26th December 1980: Shortly after midnight an unidentified object was picked up on radar over RAF Bentwaters. It appeared to go down in the nearby Rendlesham Forest. 3 enlisted men including Sergeant Jim Penniston and Airman Jim Burrows entered the forest expecting to find an aircraft. As Penniston approached the object he saw strange heiroglypic inscriptions on its side. Reaching out to touch it, his mind was suddenly bombarded with images of numbers. The following day Penniston was compelled to write the strange series of numbers in his notebook. Ancient Aliens s5e2: Aliens & Cover-Ups, History 2012
Both men claimed they were pressured to leave out certain details of the event, especially those suggesting the craft might have been extraterrestrial. ibid.
Over the next two evenings, more mysterious sightings were reported by other servicemen. ibid.
The Rendlesham Forest Incident: 200 miles east of Rudloe Manor lie 6 square miles of woodlands that has become notorious as the site of Great Britain’s most incredible UFO encounter. On December 26th 1980, near an air force base leased to the United States Air Force by the RAF, strange lights are reported on the horizon in what appears to be a possible downed aircraft. Two US servicement are dispatched to the site. According to accounts, radios failed as they approached the targeted area, and the air itself felt electrically charged as they closed in. Ancient Aliens s12e3: The Mystery of Rudloe Manor, History 2017
One of the most famous cases ever took place in England in 1980 near the US military bases of Bentwaters and Woodbridge ... The first group of military that inspected the forest found itself face to face with the strange brilliant object silently floating among the trees a few inches from the ground. PSTV.tv – UFOs & The Military Elite
At the centre of the triangle Halt’s men recorded radioactivity levels far higher than normal ... The trees around the landing site showed freshly broken branches. ibid.
During the monitoring of a night-flying exercise a strange object was picked up. The radar officers were mystified. Back on Woodbridge Base near the east gate Airman John Burroughs was on security patrol with a colleague ... Burroughs and his colleague raced back to the gatehouse where they contacted the security controller ... The Sergeant contacted Jim Penniston ... The men went through the forest towards the lights. Then they saw it ... The Americans watched for about twenty minutes. On their return to the airbase the man were called in by the officer in charge. Strange But True? ITV 1993
When Burroughs and Penniston approached the site, they found in a small clearing not a crashed aircraft but a landed UFO. Nick Pope, interview Alien Files Unsealed
They went out into the forest and saw not a crashed aircraft but a metallic triangular-shaped craft through the trees. The guard patrol actually got quite close to the object. Nick Pope
This really was the Holy Grail. This was certainly Britain’s most famous UFO case. Nick Pope
What made this case particularly unusual is that this was not vague lights in the sky – this was a landed metallic craft that some of the witnesses claimed they got so close to they could actually touch the side of it. One witness saw strange symbols on the hull which he likened to Egyptian hieroglyphs; he made a sketch of this in his police notebook, and took some photos though he was subsequently told they didn’t come out. The Ministry of Defence looked at this and the Defence Intelligence staff assessed radiation readings that had been taken at the landing site as being ‘significantly higher than background’. Nick Pope
Rendlesham, England, 26th December 1980: On a high-security US Air Base bizarre events are unfolding. An unknown object caught on radar, mysterious lights in the forest, and the strange experience of two Air Force security guards. The Rendlesham Forest incident is one of the most mysterious of all UFO tales. UFOs: The Untold Stories s1e1, National Geographic 2016
Just two nights later the mysterious lights were back. ibid.
‘We just stood there in awe.’ ibid. Halt
Halt wrote an official report of the night. ibid.
