Bentwaters UFO on Unsolved Mysteries

This is yet another look back at the Unsolved Mysteries TV show, which is now freely available on YoutTube, and its coverage of UFO stories.

This time it’s a case that is arguably second only to Roswell with a mythology to match it. The December 1980 ‘Bentwaters UFO’ episode, as it was then called, stars seasoned “Rendleshammers”, John Burroughs and Charles Halt with a rare appearance by Bob Ball.

YouTube Link to segment : www.youtube.com...

First Aired : Sept 18th 1991

Unsolved Mysteries Show Notes

Rendlesham Forest, England, is home to RAF Woodridge leased to the US Air Force. On December 26, 1980, at around 2 AM, Airman First Class John Burroughs, and his partner, were on routine patrol along the base perimeter. The base was nearly empty. But, according to Burroughs, something bright was lighting up the nearby woods:

“There was definitely something out in the woods. It seemed to me like a massive light show. I was nervous, he was nervous. We didn’t know what to expect, and we decided at that point that we better get back and let somebody know what’s going on in case something did happen.”

Burroughs quickly notified his immediate superior. In minutes, another security patrol arrived. They had also seen the strange lights. Burroughs and the second security team went off base to investigate. They were ordered to leave their weapons behind because they were moving out of American jurisdiction:

“We didn’t know what we were getting into. We started in on foot towards the lights. At the same time, we could hear the animals. They were very upset because you could hear a lot of ruckus. At that point we had a radio transmission. They’d just got a contact from Heathrow tower in London that an object had been seen over our base and that it had disappeared on radar.

All of a sudden, in the clearing, there was an object. It had a bank of blue lights on it. And it was sitting there strobing. It was unbelievable. We all hit the ground and it went up into the trees. When it was happening, everything seemed to go slower. We seemed to be in, like, I wouldn’t say a time warp, but like everything was happening slower to us and everything felt different. But when it disappeared, it was like everything was normal again, the perception of the ground, the air, the sky, the stars, the whole nine yards, were different.”

For more than two hours, Burroughs said he and the two other men played a game of cat and mouse with the mysterious craft:

“It was off the ground and near the horizon above the trees. And it always stayed out in the distance at the horizon, and sometimes it appeared to get close, as if we were going to get close to it again, and then we never did.”

When the men filed their report, they assumed no one would believe their account. Yet, the events of that night resulted in one of the most well-documented sightings of a UFO in history. The next morning, they nervously reported the sighting to the shift commander:

“He basically said, ‘Gentlemen, you saw something. Heathrow tower confirms that you saw something. And now, let’s go out into the area and see if we can find any physical proof of what happened.’ I was hoping when I got out there that basically I would see nothing. There would be no telltale evidence that possibly something happened. That would make it easier for me because, if there’s nothing proving that something happened to me, you can just kind of check it off. But when you get out there and you find damage to the trees, depressions in the ground and stuff, that makes it even more unexplainable.”

Later that same day, Burroughs and a British police officer explored the site where Burroughs saw the strange object. According to Burroughs, there were circular impressions in the earth directly below the spot where the craft appeared to hover:

“ “It was more of a mystery because when I first saw it, I didn’t perceive it as something sitting on the ground with a tripod type thing. Now, all of a sudden, there’s physical proof showing that something sat down in that area.”

Halt’s report, released through FOIA

The British police officer dismissed the circles as the marks of animals that had been digging there. But he did order his men to measure the distance between the circles.

They were exactly the same distance apart and formed a perfect equilateral triangle.
Rumours of the UFO sighting had spread like wildfire. Later that morning, Col. Charles Halt, deputy base commander, arrived at Woodbridge security headquarters:

“I was very sceptical. I found what had allegedly taken place hard to believe, and I was really going to debunk it, quite frankly. And as events unfolded, I became more and more concerned that there may be something to this. I kept telling myself that there had to be some type of explanation for it. But I certainly couldn’t find one and even to this day I, I can’t explain what happened.”

That evening, unusual lights were once again spotted in the forest. This time, the base commander ordered large floodlights, devices commonly known as light-alls, to be set up in the woods. At 9:30 PM, Col. Halt received word the lights had mysteriously stopped working. Base security was immediately ordered to set up more floodlights. Col. Halt put together a special investigative team:

“I called the on-duty, or stand-by, man of disaster preparedness and had him get his camera — he was a professional photographer — and calibrate several radio instruments to take along. We were going to go debunk this.”

When Col. Halt arrived at the site, he said the second set of light-alls had also stopped working. And that’s not all:

“Some of the vehicles weren’t working properly and radio transmissions were limited at best.”

