Agreed ... I have yet to find anything in the transcripts or other immediate records claiming the mystery lights were ever overhead or the beams came from directly overhead.
As previously mentioned, excepting Halt's tape, I have no other accounts on file re those beams of light.
To recap, it was during the 1997 interview with American journalist AJS (Salley) Rayl, where Halt expands on his account:
"We've crossed the farmer's field past his house and across the road, stumbled through a small stream and went out into a large ploughed field. Somebody noticed several objects in the sky to the north - three objects clearly visible with multiple-colored lights on them. The objects appeared elliptical and then they turned full round, which I thought was quite interesting. All three doing that. They were stationary for a while and then they started to move at high speed in sharp angular patterns as though they were doing a grid search. About that same time, somebody noticed the south, a similar object, it was round - did not change shape - and at one point it appeared to come toward us at a very high speed. It stopped overhead and sent down a small pencil-like beam, sort of like a laser beam. It was an interesting beam in that it stayed - 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. We really didn't know."
"It clicked off as though someone threw a switch, and the object receded, back up into the sky".
"Then it moved back toward Bentwaters and continued to send down beams of light, at one point near the weapons storage facility. We knew that, because we could hear the chatter on the radio".
RAYL: ...behind it. Psychological warfare? That was a theory that I think...
HALT: Well, I've discussed this with Jacques Vallee, who's one of the foremost UFO writers, I guess I should say. And he, in fact, he and I had lunch and talked for a long time and he said, "Well, you were the victim of a mind control experiment." I said, "Well, how do you explain this? The numbers of people involved. We're talking 40 to 50 or more people, on three different radio nets at different geographic locations. That's too hard to do, I think.
When the people clear over on the base are seeing these same objects; seeing the same beams of light come down and they're, you know, a mile or two miles away. Pretty tough to pull off, isn't it?" And he just shook his head on that".
(End)
I am going to have a look at another aspect - the enigmatic story of an A10 which was despatched to Ramstein AFB, allegedly to deliver related film (?) evidence.
Maybe that might help make some sense of it all...!