"The UFOs back Sir": 27/28 December 1980
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"The UFOs back Sir": 27/28 December 1980
Charles I. Halt retired from the United States Air Force in June 1992, as a Colonel. He served as a base commander in Korea and Belgium. Halt's time in the Military service lasted for over 28 years. He has other impressive qualifications, having BScs in Economics and Chemistry. He also graduated from various Military colleges.
In 1980, Lt. Colonel Charles Halt was the deputy base commander of the RAF Bentwaters-Woodbridge complex. Colonel Ted Conrad was the Base Commander, but Charles Halt still had an important job; he had to know what was going on, he should have known about everything which occurred on the bases.
He came into RAF Woodbridge on the morning of 26 December, and immediately over heard people discussing UFOs. Although he didn't know what to make of it, he had heard that at three security policemen had been involved and that they had seen a UFO. He located Sergeant McCabe who was in the Police Operation Centre, who was able to provide more information, "when I walked in, the sergeant started to laugh. He told me that I wouldn't believe what had happened the night before. I said try me or something to that effect. He said three of the young security policeman had been out in the woods chasing a UFO all night."
"At first, when Sgt. McCabe informed me about this incident, he said that I wasn't going to believe him. I certainly had a hard time with what he told me next - the three officers [Penniston, Cabansag and Burroughs] had come upon a strange craft which was metallic in appearance and triangular in shape, approximately two to three metres across the bottom and roughly two metres tall [...] They also thought the lights appeared to be functional rather than decorative", said Halt.
Halt had to know what was going on, he managed to speak to Edward Cabansag. After a chat he told him to sign a typed statement. Cabansag had only recently being assigned to the base, he was still young and was terrified of Halt. So without questioning Halt's request, he quickly signed the statement. More on the statements here.
Soon rumours of 'little green men' and 'flying saucers' were circulating around the bases, a lot of people were interested and some were beginning to spend more time looking for UFOs at RAF Woodbridge's East Gate than what they were meant to be doing - this obviously annoyed Charles Halt, who was skeptical of the UFO story but still knew that the individuals involved were "no-nonsense people".
It was late on the 27 December, 1980. Charles Halt and others were at a Combat Support Group awards dinner which was being held at Woody's Bar. Meanwhile. Meanwhile something else was happening outside the back gate at RAF Woodbridge. A1C Gregory Battram was with a patrol consisting of three other men at RAF Woodbridge, near Rendlesham Forest. They spotted some unusual lights in the sky over the forest, the lights then dropped down into Rendlesham Forest. The cluster of lights looked like a fire among the trees.
"We were about halfway into the shift, I guess, when we noticed some lights in the sky that, didn't seem to follow any pattern of aircraft we'd seen",explains Battram.
The lights needed to be investigated, especially because of the UFO incident which had taken place in the same area only one day earlier. They contacted Central Security Control. After alerting the fire department, CSC gave Battram and his group permission to proceed off-base.
They parked their vehicle on the edge of the forest, and walked to where they thought the lights were coming from. There was a strange 'thrumming' sound that they supposed was originating from the strange lights in the forest. As they neared the other side of Rendlesham Forest they noticed that the nearby field was covered in a thick circular ground-fog, that's what they thought it was at first. Battram said that it was 100 feet across. "As we got in there, you could see into the clearing and see a series of lights in there surrounded by a ground fog. And when we got closer, you began to feel the hair on your arms, and back of your heard, under your hat even, stand on end. Like there was a real big static charge in the air", recalls Battram.
Battram noticed that there was a smaller and denser section to the fog in the centre which was about 30-50 feet in size, this was where the orange, red, white and blue lights were coming from. They began to get scared - they didn't know what was out there - so they decided to return to the base and report their findings. Meanwhile , Sgt. Adrian Bustinza who was at RAF Bentwaters had been alerted about another UFO sighting over at East Gate, possibly by Central Security Control. Bustinza consequently contacted his acting commander, Lt. Bruce Englund. Bruce Englund decided to make his way over to RAF Woodbridge with Adrian Bustinza to aid the investigation.
Back in the forest, Battram was becoming scared - it was too much for them to deal with, the group decided to run. On their way back they bumped into another patrol, Battram only recognized Lt. Bruce Englund although Bustinza was there also. He told Englund what they had seen, Englund instructed the patrol to return to the base.
Englund promptly went to find Charles Halt. He burst into Woody's bar, he located Halt and the Base Commander Ted Conrad. "[Englund] came in and he was quite shaken and insisted upon speaking to myself and the base commander [Colonel Conrad] about a matter of utmost urgency. He said, "it's back" and we all looked at each other , "what's back" I said and he said, "the UFO is back!", recalls Halt.