Armed with a Geiger counter, a starlight scope to enhance night vision, and a tape recorder to record his first impressions, Col. Halt led his team into the woods. Suddenly, a strange, glowing object appeared. As the object began to move away, Col. Halt said he and his men followed:

“As we were pursuing this glowing object through the woods, we noticed a farmhouse directly in front of us.”

The farmhouse appeared to be glowing very brightly, as though it was on fire. Then, according to Col. Halt:

“The object broke into five white objects and disappeared. And it was a very strange feeling in the air. It made your hair bristle, sort of like static electricity, you just had a very unusual feeling. And I don’t think it was all psychological. I think there was something physiological about it. I think there was some type of guiding force behind these objects. Whether it was trying to communicate with us, whether it was trying to warn us, or whether it was trying to do something to us, I don’t know.”

One of the members of Col. Halt’s team was Sgt. Robert Ball

“To me, it looked like a grid search, like they were boxing off an area and looking for something. And that was the thought that hit me right away, and it stayed with me over the years. It looked like a search pattern.”

Col. Halt said as the object moved about, it emitted laser-like beams of light:

“We could very clearly see it. It sort of danced about in the sky and it sent down beams of light. I noticed other beams of light coming down from the same object, following different places on the base. My boss was standing in his front yard at Woodbridge and he could see the beams of light falling down. And the people in that weapons storage area and several other places on the base also reported the lights.”

John Burroughs wasn’t on patrol the second night:

“I woke up about 3:30, 4 in the morning and for whatever reason, I felt like maybe something had happened again. I don’t know why. I just woke up and felt like something had come back, don’t ask me why, it just was a gut feeling. So I went ahead and got up and went up to the base. All of a sudden, a couple of blue transparent type lights appeared in the sky. They were all of a sudden on the horizon and one of them broke towards us. The only time the light-alls were working, as far as coming on and off when I saw them, were when the blue light passed by. And I have no idea what caused the light-alls to come on and off, other than the fact that the blue light as it passed, the light-alls came on.”

At about the same time, just 300 yards away, Col. Halt and his team also had a remarkable close encounter:

“The object was coming at us at a very high rate of speed. One of these beams of light fell very, very close to us, sort of pencil beam of light.”

Once the object took off, it never returned. The next day, Col. Halt drafted a memo about the incident. It was submitted to British military authorities, who never acted on it. The United States Air Force would not acknowledge the episode either. Then, in 1983, a private citizen used the Freedom of Information Act to obtain Halt’s memo. But not everybody was convinced by what it reported. James McGaha is a noted UFO sceptic and director of two private observatories:

“The burden of proof for any event that is extraordinary is upon those making the claim, not upon those who look at it from a skeptical perspective. Where is the evidence? Show me the evidence? And that’s what science is all about. On the first night, at about 3 o’clock that morning, a bright fireball, which is a very bright meteor came into the earth’s atmosphere. And this is unquestionably what John Burroughs saw that night.”

John Burroughs says, not so:

“I’ve seen meteor showers come down before. It wasn’t a meteor falling out of the sky. And it went up, not down. Meteors fall from the sky. They don’t go back up into the sky.”

Col. Halt said what he saw was not a meteor:

“Meteor’s not going to go up, go back and forth and maintain position in the sky for a long period of time. A meteor’s not going to send beams of light down.”

James McGaha believes both men were mistaken:

I think both of them are being honest as to what their perceptions are. But human perception is very, very easily fooled. And I think when they went out there to the woods, everybody was out there expecting to see a UFO. With a pre-conceived notion, the way you view things can be greatly influenced.”

McGaha believes that the glowing red light Col. Halt saw that night was simply a reflection from the revolving beam of a nearby lighthouse. Col. Halt doesn’t think so:

“There are too many unrelated things. If it were just a reflection, how does one explain two different sightings in two different places in the sky? How does one explain the object moving through the forest? How does one explain the sighting in the forest by the three airmen? There were just too many things. I have a lot of unresolved questions I’m not sure I’ll ever have answered. I’ve had people suggest all sorts of things, everything from, I’ve seen the second coming of Christ, to the devil after us. I can’t explain it, I really can’t. I know it was beyond the realm of anything that we experience in ordinary life.”

Around the same time, two other unconfirmed sightings were reported in the vicinity of Woodbridge Air Base. At least 15 men, all of them US Air Force personnel, witnessed the strange lights and objects first-hand. The Air Force continues to have no official comment on the entire series of events.

Beyond Unsolved Mysteries

Although this has been covered in huge depth in other threads, here is a brief rundown of how this story has developed.

