After a trip to a market in Ipswich, Larry Warren arrived back at RAF Bentwaters at around 8:00PM. Before long, Warren joined with the rest of D-Flight and was subsequently checked for narcotics before being assigned to a post on either RAF Bentwaters or Woodbridge. He was shortly posted to Bentwaters Perimeter Post 18; sometime after 11:15PM.
He began hearing abnormal transmissions originating from the RAF Bentwaters Weapons Storage Area observation tower as well as the Woodbridge flight tower. It was Christmas, so one could assume that the nights would have been quiet and non-eventful, but there was something amiss. The conversations discussed reports that had come from Security Police (SPs) who were watching some highly unusual lights literally 'bobbing up and down' over Rendlesham Forest.
The surroundings suddenly felt quiet and eerie. Warren scanned the skies, but saw absolutely nothing. No lights were visible what-so-ever from where he was posted.
A few minutes later a security police pickup truck arrived at Larry's post. Warren says that Sgt. Adrian Bustinza was driving the truck with Lt. Englund in the passenger seat; there were two other security police in the back of the truck. Lt. Englund instructed Warren to contact Central Security Control (CSC) and inform them that he was leaving his post. He did so successfully. Warren climbed into the back of the truck, Bustinza said that they were driving to the Bentwaters motor pool to collect light-alls.
When they arrived at the motor pool a SP captain came over to them and ordered the group to fill up a few light-alls. Bustinza filled up a light-all, although Lt. Englund said that the light-all was not full - Larry says that an argument broke out, albeit Bustinza claims that it was eventually tested and functioned perfectly. Larry asked someone in the motor pool why they had to prepare the light-alls, he was told matter-of-factly that they were simply replacing malfunctioning equipment, either the person he asked had no prior knowledge of the UFO sighting(s) or was not in a position to discuss them.
After attaching the light-all trailer to their truck, the group then drove to the main gate of RAF Bentwaters where they met with other vehicles. Bustinza told Warren that they were heading over to RAF Woodbridge. On the way over to RAF Woodbridge, Bustinza noticed that there were many deer and rabbits all over the roads and was told by Lt. Englund to drive with caution. They moved down the road which runs alongside RAF Woodbridge with Rendlesham Forest on their left. The truck infront of them stopped next to a patrol. The truck's driver shouted out, "where the hell are we meant to be going?", a law enforcement policeman replied, "turn left at east gate".
They did this, it brought them onto what is known as Route 12 (renamed Route 8 - renamed recently) - a wide logging road. Their rifles (M16s) had been taken from them, and locked away in the in-built racks in the trucks. Although Bustinza claims that he still had his side-arm on him at the time (which was illegal on British soil). They carried on driving until they got to a clearing coming up to the end of Route 12 (which is now nonexistent, it has merged into one straight path). At this point they exited their vehicles and began walking in the direction of the field. Another truck pulled over, their squadron commander Major Malcolm Zickler stepped out and to everyones' amusement fell into a deep puddle, he was covered in mud. Warren has said that it was the last time he would laugh that night.
The men were then told to be as quiet as possible, and additionally to maintain radio silence.
The men broke up into four-man teams and began making their way up to the edge of Rendlesham Forest. After walking a few hundred yards, Warren and his group arrived at a point where the field could be seen. In the field there was something on the ground which was illuminated. It would brighten, then dim again, and was creating a very mysterious effect.
Apparently the, what Warren supposed was ground-fog, was about one feet off the ground, although it was not hovering. As they entered the field, tearing through a barbed wire fence, Larry could see a few motion picture cameras on the edges filming the bizarre scene, "as we were watching this, there were disaster preparedness officers out here with geiger counters, going in an almost half-clockwise motion around this thing on the ground."
Warren, Bustinza and others joined the other forty men in the field. The field was literally ringed with military and British personnel. There was a house in the distance (is still there today), Larry noticed a light on in the left window of the house (at the end of the field), he thought the inhabitants may be watching from their room.