There were strange lights out in the forest. To me it almost looked like Christmas lights at first. A Christmas display. At that point we looked at each other and we decided we had better take a closer look. John Burroughs, USAF Airman retired, witness to first visitation, televised interview
The air was filled with electricity that you feel on your skin as we approached the object. It was about the size of a tank. It was triangular in shape; underneath the craft was a high intensity white light emanating out of it, and that was bordered by red and blue lights alternating. Jim Penniston, USAF Technical Sergeant, witness to first visitation, televised interview
The craft was triangular in shape and measured probably nine feet wide by about eight feet high. I couldn’t tell the front or back to it ... It was all completely smooth on the outside of the craft. Jim Penniston, interview UFO Files: Britain’s Roswell
You could feel it on your clothes, your face, your hair ... The craft was finger in shape and measured probably nine feet wide by about eight feet high. I couldn’t tell the front or back to it; there was no engines to one side or no cockpit, nothing like that. It was all completely smooth on the outside of the craft ... The fabric of the craft was smooth like glass. It was warm to the touch but not hot. There was like lights on it somehow in the fabric of the craft ... They were like markings, not numbers, not language; there was several maybe six symbols measuring three feet wide ... The speed of the craft leaving the area ... was like in the blink of an eye. Jim Penniston, USAF Technical Sergeant, witness to first visitation, televised interview
‘That night over 80 Air Force personnel all trained observers assigned to the 81st Security Police Squadron witnessed the take-off.’ Jim Penniston, re Rendlesham Forest, cited I Know What I Saw, evidence to National Press Club
‘It looked like black glass ... It was warm. It had some kind of markings on it.’ Conspiracy: Alien Cover Up s1e6, Jim Penniston interview
Only reported by Penniston years after the event. ibid.
Next morning, one of the first to hear this bizarre tale was the Air Base’s Deputy Commander, Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Halt ... Unconvinced, Colonel Halt led a group of airmen into the forest to lay the story to rest. He brought with him a pocket tape recorder. Conspiracies – Extraterrestrials
What happened next according to a secret Air Force memo obtained under the Freedom of Information Act is that a triangular-shaped object was found on the forest floor. It had a red light on top and a bank of blue lights underneath ... As the patrolman approached the object it manoeuvred through the trees and disappeared. UFO Cover-Up: Out of the Blue, citing Lt-Col Charles Halt’s memo
And as we watched it appeared like an eye; it was oval and it blinked, and it had a black centre. Something like a burning molten metal was dripping off the object. We watched it for probably a minute, maybe two minutes. Suddenly the object very silently exploded and broke into small white objects and it immediately disappeared. Lt-Col Charles Halt, interview The British UFO Files
We went out into the forest with the security police. The whole time I was using my small cassette recorder for recording – and I turned it off and on because I only had twenty – twenty-five minutes’ worth of tape on it. Lt-Col Charles Halt
We’re about 150 or 200 yards from the site. Everything else is just deadly calm. There is no doubt about it. There’s some type of strange flashing red light ahead. I saw a yellow tinge in it too. Weird. It appears to be making a little bit this way. It’s brighter than it has been. It’s coming this way. It is definitely coming this way. Pieces of it are shooting off. There is no doubt about it. This is weird ... Now we’re observing what appears to be beam coming down to the ground. This is unreal ... There’s one object still hovering over Woodbridge Base at about five to ten degrees off the horizon. Still moving erratic and similar lights beaming down, as earlier. [recorder runs out of tape] Lt-Col Charles Halt, recording made while approaching UFO during second visitation
I believe the objects that I saw at close quarter were extraterrestrial in origin and that the security services of both the United Kingdom and the United States have attempted – both then and now – to subvert the significance of what occurred at Rendlesham Forest and RAF Bentwaters by the use of well-practised methods of disinformation. Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Halt, affidavit
Drawing within a few feet of the craft Warren says he witnessed an amazing site. There were officers and airmen facing the object and three small glowing entities standing in the light ... Warren then watched as a senior officer began communicating with the Beings. Warren was then sent from the clearing and given no explanation for what he’d seen ... But Larry Warren is the only airmen claiming he saw alien life-forms. Another problem with Warren’s account of events is that nobody can remember him in the forest that night. Warren remains steadfast over his conviction. Our World is Changing
It happened and it was real and someone else visited Rendlesham Forest in 1980. Larry Warren, USAF Airman retired, witness to second visitation
In the field was this object on the ground like a science fiction movie but there was something alive associated with it. It didn’t come out of any doors; there were no windows; there was this thing and it was changing all the time ... There was something separate from it like these three what you would perceive as kids ... The senior people there seemed to be following like a protocol. It seemed to be there was a procedure. Larry Warren
1980 Bentwaters: These objects were on the ground on two different nights; potentially there was another life-form seen. Larry Warren, US Air Force, evidence to The Disclosure Project 2001