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: [Penniston] [Buran] [Burroughs] [Chandler]
• View photographs related to this page: click here

The witness statements

After the initial UFO incident on the 25/26 December 1980, all the witnesses were asked to either write or sign statements explaining what they witnessed. It was a standard Air Force procedure. Some of the major players in the case claim that other statements were taken, some pertaining to the 28 December, on which Halt was present. These are often called the 'real statements', although they have never surfaced.

Sceptics have since claimed that the statements prove that the lighthouse was misidentified for a UFO. I do not believe this to be so, and will explain why below.
With the witness statements often being used as the evidence to support the lighthouse theory, it is also rather ironic that the statements also backup the UFO sighting and the witnesses and these crucial lines are often ignored by 'debunkers' and sceptics.

"On one occasion Penniston relayed that he was close enough to the object to determine it was definitely a mechanical object." - Msgt. J.D Chandler.

"He eventually arrived at a 'beacon light' [lighthouse beacon], however, he stated that this was not the light or lights he had originally observed." - Msgt. J.D Chandler.

"After talking with him [Jim Penniston] face to face concerning the incident , I am convinced that he saw something out of the realm of explanation for him at the time." - Fred A. Buran.

"SSgt Penniston reported getting near the object and then all of a sudden said they had gone past it and were looking a a marker beacon that was in the same direction as the other lights. I asked him if he could have been mistaken, to which Penniston replied that had I seen the other lights I would know the difference." - Fred A. Buran.

"I would like to state at this time that SSgt Penniston is a totally reliable and mature individual. He was not overly excited, nor do I think he is subject to overreaction or misinterpretation of circumstances." - Fred A. Buran.

Here are some points worth making:

1. In the Air Force, only hand-written statements are taken seriously. John Burroughs' statement should be seen as important, the other ones not as much so.
2. John Burroughs made it clear that they did not mistake the lighthouse for a UFO on the History Channel's production, "Britain's Roswell", "there are some people that try to twist it - If you read the statements, especially mine they are clearly distinguished between what we saw at the beginning and then we did see a beacon light and we followed it. Nowhere [in my statement] does it say that I felt the beacon light was the object."
3. The witnesses have claimed that they kept their reports sanitized for a very good reason - they were afraid that the UFO sightings could jeopardize their career. For example at the end of John Burroughs's statement, Charles Halt wrote,
   "ow he's worried that this might affect his career." Another example, on Cabansag's statement, Halt wrote that he is "convinced that this is a 'cleaned up' version of what happened". UFO researcher and author, Jenny Randles, has backed up this fact too, "right from the beginning, Burroughs and Penniston had always insisted that their statements were not the full story and were watered down."
4. Edward Cabansag claims he could not operate a typewriter at the time, he simply signed a statement which was given to him by Charles Halt. He did not know who had typed it, was it Colonel Halt? In an interview with Georgina Bruni, Author of "You Can't Tell The People", Cabansag said, "the only thing that I signed was for Colonel Halt. I didn't type anything out. Maybe someone else did it and asked me to sign it. Besides, I couldn't type, I had never used a typewriter before. I don't even remember what I signed. I was so nervous, I just signed it. I don't remember talking to Halt, I remember sitting in his office in fear of Halt. I was fresh from school." Jim Penniston claims to have never typed a statement in any shape or form too.
5. 5). Georgina Bruni has come to the conclusion that the 'real' statements were given to the AFOSI (Air Force Office Of Special Investigations).

If we are to believe the statements, then it becomes apparent that the lighthouse beacon light was merely investigated and then discounted. None of the statements say that the men actually mistook the lighthouse for the UFO! With this said, I will leave you to view the raw statements below without any more opinions of my own.

"Received dispatch from CSC to rendezvous with Police 4 AIC Burroughs, and Police 5 SSgt Steffens at east Gate Woodbridge. Upon arriving at east gate directly to the east about 1 and a half miles in a large wooded area. A large yellow glowing light was emitting above the trees. In the centre of the lighted area directly in the centre ground level, there was red light blinking on and off 5 to 10 second intervals. And a blue light that was being for the most part steady. After receiving permission from CSC, we proceeded off base pass east gate, down an old logging road. Left vehicle, proceeded on foot. Burroughs and I were approx. 15-20 meters apart and proceeding on a true east direction from logging road. The area in front of us was lighting up a 30 metre area. When we got within a 50 metre distance, the object was producing red and blue light. The blue light was steady and projecting under the object. It was up the area directly extending a metre or two out. At this point of positive identification I relayed to CSC, SSgt Coffey. A positing sighting of the object...1....Colour of lights and that it was definitely mechanical in nature. This is the closest point that I was near the object at any point. We then proceeded after it. It moved in a zig-zagging manner back through the woods, then lost sight of it. On the way back we encountered a blue streaking light to the left only lasting a few seconds. After 45 min walk, arrived at our vehicle." (not signed)

Click on any of the images below to enlarge them....

