[Part 1] Rendlesham explained? [Visitor Submitted Article]

[ghaynes]

Thanks Admi

I stand corrected, its a long time since i read the book.

It realy makes my argument stronger and i'm surprised that more was not made of this by our forum investigators. I am just as guilty of not following up about helicopters flying over the nights in question.

This subject must have some more mileage?

Best regards

Observer

I certainly think it's a theory that cannot be discounted. I was certainly not aware that other people had witnessed a helicopter on the night/s in question.
Regards.

Graham

[Observer]

Hi Graham

So now we have several USAF personel metioning that they either heard or observed a helicopter on the nights in question.
We now need to find out who if any local civilians [Brits] heard or saw it?

Observer

[Deep Purple]

I've been doing some more thinking!
From memory helicopters cannot be heard on Halt's tape, so if this was recorded at the time of the incident no helos where flying nearby. You might expect some helicopters to be heard but it does depend on when they were scrambled. The tape was recorded on the second night when "it" was retrievied according the theory/legend . A natural reaction of a station security given reports that that something crashed or was in the woods would have probably scramble a helicopter.
Certainly when I was at a military airshow and there was an unfortunate offsite crash the first recation was to send helos over the site to see what had happened
If the tape was a cover up for somehing it could have been recorded much later on- hence no helos.
But if it was all just a cover up and stage managing the whole event , why did they release the Halt memo years after? Until the Halt memo surfaced the event had all but died a UFO death.
It could be that they released the Memo and Tape as part of an opportunistic cover up when the F117a started to appear. You can imagine " You saw a triangular UFO, Ha Ha just like those other guys did "
The other aspect about the Apollo theory is why did not just simply say it was a night time practice mission and something had failed which had allowed the capsule to be dropped into the woods. This would be blending truth and lies in a very palatabled drink for the media.
Georgini Bruni's book mentions a general state of heightened tensions at the base shortly afterwards, and she by all accounts had interviewed or asked a lot of people. She mentions a large increase in high security messages being transmitted after the event, and I think on reflection it would be difficult for the security services to control this many people or anticipate the questions that may be asked many years later.
If it had been a cock up with the Apollo module why all the high security messages going back and forth?
The Apollo thing could be, as it has only just recently emerged another disinformation campaign, but it is so difficult to tell.
It would be interesting to look at some of the UK archives to establish when they first new about the event and whether or not there is any sort of document audit trail.
Sorry to confuse everyone!!!

[Wolf]

Hi All

I have been watching this thread with interest for quite a while and its good that people are thinking and doing some digging outside the box so to speak.

As it has been mentioned in earlier I thought you may appreciate this picture of the NASA capsule that used to be sited on RAF Woodbridge and was used for training purposes by the 67th ARRS.



Some time after the incident the capsule was moved to infront on the ARRS buildings. Here's a cropped and zoomed in section of picture DF-ST-90-10150 that is publically available from the DOD photo archive. (the crosshairs are mine......)



With regards to the incident itself I would always encourage people to look at what was the most probable, based on the available technology on the base first. Its not unheard of for accidents to happen and then be buried for years ie the B-47 that crashed into the WSA at RAF Lakenheath in 1956 causing a 'Broken Arrow' to be called.

I'm sure the truth is out there...... And this may well be the place it surfaces.

V/R

Wolf

[Observer]

Hi all

This helicopter thing needs more investigation as we know that several airmen said there was one flying on the second night. As Deep Purple said, it couls all be disinformation.

I new twist to my theory about the capsule being the culprit was put to me by another retired UASF airman very recently. He said that two airmen dressed up in space suits and got in the capsule. [Were there any space suits at Woodbridge for trainig purposes]? The prank was to try and make people believe that that an Apollo mission capsule had re entered over Woodbridge. Was it these two space suit cladded airmen that Larry Warren thought were aliens? Was Col Williams talking to them as Larry Warren said and if so it was probably in English.

Were all the onlookers hoodwinked by this caper?

Observer

[ghaynes]

Hi All

I have been watching this thread with interest for quite a while and its good that people are thinking and doing some digging outside the box so to speak.

As it has been mentioned in earlier I thought you may appreciate this picture of the NASA capsule that used to be sited on RAF Woodbridge and was used for training purposes by the 67th ARRS.

Some time after the incident the capsule was moved to infront on the ARRS buildings. Here's a cropped and zoomed in section of picture DF-ST-90-10150 that is publically available from the DOD photo archive. (the crosshairs are mine......)

With regards to the incident itself I would always encourage people to look at what was the most probable, based on the available technology on the base first. Its not unheard of for accidents to happen and then be buried for years ie the B-47 that crashed into the WSA at RAF Lakenheath in 1956 causing a 'Broken Arrow' to be called.

