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Either it's true, or.... what to conclude otherwise?
It may well be true, but it can still be nonsense.

Halt and certain other people in his party saw 'beams' descending towards the bunkers, even though the bunkers were out of sight from their vantage point so they could not have seen them actually entering the buildings themselves. I've suggested some possible explanations for these beams, and others have made suggestions as well; suffice it to say that the actual nature of the beams is in some considerable doubt.

On the other hand, I have no reason to doubt that Halt ordered an examination of the bunkers and their contents, and this examination may have uncovered some form of damage or other. However it is not necessarily true that this damage was associated with the beams, since correlation does not imply causation, and no-one near the bunkers saw these incursions taking place. The damage found (which is not described in any detail) could have been the result of disarray or poor maintenance. This was Christmas time, after all.

Even if we allow that the beams were the product of high technology, they could have been some kind of scanning device or spotlight that caused no damage. Halt suggests obliquely that the most important secret systems were not affected in any way, so these effector beams seem to have be singularly ineffective at whatever task they were intended to perform.
 
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I always thought that if Halt was actually seeing 'beams' of light coming down into the WSA, as opposed to Sirius twinkling low in the sky, he might have seemed a little more worked up than he does on the tape.
 
My tentative hypothesis (explained earlier in the thread) is that the 'beams' were an artefact of the Starscope, which can produce a flare effect, something like a ragged beam. This is quite a transient effect, so it might not have appeared very impressive at the time. Later recollections of the events may have inflated the significance of this beam-like effect.

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Is there a link to a good summary of the case? One that simply names the witnesses, and what basically was reported?
And after all these years what are the current theories that are being touted other than the lighthouse one?
 
Is there a link to a good summary of the case? One that simply names the witnesses, and what basically was reported?
And after all these years what are the current theories that are being touted other than the lighthouse one?
Obviously the "ET" theory is still around. My own view is that the origin of the case lies in the crash landing of an experimental triangular craft that had been in the Channel to observe or intercept the decay of a Soviet satellite. It was seen by one witness discharging some material onto the road then descended into the forest. All of the subsequent claims, e.g. the alleged time travelling craft, the stories about senior personnal meeting alien pilots, the bizarre light display seen by Col Halt and his men, were based upon deception or mind control.

I managed after some time to track down the daughter of alleged witness, David Boast, who reportedly asked how such a large craft could have landed in such a small area. She replied that neither her father nor herself had seen anything. I emailed back thanking her and asking if she would like to be put in touch with the other side of her family (Caroline Boast, who is a neighbour of mine). She didn't reply. I asked again, still no response. I searched and found no records of her father dying -- he must still be alive. Did he perhaps tell her not to engage with me any more? I still suspect he saw something and had a good idea what was going on.

By chance I have just made contact with someone else with fresh information about the affair, which he believes was a test of an exotic new technology. I am leaving him a link to this discussion and hope that what he has to say will present yet another angle on this case.
 
Seems odd that Jim Penniston, one of the men involved, placed his hand on this ufo and received some sort of binary code which he wrote in a book at the time.
And this code has been translated to be some sort of message from the year 8100.
Doubtful that he could just make this all up.
 
It is on the Craig Charles UFO Conspiracy programme. I saved it and am currently watching it post dinner.
 
Is there a link to a good summary of the case? One that simply names the witnesses, and what basically was reported?
And after all these years what are the current theories that are being touted other than the lighthouse one?

A brief and I hope fairly neutral summary of the case is as follows:

26 Dec, about 0300, a suspected aircraft accident is reported from the East Gate, and a group of three security police consisting of S/Sgt Jim Penniston, A1C John Burroughs and Amn Ed Cabansag end up following some 'lights' through the forest, with their radio comms monitored by two other men, Lt Buran and M/Sgt Chandler. Penniston, Burroughs and Cabansag gave written statements about what they saw. At least one of the three much later claimed to have seen a structured 'craft' though their statements given at the time suggest that it's more likely they misidentified various ordinary lights - Penniston has since given the most 'exotic' descriptions while Cabansag was unimpressed from the start.

Some time on the evening of 27 December another security patrol, including Amn Greg Battram, see further lights in the forest at a spot close to that where they were seen on 26th. Battram relays the information to Lt Bruce Englund, who tells Col Charles Halt that the UFO is "back"

Halt then goes out into the forest with several colleagues, a tape recorder and other equipment and in the early hours of 28 December records the now famous "Halt Tape" as he chases a flashing light through the trees and later sees starlike objects sending down 'beams' of light. As you probably know sceptics have suggested that he chased the lighthouse at Orfordness, which was visible within the forest at that point, and misidentified bright stars.

