Colonel Halt returns to Rendlesham: "something extraordinary happened here.

Colonel Halt was the Deputy Commander of the bases, Bentwater and Woodbridges, back in 1980 when the infamous incident happened.
He wrote a memo on this incdient and made a tape recording , which became known as the Halt tape. Halt said he never intended for the tape to be made public and did everything he could do to keep it from getting out, and keeping it private.

Halt talks about the incident:

The next day, we realised all the military cops were looking to the skies. On the third night, [Lieutenant] Bruce Englund came in and said ‘it’s back’. That’s when I became involved.

He went on to say he was very much a skeptic and expected to find nothing. His opinion of what he saw:

Whatever we saw was under intelligent control,” said Mr Halt, who rubbished claims he was merely chasing lighthouse beams from Orford Ness.

The story has become muddied over the years. I still don’t know why the CIA turned up here after the first night – and what was done to the three airmen, who have never been the same.”

In 2015, one of the airmen, John Burroughs, won compensation for illnesses he blamed on exposure to radiation from the event. Mr Halt returned to Rendlesham with John Hanson and Dawn Holloway – authors of the Haunted Skies books, currently working on a second edition of The Halt Perspective – and by local ufologist David Young and Gary Baker, radar operator at RAF Neatishead from 1978-1980. Mr Baker, from Ipswich, had returned from leave at the end of 1980 for the aftermath of the incident. He claims to have been told “this never happened” by RAF officers, and that radar tapes and bridge logs from the evening of the incident disappeared.

Halt talks about radar sightings:

Whatever the radar picked up, it wasn’t a subject of interest for interceptor aircraft because it didn’t come from the east – this was the height of the Cold War. “It would have been sensible to quash any evidence. If something had happened, and it wasn’t picked up, it would have showed we weren’t capable of dealing with something from ‘above’. “Later, I read the MoD said the radar had been switched off at the time, which is a load of rubbish. “I’m no UFO nut, but something extraordinary happened here – outside the parameters of manned aircraft.”

source link

a reply to: data5091

Here's the video linked in the article:
The man certainly saw something strange that night. The way he recounts the story seems highly credible and legitimate to me. That's definitely not the way people would come across if they had something to hide, at least in my opinion.

And it certainly wasn't reflections from the lighthouse (just for the record).

a reply to: jeep3r

thanks for the imbed. I know not how to do that. As you know this incident is not without controversy, and has been looked at over and over and over over the many decades, since it happened. I think its a lot like Roswell, either you think it, or something happened, or it did not.

Thanks OP. I thought I had taken a good look at different sides of this event but hearing some of what Mr. Halt had to say certainly makes the event even more interesting. Black Ops, psy op, or E.T.'s? My best guesswork, and in that order. Some have even suggested (with no real evidence) a breakaway civilization could be behind most or all ufo cases such as this. Always a great topic for debate and discussion. Can't wait to check back this evening and see what some great minds of ATS think about what Col. Halt had to say.

a reply to: data5091

Of course, the more we look at the big picture the more complicated and controversial it gets. The roles of Penniston and Burroughs (and their accounts over the years) are indeed ambiguous.

It was quite a disappointment when Penniston went public with his telepathically transmitted binary code saying he received that message with coordinates pointing to Hy Brazil. Quite a bummer IMO. But for all we know, parts of the entire story may well be disinfo or PsyOps.

But I give Halt the benefit of the doubt that something strange was going on there that night. If it could have been a prank, he would have certainly considered that possibility at some point. But there are many knowledgeable members on this board, who will probably be able to add some insights from previous threads.