■ Ian Ridpath, amongst others, has done exhaustive sceptical work on the case. Including matching up the Halt tape with the flash from the now abandoned Orfordness Lighthouse.



■ After Unsolved Mysteries first aired, a UK documentary series Strange But True? broadcast its own episode called 'The Rendlesham Incident' on the 9th December 1994. Charles Halt, John Burroughs and Jim Penniston were interviewed.



■ Witness Statements taken by Colonel Halt were made public in 1997 but only of the 1st night. Revealing that Penniston alone reported seeing a craft and that he was never closer than 50m to it.

■ A number of books have been published on the case since the 1980s. With the four most prominent witnesses all co-authoring at least one volume themselves.

■ In 1997, Larry Warren co-authored a book with Peter Robbins “Left at East Gate”. This detailed Warren’s life story as well as his alleged involvement in the Rendlesham incident. However by 2015 Robbins, with the pressure growing, decided to part ways conceding that Warren’s military photos and documents (some used in the book as evidence) looked tampered with and that his story doesn’t add up in comparison with other facts.

■ In the late 2000s the UK MoD began to release various files on the case. While not giving any definite resolution, provided some interesting information.

■ In 2010 at the 30th anniversary Conference in Woodbridge, Jim Penniston revealed that he’d received a message from the future in the form of a binary download from the craft that no one else saw him touch. This after revealing he'd seen glyphs in 1993. In the late 90s/early 2000s He revealed a notebook with sketches and notes. Claiming he had spent 45 mins checking over a strange craft. Even that he had taken photos of a craft (fogged out when developed). All in a dark forest, and none of which Burroughs or Cabansag recall.



■ John Burroughs was taken ill not long after the conference and fought a long legal battle to access medical treatment for a shredded heart valve which he linked back to the incident via a British document called Project Condign. He has since claimed he possesses a document confirming a weapon was being developed of the back off whatever was going on in the forest in 1980.

■ There is no consensus from the main witnesses as to what happened, and their relationships have appeared prickly, toxic even, at times. I sometimes wonder if that is all by design?


Conclusions
The case has become a complex one. Not helped by continual drip feed of often unverifiable testimony by new and old witnesses. Something did happen over those three nights of December 1980. But no alerts were ever called, and the British military took no action. Which points to a situation that is, perhaps, far less exciting than the stories we’ve been told for the last 40 years.

The case remains frustratingly unsolved.


Genuine colourized photo of alleged landing site Dec 26th 1980

a reply to: mirageman

sometimes wonder if that is all by design?

Probably...


Nice new thread.

Have you obtained the new Rendlesham book by Heseltine MM.
It was on Amazon but cannot see it anymore, though a few have purchased it. It's supposed to be near forensic style in the research.

a reply to: mirageman

I think it’s only fair to add the following set of B&W pictures said to have been taken by a Poacher who said he was a witness to an object traveling between the trees and tree tops.

The “witness” in the Sun story, linked below, didn’t have a name for the Poacher when the story was published in 2021. Perhaps there’s a source now that reveals the Poacher witness name.

I don’t know if a deep forensic analysis was given to these 6 photos to determine if they were hoaxed or legitimate. Has anyone done that??

I’ve put them in gif form to post here.

Source The Sun: CLOSER ENCOUNTER First ever ‘photos of Britain’s biggest UFO sighting show huge orb flying through woods with beam of light shooting out’ Emma Parry Published: 17:05, 5 May 2021 Updated: 19:03, 5 May 2021

From the Poacher witness…

He said: "When I was younger, I was a poacher. I lived very close to Rendlesham Forest and frequently went poaching there. So back in 1980, 28 December, I was in the forest poaching. "Now bear this in mind, before this encounter I saw and heard a lot of strange things in that forest. I could tell you stories that would bend your bones, so every time I went poaching, I always took my camera always hoping to capture some evidence."

Has any or all of these B&W photos been shown to Halt and company (the usual cast of characters), to see if it’s what they themselves witnessed?? ……..and if so, what were their comments?

👽

So, what was Pennington’s story about why he took so long to reveal his download and the mysterious lone interaction with this craft he touched?

Mind control or hypnosis, where they made him remember decades later?

