UFOs - Leslie Kean [90]
Given the MoD’s “no defense significance” conclusion on UFOs, it seems fitting to conclude this section with quotes from MoD documents which contradict the usual stance. In a briefing that I prepared for the division head on April 16, 1993, after the Cosford investigation, I wrote: “It seems that an unidentified object of unknown origin was operating in the UK Air Defence Region without being detected on radar; this would appear to be of considerable defense significance, and I recommend that we investigate further, within MoD or with the U.S. authorities.”
My division head was normally skeptical about the UFO phenomenon, but on this occasion he agreed with my conclusion. His April 22, 1993, brief to the Assistant Chief of the Air Staff (one of the UK’s most senior RAF officers) stated: “In summary, there would seem to be some evidence on this occasion that an unidentified object (or objects) of unknown origin was operating over the UK.”
This is about as close as the MoD will ever get to saying that there’s more to UFOs than misidentifications or hoaxes.
The Rendlesham Forest Incident:
A Cold Case Review
Britian’s most spectacular UFO incident occurred late on Christmas night 1980 and in the early hours of Boxing Day, when strange lights were seen in Rendlesham Forest, near Ipswich. The many witnesses were mainly United States Air Force personnel based at the joint U.S. Air Force/NATO twin bases RAF Bentwaters and RAF Woodbridge in Suffolk. Even though the events took place on British soil, these bases were U.S. Air Force facilities at that time. Rendlesham Forest lies between the twin bases, and as the Cold War was still decidedly frosty, a UFO sighting at two of the nation’s most sensitive military sites was most decidedly of interest.
At the UFO project, I had2 access to the large MoD file on this incident, which at that time had not been released to the public. Even the most basic information on this case was extraordinary, and I decided to launch what police would call a cold case review of the incident. This was essentially an analysis of the MoD file on the case, assessing what we knew and—more important—seeing what the investigators had missed.
The series of events began in the early hours of December 26, when duty personnel reported seeing lights so bright that they feared an aircraft had crashed. They sought and obtained permission to go off-base and investigate. They didn’t find a crashed aircraft—they found a UFO.
The three-man patrol from the 81st Security Police Squadron—Jim Penniston, John Burroughs, and Ed Cabansag—saw a small metallic craft moving through the trees. At one point it appeared to land in a small clearing. They approached cautiously and Penniston got close enough to see strange markings on the side of the craft, which he likened to Egyptian hieroglyphs. He made some rapid sketches in his police notebook.3
Later on, because of the complicated legal and jurisdictional position of United States Air Force bases in the UK, police from Suffolk constabulary were called out to the site where the object had apparently landed. They conducted a brief but inconclusive examination and then left. But three indentations were visible in the clearing, and when mapped they formed the shape of an equilateral triangle. A Geiger counter was used to check the site and the readings peaked markedly in the depressions where the object—possibly on legs of some sort—had briefly come to Earth.
News of the UFO encounter spread quickly around the bases and came to the attention of the deputy base commander, Lieutenant Colonel Charles Halt. He was skeptical, but had the witnesses write up official reports, including sketches of what they had seen. Two nights later Halt was at a social function when a young airman burst in and ran up to