The Object ..

[Ignis Fatuus]

John, if the MGI was no big deal, why no talkie talkie? You don't mind outing the USAF's alleged Black Projects, so why so reticent over an insignificant GAU? How was it resolved? Did the weapon resurface at all? Was it a mean spirited practical joke? Or is the weapon under the silt of the River Orwall? Just so I can tick it off eh.
Who was it that said?

Its very easy mixing up dates times and other things that happened when your trying to cover for somebody ...

Oh yeah...it was you.

Like Ian said:

But you still have to explain the coincidence with the 3 am fireball.

Still can't shake the feeling that, had there been no fireball event, there would have been no RFI whatsover.

[bignos]

Going on the statements animal noise was elevated, but it would mean that if the farmer didnt have animals, he wouldnt have been bothered by the noise. if as John has said there was just one location that had animals this could point to an proximity of the object to that specific area maybe? meaning that something was close by and spooked them? kin of going round in circles, but maybe in a new direction to previously thought? i dont know, just trying to help

[Ignis Fatuus]

Bignos
Going on the statements animal noise was elevated,

Vehicle engines, headlights, torches, the Sps about to invade the forest - no wonder the deer were nervous. Who knows - perhaps they had their freak on after the fireball as well.
Still think the guys were dazzled by the light. The farmhouse was partially obscured by the dazzle due to being at eye level with the Lighthouse beam. I think Jim could just make out the outline of the back-lit house - so he made the correct call that there was an object - he got excited - he called it in -they moved forward and down - they were no longer in the sweet spot of the beam - Oooops it's just a Farmhouse - Honest mistake - but Jim feels stink - his career is passing before his eyes - What did John see? - just lights that suggested an object - cool -guess you're just going to have to take Jim's word for it - What did you see SSgt Penniston?- I think we just saw a UFO.

There is also that little tidbit about when a witness sees a 'UFO' and make a sketch of it - their belief of what they saw may be way off the mark, but sometimes the sketch ends up being more accurate than expected once the true source of bafflement is discovered.

[bignos]

but the 'beam' of the lighthouse is higher than the farmhouse, you would need to be more than half way into the field for it to be behind it, and to me, it seemed more like a dot of light blinking on and off than a beam, and definitely not sweeping through the trees

[Ignis Fatuus]

Bignos
...and to me, it seemed more like a dot of light blinking on and off than a beam, and definitely not sweeping through the trees

Is that your own observation? If so - which bulb? Anyway if the light is higher than the house than I thought - even better - goes someways to explaining how Johns lights were projected into the field - or at least -appeared to -
Razzle Dazzle

[bignos]

Yes, direct observation, it is higher and blinking rather than sweeping (clear cold night in March), there was a lot of moon light but i definately do not think that the beam would project onto the field, ill go back soon and have another look

[Ignis Fatuus]

Oh I'm not suggesting the beam was actually projecting John lights into the field - I'm suggesting that the beam was directly in their eyes causing (the best I can explain it) a lens flare effect. I would have thought that the Met data of the time could perhaps be key.
You do know the light doesn't shine as bright as in 1980 eh?

[Ignis Fatuus]

Jim Penniston
A large yellow glowing light was emitting above the trees.

As somebody who lives 50 meters from the Sea, that description sounds like the air was hazy. I see it every other day. When the air has no salt haze and cloudless, the horizon to our NW is black. In fact visibility is under 20 meters. Add a bit of salt spray and fine sand to the air and suddenly the horizon glows with the lights of distant towns. Add light cloud on top of that and the distant glow from towns, houses etc begins to loom over the landscape...illuminating it. Headlights from vehicles on the highway 5km inland that are unseen on crystal clear nights, sweep across the light cloud and can appear to reflect down into the sea. Anything in the distance, on the beach, with a light, becomes hyper exaggerated. Add to the mix a very bright fishing light shining directly in the eyes which gives the appearance of multicoloured beams of light and spheres as it reflects off the 20 or so floats along the top of a fishing net in the water and you've got a reciepe for replicating Rendlesham lights. Once you've seen it for yourself....John, Jim, Ed and Col Halts' lights don't sound mysterious at all. They sound...familiar. If you haven't seen it before, you've probably just endured a garbled transmission.

[Ignis Fatuus]

Something similar, but not literally the same, as this

When you see it from behind glass its obvious whats happening. When you see it without being behind anything, it's a little unsettling. Triggered the fight or flight reflex in me. I wanted to go get another witness, I actually turned, then thought fuck it, what if its gone by the time it takes to get back. Kept walking and...ahhh shame bro...just three dudes fishing. I found out what was behind the light, but couldn't understand the dazzle effect. Fairly recently a chap explained to me how the optical illusion worked and it made perfect sense the moment I heard it. Cheers Ian, another mystery solved.

[John Burroughs]

Pumkin head you should start by taking this course http://www.mapit.kk5.org/ maybe it will help you out. You have never been in the forrest or field before so nice try. There are animals at both ends of the field horses on one end and barn yard animals on the other. As far as the Gau there is nothing to talk about Halt was using that as a possibilty on the nights in between the 1st and third but after talking to me in Phoenix he came clean admiting that Ball and Tamplin were out there on the second night and Tamplin was sent home after a blue light went through her jeep shuting it down I never new the light house could do that. Also if you ever get a chance to listen to Halt do some of his interviews he slips up once and lets somethings out on what happened to Adrain and I on his night. The light directly in my eyes you know how close we would have had to be. You and Ian are just the same you just throw things out there with out any proof. Again why did Ian not show up and show the world in Dec? I know his safety the crowd would have turned on him. H mm

[John Burroughs]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUTXb-ga ... re=related