Wow. I haven't thought about the Bentwaters incident in a long time. Colorful lights, beams, electrical/static sensations, time dilation, radios/electrical equipment (light-alls) not working, vehicles not working; these are all common elements I've found as I've been accumulating a growing collection of cases, all with suspected RF/directed energy systems associated with anomalous craft. When I get some more time I'll go through this one more thoroughly and add it to the collection. Most of the ones I've gone through include burns/etc on the witnesses, though. Could be a similar system on the craft from the Unsolved Mysteries episode but not aimed at any bystanders. They were probably very lucky one of those beams did not strike them directly.
Some from the 1980s here: 1980s cases WL Aux
(click on the decades on the right side for reports from other decades)
If you read through some of these incidents, you'll see some eerie similarities.

a reply to: Baablacksheep

Have you obtained the new Rendlesham book by Heseltine MM. It was on Amazon but cannot see it anymore, though a few have purchased it. It's supposed to be near forensic style in the research.

No

a reply to: Ophiuchus1

We've been over this in the old thread and there are a number of red flags here.

1) The 'photos' are more like 2 tone prints. Compared to the photo posted in the OP of the landing site why are they all so poor in quality? Why wait 40 years?

2) The photos are anonymous after 40 years+. Which is always a red flag. Plus, the witness claimed to be ".. 200ft away from Colonel Charles Halt, deputy base commander of RAF Bentwaters, and his men, when he spotted the glowing orb". But no photos of the men. 200ft is around 67 yards. Not too far away.

3) Plus if he went unnoticed then why does he claim "..."After this thing happened I was followed for weeks, I had my phone tapped, scary time man. Anyway enjoy my photos, these are the real deal!!!". How would anyone know who he was if he'd gone unnoticed? If he hadn't and had been identified, then by who? The US Air Force has no jurisdiction in the United Kingdom beyond the perimeter of the air bases it leases from the RAF. In fact Halt shouldn't have been out there and was technically trespassing!

It all sounds like a rather poor hoax. As I said in the OP the story gets ever more polluted as the years go by with stuff like this.

a reply to: peaceinoutz

o, what was Pennington’s story about why he took so long to reveal his download and the mysterious lone interaction with this craft he touched?...

There was a clue in the last video posted in the OP above www.abovetopsecret.com...

He claims they meant nothing to him. Have you never had a "bigraine" or "binarrhea" before?

Could happen to anyone. Just a coincidence, it all was revealed for the 30th anniversary conference.

a reply to: mirageman

As always I appreciate your point of view……hoaxed pictures or not…..what has not been done….

Has any or all of these B&W photos been shown to Halt and company (the usual cast of characters), to see if it’s what they themselves witnessed?? ……..and if so, what were their comments?

We look at everything with curiosity…… I suppose it would be interesting, at least for me, to have Halt and company take a look at the pictures and simply give them their opinions.

You are of the opinion that the pictures are hoaxed….and that’s ok. The question is then how were they hoaxed? The forensic processes. It’s an unknown how……that neither you nor I can answer.

There’s reasonable doubt in my mind…..till it’s scrutinized by the witnesses themselves.

Yes, his story is shady…but the pictures are pictures that I have not seen professionally disputed yet. It remains a mystery……and part of the saga….imo.

👽

a reply to: mirageman

Are you referring to that 6-minute video? Well, I couldn’t make out much he or anybody else said in that racket!

But that's alright I've heard enough from his side to form a judgment.

I was surprised that, when this tale is repeated, they usually do the Penniston side of the story with him going near that black greasy, looking craft and peering at the “ Egyptian writing.”

I wasn’t prepared for that saucer-type NO Penniston sighting in this rendition. So apparently, he may have made his whole addendum story way after this.

I thought Penniston's tale was the traditional story.

Long ago, I did read Nick Popes' book with both of them as co-writers, but obviously, it was too distorted, or I just forgot much of it.

I do recall I didn't care for the book.

a reply to: Ophiuchus1

I don't know if any of the high profile witnesses have seen these photos (if you can call them that). But I am not sure why they should be considered any more expert at judging than anyone else.

I suspect the pics may have been rendered with software. The quality is far poorer than even newsprint standards of the 1980s. It looks more like a photostat. Why would you have photographs looking like that? Where are the negatives and the properly developed originals?

But I think the Rendlesham story starts to unravel when Halt wrote his memo in 1981. His commanding officers left him to do it. Thus, subtly showing their lack of support when it reached Whitehall (the HQ for the UK Ministry of Defence). But Halt is hardly an innocent scapegoat.

a reply to: peaceinoutz

.
Are you referring to that 6-minute video? Well, I couldn’t make out much he or anybody else said in that racket! ..

