)
==> ... 9cm in longitude and 19cm in latitude
which is ridiculously precise and even higher that the precision of google earth that has one less decimal.
Now where did google get these coordinates ? Were these specified before 1981 ?
This is a good question because these are totally arbitrary and human of course.
They don't match any specific feature in the town. Is there any doc where these exact coordinates are specified ? Are these going to become the reference ?....
Openminds found that the coordinates found on dbases on the web give
52.0942531
1.3131269

Google gives
52.094253°
1.313127°

Code Gives
52.0942532 N
1.3131269 E
(these exact coordinates give nothing in the google search engine)

So all this fits in a box of 19cm by 9cm on earth...

and again, referring to a site that seems no longer to be in existence, sadly, but that was clearly using the same data set that Google used to use:

It was suggested that we over at OMF on the JP board come over here and check out this site. One of our members found a online mapping service that goes by the handle 'get lat lon' and has caused a bit of a rukus. The site went online in Oct. 2007. If you type in 'Woodbridge UK', an incredible coincidence occurs, the code matches to within an almost impossible accuracy. The odds work out to quadrillions to one if you were trying to guess a number the size of the coordinate piece of the code, which is 17 digits long and a couple of letters. 17 digits in a string is in the 10 quadrillion neighborhood. Putting letters in only makes the odds worse. We don't have a good mathmatician over there to help sort things out and my backround as a surveyor helps, but I'm completley out of my element with these kind of calculations.

It would be like finding a briefcase with the little roll-style locks, except this one would have 19 little rollers in this sequence, 9 numerical rollers, then 1 letter roller, then 8 more numerical rollers, then 1 more letter roller. The total number of combinations allowable is staggering, to say the least.

Read more: bentwaters1980.proboards.com...

Honestly, if this evidence isn't overwhelming then I don't know what is! Unfortunately, though, the Hy-Brasil link, which is quite clearly spurious, seems to have taken on a life of its own on the internet.

Whoever came up with the code must be privately quite chuffed that their error, rather than exposing their hoax ("Duh... advanced time travellers and they screw up east and west!") has by chance provided some mystical angle that was almost certainly never intended at all!

Rob48Whoever came up with the code must be privately quite chuffed that their error, rather than exposing their hoax ("Duh... advanced time travellers and they screw up east and west!") has by chance provided some mystical angle that was almost certainly never intended at all!

I think this sums up the essential difference between skeptics and believers: skeptics are happy to go with the bleedin' obvious while believers are always looking for some deeper meaning. Which, of course, is never there.

reply to post by ianrid

I'm certainly not ruling out the idea that something unusual did go on at Rendlesham - I do find it quite hard to believe that so many people could have been fooled by the lighthouse. Although it is clear, whatever believers say, that at least two if the men originally investigating DID end up "chasing" the lighthouse for some considerable distance - their statements admit that!

But the fact is that every time the story is revisited, it seems to get more and more convoluted and fantastical - from seeing lights in the sky, to seeing a craft at a distance, to seeing a craft close up, to touching the craft and talking to "beings", to having a mysterious code downloaded revealing co-ordinates, to having another half-dozen co-ordinates suddenyl be added pointing to spots all around the globe.... and never mind how many landing sites there seem to be now... three? four? I've lost count.

It seems clear to me that so much nonsense has sprung up around this story that separating out the wheat (if indeed there is any) from the mountain of chaff is an impossible task, especially after more than 30 years.

reply to post by Rob48

Yes, it may seem unlikely — but if you put all prejudice aside and look at the evidence dispassionately, that’s exactly what happened.

The alternative is surely even more unlikely: namely that a front-line NATO base was under surveillance and possible attack by unknown craft for several hours, over more than one night, and no one did anything about it! If it was indeed a “reaction test” as some have supposed, the deputy head of base security, Col Halt, failed the test big time.

reply to post by Rob48


This was a very unusual and most complex case, and encounter(s) which happened over a period of days. It is also a very complex case, and it happened as pointed out, some time ago. It has a lot in common with Roswell I think, in that, there has been a lot of disinformation about what exactly happened and when. Based on the book I have read about the incident (" Left at Eastgate") as well as viewing many, many programs on the subject over the years including both " UFO Files", and "UFO Hunters" shows, to name a few, I can say I firmly believe some kind of an extraterrestrial craft did make at least a couple of appearances, and several people on base had some close contact with both the craft and its occupants. In my mind this stands out as it has been portrayed by some, as Britians "Roswell".

ianrid
The alternative is surely even more unlikely: namely that a front-line NATO base was under surveillance and possible attack by unknown craft for several hours, over more than one night, and no one did anything about it!

I agree: It wouldn’t make any sense if there had been no additional security measures if strange things were reported from the forest, even if they weren’t UFO’s. Peace protesters were very active in those days and eager to damage planes and other equipment if they got the chance.

