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The memo's background
After the incident Lt. Colonel Charles Halt spoke to Donald Moreland, the British Liason Officer. He expressed his interest but told Halt that he had to report what he had seen to Britain's Ministry Of Defence. After all, the whole event had occurred on British soil.

Over two weeks after the incident Charles Halt typed a memorandum and sent it to the MOD with a covering letter from Moreland. Halt had condensed a three night long UFO incident into a few short paragraphs, so obviously it lacked significant detail - it was just a summary. Halt made no mention of the audio tape, the soil samples, the plaster casts or the photographs which had been taken of the landing site; it was certainly not a definitive report.

On the History Channel's UFO documentary "Britain's Roswell" Halt explained what the memo's actual purpose was, "the memo was not meant for public consumption. It was meant as a tickler, if you will, to the Ministry Of Defence to get them involved to do a proper investigation."

There was also another problem, Halt had written it relying solely on his memory so the dates mentioned are wrong. The first incident actually began on the 25/26 December, not the 26/27 December. Additionally, the second incident began on the 27/28, not the 28/29 as implied by the memorandum.

The error in dates caused endless confusion. The MoD had trouble with their investigations as a result of this, as shown in the MoD's files which were released a few years ago. It has also led researchers astray, which is evident in the case's first book: "Skycrash".

Why did Halt rely on his memory? Why did he not check the police log/blotter?

In an interview with Salley Rayl, Halt explained why, "I tried to go back and recover the police blotter and the security blotter think I mentioned to you earlier to re- affirm the dates. Keep in mind, I wrote the memo several weeks later. And it was not a really important memo. The date was not critical. The critical portion was, you know, what happened and are you interested? And how about getting involved and let's investigate this. It's possible that I put the date down wrong. But I don't believe so. I tried to verify later and the police blotters had been taken from repository, probably by a, how shall I say... curiosity seeker."

Did Halt deliberately "forget" the crucial dates?

John Burroughs was witness to the first night of events (25/26 December). He feels that incorrect dates were entered in Halt's memorandum deliberately, "I don't feel the dates were entered wrongly by accident, but on purpose. Halt was a man of detail; he even stated he kept his recorder on him to keep track of things on a daily basis."

Why would Charles Halt do that? John Burroughs believes that Halt cannot "come out and say what he knows", in other words - he hasn't been telling the full story. Halt admitted that he would have preferred to burn the memo, which may confirm he wanted to sweep the Rendlesham case under the carpet.

How did the 'Halt Memorandum' surface?

Larry Warren contacted CAUS (Citizens Against UFO Secrecy). Although they only had his word and a few rumours originating from England they were interested enough to fully investigate the case. After numerous requests from CAUS and numerous denials from the Ministry Of Defence and the United States Air Force, the document was finally released under the FOIA (Freedom Of Information Act) in June 1983 to CAUS.
Apparently, the first copy was sent to CAUS investigator, Robert Todd. After receiving it, it seems reasonable to assume that Todd made copies and shared them with fellow researchers.

The Ministry of Defence never replied to Halt's memorandum, or at least researchers have found no evidence of an official response.

Reply to
atin. of: CD
Subject: Unexplained Lights (13 Jan 81)
To: RAF/CC

1. Early in the morning of 27 Dec 80 (approximately 0300L) two USAF security police patrolmen saw unusual lights outside the back gate at RAF Woodbridge. Thinking an aircraft might have crashed or been forced down, they called for permission to go outside the gate to investigate.... The individuals reported seeing a strange glowing object in the forest. The object was described as being metallic in appearance and triangular in shape, approximately two to three meters across the base and approximately two meters high. It illuminated the entire forest with a white light. The object itself had a pulsing red light on top and a bank(s) of blue lights underneath. The object was hovering or on legs. As the patrolmen approached the object it maneuvered through the trees and disappeared. At this time the animals on a nearby farm went into a frenzy. The object was briefly sighted approximately an hour later near the back gate.

2. The next day, three depressions 1 1/2" deep and 7" in diameter were found where the object had been sighted on the ground. The following night (29 Dec 80) the area was checked for radiation. Beta/Gamma readings of 0.1 milliroentgens were recorded with peak readings in the three depressions and near the center of the triangle formed by the three depressions. A nearby tree had moderate (0.05 - 0.07) readings on the side of the tree facing towards the three depressions.

3. Later in the night a red sun-like object was seen through the trees. It moved about and pulsed. At one point it appeared to throw off glowing particles and then broke into five separate white objects and disappeared. Immediately thereafter, three star like objects were noticed in the sky, two objects to the north and one to the south, all of which were about 10 degrees off of the horizon. The objects moved rapidly in sharp, angular movements and displayed red, green and blue lights. The objects to the north appeared to be elliptical through 8-10 power lens. They then turned to full circles. The objects in the north remained in the sky for an hour or more. The object to the south was visible for two to three hours and beamed down a stream of light from time to time. Numerous individuals, including the undersigned, witnessed the activities in paragraphs 2 and 3.

Charles Halt (signed)
Charles I. Halt. Lt Col, USAF
Deputy Base Commander

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