Conrad instructed Halt to investigate the UFO sighting, in an attempt to put it to rest and finish the whole affair off. The UFO mystery was causing too much trouble and wasting too much time. "Rumours about what Jim Penniston and John Burroughs had seen were beginning to circulate out of control and I was determined to put an end to this nonsense", Halt recalled. Halt decided to gather together a small team of specialists to accompany him. He sent Englund back off to RAF Bentwaters to collect some more personnel and some light-alls. Light-alls are large trailer mounted lights, which are gas (that's petrol to us) powered. The lights stand about 5-6 feet off the ground.
He contacted the bases' Disaster Preparedness Unit and asked the on-call officer, Sgt. Monroe Nevilles (aka Greg), to go with them. Nevilles took a geiger counter/radiac meter with him, and a camera - Nevilles was a skilled photographer. Halt went to change into suitable clothes, he also picked up a handheld tape recorder, some glass sample bottles, a torch and a night-vision scope (image intensifier).
Bustinza made sure that the light-alls were refueled and were working, which they were. They also collected Sgt. Bobby Ball. He and Englund drove back to RAF Woodbridge, Bustinza had to swerve to avoid animals which were running out of the forest and were all over the road.
Halt finally arrived at the edge of Rendlesham Forest. There were base personnel running around everywhere, it was complete confusion. The light-alls which had just been bought in were not working. Halt instructed them to refuel the light alls, they were already overflowing with gas but still did not function correctly; an argument soon broke out. By all accounts it seems that light-alls were not too reliable and would occasionally malfunction, although the light-alls were functioning before they were taken to the forest and were completely filled with fuel.
"It's very unusual to have a problem with the light-all. That night, the light-alls wouldn't work, even when they swapped out and got other ones from the base. In addition, we had problems with our radios. All three frequencies we were using were intermittent and did not work properly that night", explains Halt.
Halt pressed the record button on his tape recorder, he usually used it to make short reports on people and their activities on base; the tape could then be listened to at the end of each day and the notes typed up into memos or formal letters. Halt ordered the men to get some more light-alls. Bustinza attempted to contact security control, but he seemed to be having trouble with the radio (as Halt mentioned above).
Sgt. Bustinza (radio): Sergeant Bustinza...We're all outta gas...We're at East Gate...East Gate...over. Sgt. Bustinza (Still having trouble with the radio): You don't have a light-all, gas...or anything. Duty security? Can you hear me? Sergeant...A light-all with gas...Please.
Halt was becoming impatient - the light-alls were not working and no real progress was being made. So he decided to begin their journey through Rendlesham Forest, leaving the light-alls and confusion behind. He assembled a team of men; this included Lt. Bruce Englund, Sgt. Bustinza, Sgt. Bobby Ball and Sgt. Nevilles - a noncommissioned officer who was assigned to the Disaster Preparedness Unit, he operated the geiger counter.
The group of men made their way into the dark Rendlesham Forest, there had still been no further UFO sightings. I suspect that Halt had thought it would be best to travel to the Eastern edge of Rendlesham Forest so they could see the object that Englund had told him about earlier. As one can assume, it is not easy moving through a forest in the dark especially during a cold December night.
Soon Halt and his team stumbled across what they thought to be a landing site of some sort. Sgt. Ball recalls significant details about the way the branches had been snapped,
"it didn't take us long to find what we thought to be a landing site of some sort. The trees had branches broken off. As we looked up, we had high power flashlights with us, we could see branches, up to an inch, two inches in diameter had either been knocked completely off or had been bent downward. It was clean up to the top of the trees."
There were three indentations which all looked identical, there were also broken branches high up in the tree-tops, along with scuff marks near the lower parts of the trees. It is not really clear whether Halt had discovered another landing site or had just revisited the one which Jim Penniston found - although new information on this subject was revealed in Sci-Fi Channel's "UFO Invasion at Rendlesham". Halt led Penniston and Bryant Gumbel (presenter) to the location of the landing site, Penniston said that the landing site he had found was in the opposite direction (both were involved on different nights) because of this it seems that Halt had indeed found a new landing site.
Halt made this clear in the "UFO invasion at Rendlesham" documentary:
"[it was] obviously on different nights... two different things, or the same thing came back..."
The live tape gives us a good idea of what was happening at this point, Sgt. Nevilles was operating the geiger counter; which was an AN PDR-27F.
Lt. Colonel Halt: We are getting readings on the tree. You’re taking samples from on the side facing the suspected landing site?
Lt. Englund: Four clicks max.
Lt. Colonel Halt: Up to four. Interesting. That’s right where you’re taking the sample now.
Lt. Englund: Four
Lt. Colonel Halt: That’s the strongest point on the tree?
Sgt. Nevilles: Yes sir, and if you come to the back, there’s no clicks whatsoever.
