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The author of these articles wishes to remain anonymous. For this reason they cannot be credited, however THIS ARTICLE MUST NOT BE REPRODUCED ANYWHERE ELSE

The actual sequence of events I doubt will ever be made public. My sources wish to remain anonymous as they are now retired from the USAF. What I will say is that 2 of my sources who are friends were in the 67th ARRS at RAF Woodbridge.

RAF Woodbridge was home to the 67th ARRS (Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron). Their primary role was picking up pilots/crew who had either crashed landed or ejected (this included the F-111 escape capsule) both on friendly territory/sea and behind enemy lines. Their two main aircraft for this role was the HH53 ‘Jolly Green Giant’ helicopters and C130 Hercules fitted with ‘Skyhook’.

Their secondary role was the locating and recovery of Apollo command modules and other US space hardware that NASA and other departments in the USA wanted recovered after re entry.

There was an Apollo command module at RAF Woodbridge for training purposes. It had lights that aided location & recovery. These would be either programmed or remotely switched on depending on the nature of recovery training. I’m also led to believe that it had a distress flare system that aided recovery at sea. It was also fitted with a homing radio beacon system. Some training consisted of dumping the module out at sea by helicopter day and night and another HH53 with trainees on board would go out to locate and recover it. There were other training exercises that remain classified. Sea recovery entailed at least 2 divers in their diving suits as part of the recovery crew.

My source told me that 99% of airmen/officers at both bases would be unaware of its presence at Woodbridge, only the ARRS and a few other need to know people would be aware of its existence. It was stored under wraps in a secure building and was sat on a trolley so it could be wheeled out when needed for training. I was told it weighed about the same as a small family car.

It was approximately the same size and pyramid shape that Jim Penniston and others described. It was also smooth to the touch as it had a ceramic type surface that was designed to withstand re entry heating. The nav lights were under the surface skin of the module and shone through Pyrex type glass panels. The module stood on 3 short legs with concave disc shaped feet.

During the Christmas week of 1980 RAF Woodbridge and Bentwaters were on low alert with the Woodbridge control tower un manned and the Bentwaters tower only with a ‘duty’ crew on board. There was no flying from both bases during that week.

Most of the servicemen at all ranks would be attending various parties & festivities either on or off the bases or just basically taking it easy in the mess halls and dormitories. Obviously there would be various shift crews on duty at the many installations including Police patrols etc. Air crew officers would be off shift with the exception of those assigned to a quick action deploy.

The 67th ARRS at Woodbridge would be the same. There would be plenty of drinking going on and quite often in unauthorised areas. The 67th ARRS were big practical jokers as were many other units in the USAF.


For example, they zapped a visiting F15 with Jolly Green Giant foot print stickers all over the wings and fuselage rendering the plane unfit for flying, it was grounded. The pilot was furious saying they had wrecked a million Dollar paint job. This was told to me by the man who did it after he had retired.

I heard about many other ‘capers’ that they got up to, all of which were pretty bizarre to say the least. A lot of the 67th personnel were ex Nam Vets and didn’t care who they played joke’s on.

It was strongly suspected with evidence (but not provable) that a HH53 crew decided to play a practical joke after having a few Christmas drinks with the Apollo module.

It was their Christmas joke and it had to be a big one! The idea was to plant the module some where on one of the bases (I was told Bentwaters) in a position that would have maximum impact when spotted in the morning, bearing in mind that most people were unaware of its existence.

They manned their HH53 and hooked the capsule underneath on the winch cable, took off and decided to place the module somewhere on one of the airfields for others to find. Flying low over Rendlesham forest, the module collided with one of the Woodbridge approach landing lights causing the module to start swinging. This in turn made the helicopter unstable so they dropped the capsule into the forest.

This is the point where the joke went wrong.

(The ARRS were always on standby no matter what time of year it was and were trained to take to the air with or without control tower guidance).

On doing this they searched the forest from the air with the HH53’s spot lights so they could get a fix on where they dropped it. They hovered over the forest for quite a long time doing this. This was seen by those in the Bentwaters control tower. Don’t forget it was dark and the Bentwater’s tower was some distance away perhaps a couple of miles. They would only be aware of lights over the forest rather than a distinctive shape of a helicopter.

Unfortunately they could not locate it from the air, so they and the Police patrol went out on foot to find the module armed with flash lights.

They found the module and a guard were put on it and the area was cordoned off.

The following night (attended by Halt and others) they attempted to winch it up from the forest floor (now with the cooperation of the Police patrol and others as some body had to be on the ground to hook it up to the winch), The modules lights could have been switched on to aid those on foot to find it. This would look pretty ‘weird’ in woods at night to the uninitiated as most were at that time.

