Page facilities

• View/Add comments about this article/subject in the forum: click here
• Link to this page: right click here, choose 'Copy Shortcut'
• Skip to places in this page: [Wayne Burgess] [Gerry Harris] [The Webb family] [Gordon Levett] [Gary Collins]
• View photographs related to this page: [Click here ]

Introduction
Many military personnel from RAF Bentwaters and RAF Woodbridge witnessed UFOs around Rendlesham Forest in December 1980. Fortunately many members of the public have come forward with their own stories; the fact is that many civilians witnessed the Rendlesham Forest incident as well. If you forget the USAF witnesses, there are actually enough civilian witnesses to create an intriguing story by itself. There are a few people who have come forward and said "I saw something too that night", instead of ridiculing them please remember that it takes courage to go on the record as a UFO witness.

If you were a witness to the Rendlesham Forest Incident in any way (even if you didn't see any UFOs, maybe you drove by and saw Americans in Rendlesham forest for example) I would love to hear from you. No hoaxers please, don't waste my time. You can email me here.

Wayne contacted me last September, and claims that he was a witness to the Rendlesham UFO incident. Between 9-11PM on the 26th December 1980 Wayne and his family were near Ipswich when they spotted half-a-dozen mysterious lights in the sky over Ipswich. They were standing at Bennett Road.

"I have never heard of another account from anyone else which resembles mine, however this is 100% accurate, as I was quite excited about it at the time. The one thing I am not certain about is the number of lights that were there (5,6 or 7) but I can say that they were individually moving, just slightly enough to know that they weren't part of the same object."

Wayne was only twelve-years-old at the time but remembers the sighting vividly. He put together an image in Adobe Photoshop showing what they all saw. The image can be seen above. The family stayed and watched the lights for about 5-10 minutes, the lights had an aura around them and appeared to be individually moving at a very slow speed. After a while the family decided to move on, and left the lights still slowly moving in the sky.

I suggested that Wayne and his family could have seen meteors, or a satellite re-entering the atmosphere (since there were a few of these kind of events happening over the Christmas period). Wayne was open to the idea, but was quite sure they had not seen meteors.

"I remember that after the sighting, when the newspapers where released after Xmas, my Father saying that he had read a report of a meteor shower in the press. However the lights in the sky that I saw, although slightly moving, stayed in the same position in the sky, whilst we stood and watched it. [...] Although I understand it is always a temptation to connect it with something mysterious, I do not believe in my humble opinion that this is what I saw."

The lights/objects did not have fiery tails, as a meteor or a burning-up satellite would do, only a slight haze around each globe of light. Additionally, the meteors were only reported to have been visible on the 25th December, not the 26th in this case.

"I did not realize until several years later, whilst reading an account of famous UFO sightings in the Sunday Times Magazine in the UK (during the high profile Roswell case) that this was connected to the famous Rendlesham Forest sighting. I had on several occasions recounted my story to friends, and was quite excited that at last my sighting coincided with an official UK mystery in print".

Wayne's sighting was hardly spectacular, "... its not the most exciting of sightings but it is a true and accurate account never the less", but it is still a piece of the ever growing puzzle.

Thank you Wayne, for letting me publish your account and name.

Gerry Harris lived in a house situated in the centre of Rendlesham Forest, it overlooked the the twin bases (RAF Bentwaters & RAF Woodbridge). On the 26th December at about 11PM, he looked out of the window and noticed some unusual lights in the sky. [Note: it's interesting how the time matches with Wayne's story, have a look above]
On the Sci Fi Channel's "UFO Invasion At Rendlesham" (2003) , Gerry Harris recalled the event, "[The lights] were [going] at a nice steady speed and were moving about, so I undone the front door of the house and walked out into the yard (here where I am now) and just stood watching them. It was all quiet and I listened ... I couldn't hear any sounds at all."

The lights were bobbing up and down, moving from side to side; Gerry realized that if an aircraft was as close to the forest as these lights then it would have already crashed, "I stood watching them and they were going up and moving about this way and that way and they were going up, they were coming down and I watched them for, three quarters of an hour and, all of a sudden, they disappeared. But just before they went, before they disappeared, there was a lot of activity on the base, I could hear vehicles running about, I could see the flashing lights of vehicles moving about and I could hear people shouting, it was quiet and the wind must have been in this direction. I could hear their voices and then they were calling to each other and then I could hear the roaring of their vehicles, which at that time of night was unusual".

Gerry's experience bothered him, he simply didn't know what he had seen. A few days later he visited Rendlesham Forest and met with some Forestry Commission workers. He says that they admitted an area of trees had been felled and that there was an area contaminated with radiation which he must stay away from.

Gerry Harris has been re-telling his story since the late eighties, I recall seeing him on an old UFO documentary possibly produced by ITV, and once again on "UFO Invasion at Rendlesham". The lights Harris claims to have seen could have no possible explanation, the fact that he could hear shouting and vehicles is also interesting.

It was the 27th December. Roy and Marina Webb first spoke about their UFO sighting on the Sci-Fi Channel's "UFO Invasion At Rendlesham". Roy Webb, Marina Webb and their daughter were driving on the outskirts of Woodbridge. Suddenly their daughter spotted what she thought was a shooting star, "my daughter spotted a shooting star. Then she just said, 'it seems very odd, it seems to be traveling parallel with us'."

The light was close to them and very low, "my husband thought it could have been a jet but the longer we went, he realized it obviously wasn't."
They tried to ignore the light, it was not doing much and was probably nothing to worry about. Roy Webb said, "When we looked [again, later on] we realized the light was still there, that was when I asked my wife to stop. We pulled into the lay-by area."
Marina Webb explained how the light departed, "we wound the window down and it was stationary, it did seem as though it was observing us. There was no other traffic on the road... then it started to travel upwards... [...] And then it went on at a very fast pace. It was incredible."