Warren along with Bustinza claims that there were helicopters present, Bustinza recalls two being scrambled too. A stream of radio activity followed, one can assume it was coming from the helicopters' pilots, "here it comes... Here it comes." As this happened a small red light flew in from the coast. Larry assumed it was an A-10 traveling to RAF Woodbridge, but it moved too swiftly and silently, "it moved in, in a downward arc, so fast. Stopped and hovered about 20 feet off the ground. It was the size of a basketball, American basketball. [It was] self illuminated, not quite red, yet that's the closest I can describe it."
The light flew over the pine trees and hovered about 20 feet above the centre of the field. The ball of light suddenly exploded throwing out a shower of rainbow coloured shards, "ss soon as you can get a fix on it, this thing exploded. Light showered down where Peter is [Peter Robbins - standing where yellow mist was]... I can't tell you how long that happened but my eyes were flashed out."
Some of the people who had been watching had run back into the forest, but Larry couldn't run, he was in shock. He was completely cemented in place. The explosion did not produce any sound or heat energy, only an exceedingly bright flash, which Warren claims damaged his eyes. In place of the red light and the fog was now a large object. It was about 30 feet across, and about 20 feet high, shaped like a smooth pyramid. The main part was 'pearl-white' with a rainbow colour effect. It had a group of blue lights at the base, similar to the object that Jim Penniston claims to have seen earlier on. The craft was covered in strange objects, like tiles and boxes. It also had three 'delta appendages' attached to its hull.
It was missing any markings that any normal aircraft would have, "no windows, no markings, no flag or country of origin. Nothing. You could hardly look at it head on, and if you looked at it through the side of your pephiral vision you'd get a shape of it... and there it was, clear as a bell."
Before being able to make any real sense of the situation, Larry Warren was asked to accompany Adrian Bustinza and instructed to close in on the craft, an officer operating a geiger counter led them walking a few metres ahead. They were now within 10-15 feet from the craft. Their shadows were visible on it, although there was no lighting in the field sufficient to create such an effect (none of the light-alls were working). Warren recalled that the craft 'seemed to be pulling our shadows onto itself'. Every time they stopped walking, their shadows would take another step - as if there was a slight time delay.
After a while, Bustinza and Warren were instructed to return to their original positions. On turning round, Warren noticed a large oak tree, which he used as a landmark. Quite far out, around the edges of the perimeter that the men had formed there were many senior staff. Warren thought they seemed to be following some sort of procedure. Suddenly, a car arrived at the edge of the field. Wing Commander Gordon Williams stepped out, or so Warren thought.
A bluish, gold coloured light appeared from one of the appendages. It moved round to the other side and broke into three separate balls of golden coloured light, they were shaped like cylinders. The lights dimmed slightly, and Warren could see what looked like 'beings' within the light.
"Then a light moved out of the side of the object and split into three. Within the light you could see clearly what looked like eyes, facial features, bright clothing and some other device, but the legs and the lower extremities, I couldn't make out - It was almost as if the light was translucent."
Meanwhile, Gordon Williams began conversing with the other officers (one of them was Donald Moreland, says Warren), stopped and then approached the craft. Williams - who was dressed in plain clothing - looked nervous. One 'being' floated to the front. Williams moved closer and stopped. The 'being' lifted its head to compensate for the height difference (Warren claims that Gordon Williams is exceptionally tall). They just stared at each other, Warren described it as a 'silent-face off'.
"There was no sign language, contrary to editing on American Home Box Office on a BBC interview, there was no handshakes and no exchange of Milkway candy bars." "What happened next was basically a face off. If there was any communication, it was telepathy... who can say, I don't know. I've never said those things [Handshakes, and the like]."
Suddenly there was a loud cracking sound from within the forest, like a large branch being snapped. The 'beings' retreated in a defensive manner. After a short while, they then moved back forward even closer than they had been before, "there was a sound, a sound like a tree braking, I don't know what it was. These things ['beings'] retracted under a delta type of thing, their arms moved up and then after a stand off for a minute - it was very tense - they moved back closer, and I'm standing right there watching - I was about 20-25 feet away." Warren's boss, or shift commander ordered Warren and the other men to return back to their vehicles. The craft was still there when Warren left. Although it seems that Bustinza remained there until the craft departed, he was a Sergeant - is this why he was not ordered to return to base?