Yes. Apparently, he didn't know what binary code was in 1980. Not when he wrote down those numbers in the same notebook he supposedly took out into the forest with him. Never checked it out either. Even after mentioning it in his hypnosis sessions in 1994, poor Jimbo had no idea what he was dealing with. Or not dealing with any more. That is until the 30th anniversary conference was coming up. 'Ancient Aliens' sponsored his travel expenses, and he suddenly remembered to put them back in his notebook after 30 years!!! What a guy!

originally posted by: mirageman
a reply to: peaceinoutz

.
Are you referring to that 6-minute video? Well, I couldn’t make out much he or anybody else said in that racket! ..

Yes. Apparently, he didn't know what binary code was in 1980. Not when he wrote down those numbers in the same notebook he supposedly took out into the forest with him. Never checked it out either. Even after mentioning it in his hypnosis sessions in 1994, poor Jimbo had no idea what he was dealing with. Or not dealing with any more. That is until the 30th anniversary conference was coming up. 'Ancient Aliens' sponsored his travel expenses, and he suddenly remembered to put them back in his notebook after 30 years!!! What a guy!

Yeah, I’m not surprised. I did notice Linda Howe sitting in the back of that video---I bet she had a hand in that too.

All part of the UFO--great grift.


How reality works—in our world...

If you have a minor accident and happen to go to a certain kind of lawyer, you will undoubtedly leave that office suing somebody.

If you see a light in the sky and meet a UFO grifter, that light will undoubtedly turn into a flying saucer with aliens aboard!

originally posted by: peaceinoutz
I was surprised that, when this tale is repeated, they usually do the Penniston side of the story with him going near that black greasy, looking craft and peering at the “ Egyptian writing.”

Sensationalism sells.

I wasn’t prepared for that saucer-type NO Penniston sighting in this rendition. So apparently, he may have made his whole addendum story way after this.

I thought Penniston's tale was the traditional story.

Long ago, I did read Nick Popes' book with both of them as co-writers, but obviously, it was too distorted, or I just forgot much of it.

I do recall I didn't care for the book.

Yeh he'd spoken to Jenny Randles in the early 1980s under a pseudonym as James Archer. But was still serving when Unsolved Mysteries was produced. Maybe the fact that he'd never got beyond the rank of Sergeant in those 13-14 years had tied him up financially? So he planned his own 15 minutes of fame for financial gain?

The earliest known English language documentary I know of is a CNN one from 1985. It features none of the regular Fab Four witnesses. Although Bob Ball turns up in silhouette.



This one is quite intriguing because it confirms that armed US troops were on British territory, violating the NATO Status of Forces Agreement out in the forest. We also have a couple of British civilian witnesses too.

Oh, Charlie, Charlie...

"My boss was standing in his front yard at Woodbridge and he could see the beams of light falling down."

I assume his boss wasn't wearing the requisite goggles (thanks to Arby for the recent reminder that Halt never saw the 'beam' with his naked eyes).

originally posted by: peaceinoutz

I did notice Linda Howe sitting in the back of that video---I bet she had a hand in that too.

It is ALWAYS worrying when LMH lurks anywhere. The fact she was one of the first people to visit Skinwalker Ranch (or rather the Sherman Ranch) in the 1990s is enough to sound alarm-bells.

I had never even known or didn’t register that John Burroughs saw a UFO at that event.

I recall the story that he was in the forest, and Penniston ventured near the landed craft and that Burroughs was nowhere near the craft. He was somehow spaced out in the forest.

That’s why this flap always seemed to be a convoluted mess. Maybe deliberately don’t by you know who.

What does Burroughs say about the Penniston tale? He appears to have been mind-controlled or something like that or just a spacey guy, period.

In the video, Burroughs makes little sense saying he hoped they wouldn’t find anything on an inspection. How in the world would that make him look good?


On a cursory analysis, it appears they might have collard Penniston to add all that stuff to an original ufo story.

While you are all busy chatting, there are numerous podcasts that have come out with John Burroughs recently. Professor Simon Holland seems to feature a lot now with Burroughs so I see too.
There is also a new podcast with Penniston and Osborn, and of course there is Gary Heseltines book which promises a near forensic style investigation into the case. Problem is, it was up for purchase on Amazon but for whatever reasons it seems to be gone? That aside I do know there is a chapter of over 60 pages about Penniston alone.

Maybe it might be worth while going into recent information to see what is said, as things seem to go in circles . As far as the binary goes, regardless of any of Pennistons sins, Osborn has invited anyone out there to validate his findings thus far. What can I say to that, other than am well aware of the problems associated with Pennistons account of it all.

Also when it comes to Warren and Peter Robbins, whilst Peter did what he did, it did not prevent him still selling the book at a conference of which there is photo evidence of, AFTER all his waffle. So much for his distancing himself from Larry.


Anyway the case is as messy as always but the show goes on so it seems .