• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.
I was hoping to avoid getting into the messy concept of "flight level." Altimeters derive their readings barometrically (i.e., from air pressure) and calculating an altitude based on the difference between the local (airplane's) reading and air pressure at sea level. There are two complicating factors:

- the altimeters have to be correctly / precisely calibrated for the readings to be trustworthy and ...
- air pressure varies with weather, even at sea level.

Owing to either or both these factors two aircraft may have different altimeter readings but actually be flying at the same altitude (and therefore in danger of possible collision).

'Flight level' is an abstracted analogue or substitute for precise altitude calculated using a standard baseline value for air pressure at sea level (regardless of local conditions). For the gory details see:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_level

FL370 = A standardized abstraction of relative altitude connoting approximately 37,000 feet.

UA37 (Upper Air Route 37; Upper Amber 37) is (or was ... ) a pre-defined ATC north / south route or corridor circa 40 miles east of Bentwaters and used for routing civilian air traffic (by ATC).

Now, having said that ...

I'm pretty confident there's actually no ambiguity in the Watton log entry:

Bearing in mind this is a log entry made at the station receiving a request for information the straightforward and most probable interpretation goes as follows:

- Bentwaters asked for info on aircraft aloft in the area.
- We show southbound traffic on corridor UA37 @ FL370 (i.e., noting the answer, as one does in light of an RFI).
- Bentwaters indicates they've had a UFO sighting (rationale for asking about aircraft in the area).
- Bentwaters is dealing with the sighting (i.e., no further action on our part necessary).
Is it possible, in the light of the fact that this was a civilian air corridor and not a military one, that Halt was trying to check if the light he had seen was that of an airliner? In fact, acting in a sensible way and trying to rule out possible explanations for the things he and his men were seeing?
 
Is it possible, in the light of the fact that this was a civilian air corridor and not a military one, that Halt was trying to check if the light he had seen was that of an airliner? In fact, acting in a sensible way and trying to rule out possible explanations for the things he and his men were seeing?
I do think Halt was probably - and appropriately - seeking to identify and / or rule out alternative explanations for what he was observing.

I don't know whether he was specifically suspecting civilian air traffic, much less whether he suspected he was seeing something out on UA37 (40 miles east of his location).
 
I do think Halt was probably - and appropriately - seeking to identify and / or rule out alternative explanations for what he was observing.

I don't know whether he was specifically suspecting civilian air traffic, much less whether he suspected he was seeing something out on UA37 (40 miles east of his location).
I didn't realise that was so far away. Curioser and curioser.
 
If Halt was familiar with civilian air traffic routing / corridors in the region he may have known traffic on UA37 wasn't likely to be what he was seeing (after all, it would have been on his eastern horizon if visible at all).

That's one reason I strongly suspect the allusion to UA37 indicates what Watton logged as the state of their situation awareness at the time of the RFI rather than something drawn from the received Bentwaters request itself.

I don't know whether there were any other (e.g., closer) pre-defined civilian air corridors that would have been more likely sources of lights in the sky during the wee hours. One would have to refer to a 1980-era Jeppesen's (or equivalent) guide to pro forma routes / corridors to see what the possibilities may have been.
 
If Halt was familiar with civilian air traffic routing / corridors in the region he may have known traffic on UA37 wasn't likely to be what he was seeing (after all, it would have been on his eastern horizon if visible at all).

That's one reason I strongly suspect the allusion to UA37 indicates what Watton logged as the state of their situation awareness at the time of the RFI rather than something drawn from the received Bentwaters request itself.

I don't know whether there were any other (e.g., closer) pre-defined civilian air corridors that would have been more likely sources of lights in the sky during the wee hours. One would have to refer to a 1980-era Jeppesen's (or equivalent) guide to pro forma routes / corridors to see what the possibilities may have been.
Thanks, that clarifies things! What do you make of this story about radar tracks from civilian operatives at Watton:

26 December(?) 1980
A civilian radar operator at RAF Watton in Norfolk who remained anonymous, described picking
up a target coming in from the coast which was lost over Randlesham. Two days later he said
that USAF Intelligence men had requested to see the radar reports. They told him that a metallic
UFO had crash landed in a forest near Ipswich, and remained on the ground for several hours,
during which time entities had been seen and communicated with the base commander. Nigel
Kerr, another civilian radar operator at Watton, confirmed the tracking but not the alleged UFO
story.

Assuming that the nonsense about crash landed aliens communicating with the base commander was straight disinformation, how would you rate the basic story of a target coming in from the coast and being lost over Rendlesham? The date seems unclear but it could relate to what the civilian witnesses saw going down into the forest on 25th/26th Dec.
 
The Missing Other UFO Incident

Does the following extract now explain why we seem to have two different accounts of events in the forest that second night and the actual background to why Halt was informed the UFO had returned.