“The truth is incontrovertible, malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end; there it is.” Winston Churchill

[Ignis Fatuus]

[John Burroughs]

Here you go pumpkin head http://shocktillyoudrop.com/nextraimage ... se-dvd.jpg
Or maybe this one. http://www.detailsart.com/ProductImages ... -P1-md.jpg

[Frank]

Ignis, you still haven’t explained the red and blue lights that were visible from East Gate. Jenny Randles stood at this spot in 1983 and this is what she saw:

“I first stood in this spot [East Gate] in winter 1983, when the view was still much the same. Although looking directly towards Orford Ness, the four miles and countless trees in between made ground lights on the spit invisible. (…) However, what one could see – very clearly – from the gate was the beam from the Orford Ness lighthouse. This swept in an approximate five second cycle, creating what looked like a bright white glow above the tree tops straight ahead”

So the lighthouse beam swept across the tree tops and was the only light visible from East Gate every night, yet John only describes the red and blue lights from there. He does not mention seeing a white light shining into the trees until he is at the start of the logging road:

“On the night of 25-26 Dec at around 3:00, while on patrol down at East Gate, myself and my partner saw lights coming from the woods due east of the gate. The lights were red and blue, the red one above the blue one, and they were flashing on and off. Because I’ve never seen anything like that coming from the woods before we decided to drive down and see what it was. We went down east-gate road and took a right at the stop sign and drove about 10-20 yards to where there is a road that goes into the forest. I could see a white light shining into the trees and I could still see the red and blue one.”

What did it look like from the forest then? Jenny Randles traced their steps:

“Penniston’s 1981 account describes what the men now saw. “The object was producing red and blue light. The blue light was steady and projecting under the object. It was lighting up an area directly under and extending a meter or two out.” Could this be the lighthouse with its sweeping beam? If so I never saw it display any colours. It was just a small white light.”

It was just a small white light..

it seemed more like a dot of light blinking on and off than a beam, and definitely not sweeping through the trees

This video here gives an impression of its current brightness from the far edge of the farmer’s field. Even with a brighter bulb, there is never enough light for any kind of optical illusion. Note the last shot where the lighthouse light is hardly brighter that some dimly illuminated object in the foreground: http://vimeo.com/5001555

The part about the farmers' daughter is in the same book by the way. It was Jenny Randles who tried to interview them but she and her friends were sent packing after the father pulled his daughter away.

[John Burroughs]

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id= ... note_reply

[Ignis Fatuus]

Frank
Ignis, you still haven’t explained the red and blue lights that were visible from East Gate.

The Fireball Frank.
Then they went for a drive to receive their next cue. Annnnnd the lights were still there when:

Chris Armold
...my flight chief asked me if I wanted to head out to Woodbridge to
meet up with Burroughs and see what was up. I grabbed the back gate
keys and took the back way to RAF W/B. I met Burroughs at the East
Gate of WB. We left our guns with the guy riding with Burroughs and
drove to the end of the long access road. We left our vehicle and
walked out there.
There was absolutely nothing in the woods. We could see lights in
the distance and it appeared unusual as it was a sweeping light,
(we did not know about the lighthouse on the coast at the time). We
also saw some strange colored lights in the distance but were
unable to determine what they were.

and

James Easton
Most significantly, those 'red and blue' lights which perplexed
Burroughs, Cabansag and Penniston and resulted in the initial
'UFO', were, according to Penniston, lights originating from a
'craft' that he examined at his leisure, before it 'took off'.
Yet, apparently, unidentified, red and blue lights were still
visible in the distance when Chris Armold later returned to the
vicinity of that same UFO encounter.

Not forgetting that Jenny Randles eventually did a 180 on the UFO excuse.
Frank, go point a camera at something in the distance and see if the result is a fair and accurate representation of the size and distance as experienced with your eyes.

Frank
Even with a brighter bulb, there is never enough light for any kind of optical illusion.

Were the atmospheric conditions the same same? Are the atmospheric conditions on the coast ever same same? Having seen first hand how a relatively small light can make big effects...I'm gonna have to call bullshit on that statement.

Whether I can get all my ducks, or even most of my ducks in row for you hardly matters. There are no fairies at the bottom of the garden, no monster in the Loch, no Alien/Human/Time machines in the Forest.

Frank
The part about the farmers' daughter is in the same book by the way. It was Jenny Randles who tried to interview them but she and her friends were sent packing after the father pulled his daughter away.

What does that tell ya?

[Ignis Fatuus]

AD50 000 - Thats it...just follow the light...c'mon..closer..now look over there

[John Burroughs]

AD50 000 - Thats it...just follow the light...c'mon..closer..now look over there

Wow Pumpkin head thats really good. All this coming from a guy who has never set foot in Rendlesham Forrest.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QmltX8zXSI

[John Burroughs]

http://decoratedcupcakeideas.com/wp-con ... -face3.jpg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOd5sV-OWoY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NecK4MwOfeI

[Ignis Fatuus]

John
Wow Pumpkin head thats really good. All this coming from a guy who has never set foot in Rendlesham Forrest.

True dat. Do you hold that against the UFwhateverO Believers that likewise have never set foot in Rendlesham Forest? You were only 15-20 meters from Jim, yet you don't know what he really saw either.
The biggest mystery is why some people still think it is a mystery. The trail has led to the Lighthouse soooooooo many times over 30 years, and you were one of the early trail blazers. Classic.
Are you bound to Jims story because you believe it, or do you owe him, as you kind of put him in an embarassing situation. Man I bet you fellas had those sitting around their radios in stitches.

How were the SPs viewed by other branches of the service? Did you receive the respect you felt you deserved?