Lt. Colonel Halt: No clicks at all, in the back
Sgt. Nevilles: Maybe one or two
Lt. Colonel Halt: It’s all on the side facing the [landing site obviously]...interesting.
This shows us that the levels of radiation were greater in the landing site than they were only a few metres away, regardless of the levels of radiation (which were not harmful) it is still important that the levels peaked in the landing site. Colonel Halt's last comment is also very important, the radiation was all on the side of the tree facing into the landing site; there was none on the back of the tree. I have been informed that 0.01 'milliroentgens' would be a neutral/normal amount of radiation.
Meanwhile, Adrian Bustinza had been sent back to RAF Woodbridge to finally sort out those light-alls. He would return to Rendlesham Forest later on during the night.
As I have already said, there were broken branches and damaged trees around the landing site; Nevilles confirms this: "It was almost as though a small object had sat down with the 3 tripods, come down on the ground. And the unique thing was, the pressure on each one of those tripods had been pressed down into the ground with the same weight." The men had not moved very far in the last few minutes, as they were examining the landing site. All of a sudden the animals on a nearby farm went into a 'frenzy'; it appears that something had disturbed or frightened them.
Halt confirms the strange noises coming from the nearby farmhouses, "At one point all the farmer's animals, the pigs, the cows, the chickens and everything were all 'acking up...Making an awful lot of noise as though they were being disturbed or frightened." What was happening?
Halt recalls what happened soon after this, "we got the radiac instruments out, we were taking readings and while we were doing this, the police lieutenant said 'look!'.
It was a strange glowing object, it appeared to be 100-200 metres away. I couldn't explain it. It was moving behind the pine trees, zig-zagging around it kind of winked at us."
Halt later described the object as looking like an eye. It was dark red with a darker section in the middle, rather like a pupil. From the description Halt has given us, it seems that the object was constantly glowing; but was emitting bright flashes from time to time. Halt and his group did not move, they were amazed at what they were seeing infront of themselves. Halt said, "It approached us at one time, we just stood there in awe. [we] watched [it] probably for a minute or two, maybe a little more. It was eerie and quiet." It has been claimed that the Orford Ness Lighthouse, which is six miles away from Rendlesham Forest can cause strange optical effects in the fog - some claim this is what the red pulsing light was. Halt disagrees, "at this time we could see the lighthouse, it was off to the side of this object by about 30 degrees. This object was no lighthouse, it was dancing about in the forest, woods and all."
As quickly as the object had appeared, it disappeared, but not for long. The object quickly reappeared and then proceeded to move at a quicker rate out into the field, Halt and his team decided to give chase. Again, here is another important part of the tape:
Lt. Colonel Halt: Strange. One again left. Let's approach the edge of the woods at that point. Can we do without lights? Let's do it carefully, come on... OK we're looking at the thing, we're probably about 2-3 hundred yards away. It looks like an eye winking at you, it's still moving from side to side and when we put the star scope on it, it's sort of a hollow centre right, a dark centre, it's...
Lt. Englund: It's like a pupil...
Lt. Colonel Halt: It's like the pupil of an eye looking at you, winking...and the flash is so bright to the Star scope, err.... it almost burns your eye.
[Break in tape]
As they were standing at the edge of Rendlesham Forest, Halt noticed the nearby farmhouse was glowing intensely. Although it is entirely possible that this was a result of time exotic lighting display; after all it was Christmas. As they walked past the farmhouse, Halt decided it would be best not to disturb the inhabitants. "We didn't want to alarm anybody, so we left them alone." Halt also noticed a field of static electricity, he assumed, that seemed to be all over their bodies. "There was 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 [in our minds]: I think there was something physiological [physically real] about it. There was something to it, I don't know what it was."
At last, they came out of Rendlesham Forest. They were now on private property, which was a field owned by a farmer who lived nearby. The object which they had been pursuing flew out of the forest and sat in the middle of the farmers field. It was yellow and red. It appeared to be throwing off sparks; which Halt later likened to 'molten metal'. Sgt. Nevilles describes the object, "if we looked at it through the night vision goggles it looked like a large brick. The heat was coming off it. Every once in a while it would flash, throwing off sparks."
Sgt. Bustinza claims that on his return to the forest (earlier, he had been sent back to Woodbridge) he found Halt and about 20-30 other men near this object. They had managed to get very close to it and had apparently surrounded it. Halt denies this actually happened, but later acknowledged that Bustinza was present; he could not deny that his voice was on the tape. It seems likely that if the object had stood still in the field for long enough, Halt could have approached it. That said, I am not sure about the authenticity of Bustinza's story.