There was in fact an earlier occurrence in the forest.

Address by Colonel Charles I Halt

Quest International Conference
Leeds, 31 July, 1994


"We had just finished dinner at RAF Woodbridge, 40 some odd of us there, when Lieutenant Englund came in, about 8 o'clock. Lt. Englund was the On Duty police officer in charge of the two flights, the Security and Law Enforcement people. He was white as a sheet. He came up to the Base Commander and myself, and said, ‘I have to talk to you privately, very soon.’ We said, ‘What’s the problem, Bruce?’ We figured it was a serious problem. He said, ‘Let’s go somewhere private.’, so we went into the cloakroom. He said, ‘It’s back!’. ‘What’s back?’. He said, ‘The UFO is back.’ I said, ‘How do you know that?’ He said, ‘We were out in the forest.’, and I started to get angry! ‘What were you doing out in the forest. Your job is out on the flightline, on the base, your job’s not out in the forest.’

He said, ‘Somebody saw some lights at the East Gate again and he went out to take a look.’ He took several lightalls out. Lightalls are motor generators, on trailers. They’re small gasoline engines, something a little larger than a lawn mower engine, directly coupled to a generator, with two big adjustable lights on top. You can bathe an area with light from them. We use them for security; we use them for maintenance people to work at night, any time we need a lot of illumination, we use them. The Security Police had about a dozen assigned directly to them. They’re almost foolproof. If there’s a problem, someone would go out and put the fuel in, normally petrol. He said, ‘The lightalls wouldn't work. We got starlight scopes out.’ Starlight scopes are first generation image intensifiers. They would magnify available light by 25 or 30 thousand times. Now if there was some problem and we had to have some type of available light, you couldn't use them in total darkness. Just starlight or moonlight was enough to use them. And you looked through like a telescope. They would tell us a bearing with a ...[unclear]... , a yellow green light. You could clearly see an outline, you could clearly see people and you could differentiate things. We used them on the flightlines in sensitive areas whenever the power went off. They gave us time until the generators came on. We had many of these, they were useful, for watching an area. He said they looked into the forest to the area where this incident was supposed to have took place, or it crashed or supposedly landed. You could see a dull glow.

Conrad and I looked at each other, and he had to make the presentations and the speech, so I said, ‘Well, you do my part. I'll go home change clothes, and I'll go out and we can put this thing to rest. We'll put it to bed once and for all.’ Because our people were getting a little too obsessed with this thing and it was distracting from what they were supposed to do".
(End)
 
The Missing Other UFO Incident

Does the following extract now explain why we seem to have two different accounts of events in the forest that second night and the actual background to why Halt was informed the UFO had returned.

There was in fact an earlier occurrence in the forest.

Address by Colonel Charles I Halt

Quest International Conference
Leeds, 31 July, 1994


"We had just finished dinner at RAF Woodbridge, 40 some odd of us there, when Lieutenant Englund came in, about 8 o'clock. Lt. Englund was the On Duty police officer in charge of the two flights, the Security and Law Enforcement people. He was white as a sheet. He came up to the Base Commander and myself, and said, ‘I have to talk to you privately, very soon.’ We said, ‘What’s the problem, Bruce?’ We figured it was a serious problem. He said, ‘Let’s go somewhere private.’, so we went into the cloakroom. He said, ‘It’s back!’. ‘What’s back?’. He said, ‘The UFO is back.’ I said, ‘How do you know that?’ He said, ‘We were out in the forest.’, and I started to get angry! ‘What were you doing out in the forest. Your job is out on the flightline, on the base, your job’s not out in the forest.’

He said, ‘Somebody saw some lights at the East Gate again and he went out to take a look.’ He took several lightalls out. Lightalls are motor generators, on trailers. They’re small gasoline engines, something a little larger than a lawn mower engine, directly coupled to a generator, with two big adjustable lights on top. You can bathe an area with light from them. We use them for security; we use them for maintenance people to work at night, any time we need a lot of illumination, we use them. The Security Police had about a dozen assigned directly to them. They’re almost foolproof. If there’s a problem, someone would go out and put the fuel in, normally petrol. He said, ‘The lightalls wouldn't work. We got starlight scopes out.’ Starlight scopes are first generation image intensifiers. They would magnify available light by 25 or 30 thousand times. Now if there was some problem and we had to have some type of available light, you couldn't use them in total darkness. Just starlight or moonlight was enough to use them. And you looked through like a telescope. They would tell us a bearing with a ...[unclear]... , a yellow green light. You could clearly see an outline, you could clearly see people and you could differentiate things. We used them on the flightlines in sensitive areas whenever the power went off. They gave us time until the generators came on. We had many of these, they were useful, for watching an area. He said they looked into the forest to the area where this incident was supposed to have took place, or it crashed or supposedly landed. You could see a dull glow.