Larry Warren and the others walked back to their trucks. Although the landed craft was still in the field, Warren claims that there were other strange lights all around the forest, "there were many strange lights flying through the trees, and beams of light shooting from the night sky to the ground." Warren's truck was the first to leave, during the drive back to RAF Bentwaters pondered whether similar UFOs were being seen all over the world at this time. He returned to Central Security Control with the others around 4:30AM.
Fortunately Sgt. Bustinza's presence allows us to know what happened after Warren had left the scene. Adrian Bustinza says that the craft sat in the field for a few hours.
In an interview with Larry Fawcett (20 April 1984), Adrian Bustinza recalled clearly how the craft departed. The piece of text below was taken from "Left At East Gate".
Fawcett: When it moved, when it took off, did you hear anything or feel anything?
Bustinza: When it took off, it was, like, hovering. It went up and, like, took off at about a forty-five-degree angle, and if you would have blinked, you would have missed it.
Fawcett: That fast?
Bustinza: That fast. And we got a cold draft of air that lasted about a good ten seconds. You know, like when you get a good blow of dust or wind. No noise though; I do remember that.
Some time around 7:30AM the next morning Larry Warren woke up and walked to the mess hall at RAF Bentwaters. Upon entering the mess hall, he noticed that there was a table of ten or so men who all looked uncomfortable and had seemingly separated themselves from the rest of the group. He took some food and sat down at a table with others, most notably Jim Penniston. Steve Longaro leaned over and asked, 'have the last twenty-four hours been a dream?" Warren did not know what to say, before he could respond the questioning began and Warren began answering as openly as he could. Penniston stared at Warren and said, "Hey, Warren, shut the **** up."
Larry left the mess hall and returned to his room. Around 10:00AM a man called "Art Henderson" entered the room with a message for Larry, the message ordered Warren to meet with Major Zickler at the law-enforcement desk.
He arrived to see at least a dozen people, all of which had seen the UFO, standing in a group. Zickler confirmed that the group was going to be debriefed regarding the incident in Rendlesham forest the night before. They entered the law-enforcement office.
A staff sergeant called Jackson from the AFOSI instructed the men to sign the documents which were handed out to them. The would have time to read the documents 'later'.
Within the documents was a two page report explaining that the men had only seen a few odd lights in the trees at Rendlesham forest. It stated nothing more was seen. The men were instructed to sign the documents again, Larry Warren did so reluctantly. They moved to another room, in which three official-looking men were standing; one in a naval officer's uniform. The men were told to sit on the folding metal chairs and co-operate fully with the debrief ers.
Zickler left the room. As this happened the Navy officer introduced himself as Commander Richardson of the Office of Naval Intelligence. He also introduced the other two men, who were in the Armed Forces Security Service. He began explaining how what the men had seen in the forest 'represented technology far advanced to our own', Richardson carried on adding that 'numerous civilizations visit this planet from time to time.'
He continued saying that none of them could discuss the incident with anyone at the bases and added that they were not to discuss the matter over the phone or in letters.
Warren questioned what would happen if they did speak about the UFO, one of the AFSS agents spoke up, "bullets are cheap", he said. They were told to leave the building. Outside they saw Sgt. Adrian Bustinza among others waiting to be debriefed, just as they had. This was obviously the higher-ranking group.
He bumped into A1C Gregory Battram, who had been at the scene before Larry. After a lengthy chat about the UFO, they made their way to the nearest public telephone box on base. Larry immediately called his mother and began telling her about the UFO incident, he knew that he was breaking the rules but managed to tell her most of the story. Suddenly he was cut-off - the phone went dead. Battram told him to call the local operator, he did so; she said that the call had been been disconnected from his end - on the base.
Larry hung up and ran back to his room. At around 3:00PM, Warren received a phone call telling him to report to Captain Colman at the base's communications centre.
Colman explained that he should not have spoken about the UFO incident to anyone, and he had been made aware of this earlier. Larry apologized and agreed to pay a $300 dollar fine in monthly installments, or he would loose his stripes. Larry left the building realising that there was little he could do.