Halt explains what happened while they were watching the landed object,
"we're verging the fence line, the object continues to move through the trees, it proceeds a bit, goes out across the farmer's field, to the left of the farmers house and appears to be shedding molten metal, it's dripping off it. It pulsated, although it were an eye winking at you and around the edges, it appeared to have molten metal dripping off it, just like falling to the ground, but I didn't see any evidence of anything on the ground. I just couldn't believe what I was seeing, none of us could." Soon, for no obvious reason, the object just exploded and separated into a few white lights. There was no sound, just a bright flash. One of the objects began beaming pencil-thin beams of light down all over Rendlesham Forest and RAF Woodbridge. The stream of light was completely straight, the light was the same width all the way across, just like a laser beam.
Halt confirms every part of this and adds some more very important and interesting details, "the object suddenly exploded; a silent explosion... and broke into three to five white objects and rapidly disappeared. One of the lights hovered high in the sky".
"We could fairly 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 object, falling different places on the base. My boss was standing in his front yard at [RAF] Woodbridge and he could see the beams of light falling down, and the people in the Weapons storage area [aka WSA] and several other places on the base also reported the lights [beam lights]. They didn't seem to be harmful. [The beam] stayed on for about 5-10 seconds and just as abruptly as it came, it disappeared..."
"The objects in the sky were moving about, sharp angular movements, very high speed. I kept getting on the radio and calling the command post - I wanted to know if they were finding anything on the radar scope. One of the objects in the sky was sending down beams, beams of light, beams of energy, I'm not sure what they were. At that same time I could hear on the radio, voices talking about the beams coming down on the base".
Halt explained that he was worried about what the beams were, he was not sure if it was a weapon, a warning or some other kind of signal. Halt has mentioned, since the incident, that the object which was sending beams of light down to the ground was 'certainly under intelligent control'.
Some researchers have claimed that the beams of light penetrated the hardened Weapons Storage Area at RAF Woodbridge, and there were reports of that occurrence. Additionally, some claim that the beams of light actually disabled some or all of the nuclear weapons stored on that base. I have not seen any evidence to support either theory however.
Sgt. Bobby Ball recalled something which Halt did not mention, that the objects appeared to be searching for something, "to me it looked like a grid search, like they were boxing off an area and looking for something. That was the thought that hit me right away and it's stayed with me over the years." Searching for what exactly? The bases' nuclear stockpile perhaps?
Halt managed to capture this amazing moment on audio tape. The men are clearly stressed and sound in awe:
Lt. Colonel Halt: 3.15: Now we've got an object about ten degrees directly south...
Sgt. Nevilles: There's one to the left
Lt. Colonel Halt: 10 degrees off the horizon, and the ones to the north are moving, one's moving away from us.
Sgt. Nevilles: It's moving out fast
Lt. Colonel Halt: They're moving out fast.
Sgt. Ball: There's one on the right chasing away too.
Lt. Colonel Halt: Yeah, they're both heading north. H..h...here he comes from the south; he's coming in toward us now!
Sgt. Ball: Shit.
Lt. Colonel Halt: Now were observing what appears to be a beam coming down to the ground!
Sgt. Ball: ...Colours...Shit.
Lt. Colonel Halt: This is unreal!
John Burroughs (see 25/26 Dec. page) was sleeping, but suddenly woke up. He thought the UFO might have returned, and the thought was obviously troubling him. He explained exactly what happened when he returned to the forest on the documentary "Unsolved Mysteries: Bentwaters UFO", "I woke about about 3[AM] in the morning. For what ever reason, I thought something may be happening. I don't know why, I just woke up and thought something had come back. it was a gut feeling. I went ahead and got up, I went back to the base", (John Burroughs lived off-site). John Burroughs made his way to the into Rendlesham forest, into the area where the vehicles were parked.
"All of a sudden, a couple of blue transparent lights appeared in the sky. One of them broke towards us. Passing the light-alls, they came on. It passed through the open window on the truck, going off into the distance, and the light-alls went out... the only time the light-alls were working when I saw them was when the light passed them. I have no idea what caused the light-alls to come on and off like that, apart from the blue light flying past."
It was now 4AM on the 28 December. The men were cold and tired. They had even managed to stumble into a ditch, so they were also muddy. The object(s) were now thousands of feet up in the sky, there was little anyone could do. They decided to return to base. Halt made a final note for his tape, explaining that the objects were still beaming down lights to the ground:
Lt. Colonel Halt: 3.30: And the objects are still in the sky, although the one to the south looks like it's loosing a little bit of altitude. We're turning around and heading back toward the base. The object to the...the object to the south is still beaming down lights to the ground.
[Break in tape]
Lt. Colonel Halt: 0:400 Hours one object still hovering over the Woodbridge base at about 5-10 degrees off the horizon. Still moving erratic and similar lights beaming down as earlier.
The photos which Nevilles had taken of the landing site came out fogged, according to the bases' photography lab. Although Halt suspects that the photos were swapped for some blank/blackened photographs and handed back to him deliberately.