Various other witnesses have cropped up over the years - notably two other former security policemen, Chris Armold and Larry Warren. Armold went back into the forest with Burroughs on the first night and has gone on record stating that the lights that were visible were mundane. Warren, on the other hand, is the source of many of the more extreme claims about what happened over the two days.

Among other theories I've seen are a test of top-secret technology, a spy satellite film drop, the SAS (or similar) messing with the Americans, and a prank by the Americans themselves. Personally I think the combination of a bright meteor on 26th plus the lighthouse explains most of it fairly economically.
 
Seems odd that Jim Penniston, one of the men involved, placed his hand on this ufo and received some sort of binary code which he wrote in a book at the time.
According to his own account written at the time, he got no closer than 30 metres. If he touched it he must have very long arms.

And this code has been translated to be some sort of message from the year 8100.
Doubtful that he could just make this all up.
Far more doubtful that he didn't. The notebooks did not appear till decades later.
 
Penniston underwent hypnotic 'regression' in 1994. I think most are agreed that hypnosis can allow present desires, concerns, or whatever, to modify one's recall of past events so I would say that anything he has written since then has to be taken with a pinch of salt. Even his description at the time was the most elaborate, considering that Burroughs and Cabansag saw essentially the same thing.

Halt also says that he saw Penniston's notebook in 2003 and it contained no binary code messages at that point.
 
The behaviour of Penniston and Halt seems to exhibit a pattern that crops up repeatedly with a certain type of UFO witness in that, as their original story is challenged by the appearance of evidence suggesting they were mistaken, their recollection of the event becomes steadily more 'exotic'. They are not fantasists but social pressure and the need to defend their original conviction perhaps leads them to change their story.

Halt's tape, Penniston's original statement and the statements of Buran and Chandler, who were monitoring the radio traffic on the early morning of 26th, show that that both men were at the time genuinely convinced they were seeing something unusual. However they do not support what has later been claimed by the same witnesses.
 
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Penniston underwent hypnotic 'regression' in 1994. I think most are agreed that hypnosis can allow present desires, concerns, or whatever, to modify one's recall of past events so I would say that anything he has written since then has to be taken with a pinch of salt. Even his description at the time was the most elaborate, considering that Burroughs and Cabansag saw essentially the same thing.

Halt also says that he saw Penniston's notebook in 2003 and it contained no binary code messages at that point.
There was just a show on tv the other nite, showing Penniston's notebook and how it was being translated.
And we have seen all the men on various shows over the years, testifying as to what they saw and experienced. Their statements should not be simply dismissed as nothing.
JMO
 
There was just a show on tv the other nite, showing Penniston's notebook and how it was being translated.
And we have seen all the men on various shows over the years, testifying as to what they saw and experienced. Their statements should not be simply dismissed as nothing.
JMO
I’m not sure how many of us are willing to go over everything from the beginning. Have you read from the start of the thread? There’s lots of information there discussed at length.
 
I'm just saying in general that something was experienced by these men, I've seen all the shows and that's enough for me.
 
The behaviour of Penniston and Halt seems to exhibit a pattern that crops up repeatedly with a certain type of UFO witness in that, as their original story is challenged by the appearance of evidence suggesting they were mistaken, their recollection of the event becomes steadily more 'exotic'. They are not fantasists but social pressure and the need to defend their original conviction perhaps leads them to change their story.

Halt's tape, Penniston's original statement and the statements of Buran and Chandler, who were monitoring the radio traffic on the early morning of 26th, show that that both men were at the time genuinely convinced they were seeing something unusual. However they do not support what has later been claimed by the same witnesses.
I recommend Dr David Clarke’s analysis on the Mysteries and Monsters podcast episode #80 available online. He dispels much of the ‘padding’ that has grown around this case
 
I think if you ignore the 'cruft' and go back to the 1980 evidence you get three central UFO sightings which are very much of the classic 'lights in the sky' (or in this case, lights on the ground) type.