I'm sure the truth is out there...... And this may well be the place it surfaces.

V/R

Wolf

Hi Wolf,
Thanks for your input and welcome to the group. Those pics were taken when the capsule was no longer used for training purposes. It became a semi-permanent display at the entrance to the 67th ARRS ops building. I doubt whether the capsule would have had the plaque on it when it was used for training and the feet/stand were probably an 'add-on'. When in use, the capsule was usually positioned in open space in the middle of the airfield. After the 'UFO' incident it disappeared for a while and then re-appeared at the location in your photo.
Thanks again.
Regards.

Graham

[ghaynes]

Hi all

This helicopter thing needs more investigation as we know that several airmen said there was one flying on the second night. As Deep Purple said, it couls all be disinformation.

I new twist to my theory about the capsule being the culprit was put to me by another retired UASF airman very recently. He said that two airmen dressed up in space suits and got in the capsule. [Were there any space suits at Woodbridge for trainig purposes]? The prank was to try and make people believe that that an Apollo mission capsule had re entered over Woodbridge. Was it these two space suit cladded airmen that Larry Warren thought were aliens? Was Col Williams talking to them as Larry Warren said and if so it was probably in English.

Were all the onlookers hoodwinked by this caper?

Observer

Hi Observer,
I would suggest that the 'space suits' were possibly the silver one's worn by USAF fire crews.
Regards.

Graham

[Observer]

Hi Graham

Good point re the fire suits, i didn't think of that one, looking back when i was doing my bit in the RAF. The fire men wore a sort of aluminiumised suit with a full visor aluminium/silver looking helmet. They also had breathing equipment that was also heat proofed with some sort of ali covering.

You know i would love this event to be some thing more than what my theory suggests it was and i'm sure that goes for a good few of us. However, with the lack of a tangible alternative, the Apollo capsule along with the ARRS must be seen currently as the most likely cause. I would love to be proved wrong, but the irony of it all is i cannot prove my theory either. We need more help, maybe from people who have yet to come forward with new evidence.

Regards

Observer

[Deep Purple]

I've been away on business a couple of days and been doing some thinking again!
Sorry.
If the " Apollo " capsule had anyone in it and was dropped after hitting a landing light, you would have thought the people inside would have been injured. If the helicopter became unstable just after hiting the light why did it not just dump it there and then on the airfield. I dont fly but my understanding is that once you get a helo out of its envelope its very hard to keep any sort of control , particulary with 80s choppers which did not have fly by wire.
So if the helo dumped the capsule in the woods it would have had to climb above the trees
and let go!. Its difficult to estimate the drop but if you are clearing trees right into the forest , I would have thought a minimum of 20ft drop? and this would be probably enough to cause some injuries to anyone inside the capsule, But I am not a medic , any one out there that could comment further on this?
Its just if we are saying silver suited firemen got dumpted in the middle of the wood in a capsule I would have thought injuries were likely, which doesnt conicide with have a chat with the general after " Landing"
I go fishing a night on shore and in boats on the Solent ( Hampshire) and we frequently see the Coastguard helicopter operating at night ( I think its a Bristow) , and its always obvious what it is. Just the racket identifies its. The Coastguard Helo would probably be very similar in size to one used by the Air Sea rescue in Rendlesham and even from a long way off you would know what it was. Sometimes if an incident has happened you can see them searching with the night sun lamp. So I would be very suprised if the control tower could not figure out what they were seeing if it were a helo in the woods.
To me, but I might be wrong, it seems to boil down to a few things
1) It was the Apollo capsule dropped but hey got really lucky no one was hurt etc and a huge disinformation campaign was embarked on , when in reality all they had to do was say it was an "apollo" test excerise and it would have got forgotten about
2) It was the above but the spooks decided to use the incident to create a UFO flap to shield top secret aircarft
3) The truth is stranger than the above and we are being fed disinformation to hide it.

A good way of testing the the air sea rescue / apollo story might get every one who has had a bit a the story told to them together to see if we can identify ( without naming ) those involved . To do this you would normally want to get the people together and be interviewed at the same time to try and eliminate colussion.

If we are are being fed disinformation then its huge! Do a search under Apollo astronauts and UFOs and you will be surpsrised at what they say ,Neil Armstrong, Edgar Mitchell to name but a few. These guys would have been the best of the best, so they are either going along with disinformation or we are not alone.

[Observer]

Hi deep purple

My mate was Deep purples's bass player in the early days.