I am reading a book called "Aliens: the search for extraterrestrial life" by Jim Al-Khalili, awesome book by the way, and in onc chapter he talks about famous ufo incidents, of which Rendlesham came up. He did not offer his opinion, but he referred to a Mr. Ian Ridpath who has in depth online articles on this subject. I have not had a chance to go through his website on the subject as there is an incredible amount of information, but Ridpath very basically summarizes that this incident comes down to "misinterpretation of a series of nocturnal lights." Maybe someone who knows much more than me can offer if Mr. Ridpath is a skeptic, or not.

a reply to: data5091

Halt says : “… actually the command post didn’t seem too excited about the whole thing…the reason they stayed silent was other controllers who’d reported things were de-certified…they weren’t going to say anything…..it was confirmed by two separate radars there was definitely something there.”

Mirageman did a very well written thread on this topic, one of my favorites actually

Whatever the radar picked up, it wasn’t a subject of interest for interceptor aircraft because it didn’t come from the east – this was the height of the Cold War. “It would have been sensible to quash any evidence. If something had happened, and it wasn’t picked up, it would have showed we weren’t capable of dealing with something from ‘above’. “Later, I read the MoD said the radar had been switched off at the time, which is a load of rubbish. “I’m no UFO nut, but something extraordinary happened here – outside the parameters of manned aircraft.”

I was going to post this in my own Rendlesham thread but seeing as you beat me to it....

What a very strange statement to make and it looks like Halt's adjusting his story to explain his own lack of action.

Why, despite all the drama of beams flashing down on his base, at his feet and strange craft in the sky did Halt do nothing but walk around a forest?

It is simply not true that the RAF would not react to intrusions in UK airspace from the West. As recent as this year Typhoon Jets were scrambled as the Russians flew two Blackjack Bombers down the West Coast of the British Isles in international airspace. At a time when tensions in Poland were rising ANY intrusion into UK airspace should have resulted in fighters being scrambled. If something was tracked on radar and no action was taken then a fair few people knew what was going on before the incident happened.


a reply to: data5091

And yes Ian Ridpath is a 'skeptic'. You can read a column he wrote for New Scientist magazine in 1977 here :

Ian Ridpath, Flying Saucers Thirty Years on - New Scientist July 14th 1977

That was 40 years ago and it's really disappointing to have to say that a lot of what he said back still resonates today.

a reply to: slapjacks

Yep one of my favourites too .

If anyone is interested then you can still download the free booklet which is basically a summary of that thread up to around March of 2017 : Link. It's free and if you can get past the various April Fool jokes in the first few pages then it will give people a basic understanding of some of the issues with Rendlesham.

Alternatively start at page 150


Now after that advertising break for my own thread (Sorry Data!) please carry on discussing Halt's visit.

a reply to: mirageman

Mirageman, thank you for your imput. I know how much time/effort you have put into this particular incident. Correct me if I am wrong, but I think I asked you already your opinion of this incident and you replied you thought that something had happened at Rendlesham, just not the way that it came out and was reported then, yes?

a reply to: data5091

Hello data. Sorry about gatecrashing your thread. Indeed I did give you only a very brief reply that I think whatever happened at Rendlesham was something to do with the Cold War.

Before I go any further. Remember this is just my opinion. I can't prove what happened conclusively.

I think Larry Warren's story is now highly questionable since Adrian Bustinza went public after years of silence and some of his less than savoury antics since. Penniston's binary code also appears to be a massive red herring.

Can we really trust Colonel Halt? He seems to dramatise his role when interviewed. But if anything really serious was happening then why did he do nothing much than wander around a forest and then come back to base leaving the strange lights in the sky. He has also adjusted his story down the years. Other witnesses in the observation tower have said they saw craft hovering over the bases. But guess what? They did nothing but watch them as well.

Then we have John Burroughs who has won a claim with the VA for injuries sustained in the line of duty. He issued a statement a few years ago : "US DoD have confirmed the UFO phenomenon is real" . He claims that he was injured during his encounter in Rendlesham Forest and that the UK MoD/US DoD developed a weapon from their studies of it.