This is a very basic account which doesn't tell us an awful lot, although as the light which the family observed (that's three witnesses) was able to perform 'incredible' maneuvers, I see it as another significant story.

Gordon's story is a famous and is perhaps the most famous civilian witness to the Rendlesham Forest incident. There are several reasons for this, one of them being that he was willing to talk about his experience in the mid-eighties; unlike several of the other witnesses.

Gordon Levett lived in Sudbourne, Suffolk. I visited Sudbourne a few years ago, but was not able to find Gordon's house. I am not sure whether he still lives there either.

It was either the 28th or 29th December 1980 (Gordon is not certain about the date) and around 7-8PM. He was in his garden with his dog, some researchers have said he was putting it in a kennel for the night, although Georgina Bruni, author of "You Can't Tell The People" says he was merely walking it. Suddenly, Gordon felt as if he was being watched or observed; an effect commonly linked with UFO encounters. He looked up, and was amazed to see a mushroom-shaped UFO hovering straight above his garden. The object was glowing green, and was making no sound as it hovered over him. After hovering for a short time, the object suddenly sped off towards Woodbridge. During the encounter Gordon's dog had become very scared, afterwards it became worse. It was continuing to act strangely, realizing it was ill, Gordon took his dog to a vet who said it had no obvious illness. A week later the dog died.

Gordon Levett claims the death of his dog is in no way connected to his UFO sighting.
Georgina Bruni, inquired about the death of Levett's dog, "I questioned Gordon Levett and he was very annoyed that the death of his dog had been linked to the UFO sighting, which he said was nothing to do with it."

In August 2005, Suffolk's Forestry Commission received £2000 from the "Lottery's Award for All", which is a Lottery grants scheme. The Forestry Commission decided to spend their funds on a 'UFO Trail', which is essentially a trail around Rendlesham Forest which takes you to the alleged landing areas (although I believe some of the areas to be inaccurate). In the Rendlesham Forest Centre car park, you can find a large triangular information board, it mentions Gordon Levett's sighting and uses it (perhaps incorrectly) as an introductory-sighting to the whole case:

"In December 1980 several sightings of UFOs were reported in Rendlesham Forest. Many think these mysterious events are the most significant UFO incident to have occurred in the UK.

During the evening of 26 [Levett has actually said the 28 or 29 December] December a resident of Sudbourne, a village approximately 6 miles (10 km) to the North East of Rendlesham Forest, reported a mysterious shape (like an upturned mushroom) in the sky above his garden. Later that night two USAF patrolmen at the East Gate of RAF Woodbridge spotted unusual lights in the forest, and were given permission to investigate. What they reported was very strange.

There is, of course, no tangible evidence of a UFO on the ground - no debris was found apart from some broken tree top branches. We can, however, piece together, from transcripts and recordings which were taken at the time, an intriguing picture."

17th July 1984 - In the presence of UFO researcher and lawyer Harry Harris - Gordon signed a statement detailing the story, he also made a sketch of the UFO he had seen years ago.

I have not been able to access the whole of the statement, but have found the final page featuring Levett's sketch along with both the mens signatures.

AND I TAKE this solemn declaration conscientiously believing the same to be true and by virtue of the the provisions of the STATORY DECLARATIONS ACT, 1835.
Declared at Orford
The county of Suffolk
This 17th Day of July
1984.
Before me, A solicitor [signed - Harry Harris] [signed - Gordon Levett]

Gary Collins was 'discovered' by Georgina Bruni, author of "You Can't Tell The People". He is unsure of the date but I assume it would have been a day or two after Christmas day. It was 11PM, he was on his way home from an evening in the pub with his friends who; rather coincidentally were USAF security police personnel. He was approaching Lion's Corner at Capel Green, when the road was suddenly flooded with light. It was as if the area had been lit with 'powerful floodlights'.
Gary pulled into the lay-by and looked up, only sixty-feet above him was a large (30ft aprx) triangular object, it was emitting a quiet humming noise. "I pulled over and it was just hovering there. Obviously you had to get your eyes adjusted to the light and I could see the front, triangle shapes with the port holes underneath." It was black in colour and appeared to be dripping some sort of liquid, almost like ice when it is melting.

The triangular object turned to face Rendlesham Forest and then flew off at an astonishing speed. "Then it just went from zero [stationary, I assume] at a terrific speed over me and into the forest".

Gary visited Rendlesham Forest the next day, just like Gerry Harris, and found a road-block at Tangham Road. He enquired and was told that there had been an aircraft crash the previous night. Also his friends who he had been with the night of the UFO encounter were never seen again, he asked about one particular friend and was told that he had been flown back to the United States. Wayne believed he wouldn't have left without saying goodbye.

There are two things that I find very interesting about Wayne's UFO encounter.
Firstly, he said the black triangular object flew off and appeared to crash into Rendlesham Forest - heard that one before? Jim Penniston claims he encountered a black triangular object in Rendlesham Forest on the 25/26 December 1980. Learn more here.

Additionally Gary said the object was dripping some kind of liquid. Again, does this sound familiar? Charles Halt as well as all the other men with him on the second night of the incident, recall the red pulsing UFO which they witnessed was dripping what looked like 'molten metal', there were no traces on the ground.

Sources
1) Gary spoke on BBC's "Britain's Closest Encounter", I have used some quotes and information from that documentary.
2) Book: You Can't Tell The People - Author: Georgina Bruni - P118