But it seems extra precautions were taken:

People normally working in the backoffice (Battram and his collegues) were put on guard duty the night of 26/27 (right after the first night of the RFI).

Battram:

“The night we saw the UFO, we were out there on duty, on one of these exercises, and it was nighttime. Nothing going on but we all still had to be there, and we were driving around on Woodbridge base on a perimeter control, and we saw some lights up in the sky, and it looked a lot different from any other aircraft we had ever seen.”
“it was the second night we had been out on this alert. I had thought the night before, ‘now I get to see if these guys are really high or if they’re really seeing something. The night it happened it was like: ‘holy #! There must be something in the water.’”

Even more interesting is the statement of Rick Sommerfelt (posted on the old Rendlesham forum), that shows the airplane bunkers on Woodbridge were suddenly closed and the technicians were sent home quickly. It would make sense to protect the planes and weapons in case of a possible intrusion.
He also states a lot of light-alls were stationed along the road east of the runway, but they were shining towards the base, not into the forest. Another measure to spot any intruders trying to enter the base.

Now, on the night of DEc 27th , I was working in one of those new Tad Vees in the very East End of Woody.

at about 2400 – 0100, our lights in our Tad Vee and what I could see out of the Tad Vee went in black out. We stepped out to see what was up but our one Tad Vee door that was open blocked our view of the East.

a Security Police, SP Capt. came over to our hanger stating we had to shut it down.
I explained to the Capt., with all due respect, we just can’t stop and walk away from the aircraft with all the tools and equipment spread out in and around the aircraft. It would be like stopping an operation at a hospital, there are policies and procedures that must be adhered to. I suggested to him that he contact our flight chief.

About ten minutes later my Flight Chief and the Capt returned and started to bark orders to shut it down. My boss wanted us to remove as many tools and equipment away from the aircraft as could be done in a few
minutes.

we were instructed to grab our stuff and form up at the Secure Area Entry Point for a Roll Call. This is the first time in my assignment at B.W. or W.B. that this had ever happened!

He [the SP captain] said we were being (evacuated), sent home was the term, we were to leave immediately and depart out the front gate of Woody only. He also said we would be contacted when to return back to work due to the holidays.

I turned to the S.P. Capt and told the Capt I can’t go out the front Woody gate because I will run out of gas before I get out of Tunstall.
This is when I was briefed by the SP Capt to go directly to the East Gate. STOP for a document check until told to proceed, drive smoothly, not fast and not slow and do not stop for any reason until you get to Leiston!
I was cleared to go thru East Gate and to turn left toward Friday Street.

I drove slowly, not too fast. I wanted to see what all the hoopla was about. All I could see was military vehicles, SP trucks and the Cadillac Gauge armored vehicle, one blue staff car I think it had a white roof, and lots of Lite-alls facing the road blinding anyone trying to see into the forest. The S.P.’s were standing in several groups not really in a spaced formation. They were talking and several were smoking.

Guest101Peace protesters were very active in those days and eager to damage planes and other equipment if they got the chance.

I understand that the twin bases had a lot of trouble with incursions from CND activists around that time. Such mis-remembered events might well account for some of the mythology surrounding the RFI.

You'd need diary entries to confirm the dates of anecdotal stories from servicemen told years later. Remember, even Halt got the dates of the sightings wrong in his memo, and he wrote that only two weeks after the events. We have the right dates from the local police log. They were called out on the first night, again on the morning after the first night, and for a third time on the Halt night. But they declined to come out the third time as they obviously thought the USAF were making a fuss about nothing.

Inspector MIke Topliss wrote a letter to Georgina Bruni which makes clear what the local constabulary thought about it all (i.e. not a lot). Dear Georgina printed it in her book, even though it largely undermined her case. You can see the same letter in the Suffolk police file on the RFI, although with the names blanked out.

ianrid
reply to post by Rob48

 

Yes, it may seem unlikely — but if you put all prejudice aside and look at the evidence dispassionately, that’s exactly what happened.

Not just the lighthouse...wasn't there a bolide event too?

Since this thread is about trivia that's not too well known, I have a couple of thoughts to add that I didn't see mentioned on your excellent website, though it covers a lot of material so it's possible I might have missed it.

I think your website covers the fact that Halt's seeing beams coming to the ground was not corroborated by others who should have been able to corroborate such. I have a hypothesis about what he saw and an example in this video:

UFO Shoots Laser Beam October 10-2009

The videographer was using a night vision scope, as I think was Halt, and both seem to think they see beams coming to the ground from lights in the sky. In the attached video, you can see the light in the sky pulsating, and the "beam" pulsates along with it, which says to me that it's not a beam at all, but an artifact of the night vision equipment (which happens to pass through the centerline of the optics). I suspect an effect like this is probably what Halt saw: a night vision artifact that nobody else saw. Here are a couple of screenshots from the video:



It does look like a beam, but it seems to be just an artifact of the night vision equipment/amplification. This becomes more apparent when watching the video and seeing how the artifact brightness pulsates exactly in sync with the pulsation of the light source, which suggests it's an artifact and not a beam.