Quite how the other ‘landing’ sites fit in to this scenario, I don’t know but there may have been more than one attempt to recover the module as it had to be put down in the ‘field’ for technical reasons before the final recovery to Woodbridge. It could have been to inspect it for damage (hence the Lightalls) prior to recovery. By this time there would have been a big audience of USAF personnel and a good proportion probably not knowing what they were looking at. Somebody jokingly said it looked like an alien space craft and that is how the cover up started.

In fact the ARRS had a hard time persuading some Officers that it was a training module and not a real Apollo re entry module that had just come back from a space flight. Some thought it to be a space craft of unknown origin.

Orders were issued (not known from whom) that it had to be recovered at night so it would attract the minimum of attention from locals, especially the British. It was lifted up and flown back to base on the second night.

They collectively, decided to make up the story of a UFO (which had started as a joke comment by some one) so that the higher commands in the air force were kept in the dark as the consequences especially for the ARRS would have been at least court marshals and dishonourable discharges for many of them. They were all very concerned that if the British authorities found out it would lead to all sorts of political problems for their very existence at the bases or even on British soil.

As for who was in the know and who wasn’t we will never know but a huge damage limitation exercise was put in to place which involved people of all ranks but we are not sure where the buck stopped and at what level. I think ultimately it went to presidential level.

I’m pretty sure that Lt Col Halt and a few others were initially ignorant of what had happened, but they later became part of the cover up for the reasons I have explained.

All the episodes concerning the de briefing of those concerned was to keep this stunt from being found out by the British authorities. In most part they were successful.

I Suspect that Margaret Thatcher knew (hence her comments to Georgina Bruni) but by what channels and when she knew is not known. I also suspect that she and her close friend Ronald Regan had discussions about the incident and he probably persuaded her to go along with the UFO story for the sake of the ‘treaty’ and red faces both sides of the Atlantic. Other implications if any are not known to me.

Not long (a matter of days) after the incident the Apollo command module was shipped out to an undisclosed destination... It was seen as removing the evidence, thus the UFO story could now hold some credence.

Most of the USAF airmen I was friendly with said it was a giant Leg Pull that didn’t go quite to plan.

I don’t know the full sequence of events or how accurate my account is, I suspect it is very inaccurate but I feel I have grasped the main reasons behind this incident and perhaps some body else willing to come forward could fill in the details more accurately than me?

Warning: The following text is highly controversial. The views, opinions or theories in this article do not necessarily reflect the opinion of myself. The theories in the article below are not intended to be offensive and as the author has said, "It’s a theory and it does not necessarily mean that this is what happened."

The crucial reason
This scenario is just one of several that have been put forward as an explanation to the Rendlesham Forrest incident. It’s a theory and it does not necessarily mean that this is what happened.

During the Vietnam War, the USAF was starting to see drugs and alcohol abuse amongst its servicemen including pilots and aircrew.

This was becoming a problem for the USAF and it continued after the war.

The extent of this problem was not public knowledge, but it was significant enough for the air force to introduce new procedures. A retired USAF pilot [flew F4’s] that I was friends with said that many pilots had a couple of ‘stiff snorts’ (his words) before flying. Christmas time was a good excuse for more than a stiff snort. An RAF pilot that I also knew [flew Lightning’s] said that it occasionally happened in the RAF. A stiff snort in those days was American slang for a shot of whiskey or bourbon. The word ‘snort’ today has more to do with drugs than booze. This is very rare today, but back in post Vietnam days it was a problem which continued into the 80’s. There was a good chance that this problem [the extent not known] existed at the twin bases as quite a few of the older men [both air and ground crew] at that time were ex Nam vets.

Most Western countries have screening procedures in place for their armed forces and I don’t see the USAF being any different. One can only guess as to how effective it was in 1980.

It has been alleged by an anonymous source that an ARRS HH53 pilot and some of his crew were under the influence of either alcohol or drugs or both. This was discovered on the first night when they landed after dropping the capsule in the forest due to its collision with the landing lights. It was a different crew that carried out the retrieval. The second night was a reconnaissance mission and the 3rd night was the retrieval. There is however evidence to suggest that this ‘caper’ lasted just 2 nights. [The ARRS always had a duty crew on standby even at Christmas]!

Any arrests or flying misdemeanours would possibly get to the attention of the British liaison officer, Sqdr Ldr Moreland which I think it did. I think Halt confided in him as he needed a British angle on the problem and who better to ask. Moreland had probably made good friends with some of the USAF officers including Halt so Halt asked his advice.

There were 2 main reason for keeping this under wraps, firstly, it was to keep it from British authorities, secondly, was to keep it out of the media as they knew the media would have a field day. One RAF friend said that the press would sensationalise it and he imagined the head lines as “Drunken USAF pilots flying at NATO nuclear base in England”. Not the entire truth, but that’s what the press do.