Penniston's three-point sketch of the UFO he encountered was included with hisstatement. It shows the UFO from above, from the side and from the front.

The symbols are shown on the hull of the UFO, as well as the feet/supports it was sitting on.

 

"I do hereby voluntarily and of my own free will make the following statement without having been subjected to any coercion, unlawful influence or unlawful inducement. The following statement is general in nature and may be inaccurate in some instances due to the time-lapse involved and the fact I was not taking notes at the time oft he occurrence. At approximately 03:00 hrs, 26 December 1980, I was on duty at bldg. 679, Central Security Control, when I was notified that A1C Burroughs had sighted some strange lights in the wooded area east of the runway at RAF Woodbridge. Shortly after the initial report A1C Burroughs was joined by SSgt Jim Penniston and his rider, AMN Cabansag. SSgt Penniston also reported the strange lights.

I directed SSgt Coffey, the on duty Security Controlled to attempt to ascertain from SSgt Penniston whether or not the lights could be marker lights of some kind, to which SSgt Penniston said that he had never seen lights of this colour or nature in the area before. He described them as Red, blue, white and orange. SSgt Penniston requested permission to investigate. After he had been joined by the Security Flight Chief, MSgt Chandler, and turned his weapon over to him, I directed them to go ahead. SSgt Penniston had previously informed me that the lights appeared to be no further than 100 yds from the road East Gate of the runway. I monitored their progress (Penniston, Burroughs and Cabansag) as they entered the wooded area.

They appeared to get very close to the lights, and at one point SSgt Penniston stated that it was a definite mechanical object. Due to the colours they reported I alerted them to the fact that they may have been approaching a light aircraft crash scene. I directed SSgt Coffey to check with the tower to see if they could throw some light on the subject. They could not help. SSgt Penniston reported getting near the object and then all of a sudden said they had gone past it and were looking a a marker beacon that was in the same direction as the other lights. I asked him if he could have been mistaken, to which Penniston replied that had I seen the other lights I would know the difference. SSgt Penniston seemed somewhat agitated at this point.

They continued to look further, to no avail. At approximately 3:43 hrs, I terminated the investigation and ordered all units bad to their normal duties. I directed SSgt Penniston to take notes of the incident when he came in that morning. After talking with him face to face concerning the incident, I am convinced that he saw something out of the realm of explanation for him at that time. I would like to state at this time that SSgt Penniston is a totally reliable and mature individual. He was not overly excited, nor do I think he is subject to overreaction or misinterpretation of circumstances. Later that morning, after conversing with CPT Mike Verrano, the day-shift commander, I discovered that there had been several other sightings. Any further developments I have no direct knowledge of."

"On the night of 25-26 Dec at around 3:00, while on patrol down at East Gate, myself and my partner saw lights coming from the woods due east of the gate. The lights were red and blue, the red one above the blue one, and they were flashing on and off. Because I've never seen anything like that coming from the woods before we decided to drive down and see what it was. We went down east-gate road and took a right at the stop sign and drove about 10-20 yards to where there is a road that goes into the forest. I could see a white light shining into the trees and I could still see the red and blue one. We decided we better go call it in so we went back up towards East Gate and called it in. The whole time I could see the lights and the white light was almost at the edge of the road and the blue and red lights were still out in the woods. A security unit was sent down to the gate and when they got there they could see it too. we asked permission to go and see what it was. We took the truck down the road that leads into the forest.

As we went down the east-gate road and the road that leads into the forest, the lights were moving back and they appeared to stop in a bunch of trees. We stopped the truck where the road stopped and went on foot. We crossed a small open field that let into where the lights were coming from, and as we were coming into the trees there were strange noises, like a woman screaming. Also the woods lit up and you could hear the farm animals making a lot of noises, and there was a lot of movement in the woods. All three of us hit the ground and what ever it was started moving back towards the open field and after a minute or two we got up and moved into the trees and the lights moved out into the open field. We got up to a fence that separated the trees from the open field.

