Fascinating. Makes a complex incident even more complex. Aliens as a cover story for some secret operation....
Re my subsequent post, I think we can actually rule out any involvement with the 67th ARRS.
As for a meteor being at least partially responsible that first night, the problem is, as evidenced in the original witness statements, unusual lights were observed for a significant period of time.
One further account I have now come across again, seems to corroborate this.
I will not identify the correspondent, because can't be certain I had permission, 'Beachum' is almost certainly Cabansag, it contains my notes re the C141 and again formatting is as was!
[Start]
I was assigned to RAF Bentwaters in August of 1980.
I worked with Burroughs and Penniston. What they said was true. As a
matter of fact, the following statements are true and can be verified
by many people.
The acting squadron was the 81st. SPS and "B" Flight was the acting
security force on duty. Burroughs and Penniston were on "B" flight.
"A" flight was the day flight, daytime only.
The Guard at East gate was Amn Burroughs and Amn Beachum.
I was stationed on Security - 6 with either Amn Hartman or Sgt Sauls.
We saw the entire thing.
Shift change was from 26th at 2300 hrs till 0700 hrs of the 27th.
The top Flight Sgt on duty was MSgt Fail. Lt.Col Halt was not there
the first night.
It was a bitterly cold night and clear.
Radio communications were disrupted on and off due to some type of
atmospheric disturbance. The radios weren't working at all that night.
There were 6 channels, called "Queen", "Queen 1", "King 1" and so on.
One channel was reserved for Law Enforcement, one for RAF Bentwaters
and the rest were open.
We switched channels all night.
Contact had been lost with Burroughs, Penniston and Beachum.
This was on the first night, when the lights were in the woods. It
quite possibly could have been Christmas [i.e., the 25/26th].
The base had an Alarm Response Team (ART) and a Security Response Team
(SRT).
Codes in use at that time and which have now been declassified were
" "Helping Hand" - a potentially hostile threat - and "Covered Wagon"
- a confirmed hostile threat.
If the first alert status was unresolved after 30 minutes, it
automatically became a confirmed, hostile threat.
The person on the post should have been Burroughs, but he was missing,
the weapons were missing and the phone was off the hook.
This was around 2:00 a.m.
We were carrying weapons and were told to hold our position. MSgt Fail
went out.
I could clearly see the lights from the gate, just outside the back
gate (East gate). It was next to the road.
They were intermittent lights, very bright, 15-20 feet above the
ground.
They were pulsating and from what I recall there were 3 lights, red
green and blue.
It made no noise, but it defied gravity. It was really weird and
scary. We all knew what we were looking at, but no one really came out
and said it.
I saw them, so did Amn Beachum, Amn Hartman, Amn Hernandez. To me, it
seemed to have lasted an hour, but they said it was more like 6 hours.
Burroughs and Penniston finally showed up. I somehow think something
happened to them. They were acting strange.
We were then told to go back to our posts.
Shift change in the morney for "B" flight was extremely late. "A"
Flight relieved us at 9:30 am, very late.
When we went out the East gate back to Bentwaters, leaving Woodbridge,
there were many people, including numerous people in typical lab coats
making an analysis of the area. You could see out the vehicle to the
right side, that there were many people examining the area, searching,
looking for something. Some of these people were in white overcoats,
that's why I say that they looked like typical techs in lab coats.
They were searching the area in front of the forest.
[Taken in conjunction with the following , this is particularly
interesting: "On 31 July 1994, Charles Halt gave a fascinating lecture
to UFO enthusiasts at a hastily arranged venue in Leeds. Halt was in
the United Kingdom to record an interview with London Weekend
Television.
[...]
One puzzling event which has mystified Colonel Halt ever since that
'fateful week', concerns the arrival of an unscheduled C141 Galaxy
transporter just hours after the encounter. He confirmed he knew
nothing about its purpose, or why a group of 'special individuals'
departed the aircraft and headed immediately out to the East Gate and
into the forest".]
The "few branches" that were broken off were not a few, it was a lot,
a huge area had been cleared. There were trees missing.
I also saw "bobbies" and little white police cars.
I was pointing these things out and Hartman says, "Valdez, shut up
about that".
I was green.
The base had a problem with "bird watchers", people who were suspected
to be Russian spys. The base security personnel had to photograph
anyone who showed an interest in the base activities. Pennistion may
have had a loaded camera in his duffel bag.
A lot of people staked the place out on the second night. The crew on
duty then was "C" Flight, "B" Flight had just finished its last
midnight shift for the cycle. Halt's night was "C" shift.
Bustinza [apparently pronounced Busteenza] was a "C" flight. He was
not "Acting Commander of Security Police", he was a "three striper".
The starlight scope mentioned by Lt. Col. Halt, "fits on top of an
M16". There were no night vision binoculars in those days.
There were a large number of light-alls in the forest and I wondered
how they had got them all in there. We always had problems with them.
This was 17 years ago, not today's technology.
As far as people that saw or knew about this incident, there were well
over 30 security people who swept the area looking for Beachum,
Burroughs and Penniston, who were missing.
[End]