Conrad and I looked at each other, and he had to make the presentations and the speech, so I said, ‘Well, you do my part. I'll go home change clothes, and I'll go out and we can put this thing to rest. We'll put it to bed once and for all.’ Because our people were getting a little too obsessed with this thing and it was distracting from what they were supposed to do".
(End)
Now that is fascinating. It adds greatly to the background of the subsequent events. I would be very interested to know why the lightalls weren't working -- all twelve of them? I had been thinking they had four or five and it was odd that all had failed at once, but a dozen? Now I am suspicious. And it sounds as if all of them were issued with the Starlight scopes instead. It seems there was something playing out behind the scenes...
 
Merely for information as I clear through archive files.

Photograph of a plaster cast!

plaster1.JPG


That's all I know for the moment - just came across it on an backup of my old website, circa 2000 and can't find a source attribution.

A reverse image search reveals a certain Mr Ridpath appears to have the only other online copy of this photo, which he statedly downloaded from a former website and would be interested in any further information.

I think that might have been my website at the time!

So, where did I get it from...?

I did have a few former base personell correspondents who had visited the, 'landing site' and will check back thoroughly.

Absolutely no idea I had this and I suspect it is actually from the time. It's a high-res image (I haven't compressed it, thus an unusually large attachment, which I hope is permissible on this occasion).

If you zoom in, at the right-hand side, someone is holding a ruler showing the actual size.

Should I substantiate this, I might not post same.

Next thing you know, there's a loud knock at the door...
 
I would be very interested to know why the lightalls weren't working -- all twelve of them?
What makes you think they had taken 12 out there? My guess (and it's only s guess) is that there was just one. They asked for more fuel because, it seems, it hadn't been topped up.
 
A reverse image search reveals a certain Mr Ridpath appears to have the only other online copy of this photo, which he statedly downloaded from a former website and would be interested in any further information.

I think that might have been my website at the time!
No, it wasn't from your site, but I wish I had kept a copy of the site I grabbed it from.
http://www.ianridpath.com/ufo/plastercast.html
Here's a clip of Halt displaying it on a TV programme
http://www.ianridpath.com/ufo/plastercast.mp4
 
, it wasn't from your site, but I wish I had kept a copy of the site I grabbed it from.
Yes, definitely not anything to do with myself and I have tound the following old posting:

"Could someone please help to explain source of the photo, plaster1.bmp, that was uploaded to the UFOIN site?".

I have an archive of old UFOIN material and am looking through that to see if this got anywhere.
 
I have an archive of old UFOIN material and am looking through that to see if this got anywhere.
The only mention I can find therein is, extraordinarily, the following, citing that same Halt lecture I did just earlier - in post #1,267:

"In a talk for Quest International at Leeds in July 1994...

Apparently Halt displayed a plaster cast of one of these landing marks at this conference - did anyone here see it?".

Could that be the source?

From my own conference transcript:

"I have a surprise for you here. This is something that hasn't come out before. But Sgt. Penniston went back the next day and took plaster casts of the three impressions on the ground, I brought one of them with me today...".

This sounds close and working on it, although still uncertain, of course.

Incidentally, the person who posted that query was... if you can still remember...!
 
Concerning Radiation

Although the following was, naturally, shared with John Burroughs and a few others in confidence some 20 years ago, it has never publicly been revealed previously.

It's the contents of an email I received and subsequent correspondence.

There are three reasons for releasing it now.

Firstly, Burroughs and Penniston have spoken of their own ill health, believed to have a link with their proximity to whatever the light source enigma was.

Secondly, it's only recently I am absolutely certain the person who wrote to myself, is exactly who he claimed to be and did work in the armoury at the time.

The content itself appears to be sincere and heartfelt.

Whether, 40 years onwards, it can be entirely verified and actually makes any difference as case evidence presently, is another question.

Thirdly, because it is so long ago, I have become significantly less concerned regarding any adverse impact on Cabansag himself, whom I have been unable to contact and indeed it could be to the contrary.

A situation where you must make of it what you will and if we endeavour to completely understand those events in context, it might be relevant in some aspect.

Although Burroughs was aware of the correspondent's identity, I do not have permission to disclose this publicly, even though I expect he would agree:

(Start)
I was in the 81 SPS and worked in the SPS Armory and worked on A flight during the day. The SPS Armory was located on RAF Bentwaters near Butley Gate. I was stationed at RAF Bentwaters/ Woodbridge from March 1980 to March 1983.

Ed Cabansag was on the security response team that did close-in observation of the craft in the forest.