1. Penniston, Burroughs and Cabansag's near Capel Green on 26th - this essentially consisted of a 'glow' beyond the trees with a central yellow or reddish flashing light and blue light beneath it. Penniston perceived the lights at the time as attached to a solid, moving object, Burroughs' statement showed the object as more implied, while Cabansag explicitly said that the flashing light turned out to be a "beacon" (probably the lighthouse) and the 'glow' to possibly be a 'lit up farmhouse'. They then briefly saw a blue light on the way back

2. Battram's on the night of 27th, described as odd coloured lights surrounded by a mist - this event has received less analysis than the others, but there is a reasonable chance this was simply the same environmental lights seen by the others on 26th but under misty conditions

3. Halt's in the early hours of 28th, essentially a flashing light which flashed in the same time sequence as the lighthouse, followed by sightings of very starlike objects

We then have the 'landing marks' found by Halt in daylight, which the local plod thought were animals digging.

I think when broken down on this basis the case isn't even particularly impressive - just distant lights seen by men who were in an expectant mood / spooked (other than Cabansag and Armold anyway).
 
I recommend Ian Ridpath’s reporting of the incident. He was Johnny on the Spot reporting on the event and has an excellent detailed site here..

http://www.ianridpath.com/ufo/rendlesham.html

He’s been helpfully contributing to this thread, providing information, sorting through confusion and unlike the TV shows you have probably seen, his reports are not ‘for entertainment purposes‘ only.
 
And all of Penniston's 'communications' in his notebook emerged long after the event. Perhaps Penniston 'remembered' them and wrote them down in his book decades later - but there is no reliable evidence to associate these messages with the events of Christmas 1980.
 
Can anyone think of any aspect of the human condition other than the paranormal where primary source evidence is often so casually and glibly waved away and discounted?
In just about everybody‘s experience of life where we’re presented with something we don’t want to hear.
 
Can anyone think of any aspect of the human condition other than the paranormal where primary source evidence is often so casually and glibly waved away and discounted?
Add cryptozoology to that. How quickly cryptids are claimed by mainstream zoology and the awkward denial of their existence swept under the carpet:

https://blogs.iu.edu/sciu/2020/12/12/seven-cryptids-species/

“4. Gorilla — I bet you didn’t expect to see gorillas on this list! In fact, most European explorers thought that gorillas were “monster-like.” The first attributed sighting of a gorilla by a non-African was made in the 5th century BC by Greek explorer Hanno. Most scientists today believe Hanno was describing either chimpanzees or baboons from his account. However, his interpreters called the creatures that he saw “gorillae” (interesting, right?).

Another explorer, Andrew Battel, recounted seeing human-like “monsters” visit his campfire every morning after he left for the day. Of course, he had to mention they didn’t know how to put more wood on the fire to keep it going. Yet, gorillas remained cryptids until 1847, when Thomas Savage found gorilla bones in Libera. He, alongside Harvard anatomist Jeffries Wyman, wrote a formal description of the new species, calling it Gorilla gorilla. A decade later, anthropologist Paul du Chaillu hunted live gorillas in order to obtain specimens to be analyzed. One gorilla species, the mountain gorilla (Gorilla beringei), stayed a cryptid until 1902, when German captain Robert von Berigne first identified one.”
 
Can anyone think of any aspect of the human condition other than the paranormal where primary source evidence is often so casually and glibly waved away and discounted?
To be fair we have examined the evidence in some detail on this long thread, and Penniston's 'binary notebooks' do not constitute anything but evidence of his own state of mind decades later.
 
One piece of information I can't find at the moment is whether Penniston or Burroughs accompanied Halt on the second night - when they made the recording. If they didn't, I wonder how Halt knew where to go; if they did, I wonder why Halt doesn't ever seem to talk to them on the tape. Chris Armold (who was with Burroughs on the first night) does seem to have accompanied Halt, but he didn't seem to have seen much of interest on either night.

Just to answer this question asked in 2016(!) - the continuity in personnel between the 26th Dec incident and Halt's group on 27th / 28th was provided by M/Sgt Chandler, who was supervising Burroughs, Penniston and Cabansag during the earlier incident and was in touch with them by radio.

Halt also had Lt Englund with him - while not a 'witness', Englund was the person to whom Battram and the second patrol reported the incident on the evening of 27th, when lights were seen from the end of the runway in a similar area to those seen on 26th. So Halt should have had a clear idea where the lights had been seen both on 26th and 27th.

The others in Halt's group were M/Sgt Ball and Sgt Nevilles, who was the base 'disaster preparedness' person, along with one or two others IIRC.
 