The other topic I haven't seen mentioned is Penniston's glasses and the subject called "Chromatic aberration", which can make a white light look like colored lights. If the glasses slide down your nose a little such that you're not looking through the centerline of the optics any more, the effect becomes more pronounced.

www.news-medical.net...

For people with a high degree of myopia, very strong eyeglass prescriptions are needed to correct the focus error. However, strong eyeglass prescriptions have a negative side effect in that off-axis viewing of objects away from the center of the lens results in prismatic movement and separation of colors, known as chromatic aberration.

When Penniston talks about colored lights, chromatic aberration is the first thing I think of, but I've never seen anybody discuss this. For example this shows a red on top/ blue on bottom example of chromatic aberration:

photographylife.com...


And what does Penniston's drawing show? Red on top and blue on bottom (See the lower left part of his drawing):

www.ianridpath.com...


I think the actual optics in Penniston's case would be drawn a little differently if he's nearsighted, and the offset would be on the top part of his lens, but I think the effect would be similar.

reply to post by Arbitrageur


Yeah, and if he was wearing a glow-in-the-dark watch, it may have reflected from the rim of his glasses into his retina projecting the shape of a little green ET.

What is so rational about assuming that very subtle physical phenomena had these men calling the police at night reporting UFO’s, calling in the police the day after to inspect a landing site, calling a radar station to check if UFO’s were on their radar on the third night, and finally writing a memo to the MOD reporting a triangular craft and objects in the sky? These men were senior officers and war veterans. What is so rational about stating that all this was caused by a small white flashing light five miles away and some twinkling stars? And now chromatic abberation is thrown into the equation? Come on ... get real!

The red-on-top, blue-on-the-bottom shape is also in Burroughs’ drawing. It’s is all the way through their witness statements, from the first observations at the gate all the way down to their close encounter. These guys clearly saw something that got up and moved back through the trees.

“myself & my partner saw lights coming from the woods due east of the gate. The lights were red and blue the red one above the blue one and they were flashing on and off. “ - Burroughs

“The whole time I could see the lights and the white light was almost at the edge of the road and the blue and red lights were still out in the woods.” - Burroughs

“directly in the center ground level, there was a red light blinking on and off 5 to 10 sec intervals and a blue light that was being for the most part steady.” - Penniston

When we got within a 50 meter distance, the object was producing red and blue light. The blue light was steady and projecting under the object. It was lighting up the area directly under extending a meter or two out” - Penniston

“We then proceeded after it. It moved in a zigzagging manner back through the wood then lost sight of it.” - Penniston

“All three of us hit the ground and whatever it was started moving back towards the open field” - Burroughs

The beams of light shining down are in Halt’s tape and have been corroborated by Nevels in his recent interview. There is nothing on the tape or in later interviews to suggest they were only visible through the starscope.

Guest101
“directly in the center ground level, there was a red light blinking on and off 5 to 10 sec intervals and a blue light that was being for the most part steady.” - Penniston

Given the lighthouse interval is as he said, sure sounds a lot like the lighthouse. Combine this with the other witness statements saying they ended up seeing the lighthouse, the lighthouse conclusion seems unavoidable.

What is so rational about assuming that very subtle physical phenomena had these men calling the police at night reporting UFO’s, calling in the police the day after to inspect a landing site, calling a radar station to check if UFO’s were on their radar on the third night

Who ever said humans were rational? They did call the police, and the police didn't even come out the third time they called apparently because they didn't find any reason why they should have been called the first two times.

The beams of light shining down are in Halt’s tape and have been corroborated by Nevels in his recent interview. There is nothing on the tape or in later interviews to suggest they were only visible through the starscope.

One thing this case has demonstrated is the ability of witnesses to change their stories over time. The longer since the incident, the less credible I find the testimony, and this is true even if the witness is trying their best to remember accurately, because of things like "confabulation". In this case I'm pretty sure not all the witnesses are even trying to remember accurately and certainly they are overusing the "mind control" claims, which seems to me like a poor excuse for telling inconsistent stories.

ianrid
If it was indeed a “reaction test” as some have supposed, the deputy head of base security, Col Halt, failed the test big time.

Halt's recorded statement of, "This is unreal!" is very interesting. You can hear his emotional confusion. Almost--it's easy for me to imagine--as if he were experiencing an anomalous affect of his normal perceptual reality.

Your statement above is notable. However, it also must be kept in mind that such a test wouldn't be about any one individual's capability, but a test that would apply to anyone of any degree of capability/responsibility. In other words: A "team" is not being tested. Concepts are.