Why locate Ed? Ed was my roommate in the barracks and had slight radiation burns on his face and hands from being in proximity to the object. He covered this up by wearing large sweaters and associated winter clothing. I only noticed it by accident being his roommate. He shared the details of having received them that night in the forest while observing the unknown object.

Ed is very introverted and a quiet person. but when you share a room you become close and notice even the smallest changes.

I never thought I could add anything meaningful to this as I was, having wired day shift, asleep in the barracks when it happened.

But find Ed and you may have an interesting story. He is Philippine/American and very shy and introverted It did not surprise me you had no testimony from him on your site.
(End)


The following is from subsequent correspondence:

Q: How soon after the incident did the evidence of radiation burns become apparent.

A: From what I can remember later in the evening I noticed how much darker and pinker his face and hands had become. It was as if he had a very bad sunburn and had been at the beach all day without sun screen.


Q: Did he suffer any related symptoms of radiation sickness?

A: None that I noticed.


Q: Did Ed Cabansag ever suggest he had 'held back' some information when later asked about his experiences.

A: Ed would not talk about this with anyone. He avoided any inquiries.


Q: Was he badly affected by what occurred?

A: He seemed distant and much more reserved than normal. He had been very outgoing and athletic and had a great sense of humor and was fun to be around. He withdrew and became the antithesis.

If you could imagine the "poster child" for life of the party that was Ed. No matter what the occasion or situation, Ed was always upbeat and positive. I remember so often at guard mount before work and even in the barracks people would gather around Ed just to listen to his funny stories.

Seeing him withdraw and become hardened was difficult for me.
(End)
 
Last edited:
What makes you think they had taken 12 out there? My guess (and it's only s guess) is that there was just one. They asked for more fuel because, it seems, it hadn't been topped up.
No specific numbers are ever given but "lightalls" is always in the plural. Presumably if one, or even 2, 3 or 4. had failed, and they had 12 in all, why not just take out some of the working ones? 12 is the only specific number I've come across. If it was just a matter of adding fuel, that shouldn't have been a major problem. The other problem I have is, as I've mentioned before, that if they knew about the location where something was alleged to have landed, and some of the men had independently gone out to look -- and take plaster casts of the imprints -- why did they wait until night had fallen then send Halt out ostensibly to search for the mysterious lights but also equipped with a geiger counter with the intention of looking for radioactivity at the site. Why wait until nightfall to do a basic investigation that would be better done in the daylight? Something just doesn't make sense here..
 
"lightalls" is always in the plural
No it isn't. In the very first part of Halt's recording, he says "Having a little difficulty; can’t get the Light-all to work. Seems to be some kind of mechanical problem. Gonna send back and get another Light-all."
In other words, it is quite specifically singular – "the" light-all.
You really haven't listened very carefully, have you?
 
No it isn't. In the very first part of Halt's recording, he says "Having a little difficulty; can’t get the Light-all to work. Seems to be some kind of mechanical problem. Gonna send back and get another Light-all."
In other words, it is quite specifically singular – "the" light-all.
You really haven't listened very carefully, have you?
Somewhere in the recent pages of this thread there is definitely a reference to problems with the lightalls plural. The implication was that Halt's wasn't the only one to go wrong, and presumably that is why his request for another one got nowhere. He also says, interestingly, that it seems to be a mechanical problem rather than lack of fuel.
Selective listening seems to be a common issue in threads like this, I'm afraid.
 
The Missing Other UFO Incident

Does the following extract now explain why we seem to have two different accounts of events in the forest that second night and the actual background to why Halt was informed the UFO had returned.

There was in fact an earlier occurrence in the forest.

Address by Colonel Charles I Halt

Quest International Conference
Leeds, 31 July, 1994
There are seemingly only four related testimonies, from Larry Warren, Greg Battram, Adrian Bustinza and brief anecdotes from John Burroughs re later stages on the clearing's periphery.

For the first time, assembling all of this in the greatest detail I have available, in the event it might be helpful, I have avoided using Larry Warren's so much as possible and the key accounts come from Larry Fawcett's transcripts of his telephone interviews with Battram and Bustinza.

Battram:

"We got out there and parked the truck on the side of the road and went walking in toward the clearing".

"Just as we got about 50 yards away, we started to feel the hair on our necks and arms and stuff stand up".

"And it felt really strange. And we could hear a "thrumming" kind of a sound".

"A "thrumming" noise coming out of the forest, from the direction of that object. It had a ground fog all around it".

"We couldn't really see a distinct shape, but there were alternating colors in it and the whole bit. It was really strange. The closer we got the worse the static electricity feeing got and we just said _ _ _ this. And we turned around and took off".

"I would say it was it could have been, the fog itself was like one-hundred feet across".

"I couldn't really see the thing. Inside it seemed there was a denser section to the fog, about thirty to fifty feet maybe across".

