Ignis Fatuus or 'foolish fire'

[Frank]

Was looking for this one (the Iranian case of a UFO defending itself against an approaching F4):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCNFrl4lq-o

Now I look at these videos again, I notice a lot of similarities with the RFI:
- Civilian witnesses reporting a light in the sky
- Lights that seem to project the shape of a craft (but that are too bright to actually see the craft)
- The object is seen on radar
- Colour of the lights
- Hovering and extreme acceleration
- Splitting and merging of objects
- A landing (in the desert), with checks for radiation the next day - apparently UFO's emit gamma rays (http://www.nicap.org/rufo/rufo-15.htm)
- Intelligence agencies at the spot to investigate, and some info that was uncovered under the FOIA
- Nu mundane explanation that fits all the facts
- No exchange of business cards ... they just ignore us! Such impoliteness!

[Ignis Fatuus]

Frank
I agree that the Kaikoura lights leave a lot of room for mundane explanations. Many have been proposed. I have no doubt that when lights at night are at play, the most spectacular befuddlement can be produced with low or no budget and without any intention. As yet, an explanation that satisfies all...especially the radar operators, hasn't been forthcoming. But from what I have learnt from RFI...It could just as easily be a combination of non-related events that only seems connected when viewed through the filter of the Human Mind. Yeah that Iranian encounter was a goodie alright, one of my favourites.

Puddle
The film crew were flying the route to film a re-enactment of sightings 10 days previous. You are right about the footage being poor. Due to the size of the old-school camera and the cramped conditions of the cockpit, plus the position of the cameraman..he was basically limited to filming straight ahead. A great deal of the fun and games took place either side of and behind the aircraft. There are aspects that sound alot like RFI such as:

At about 0005 (12:05 A.M., local time, December 31, 1978), while they were crossing the Cook Strait, the captain and copilot first noticed oddly behaving lights ahead of them near the Kaikoura Coast. They had flown this route many times before and were thoroughly familiar with the lights along the coast so they quickly realized that these were not ordinary coastal lights. These lights would appear, seem to project a beam downward toward the sea, and then disappear, only to reappear at some other location. Sometimes there was only one, sometimes none and sometimes several. After several minutes of watching and failing to identify the lights the pilot and copilot began to discuss what they were seeing. They were puzzled over their inability to identify these
unusual lights and their odd pattern of activity, which made the captain think of a search operation. (Similar activity of unidentified lights nearer to Cape Campbell had been seen by ground witnesses at Blenheim during the UFO sightings of December 21, as mentioned above.
See Startup and Illingworth, 1980)

The whole series of events were preceeded and proceeded by equally strange goings ons, both in the sky and to some of those involved. Although our Air Force was small and outdated, no attempt at an intercept was made during the events. The event was poo-poohed by officials, yet it was classified Top Secret and an embargo of 50 or 70 years was placed on these findings. Apparently a Fella who worked at Christchurch Airport at the time recalls USAF aircraft flying around the region using unusual call signs. It might be the same fella who pushed for a release of what is known, under the FOIA, and some information will be released later this year. Christchurch Airport also doubles as an American Airbase tasked to support American interests in Antarctica. One of those Extraordinary Rendition Learjets used to kidnap CIA targets was seen there a few years back....CIA Christmas party they claimed.
Oh one other note of interest...the female sound recordist sitting in the dark at the rear of the Argosy cargo hold, reckons she had a run in with a blue light that passed through the plane. Sound familiar?

[John Burroughs]

Here is something I find very interesting. Ian, Stephan and Ignis won't touch this topic Ignis even saying it would be a waste of time. I find the fact Ignis was involved in a incident involving spook lights and won't even talk about it but will take pot shots at us totally amusing Then there Ian and Stephen Mod says there out there and there not sure how or why. Ian buddy Dave Clarke wrote about them but he won't even for one minute look at how they could be involved. I'm not saying they were but if you read what people have said they have seen them do and yes the MOD has said there out there then how could you not take a serious look at them!!

[Ignis Fatuus]

Nope...wasn't involved in a spook light incident, but I once saw the most amazing lighting effect produced from the most mundane source and was shocked and awed until I got very close to the source..and nope...I don't know Dave Clarke and I never had anything to do with any spook light story he may have written. You still haven't told me what story you are referring to either.

It seems part and parcel of the UFO genre to accuse others of harbouring a hidden agenda, but really all that is going on here is a differing opinion. I don't expect you will accept that, and I could have had some fun with it...but because you included other people with professional and public reputations into your conspiracy theory I have to..um..er..debunk it.

The only part Dave Clarke played in my thinking is his article on Ted Conrad...it made me totally rethink the RFI. How accurate is TCs recollection of the sequence of events compared to Halt's screenplay?

About the only aspect of the RFI that I believe is the least tainted is that first night and the intial statements. That's no slight on you and those involved on Halt's night of nights, the problem as I see it, is Halt took total control of the screenplay. Where are the individual witness statements from Halts night? Are there any? The only info I can find is from podcasts and TV shows. Did you see a solid object on your second encounter?

Just because I don't think a UFO was involved, doesn't mean I'm uninterested in the RFI. I believe the most interesting chapter has yet to be written. But it will require over-riding the Human ego.

What aspect of the spook light theory do you want to discuss? Do you consider optical distortions of light in the cold night air spooklights?

