The Rendlesham Forest UFO

One of Great Britain's most significant military-UFO incidents occurred in December 1980, in Rendlesham Forest, Suffolk, England.

On December 27th, patrolmen at two airbases saw unusual lights and strange activity near the NATO facility. John Burroughs and Budd Parker headed into Rendlesham Forest thinking a military aircraft might be in trouble. What they discovered was an object that was airborne, hovering over the ground that then landed a distance away in the forest. They immediately phoned the base and sergeant Jim Penniston arrived within minutes with other patrolmen. They too saw the strange looking craft and its flashing lights.

John Burroughs, who later became sergeant, stated, "I do not know whether this was some kind of machine under intelligent control or a fantastic natural phenomenon - some rare kind of energy. What I do know is that it was nothing mundane. There are no words that can adequately describe the wonder of what we saw."

A short time later, the men involved were debriefed by U.S and British officers. They were ordered to sign documents that contradicted their accounts. They were also told not to speak of what they saw to anyone and if they did that "Bullets are cheap."

The next day evidence of the UFO was found in the forest. Tree tops were broken and three holes were discovered in a triangular formation in the ground. Plaster casts were taken by one of the men of the depressions created by the object. Also, levels of radiation were found by a military plane flying over head coming from the site where the craft was seen to land.

Later that night, the UFO returned. Lieutenant Charles Holt lead a team of men into the forest. With them they took a Geiger counter to measure radiation and a Dictaphone. What they saw was incredible. There were lights flashing all throughout the woods and suddenly the craft appeared. The men chased it for about an hour through the forest until they came to a clearing. The object stopped and appeared to be shedding layers. Then, suddenly it exploded into many tiny white pieces that inexplicably disappeared.

Charles Holt wrote a memo of his account and sent it to the Ministry of Defense. He never got a reply. The MoD kept quite about the incident and denied it when publicly questioned. UFO believers did not buy the MoD's downplay into the matter and it fueled suspicions about a cover up.

Later, supporting documents regarding the incident were finally released and they do show that something happened in Rendlesham Forest. Towns people came forward with their eye-witness accounts of what they saw and it is now known that the radar at Heathrow Airport picked up the UFO on its screens.

There is so much information about this case online. Some sites have different details as to the events that unfolded over those December nights. For more on this story, be sure to check out the links I have provided below.

The Bentwaters Rendlesham Forest Incident

Rendlesham Revelations

Also check out the exposé done by SCIFI with host Bryant Gumbel.