One case which I find similar to the Rendlesham case in many ways occurred near RAF Honington, which is in the English county of Suffolk – not too far from Rendlesham forest. This incident occurred much more recently, in August 1995.
The witness who contacted me, who I will call Tony, served in the Air Training Corps as an Adult Warrant Officer. Each year the group would attend a summer
camp at a RAF base, “it was whilst attending summer camp at RAF Honington near Thetford that I witnessed something that has stayed with me to this day.”
At the summer camp there was usually a night exercise. The cadets were transported to an area called West Tofts in military vehicles, while Tony and a fellow Adult Warrant Officer followed them behind in a Land Rover Defender.
Tony and his friend eventually arrived at Wretham Forest. Wretham is a small village about 6 miles North East of Thetford, an area of Wretham is set aside for infantry training purposes. Once at the forest, the men setup their shelters and prepared for the night exercise.
About half an hour before the exercise was set to begin, Tony and his friend were instructed to drive half-a-mile down a nearby road. Their task was to prevent any of the cadets wandering out of the designated area. They parked their vehicle.
It was not long before the two men noticed a bright light in the sky, “it didn’t look like a star. It looked more like the night sun searchlight I’ve seen on Police helicopters, but without the ‘beam’”. The light was moving across the sky, moving from the right to the left, but eventually came to a halt. The light was not twinkling, like all of the stars were. The men watched it for about ten minutes; they noticed that the light’s brightness seemed too regular to be anything natural – like a star or a planet. They agreed that it could only be a helicopter hovering in the sky.
Twenty minutes later the men were still there, the bright light in the sky was still in the same place too, “we were both sitting on the roof of the Land Rover still watching it”. They eventually decided that it could not be a helicopter; it had been in the same position for too long. Tony’s friend said that it could be a hot-air balloon too, or perhaps an unusually bright star or planet.
Another few minutes passed. Suddenly the men heard an aircraft approaching from behind them. It was flying at an incredible speed, with its afterburner on.
Tony rushed to the back of their Land Rover to grab a pair of binoculars, however as the aircraft passed overhead he realised that the aircraft’s exhaust was so bright, he would not need binoculars. However “the jet’s exhaust was quite a lot dimmer than the light in the distance.”
The aircraft carried on until it was no longer visible. The last time they saw it, the aircraft was heading in the direction of the bright white light in the sky. Tony put the binoculars to his eyes, to see if he could see the disappearing aircraft “when something happened that stunned us both.”
“Several ‘streamers’ of dashed light shot towards the ground from beneath the bright light. I say dashed because they weren’t solid beams or trails like a rocket leaves. They were dashes like a dotted line and extremely bright even at distance. The dashes hit the ground and the whole horizon lit up blue-white like an arc welder. When the flash died away both the bright light and the aircraft were nowhere to be seen.”
Tony and his friend were left completely astounded. They had been instructed to hold their position, so could not report their sighting. They had no means of communication either. They waited for a while until another person arrived who told them that they could return to the camp site.
Tony felt an urge to report what they had seen. Tony’s friend however was not so sure; he felt it would be better to do nothing at all.
Later on in the night Tony spoke to an Air Force officer regarding the sighting, the Group Captain said that he would make an enquiry but he suggested that Tony should forget about the UFO sighting, “It was probably nothing to worry about” he said.
During the rest of his time at RAF Honington, Tony never spoke about the UFO sighting again, he never received an explanation for what he saw either.
Years later, when looking at a map of the area, Tony made an interesting observation. If one was to draw a line from where he was that night, towards the direction of the UFO, it would eventually pass through Rendlesham forest – the location of Britain’s most important UFO incident. However, it is important to remember that he had no way of judging distance on the night of the sighting. Rendlesham forest is almost forty miles away from Wretham forest too, but there is still a small chance that the light seen was near to this area.
Tony’s sighting remains unexplained.
On the second night of the Rendlesham forest incident, the 27/28 December 1980, a group of men from RAF Bentwaters/Woodbridge including the bases’ deputy commander, Lt Col Charles Halt, moved through Rendlesham forest in search of the UFO following previous reports.
Animals nearby went into a ‘frenzy’ as a red, pulsing light was seen moving between the trees. Halt described it as ‘intelligently controlled’. They followed it for a while until it silent exploded, separated into a few bright lights and shot off into the sky.
Most of the lights dispersed, but one remained in the sky above them.
Then, for no apparent reason, the UFO sent down a ‘pencil-thin’ beam of light down to the ground, it resembled a laser beam, “… it was the same size all the way down the beam. It illuminated the ground about ten feet from us and we just stood there in awe wondering whether it was a signal, a warning or what it was.”
After a few seconds the beam shut off immediately; just as quickly as it had been sent down, leaving the men standing there in shock.
The UFO seen from Wretham forest in August 1995 by two AWOs performed a strikingly similar act. The UFO, apparently when confronted by an aircraft shot out dashed beams of light, which temporarily illuminated the ground. Perhaps it was a warning to the aircraft? Regardless of the purpose, it is clear that whatever was controlling the light had intelligence - it responded to the aircraft's presence.
Did the UFO seen at Rendlesham forest send down the laser-like beam because Halt and others had been pursuing it? It is very likely in my opinion: Halt stated that the beam hit the ground approximately ten feet away from them; it must have been aimed near them deliberately, but for what purpose?