You are quite right in what you say re the fire men. It was only part of my theory. They could of course have arrived on foot fully kitted out thinking it to be a crash.
I think we can safely say it was not a crashed aircraft.
As for why and where the HH-53 dropped the capsule is pure conjecture but is quite feasable. Graham Haynes may be able to put my theory into a more logical sequence of events than i did.

Regards

Observer

[Deep Purple]

Favourite group is Deep Purple , hence tag, but I listen to all types of music nowadays.
A bit of Purple still revives flagging spirits now a days still!
Would your friend be Roger Glover? he is DP bass player right back to the 60s.
Its good to have people to talk these events through on a sensible "Professional" calm basis.
I dont really know what happened with this event but it is fascinating.
On the one hand it could be a joke that went wrong, on the other it could be CIA or other disinformation, or it could be the real deal---- Alien Landing!!!
Although in the past weeks I have been going towards the hoax / disinformation route, I could still be so wrong and have paused for thought. My previous post contained references to the Apollo astronauts and some seem to confirm the existence of UFO's in an alien sense.
Cast your minds back to the stealth fighter, which was so top secret, and leaks occurred , people got wind of it and it turned out to be true. Could some of these people be telling the truth , just like the stealth fighter?

[ghaynes]

Hi deep purple

My mate was Deep purples's bass player in the early days.

You are quite right in what you say re the fire men. It was only part of my theory. They could of course have arrived on foot fully kitted out thinking it to be a crash.
I think we can safely say it was not a crashed aircraft.
As for why and where the HH-53 dropped the capsule is pure conjecture but is quite feasable. Graham Haynes may be able to put my theory into a more logical sequence of events than i did.

Regards

Observer

Not sure I can sadd much more to what has all ready been said but here goes.....

I would say that the capsule was un-manned while it was underslung. It would be suicidal (and not Standard Operating Procedures), to 'carry' anyone....even if it was a practical joke. A routine capsule recovery training sortie would see the 'occupants' of the capsule been carried inside the HH-53 to the drop-zone (usually in the sea just off Bawdsey). They would then be dropped in the sea after the capsule had been lowered into the sea first. The 'astronauts' and the capsule would then be recovered.

My take on the silver suits would be firemen......possibly called by someone thinking the HH-53 had crashed?

The distance between the landing lights and the alleged landing site is possibly only a few hundred yards. Taking into account the speed at which the HH-53 would travelling with an underslung capsule at the time, bearing in mind it would probably only have just got airborne (50ish knots at a guess) and the reaction time of the crew to the emergency, the 'landing' site would be approximately where the UFO was alleged to land (the field at Capel Green).

Regards.

Graham

[Observer]

Hi deep purple and Graham

Firstly, It was Nick Simper who was Deep purple's bass player for a short while in the early days. He played along side Richie Blackmore who i also know.

Back to the serious stuff.

Thanks Graham for your take on the my theory. My current thoughts are that the ARRS wanted the joke to be seen as an alien space craft. Most of the airmen based at both bases probably would not instantly recognise the Apollo capsule for what it was.

Seen at night in a field and totally out of context to where it should be probably through them into panic. Conclusions were jumped to before the facts were known by quite a few airmen.

On the other hand, the collision with the landing lights possibly had to be covered up by the ARRS so the UFO hoax was there way of taking the heat off.

Regards

Observer

[Deep Purple]

Hi Observer & Graham
Re Deep Purple the group, I do remember Nick was the Bass Player early on but I never saw him. I did see Ritchie Blackmore and still think on his day he was one of the best Rock Guitarists.
Back to business, Graham's valuable input and insight has gone a long way to explaining some of my doubts about the Apollo theory. My concerns still are Why did they create a UFO flap to cover a pratical joke ( and it would have been a good one), when all they had to do was say a traing mission went wrong, no one was hurt, no danger to public etc.
Secondly why did they leak the memo well after the event had died its original death.
To date the Apollo still ranks as the best explantion
Regards
Adrian

[Observer]

Hi Adrien

Firstly, thanks for you valid input. It was Christmas, they were on low alert and although part of the ARRS training was Apollo capsule recovery after re entry, i very much doubt if there would be a training recovery exercise scheduled for that period.
The ARRS always had a crew on standby for general duties even at Christmas as they could get called out for any number of reasons, for example, an F-111 escape capsule recovery, although i doubt that as the F-111 bases would also be on low alert thus no flying as such.

We also have to remember [an ARRS pilot told me this] the Apollo's trajectory round the earth was not over East Anglia, thus they never ever expected to recover the real thing while stationed in that part of the UK.
This was probably mostly known by the ARRS and its command, but i suspect that the average airman and even regular officers in other sections at the bases would not know!
So it could only have ever been a Christmas joke. I say this reservedly as its still remains but a theory.

Regards

Observer