Rendlesham Forest: What the Halt Memo Actually Says
A US Air Force deputy base commander in Suffolk sent Britain's Ministry of Defence a memo headed "Unexplained Lights." It is now in the UK National Archives.
In December 1980, US Air Force personnel at RAF Woodbridge reported strange lights in Rendlesham Forest. Deputy base commander Charles Halt described them in a memo now held in the UK National Archives.
In late December 1980, US Air Force personnel at RAF Woodbridge in Suffolk reported lights in Rendlesham Forest, just outside the base's perimeter fence. The UK National Archives calls it "Britain's best-known UFO incident." The events were set out in a memo to the Ministry of Defence from Lt Col Charles Halt, the USAF deputy base commander, who witnessed one of the sightings himself. Halt's memo is the first document in MoD file DEFE 24/1948.
The memo is dated 13 January 1981 and headed "Unexplained Lights." It describes a "strange glowing object" that was "metallic in appearance and triangular in shape, approximately two to three meters across the base and approximately two meters high." It also reports that "Three depressions 1.5 inches deep and 7 inches in diameter were found where the object had been sighted on the ground." Later, the memo says, a red, sun-like light was seen that "broke into five separate white objects."
The memo also records radiation measurements: "Beta/gamma readings of 0.1 milliroentgens were recorded with peak readings in the three depressions and near the center of the triangle formed by the depressions." Halt made an audio recording during one night's search. Researchers have pointed out differences between the tape and the memo, and noted that the memo's dates are off by a day.
The National Archives released the file in August 2009 as part of its UFO file releases. DEFE 24/1948 consists largely of MoD correspondence with the public from 1983 to 1995. A companion file, DEFE 24/1970, contains the Ministry of Defence's final position statement on Rendlesham, written as a briefing for a House of Lords defence debate. According to Ridpath, the MoD did not even interview the witnesses.
A serving US Air Force lieutenant colonel formally reported radiation readings taken in three small depressions in the forest floor, peaking near the center of the triangle they formed.
The MoD found no threat to security and, according to astronomer Ian Ridpath, made only a cursory investigation. Ridpath argued that the flashing light seen through the trees was the Orford Ness lighthouse.