"It seemed like that and when we left and when we leftwe met up with Lieutenant Englund, as I remember it; anyway he was the only officer I knew; and some security police came over from Bentwaters".

"We just told them the whole bit and he said O.K., head on back".

"Then we went back into the perimeter of Woodbridge and stuck around there. We could see some activity over there but that was it".


Subsequent Q&As:

Q: Could you see all the light all's they had in here?

A: I could see a couple of them as they were bringing them out.

Q: Were there a lot of personnel going out there?

A: Well, it seemed like it. I saw twenty to thirty people.

Q: How about choppers? Were any of those up?.

A: No, not that I know of, because we were in Woodbridge and we didn't see any of them take off. Later on I think there was a helicopter flight.

Q: Yes, because Bustinza told me that Zickler, Major Zickler had ordered the scramble ordered the scramble of two choppers from Woodbridge.

A: Well, that could be because we did hear them starting their engines and they do that at night sometimes. We could see one of them out there hovering around. Up above the normal parking area. So in all the excitement and stuff like that. We were just chatting our heads off about what we had seen. We weren't really paying too much attention to our surroundings. We went off and parked some place".

Q: Were you picking up chatter on the radio, about this?

A: No. We couldn't get through the closer we got the worse it got.

Q: So really when the thing was in the field you really couldn't get a shape on it, other than lights on the bottom and all kinds of colors were in it?

A: It seemed to be alternating, mostly between oranges, red, blues and whites.

Q: You are definitely sure there was something solid there?

A: Yes, because I don't know if it was more a sight or a feeling, but it was a denser section to that bank fog. Like it just didn't fit.

Q: In other words there was no fog anywhere else, but actually where the thing was?

A: Oh, yes it was right there. Strange.
(End)


Bustinza's account now seems to gel and begins from the light-alls being acquired from RAF Bentwaters (not Woodbridge):

Q: ...and a jeep pulled up and I believe a Lieutenant Englund and yourself was in the jeep... and from there you drove to the motor pool... and Lieutenant Englund told you to fill the light-alls...?

A: So we went ahead and we checked these. We made sure they were full and they were full... And then we took them up back to the field and they wouldn't work. And they were functioning perfect when we tried them out.

Q: From there you went out the gate towards Woodbridge?

A: Right.

Q: ...There was a Major Zickler there?

A: Yes, that was our squadron commander.

Q: And there was John Burroughs there?

A: John Borroughs, correct.. Sgt. Madena, Captain Verano Station Commander, MSgt Ball my Flight Chief...

Q: ... helicopters over above?

A: Yes, a squadron, paramedic squadron was activated.

Q: Paramedics?

A: Paramedics.

Q: Paramedics. Where were they from? Woodbridge?

A: Woodbridge.

NOTE: "paramedic squadron", whether mistaken by Bustinza, or misheard, is surely a reference to the 67th ARRS pararescue squadron, based at RAF Woodbridge.


Q: As we're going into the field now Larry could see lights coming through the field.

A: Right.

Q: And you got to like a barbed wire fence, I think he said, or a
stone fence or something?

A: A barbed wire fence.

Q: And at this point Larry could hear the helicopters talking with the ground radios.

A: Right, they flew by the officers there.

NOTE: Bustinza is apparently at the barbed wire fence and not in the field itself.


Q: Larry says at this point, when you came to the field there was like a large asperin shaped transparent thing in the middle of the field. He describes it as looking like an asperin but you could see through it like misty and stuff?

A: That's the yellow mist I was talking about.

Q: All of a sudden he could hear the helicopter or somebody say here it comes. And they looked up and over the pine trees came a red ball of light. And this red ball of light like went over top of this mist in the middle of this field and all of a sudden it exploded into a lot of colors but there was no sound. Do you remember that?

A: Yes, I remember that. That's the main, the cream of the crop I would say.

To tell the truth, I remember seeing the craft. I remember Col. Halt talking and I remember looking to who he was talking to and I couldn't see nobody.
(End)


Adding Burroughs:

"Bustinza...he was standing by the light alls when one of the objects Halt and the LT who got him from the party pointed out to me in the Sky came at us went over our heads headed straight at the light-alls...the object went through the truck (window)...".

NOTE: Burroughs clarified that he was referring to blue lights which came from the, 'exploding object'.


"I and Bustinza were running towards it and Bustinza fell to the ground. He told me afterwards that he felt something push him down and then would not let him back up. I then felt like I was almost next to the object and all of a sudden I was out in the middle of the field by myself and I didn't know why. I could not account for about 15 min of time".
(End)


Incorporating Halt's recording, we appear to have somewhat comparative accounts re an enigmatic light source rapidly approaching and exploding into colours.