There are also a few bits and pieces that I haven't posted in any threads in an obvious way that lead me to believe that something was happening, maybe being tested or developed in the area and Halt and his men stumbled upon it. Perhaps it even involved the Soviets and an international incident was covered up by a UFO story. That way no serious journalists would ever pursue it but it ended up living its own life....

originally posted by: jeep3r
a reply to: data5091

If it could have been a prank, he would have certainly considered that possibility at some point.

He started with that assumption until he witnessed it with his own eyes.

Rendlesham has always fascinated me. Here is a case with credible eyewitnesses, physical evidence (the trees that were broken off, right where they should have been), and what would seem to be a coverup by both the MOD and the Army. I for one think it was a probe. A small craft sent down from a mother ship to check out the air base. Wasn't there also some talk of the nukes going offline at the time this happened? I'm saying it's probably extraterrestrial.

a reply to: mirageman

I don't think you gatecrashed it at all. I was hoping to get your input knowing, as I said the huge amount of time and effort you have put into this incident. That is a very interesting take on what you think may have been a possibility as to what really happened at Rendlesham. This is the incident that just keeps on giving, with regards to additional information coming out. I never get tired of it, because its history. LIke Roswell. What ever it was that did indeed happen those couple of nights at Rendlesham back in 1980, is permanently etched in ufo history.

a reply to: data5091

Rendlesham is the new Roswell. The cat is out of the bag and like Roswell there is a whole mythology wrapped around it. It is mighty difficult to sort the wheat from the chaff.

If you look at the history of UFOs I feel there could be something significant to that mid 1970s - 1980s period that 'may' link a number of incidents to form a bigger picture. Here in the UK we 'enjoyed' (or maybe endured) a 'golden age' of UFO reports from the Berwyn crash in Wales, Rendlesham and a couple of odd cases in the mid 80s. After that there is very little to get excited about. Except, maybe, the Sheffield UFO just after the Phoenix Lights in 1997.

By then the Cold War was over and a different type of rapid response, highly mobilized military philosophy was taking shape with the NATO powers. Is it a coincidence that classic UFO cases dwindled after that point? There are many more lights in the sky reports but nothing as exciting as things used to be back when I were a lad!

a reply to: mirageman

Your points are all spot on except for one...

YOU were a "lad" once?!
Hard to believe me old mucker, hard to believe.

originally posted by: mirageman
Halt: "Whatever the radar picked up, it wasn’t a subject of interest for interceptor aircraft because it didn’t come from the east"

What a very strange statement to make and it looks like Halt's adjusting his story to explain his own lack of action.
[...]
It is simply not true that the RAF would not react to intrusions in UK airspace from the West. [...]

Halt may have meant: I did not come from the Warschaupact (not literally from the east).
This because it ‘flew’ well outside the parameters of any conventional aircraft.

An attempt to intercept may have led to embarrassment and every British authority will choose alien invasion above embarrassment any time ;-)
Just a short radar presence indicating an ‘impossible’ speed can be safely ignored. No reason to scramble anything.

Halt contacted Eastern Radar from the forest and reported “UFO sightings at Bentwaters”. He also reported that they “are taking reporting action.” This was sufficient for the British authorities to safely ignore the whole issue.

This story proves UFOs and some kind of E.T. or whatever it is forces exist.The governments will lie about it.

originally posted by: Springer
a reply to: mirageman


YOU were a "lad" once?!
Hard to believe me old mucker, hard to believe.

Yes indeed I was. Then they invented the wheel and everything changed!


a reply to: Guest101

Yes that makes sense. I didn't have the old (very old) grey matter in gear last night did I?

originally posted by: Jobeycool
This story proves UFOs and some kind of E.T. or whatever it is forces exist.The governments will lie about it.

Well errrm back in October 1983 when I was delivering the newspapers and saw the headline "UFO Lands in Suffolk and that's official" in the News of the World. I would have agreed totally with you.

And before Springer gets in there again it is rare to still be a paperboy at 55 years of age yes!!!

I think all I can say now about the Rendlesham incident is that a number of people are still lying about it.