You could see the lights down by a farmer's house. We climbed over the fence and started walking toward the red and blue lights and they just disappeared. Once we reached the farmer's house we could see a beacon going around, so we went toward it. We followed it for about 2 miles before we could see it was coming from a lighthouse. We had just passed a creak and were told to come back when we saw a blue light to our left in the trees. It was only there for a minute and just streaked away. After that we didn't see anything and returned to the truck."

"At approximately 3.00hrs, 26 December 1980, while conducting security checks on RAF Bentwaters, I monitored a radio transmission from A1C Burroughs, Law Enforcement patrol at RAF Woodbridge, stating that he was observing strange lights in the wooded area just beyond the access road, leading from the East Gate at RAF Woodbridge. SSgt Penniston, Security Supervisor, was contacted and directed to contact Burroughs at the East Gate. Upon arrival, SSgt Penniston immediately notified CSC that he too was observing these lights and requested to make a closer observation After several minutes, Penniston my presence.

I departed RAF Bentwaters through Butley Gate for RAF Woodbridge. When I arrived, SSgt Penniston, A1C Burroughs and Amn Cabansag had entered the wooded area just beyond the clearing at the access road. We set up radio relay between SSgt Penniston, myself and CSC. On one occasion Penniston relayed that he was close enough to the object to determine it was definitely a mechanical object. He stated that he was within 50 metres. He also stated that there was lots of noises in the area which seemed to be animals running around. Each Penniston gave me the indication that he was about to reach the area where the lights were he would give an extended estimated location. He eventually arrived at a 'beacon light', however, he stated that this was not the light or lights he had originally observed. He was instructed to return. While on route out of the area he reported seeing lights again almost in direct pass where they had passed earlier. Shortly after this, they reported that the lights were no longer visible. SSgt Penniston returned to RAF Woodbridge. After talking to the three of them, I am sure that they had observed something unusual. At no time did I observe anything from the time I arrived at RAF Woodbridge."

"On 26 Dec 80, SSgt Penningston and I were on Security #6 at Woodbridge Base. I was the member. We were patrolling Delta NAPA when we received a call over the radio. It stated that Police #4 had seen some strange lights out past the East Gate and we were to respond. SSgt Penningston and I left Delta NAPA, heading for the East Gate code two. When we got there SSgt Steffens and A1C Burroughs were on patrol. They told us they had seen some funny lights out in the woods. We notified CSC and we asked permission to investigate further.

They gave us the go-ahead. We left our weapons with SSgt Steffens who remained at the gate. Thus the three of us went out to investigate. We stopped the Security Police vehicle about ]00 meters from the gate. Due to the terrain we had to on by foot. We kept in constant contact with CSC. While we walked, each one of us would see the lights. Blue, red, white, and yellow. The beckon light turned out to be the yellow light. We would see them periodically, but not In a specific pattern. As we approached, the lights would seem to be at the edge of the forret. We were about 100 meters from the edge of the forrest when I saw a quick movement, it look visible for a moment . It look like it spun XXgXX(?) left a quarter of a turn, then it was gone. I'm advised SSgt Penningston and A1C Borroughs(?). We advised CSC and proceeded In extreme caution. When we got about 75-50 meters, MSgt Chandler/Flight Chief, was on the scene. CSC was not reading our transmissions very well,, so we used MSgt Chandler as a go-between. He remained back at out vehicle. As we entered the forrest, the blue and red lights were not visible anymore. Only the beacon light, was still blinking.

We figured the lights were coming from past the forrest, since nothing was visible when we past through the woody forrest. We would see a glowing near the beacon light, but as we got closer we found It to be a lit up farm house. After we had passed throught the forrest, we thought it had to be an aircraft accident. So did CSC as well. But we ran and walked a good 2 miles past out the vehicle, until we got to a vantage point where we could determine that what we were chasing was X only a beacon light off In the distance. Our route through the forrest and field was a direct one, straight towards the light. We informed CSC that the light beacon was farther than we thought, so CSC terminated our Investigation. A1C Burroughs and I took a road, while SSgt Penningston walked straight back from where we came. A1C Burroughs saw the light again, this time it was coming from the left of us, as we were walking back to our patrol vehicle. We got in contact with SSgt Penningston and we took a walk threw where we saw the lights. Nothing. Finally, we made it back to our vehicle, after making contact with the PC's and informing them of what we saw. After that we met MSgt Chandler and we went In service again after termination of the sighting."