BTW you have mentioned several times how if: Halt got it so wrong why was he promoted?
Isn't that the infinite wisdom of the military...kick em up the chain and let it become somebody else's problem?

[John Burroughs]

Ignis
Lets see Halt was promoted to Col. Became the Base Commander at one of the most important bases in the Pacific Command. Was also the base commander at a base in Belgium which help the cruise missile and last but not least finished his career at the Pentagon working for Dick Chaney hardly sounds like a man who was kicked up the chain and became somebody's else s problem.

[puddlepirate]

Contrary to popular belief, in the military incompetent officers get pushed sideways or out of the service. Unlike incompetent managers in civvy street, incompetent officers do not get promoted. Halt's CV after the RFI makes very interesting reading, especially the Pentagon job. He was promoted because he did an damn good job. Had he f***d up he'd have been posted to a small supply base in Greenland or somewhere. This begs the obvious question - with regard to the RFI, exactly what WAS his job? To initiate and lead a diversion perhaps?

[Ignis Fatuus]

Contrary to popular belief, in the military incompetent officers get pushed sideways or out of the service.

Yeah I'm gonna have to bite my tongue on that one...or will I?..um...I kind of subscribe to the veiw, that the closer to the top you get, the crazier the personalities become. But hey I also think that almost every military campaign carried out by 'the good guys' since WWII have been criminal activities in disguise.

...and last but not least finished his career at the Pentagon working for Dick Chaney...

Jesus Crisis there's something to be proud of eh.

Any chance the RFI gave him some sort of military celebrity status?
Yeah-nah picking on someones Grandpa kind of makes me feel icky...Charles, instead of reading this in silence - jump in and fill in the gaps. Ha ha as if.

[puddlepirate]

Don't lose sight of the fact that military action - major military action, not the battles after the major action has been sanctioned - is, in the major western democracies at least, instigated by governments. The military does what it is told to do. If the military had a choice, if it had been in the position to veto the action, coalition forces would not be in Iraq or Afghanistan. Governments lead military action, not the admirals, generals or air marshals. Officers who have earned thier rank seldom come across as fools... Stormin' Norman? Adm Fieldhouse? Fools? Hardly. And neither is Col Halt.

[Ignis Fatuus]

Roger that Puddle. That's the devious way politicians roll aint it. Get the troops on the ground as quick as, so everybody has no option but fall into lockstep behind the nations sons and daughters who ultimately put their lives on the line. Perhaps there is some natural justice at play, as those who start wars don't seem to be very good at closing them out.

How long did news of Rendlesham take to reach the Kremlin? Paranormal sabre rattling?

I don't think Halt was a 24/7 fool...but I also can't un-know how the most compelling aspects of Ian Ridpath's body of evidence are the very words of those involved. Putting it bluntly...they hang themselves with their own rope. Just my opinion, but I suspect Halt's memo was never intended as a tickler...it would not surprise me if it was designed to disappear down the memory hole at Whitehall.

Understanding what happened at the HUMINT level feels as frustrating as untangling multiple lengths of Christmas-tree lights. The RFI seems to be a self-evolving PsyOp and I wonder if the participants have been sucked in by it over the 30 years of living and breathing it.

Apparently the RFI rivals that NYU balloon experiment in New Mexico...I think it has more in common with the high strangeness that took place in Dealy Plaza. Both can easily be explained, yet both events are populated by many shadowy figures who easily had motive. But most of all it was very disturbing for all those who witnessed the events.

[Ignis Fatuus]

"Hobby Lanterns
"May I beg a space in the ‘Miscellany’ for a problem I have never been able to solve? Perhaps some reader can explain or enlighten me on the subject. In my boyhood days 60 years ago [i.e. c.1882] there were no cinemas or dance halls, not even a gramophone, and us boys had to find material for amusement standing at the corner of the street. Most people have heard or read stories about ‘Will-o’-the-wisps’: we called them Hobby Lanterns. I expect very few people have seen one, and some may think no-one else has, but this story is absolutely true. At Sudbourne there are two fields known as Workhouse Field and Kiln Field and on certain nights one of these objects could be seen on these fields. They look like a dull red light, like a lantern with the glass smoky. It moved to and fro across the field, about walking pace, always in the same track above the ground: it never went near the hedge.

One night we went out to see if we could find what it was. When we went off the road on the field it vanished, so we spread out and walked across the field and back slowly, but we could see nothing. Then as we were going off the field it suddenly appeared again: then half of us stopped on the road and the others went to have another look; they could see nothing, but from the road it was visible all the time except at intervals of a few seconds it was invisible

We tried it several nights: the result was always the same, so we had to leave it a mystery. Now the problem is: It was visible at two or three hundred yards or more and invisible at less than one hundred yards. Why?

Mr GF Fell of Orford

and

Interestingly, to the east of Sudbourne lies an area known suggestively as "the Lantern Marshes". The name is certainly an old one, apparently predating the establishment of any lighthouse or beacon, and a check of the records reveals a map carrying the name "Lanterne Marsh" dating from 1600. Strange lights were frequently referred to as "Lantern Men", "Jack O’ Lanterns" and "Hobby Lanterns" (the term used by Mr Fell) in Suffolk dialect. However, it would be wrong to read too much into the place name in the absence of other evidence.

http://www.forteantimes.com/features/articles/112/magic_lanterns.html