The initial damage limitation exercise which involved all sorts of disinformation packages was because they were extremely fearful of how British authorities would react. Ramifications and implications were seen as horrendous. There would have been a major diplomatic row between the US and GB not to mention the very fabric of NATO would be seen by the Russians as shaky, not to mention how they would use it to their advantage in the cold war.

It is quite feasible bearing this in mind why local British Police were kept out along with other British authorities as they were seen as weak link to the media and Ultimately the British Government.

I suspect that what little the two local Policemen saw was enough for them to put 2 and 2 together, make 5 and think it some sort of weapon, perhaps a nuclear weapon, Did they then through their superiors put the local prison on evac standby? I suspect there was some sort of cover up after wards by the local Police when they learnt it was not a NW to save face.

Base commander Williams and deputy base commander Halt were desperate to keep the lid on this, so the UFO story with USAF Europe’s suggestion and Moreland’s blessing was concocted. After 2 weeks Halt then sent the memorandum to the MOD. One wonders why the MOD, as the proper channel would have been to USAF HQ Europe first then via them to the MOD.

The memorandum was quite short and it really only mentions lights over the forest, it contained very little detail which I suspect was deliberate.

Perhaps Williams told Halt not to as he was going to talk to the high command to put them in the picture and then get clearance to go ahead with the memorandum. It probably took about 2 weeks to get everything in place. USAF HQ in Germany would have dispatched high ranking officers to Bentwaters for the overseeing of the cover up. They were probably in charge and instigated a disinformation package which included the UFO story. They would have assigned their security services to Woodbridge & Bentwaters to conduct interviews, de briefing and general coercing to those involved.

By some unknown channel, the US President got to hear about it and contacted Margaret Thatcher where they had discussions on how to keep the lid on it for the sake of the alliance and treaty. Little did the ARRS realise at the time that their Christmas UFO hoax joke would end up as a cover story for what really happened.

USAF officers were put on their ‘honour’ to keep quiet with the threat of pension withdrawal if they talked. Enlisted men who were involved (such as Larry Warren) were treated more severely at de briefing especially if they were seen as a security risk. Bullets are cheap, was one off hand remark to persuade them to keep quiet.

It’s not known what happened to the HH53 crew but rumour has it that they were transferred out of the UK shortly after the incident.

Foot Note

Although I am not into UFO’s per se, I keep a very open mind to some of the unexplained phenomena in our skies.

I have taken an interest in the Rendlesham forest incident because I lived locally and visited both bases many times over a 20 year period. I had many friends both air crew and ground crew and was a member of the Bentwaters Rod & Gun club. I have read Left at East Gate and You can’t tell the people and below are a few of my comments on Left at East gate.

In part of Larry Warren’s book Left at East Gate, there is a big give away bit where he said there were helicopters flying over the forest and film crews on the ground. No body else to my recollection has said this.

Why would Larry mention helicopters, because there was a chopper looking for the capsule. Larry was seen subsequently by the USAF after that comment as an unsafe witness.

Larry also mentions nuclear weapons stored at both bases, this is utter nonsense, only Bentwaters had the HOT ROW storage facilities for NW. He also said that the British Government didn’t know about NW stored at [Bentwaters], again utter nonsense. The Hot Row system was installed by MOD contractors who also constructed the RAF’s NW facilities at their bases. It was part of the ‘Treaty’.

Where Larry got confused on this issue was the fact that the MOD/British government were never going to admit to NW storage at Bentwaters [which was policy anyway] so the local population were not scared or became over concerned.

The last thing they wanted was mass demonstration at the base by CND and others which happened later at Greenham Common.

I think Larry was uncooperative from the start and was one of just a handful that would not cooperate. This in turn got him black listed by the USAF.

I feel that Larry Warren and Peter Robbins have over embellished their book and from my experience having visited these bases many of his stories don’t ring true.

In another part of his book he refers to a secret radar base on the coast quite near to RAF Woodbridge as ‘Bodzy’. This in fact is RAF Bawdsey. So much for his research.

It seems that Larry Warren had a giant bone to pick with the USAF/US Government and from what I read he had in places, and to be fair, good cause. However it looks very much like Larry Warren has included a few fairy tales to bolster his argument and sell his book.

A good example of this is his claim of underground bunkers and tunnels at Bentwaters, but the bit about an underground alien base really does take the biscuit. All you have to do is ask the curator and others of the Bentwaters aviation museum about this and they will either laugh at you or insist they show you the museum store room which is where Larry Warren claims is the entrance to the under ground bunkers. The guys that run the Bentwaters aviation museum know every square inch of the base and have access to all areas. I tend to believe what they say over others only because they do not have an agenda like so many UFO disciples do.