I have no strong opinions regarding what the UFO at Rendlesham was, but I would like to set straight one piece of the record that came to me in the course of completely different research (into time slips). By coincidence, an elderly lady named Jean Boast that I used to meet during dog-walking mentioned in passing that she had lived at Rougham, the location where a lot of time slips and other odd phenomena occur. Her two daughters had experienced something strange there: Caroline had just passed her driving test, in the mid 1980s, and took her younger sister Amanda out for her first official drive. It was evening and as they drove along Blackthorpe, to the north of the village, a man in Victorian clothing and with a dog, stepped out in front of them. They narrowly missed him but a hundred yards farther along, the same man and dog stepped out a second time. (A lot of things happen on that road, and my wife had a couple of similar experiences at the same location.) I was interested in the story and in due course met Caroline, who confirmed the story. She and her mother then reminisced about other weird events that their family had been involved in. Caroline's great uncle, David Boast, was the gamekeeper at Rendlesham Forest at the time of the alleged incident. He admitted to his family that he had seen the UFO descending into the forest, but that "the military" [I assume the UK military?] had ordered him not to say anything about it. By all accounts, they had seriously frightened him in the process.

I know that there was speculation about what Boast knew or didn't know at the time, and I hope this clears it up. Needless to say, he wouldn't have been deceived by lighthouses or any other activity. He knew the area intimately, as his father had been the gamekeeper there before him, and he probably spent more time outdoors there than anybody else. He saw something landing (not "crashing").

Incidentally, his father George Boast had in the 1930s seen a strange vortex travelling through the trees, snapping off tree branches as it went. Similar things have been seen at Rougham.

Sadly Jean died a year ago but Caroline still lives in Bury St Edmunds just two minute's walk from me, so if anyone has any questions that I could pass on to her, I will do so -- although I don't think she knows anything much beyond what she and her mum told me.
i was working with David Boast in 2000 in a field near his home near Woodbridge base backgate . Suddenly from over the treeline came a loud KERRRANG metallic noise and soon after a wupwup wup this was then obviously a helicopter taking off.The base at Woodbridge had been closed since 93 and was generally silent i spose the loud metallic noise was running up engine/engaging gears??? a godawful noise . He turned to me and said "for a minute i thought theyd come back,i was there on the night of the ufo did you know that? " he then turned away and nothing more was said about it. I wouldnt say i got to know him very well met him a dozen times or so that year and never since seen him but he seemed an ordinary joe -told me a few tales about local pheasant shoots,i stumbled onto 3 or 4 spaniels that he kept in a type of hidden lair/coop in the forest few hundred yds from his home these werent pet dogs they were working dogs,silently looked at me, looked ok
 
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Seems odd that Jim Penniston, one of the men involved, placed his hand on this ufo and received some sort of binary code which he wrote in a book at the time.
And this code has been translated to be some sort of message from the year 8100.
Doubtful that he could just make this all up.
I know this is a few months late, but the message was in plain English and was just written in the binary representation of 8 bit ASCII (or single byte UTF-8)
Anyone who has had reason to work with character sets in computers / data transmission / storage would immediately see what it was.
8 bit ASCII is used less nowadays and it’s curious why it would still be in use in the year 8000. In a fairly short time we went from 7 bit to 8 bit to double byte character sets and beyond.
 
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i was working with David Boast in 2000 in a field near his home near Woodbridge base backgate . Suddenly from over the treeline came a loud KERRRANG metallic noise and soon after a wupwup wup this was then obviously a helicopter taking off.The base at Woodbridge had been closed since 93 and was generally silent i spose the loud metallic noise was running up engine/engaging gears??? a godawful noise . He turned to me and said "for a minute i thought theyd come back,i was there on the night of the ufo did you know that? " he then turned away and nothing more was said about it. I wouldnt say i got to know him very well met him a dozen times or so that year and never since seen him but he seemed an ordinary joe -told me a few tales about local pheasant shoots,i stumbled onto 3 or 4 spaniels that he kept in a type of hidden lair/coop in the forest few hundred yds from his home these werent pet dogs they were working dogs,silently looked at me, looked ok
Very interesting. He was still being very cagey. I think he still is, judging by my contact with his daughter.
 
if ever you see him ask him about the time he was stung on the ears by a swarm of forest hornets ,hed wonder how to god you knew that and just might open up . About the same time i knew a London bigwig who had a 2nd home out there ,employed David in some capacity and HE told me that David did know something juicy re the ufo - but that unless you went about asking him the right way generally would clam up and say nothing at all.
 
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