As for the relatively large fog-like observation/object perceived to have been within the clearing earlier and again exhibiting an array of different coloured flashing lights, again the feeling of static electricity and this time a "thrumming" sound, albeit only mentioned by Battram...

Presumably this had all disappeared by the time Halt arrived (had a localised fog dissipated?).

Which brings us to the next stage; Halt's direct involvement and perhaps even more new intrigue...
 
LIGHT BEAMS SEEN EARLIER?

During his lecture at the Quest International (UFO Magazine) conference at Leeds, in July, 1994, Halt, in addition to crucially explaining in greater detail what led up to Lt Bruce Englund advising the 'UFO was back', he also appears to reveal critical data about the, 'beams of light'.

Namely, he had been observing then over the Weapons Storage Area (WSA), for some time before that single beam which came close to him:

(Start)
When suddenly we notice some things in the sky. When we look to the north there are two objects in the sky with an ...[unclear]... they looked elliptical, and they were large the way you see the moon, they were that large. They were moving in tandem together. We watched them for two or three seconds and they turned into a full circle. That really puzzled me. I can understand an elliptical, two objects you know, some distance between them, both having [? unclear].

Something was wrong, they moved very, very fast, angular movements, high speed. The best thing I can equate to is someone doing a grid search at high altitude, that’s what it appeared to be. We were looking around, watching these and somebody, other people said, ‘Look here to the south, there’s another one of these objects.’ They were about ten degrees off the horizon. The one to the south, it was moving around. It was not moving as fast as the one up north, it was moving very slow, something like an aircraft moves through the sky.

Suddenly it started beaming down some type of beams, it was coming down, coming down in the weapons storage area.

There was enough chatter on the radio. The Tower operator, we got a tower on the flightline where we ...[unclear]... monitor what was going on, on the flightline. He could see them, the people in the storage area could see them.

This object came at us at very high speed, probably 3, 4, 500 feet in the air. I can't tell you exactly because, it’s difficult ...[unclear]... It came very fast towards us. That's on the tape. You probably heard that, we got very excited when that happened. It stopped up in the sky. It sent down a beam. The beam came dawn about 10 or 15 feet from me, right on the ground. The interesting thing about it, it wasn’t a torch, when you shine a torch in the dark the light goes out, it radiates out the thing was about 10 inches wide all the way down, steady, it came on like click, it was on, and click it was off. Now we didn't hear a click, but just like that.

We stood there in awe. I didn’t know if it was a weapon, some kind of an exploratory probe, some type of communication. I mean, we had no idea what was going to happen next. I expected more. I thought ‘We are in trouble now.’

The object was completely ...[unclear]... but if you had seen it, and ...[unclear]... around the base.
(End)

Is this claimed perception of Halt's at the time, perhaps supported by a remark he makes at the end of his recording:

"HALT: 04:00 hours. One object still hovering over Woodbridge base... and similar lights and beaming down as earlier
 
Last edited:
The key issue one must resolve in evaluating this claim concerns where Halt was located when he observed these beams and whether it's credible that he could discern them intersecting the ground at the Weapons Storage Area on RAF Woodbridge.
 
The key issue one must resolve in evaluating this claim concerns where Halt was located when he observed these beams and whether it's credible that he could discern them intersecting the ground at the Weapons Storage Area on RAF Woodbridge.
By that stage he and his men had gone past the farmhouse, across a second field and over a stream (which they fell into). I have labelled the second field in the aerial view on this page
http://www.ianridpath.com/ufo/rendlesham5b.html
Their location was somewhere to the east of that field. What they could see of Woodbridge base from there remains unknown, at least to me, but it is clear that he was extemporizing considerably in the Quest talk.
 
By that stage he and his men had gone past the farmhouse, across a second field and over a stream (which they fell into). I have labelled the second field in the aerial view on this page
http://www.ianridpath.com/ufo/rendlesham5b.html
Their location was somewhere to the east of that field. What they could see of Woodbridge base from there remains unknown, at least to me, but it is clear that he was extemporizing considerably in the Quest talk.
Thanks - that's what I thought. The idea that Halt could specify the ground plot of a beam from that distance, with the forest intervening between himself and the alleged WSA point of intersection simply can't be considered reasonable.
 
What makes you think they had taken 12 out there?
This might help.

The following was posted to the, 'UFO Updates Mailing List', on 9 January, 1998:

RAF Woodbridge U.K.
From: TSgt Tony Brisciano 100SUPS/LGSF

I have a story to tell.

27 Dec 1980, I was working the desk at the fuels management branch at Bentwaters. After midnight we went to a one manshop until 0700 hr. Well I was the person on duty at the time and around 0230 I recieved a call from MOCC that there were several emergency vehicles at Woodbridge needing fuel asap.