In the investigative practices of law enforcement particularly, and journalism generally, the thorough investigator always pursues all leads even when they feel they have their top "suspect." I speak from experience in both.

My question to you, Ian, is: Have you looked into the possibility of such testing to any degree? I'm certain you would--should you choose to adhere to the wisdom of such technique--be really good at it. And, as I've mentioned before, your basic thesis could certainly well have played a part.

The above suggestions are included in the true characteristics of skepticism. Otherwise, it's mere & pedestrian debunking built on a few partial possible answers that fail to address the totality of the mystery.

Give it a shot, mate...the answers might surprise not only yourself, but the world.

Guest101The beams of light shining down are in Halt’s tape and have been corroborated by Nevels in his recent interview. There is nothing on the tape or in later interviews to suggest they were only visible through the starscope.

I agree. There’s no evidence they were looking at the ‘starlike objects’ through the starscope. The only one of the three ‘starlike’ objects seen to send down beams was the one over Woodbridge, which was in the position of Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky. The descriptions of the ‘starlike objects’ sound like the standard misperceptions of bright stars when seen close to the horizon. This is all well-known stuff, except by UFO believers, but for those not up to speed on this Tim Printy’s page might be helpful
home.comcast.net...

I have something shorter and simpler here
www.ianridpath.com...

But interesting thoughts, Arbitrageur, which might well be relevant to the appearance of the lighthouse seen through the starscope. Thanks for posting.

ianrid
The descriptions of the ‘starlike objects’ sound like the standard misperceptions of bright stars when seen close to the horizon.

They sure do!
But these men say they saw UFO’s, not stars. Even after spending several hours in the field.

A scientist knows that not every “star-like object” by definition is a star. Planets and comets are “star-like”. Even a distant plane can look “star-like”.

A distant hovering UFO and a scintillating star may fit the same description: A star-like object dancing about with colored lights, just above the horizon.

So is there any data that rules out a celestial object?
It appears there is, and it’s on the Halt tape:

LT COLONEL HALT: the ones to the north are moving, one's moving away from us.
SGT BALL: Moving forward!
SGT NEVELS: It's moving out fast!
LT COLONEL HALT: They're moving out fast.
SGT BALL: This one on the right's heading away too.
LT COLONEL HALT: Yeah, they're both heading north. Ok hey, here he comes from the south; he's coming in toward us now.
SGT BALL: Holy #!
LT COLONEL HALT: Now were observing what appears to be a beam coming down to the ground.
SGT BALL: Look at the colors... #
LT COLONEL HALT: This is unreal.

Three witnesses see the same thing: The ‘stars’ to the north are moving away fast.
This definitely falsifies the ‘star-theory’.

That is the big difference between skeptic methodology (if the data doesn’t fit the theory, reject the data) and scientific methodology (if the data doesn’t fit the theory, reject the theory).

While the skeptic frantically starts to look for a way to force-fit this data into his counterclaim, the scientist gets curious - is there any more data on this sighting?

It appears there is (ufoupdateslist.com... ):

Randy Smith was watching the events from the SPCDS [Small Permanent Communications Display Segment - a 'computerized alarm system'] tower:

“Binoculars were being passed around and when I had my turn I saw VERY CLEAR images of 3 triangular shaped craft that were hovering a few miles away and above treetop level".
“I observed 3 triangular craft with lights; my vision was and is perfect, the area of observation was clear. There is NO DOUBT in my mind whatsoever.”
“The shape is effectively an upright pyramid”. They “didn't look to be as flat as an actual pyramid”. The lights underneath, which ”created somewhat of a backlit effect enabling the shape of the crafts to be seen clearly”, were observed to be 8-10 rectangular blocks, arranged in a circle.
“I only stayed in the tower for an hour or so and heard one of the guys with a turn on the binoculars say: 'Wow, it just took off'. Two of the craft left at a high rate of speed. The one remaining craft was still in position when I left the tower"

And that is my last post on the star-theory – I already know skeptics will never let go of their “I know what you saw” counterclaims, no matter what eye witnesses say (even on a live tape recording).

Guest101
Three witnesses see the same thing: The ‘stars’ to the north are moving away fast.
This definitely falsifies the ‘star-theory’.

No it doesn’t. What is the basis for your statement? Believers are always saying that such-and-such a misperception cannot possibly happen. But experience of UFO reports shows time and again that it can, and does.

It’s well understood that fading of an object gives the impression that it is receding (and, conversely, brightening gives the impression of approach). It’s this same old business of being unable to estimate distances of lights at night. And, in the Randy Smith case, with the addition of chromatic aberration caused by looking at something through thick glass.

So, yet again: there is nothing unusual or inexplicable about these reports. Please read Allan Hendry's UFO Handbook if you doubt me.

I have given examples and explained the specific Halt case in Point 15 on this page
www.ianridpath.com...