John Burrough's Blog - Open Letter

[Deep Purple]

John--- Great Letter well done. Lets hope it opens up some real answers as to what went on

[puddlepirate]

One thing I have always thought to be really odd about the whole affair is Col Halt's memo appearing a couple of years later and only after an FoI request to the US DoD - who then went to the trouble of contacting MoD.

The memo itself is not particularly interesting in so far as it only really mentions 'odd lights'. All documents, signal messages, message tapes (as used in the 1980's) and so forth had defined retention periods after which time they would be routinely destroyed in accordance with routine and emergency destruction protocols. The usual retention period for unclassified routine documents such as inter-office memos (which in reality is what the Halt memo is) was anything from 30 days to three months or perhaps six months in some circumstances. For the Halt memo to have been retained by MoD for such an exceptionally long period, particularly after MoD were satisfied that the event was of 'no defence significance' is somewhat odd. To me it suggests the memo was actually written in response to the FoI request, i.e. it was written some years after the event (which might account for the discrepancies in the dates) and produced for the sole purpose of diverting the attention of over-zealous UFO researchers..... something it has succeeded in doing remarkably well.

If the memo was not written in response to the FoI request then the fact that MoD held on to it for so long and that the US MoD knew the UK MoD had a file (or even if they thought MoD might have a file) suggests that both the DoD and the MoD know more than they are letting on. If that is true, then I suspect it would be nothing to do with UFOs and possibly not even referred to as the Rendlesham Forest incident but something else entirely. If it is not true that DoD and MoD know more then they are telling then the original FoI request would simply have received the usual negative response. Perhaps someone was trying a bit too hard and in so doing, inadvertently opened a can of worms!!

Why dld the DoD bother to forward the request to MoD? As anyone who has experience of submitting FoI requests knows, if information does not exist the the usual response is 'we do not hold that information' or similar. Alternative sources might be offered but there is no responsibility to contact other organisations on behalf of the person submitting the request. The fact that the US DoD contacted the UK MoD is also odd and lends weight to the 'they know more than they are telling' theory.

Therefore, it would be very useful indeed for those directly involved to attend a reunion where answers to such conundrums might be found. It has long been my belief that the whole RFI story as we know it, i.e. the UFO explanation to cover the events that actually occurred in the forest, is nothing more than a red herring.

[John Burroughs]

Pete
You have brought up some very good points! A couple of other points. Col Halt is now trying to do a movie which will shape peoples opion on what happened at Bentwaters. It will be based on his take on the incident only. It will use other people statements but will not have let them have any say in how it's put out! He nows says that it was ET in nature but has supplied no proof! My question to all of you is what happened to us! Getting past everybody feelings on what it could or could not be I feel most people feel somthing other than the light house happened to us. It truley appears the command staff cannot agree on anything. Gen Williams is on record saying he had no idea that the memo was wriitten and would never have allowed it to be realeased because there were things in it we could not defend. No one from the command staff has ever steped up and said nothing happened to us. The USAF stated thet stand by Col Halts memo. So for 3 nights in Dec of 1980 you have a off base incident in England happen. The Wing Commander of the base says he has no idea what went on. He says he never would have allowed the memo to be realeased! No one else from the command staff has stepped forword to help clear up what happened. Some have said they don't want to be harrased by UFO nuts! I thought they were trained to be and were supposed to be leaders of a front line Nato AFB. The British Government has stated there was no defense issues in what happened to us but supplied no proof. No one steped up to them on it except Lord Hill Norton who said that was rubish and he was a lord of the fleet who would know. So you have one man who the USAF stands by his memo and has never had anyone to include the USAF say he is lying now state it was ailien in nature. What happened to us on those night? Are the people of Britian and I would hope the people in that area of there country who several have come forword over the years and said they have seen strange things also not important.