Back then we had to cover both bases and I would close up the shop and I would respond personally.

Well I drove over to Woodbridge ...and proceded to go to the front gate.

After about 15 minutes I reached my destination which was the military gas pumps and I never saw so many police vehicles and equipment waiting for fuel especially in the early hours of the
morning.

There were about 12 or 13 vehicles mostly pick ups with light all attached and a few police cars. Oh! And one Lt. Col Holt who was in one hell of a hurry. He bitched at me to "snap it up and get these pumps going". He didn't want to hear it that I Iwas doing my best to find the power switches and again rushed me around, well I did get the power on and the vehicles got their fuel but not one of those cops said a word to me that evening.

I drove back to Bentwaters and I did'nt think anymore about it until rumours started to circulate about UFOs. Over the next couple of weeks there was an influx of civilians and civilian type a/c landing at both bases so I am convinced that something did occur, what, I can't say but I will tell you this and that those cops were out doing something unusual in the early hours of the morning".
(End)
 
Last edited:
The following was posted to the, 'UFO Updates Mailing List', on 9 January, 1998:
RAF Woodbridge U.K.
From: TSgt Tony Brisciano 100SUPS/LGSF ...
That's very interesting ... This is the first evidence I've seen for such a high level of activity at Woodbridge on the night of December 27 / 28. The usual accounts never mention this sort of mass mobilization of vehicles having occurred that night. On the other hand, I suppose there's always the chance a routine refueling protocol had been delayed that night (belated Xmas party; holiday laxness) until a number of vehicles required fueling while the fuel management office was manned by one guy on the graveyard shift.

The one thing I'd most like to know is whether the allusions to cops / police referred solely to USAF military police. The scattered mentions of local / civilian police in the area take on a whole new significance if there'd been a concerted ramp-up activity involving them.
 
There are seemingly only four related testimonies, from Larry Warren, Greg Battram, Adrian Bustinza and brief anecdotes from John Burroughs re later stages on the clearing's periphery.

For the first time, assembling all of this in the greatest detail I have available, in the event it might be helpful, I have avoided using Larry Warren's so much as possible and the key accounts come from Larry Fawcett's transcripts of his telephone interviews with Battram and Bustinza.

Battram:

"We got out there and parked the truck on the side of the road and went walking in toward the clearing".

"Just as we got about 50 yards away, we started to feel the hair on our necks and arms and stuff stand up".

"And it felt really strange. And we could hear a "thrumming" kind of a sound".

"A "thrumming" noise coming out of the forest, from the direction of that object. It had a ground fog all around it".

"We couldn't really see a distinct shape, but there were alternating colors in it and the whole bit. It was really strange. The closer we got the worse the static electricity feeing got and we just said _ _ _ this. And we turned around and took off".

"I would say it was it could have been, the fog itself was like one-hundred feet across".

"I couldn't really see the thing. Inside it seemed there was a denser section to the fog, about thirty to fifty feet maybe across".

"It seemed like that and when we left and when we leftwe met up with Lieutenant Englund, as I remember it; anyway he was the only officer I knew; and some security police came over from Bentwaters".

"We just told them the whole bit and he said O.K., head on back".

"Then we went back into the perimeter of Woodbridge and stuck around there. We could see some activity over there but that was it".


Subsequent Q&As:

Q: Could you see all the light all's they had in here?

A: I could see a couple of them as they were bringing them out.

Q: Were there a lot of personnel going out there?

A: Well, it seemed like it. I saw twenty to thirty people.

Q: How about choppers? Were any of those up?.

A: No, not that I know of, because we were in Woodbridge and we didn't see any of them take off. Later on I think there was a helicopter flight.

Q: Yes, because Bustinza told me that Zickler, Major Zickler had ordered the scramble ordered the scramble of two choppers from Woodbridge.

A: Well, that could be because we did hear them starting their engines and they do that at night sometimes. We could see one of them out there hovering around. Up above the normal parking area. So in all the excitement and stuff like that. We were just chatting our heads off about what we had seen. We weren't really paying too much attention to our surroundings. We went off and parked some place".

Q: Were you picking up chatter on the radio, about this?

A: No. We couldn't get through the closer we got the worse it got.

Q: So really when the thing was in the field you really couldn't get a shape on it, other than lights on the bottom and all kinds of colors were in it?

A: It seemed to be alternating, mostly between oranges, red, blues and whites.

Q: You are definitely sure there was something solid there?

A: Yes, because I don't know if it was more a sight or a feeling, but it was a denser section to that bank fog. Like it just didn't fit.

Q: In other words there was no fog anywhere else, but actually where the thing was?

A: Oh, yes it was right there. Strange.
(End)


Bustinza's account now seems to gel and begins from the light-alls being acquired from RAF Bentwaters (not Woodbridge):

Q: ...and a jeep pulled up and I believe a Lieutenant Englund and yourself was in the jeep... and from there you drove to the motor pool... and Lieutenant Englund told you to fill the light-alls...?

A: So we went ahead and we checked these. We made sure they were full and they were full... And then we took them up back to the field and they wouldn't work. And they were functioning perfect when we tried them out.

Q: From there you went out the gate towards Woodbridge?

A: Right.

Q: ...There was a Major Zickler there?

A: Yes, that was our squadron commander.

Q: And there was John Burroughs there?

A: John Borroughs, correct.. Sgt. Madena, Captain Verano Station Commander, MSgt Ball my Flight Chief...

Q: ... helicopters over above?

A: Yes, a squadron, paramedic squadron was activated.

Q: Paramedics?

A: Paramedics.

Q: Paramedics. Where were they from? Woodbridge?

A: Woodbridge.

NOTE: "paramedic squadron", whether mistaken by Bustinza, or misheard, is surely a reference to the 67th ARRS pararescue squadron, based at RAF Woodbridge.


Q: As we're going into the field now Larry could see lights coming through the field.

A: Right.

Q: And you got to like a barbed wire fence, I think he said, or a
stone fence or something?

A: A barbed wire fence.

Q: And at this point Larry could hear the helicopters talking with the ground radios.

A: Right, they flew by the officers there.

NOTE: Bustinza is apparently at the barbed wire fence and not in the field itself.


Q: Larry says at this point, when you came to the field there was like a large asperin shaped transparent thing in the middle of the field. He describes it as looking like an asperin but you could see through it like misty and stuff?

A: That's the yellow mist I was talking about.

Q: All of a sudden he could hear the helicopter or somebody say here it comes. And they looked up and over the pine trees came a red ball of light. And this red ball of light like went over top of this mist in the middle of this field and all of a sudden it exploded into a lot of colors but there was no sound. Do you remember that?

A: Yes, I remember that. That's the main, the cream of the crop I would say.

To tell the truth, I remember seeing the craft. I remember Col. Halt talking and I remember looking to who he was talking to and I couldn't see nobody.
(End)


Adding Burroughs:

"Bustinza...he was standing by the light alls when one of the objects Halt and the LT who got him from the party pointed out to me in the Sky came at us went over our heads headed straight at the light-alls...the object went through the truck (window)...".

NOTE: Burroughs clarified that he was referring to blue lights which came from the, 'exploding object'.


"I and Bustinza were running towards it and Bustinza fell to the ground. He told me afterwards that he felt something push him down and then would not let him back up. I then felt like I was almost next to the object and all of a sudden I was out in the middle of the field by myself and I didn't know why. I could not account for about 15 min of time".
(End)


Incorporating Halt's recording, we appear to have somewhat comparative accounts re an enigmatic light source rapidly approaching and exploding into colours.

As for the relatively large fog-like observation/object perceived to have been within the clearing earlier and again exhibiting an array of different coloured flashing lights, again the feeling of static electricity and this time a "thrumming" sound, albeit only mentioned by Battram...

Presumably this had all disappeared by the time Halt arrived (had a localised fog dissipated?).

Which brings us to the next stage; Halt's direct involvement and perhaps even more new intrigue...
It does suggest some downed object, associated with high voltage fields, and with a kind of artificial mist around it. I'm still leaning towards the black project accident. Besides the named personnel there were 20-30 others out there -- presumably knowing more about what the object was and what they had to do to recover it and clean up. If these witnesses were having memory lapses about this incident that also suggests narcohypnotic intervention. It also raises questions about the date, because the civilian witnesses saw something late Christmas Day/Early Boxing Day. If it was "in the middle of a field," or even a large clearing, that rules out a connection with the much smaller clearing that became the focus of subsequent events. Anyway, if these witnesses were sent back to base, and the many others out there, including Zickler, stayed behind, the latter were presumably busy with something, and I don't think it was making contact with ETs.
 
After about 15 minutes I reached my destination which was the military gas pumps and I never saw so many police vehicles and equipment waiting for fuel especially in the early hours of the morning.
There were about 12 or 13 vehicles mostly pick ups with light all attached and a few police cars. Oh! And one Lt. Col Holt who was in one hell of a hurry. He bitched at me to "snap it up and get these pumps going".
Except of course Halt wasn't at the fuel pumps in Woodbridge on the night of the UFO, he was out in the forest. Doesn't sound like the same incident, if it happened at all.
 
Last edited:
Except of course Halt wasn't at the fuel pumps in Woodbridge on the night of the UFO, he was out in the forest. Doesn't sound like the same incident, if it happened at all.
No, I'm pretty sure this must have been prior to the Halt tape episode.
 
Back
Top