National Press Club - Sgt. James Penniston USAF @ NPC 11 Nov

[Pluton]

Hello John

You mention date problems, and disinformation. etc. I have one question which I'd like to ask.

In your handwritten statement of the time you start it as "On the night of 25-26 Dec at around 0300....."

My question is: Given the fact it is an easy time to recall even after 27 years (that is to say it was Christmas night/Boxing Day morning), is this date correct for the night when you, Jim Penniston and Ed Cabansag went out to investigate?

Many Thanks

Pluton

[John Burroughs]

The dates were the 25th when we came on duty and it started around 0300 on the 26th. It took years for this to get straighten out.

[IanR]

Halt first started talking about me getting on top of a object.

I have read that Halt has said that and wondered if it was true.

As we were getting ready to head back in a short distance away a large ball of blue and white light appeared in front of the whole group. Halt asked me if it was like we had seen 2 nights before and i told him it was very bright like before but I wanted a closer look. He let me and yes I was off duty in Civ cloths and Bustinza go towards it as we were getting close to it it moved towards us and we started running Bustinza fell down and he told me he felt like he was pulled down and held down. I approuched the light and was almost on top of it not standing just being able to touch it when it just disapeared gone... All I can say I was close to something and then I was standing in a open field with it gone

This is fascinating information. Thank you for posting this. May I ask you to expand on a couple of points, please:

1. You say this happened as you were getting ready to head back, and in an open field. You will find an aerial photo of the location roughly halfway down this page:
http://www.ianridpath.com/ufo/halttape3.htm
In relation to the points named on this aerial view, can you describe roughly where your encounter occurred, please? And in which direction was the light you went towards?

2. Presumably this happened while Halt had his tape switched off, as there is no reference to it on the tape that I have heard. Whereabouts in the transcript (see the web page linked to above) does this fit?

3. With reference again to the aerial view of the site referred to above, roughly where were you all standing when Halt was describing the starlike objects in the sky? Also, how far past the second farmer's field did Halt get before turning around and heading back to base?

This would add some useful pieces to our understanding of this case.

Regards,
Ian

[redsocks]

[quote="John Burroughs"]The History Channel did do a 1 hour special that aired 2 years ago in the states but nothing since that i am aware of.[/quote]

What happened to the second documentary that was due to go out in the US on 26dec 07 on the history channel?,It was listed to do so and Halt was here in December filming it as I understand.

Redsocks

[John Burroughs]

Ian
I cannot say for sure. I was only out there twice at night. I can say this it was past were they had the lightalls set up and further past the farmers house. As far as Halt's tape goes I don't feel it was switched off I just feel the tape was edited.

[Pluton]

Thanks for the reply confirming the date John.

As you know Jim Penniston and Ed Cabansag's statement were clearly 'cleaned up' whereas yours seems to be the original. Jim Penniston's has no date and Ed Cabansag just 26 Dec.

[ghaynes]

The History Channel did do a 1 hour special that aired 2 years ago in the states but nothing since that i am aware of.

What happened to the second documentary that was due to go out in the US on 26dec 07 on the history channel?,It was listed to do so and Halt was here in December filming it as I understand.

Redsocks

Yep, Halt and Penniston were filming the documentary in our museum at Bentwaters just before Christmas. I thought it was due to be screened in the UK sometime next month?
Regards.

Graham

[John Burroughs]

Are you sure Penniston was there and not just Halt? It is important to me if he was!!!

[John Burroughs]

Pluton
I don't think Penniston or Cabansag were. I was there when we turned them in. All 3 of us were told to turn in statements to Halt when we came back to work. I did hand write mine Penniston typed his and they helped Cabansag type his. We didnot put everything in it because we were told it was for Halt not for a police or offical report. Also Halt told me only to talk about the first night not the second because he was there.

[John Burroughs]

It is so if you can show me he was there it would help allot,

[Pluton]

Thanks John for that bit about the three statements.

I based my last post on what Georgina Bruni said in her book, that Cabansag told her he was surprised his statement was typed because he recalls handwriting his and he could not type anyway. Also she gives the impression she is not convinced the Penniston statement is even by Pennisiton as it is not signed.

Then of course there are comments at the base of the three statements from 'H' (usually taken as standing for Halt) that he is sure they are cleaned up versions.

Interesting because what you say fits better with what I've read from another writer (Andrew Pike) who believes they were produced for Halt only, never shown to any official investigation, and the comments were added by Halt to protect himself when he passed copies to the UFO group CAUS in 1985. He wanted to give the impression they were official 'cleaned up' reports for the powers-that-be and their attempts at disinformation rather than personal copies he held onto, possibly without the powers-that-be knowing he still had them years later. In other words much of the diinformation originates from Halt himself and not the powers-that-be as so many would like to believe.

Thanks.

[John Burroughs]

Pluton
Thats a good Idea except that Halt would not be allowed to do this on his own. Plus why would Gaberial get involved according to the MOD documents. Williams acts like he had no Idea what happened but Gaberial comming down please. Also when Williams claimed in out of the Blue he had no Idea Halt did that and he would have looked at very closely because there were things that they could not defend. I think they came up with the memo to cover there butts and it lead to years of debate just on the dates. The big question is waht happened to the offical reports! They didnot just disapear like halt said they did. also halts tape that just shows up when they claimed Col Morgan found it in his desk and just released it to a friend in England who realesed to the Japenese . Even the way they stated the memo got realesed. They mean have used him but they just didnot let a Full Bird Col do what ever he wanted and finish up his career at the Pentagon in a job with a lot influence and power.

[ghaynes]

Are you sure Penniston was there and not just Halt? It is important to me if he was!!!

Hi John,
I was told it was Penniston and Halt (they arrived after I had left the museum on that day). I will confirm from those that were there and get back to you.
Regards.

Graham

[ghaynes]

Are you sure Penniston was there and not just Halt? It is important to me if he was!!!

Hi John,
I was told it was Penniston and Halt (they arrived after I had left the museum on that day). I will confirm from those that were there and get back to you.
Regards.

Graham

Hi again John,
It was Charles Halt on his own. Jim Penniston was not involved.
Regards.

Graham

[Observer]

Hi Graham

Just a thought, were there any air raid shelters at B/Waters & W/Bridge?

I say this because most RAF airfields especially those from wartime days had them. A good case in point is the one that the MHAS has recently found and renovated behind the control tower, there are several others dotted around what used to be the airfield.

Observer

[ghaynes]

Hi Graham

Just a thought, were there any air raid shelters at B/Waters & W/Bridge?

I say this because most RAF airfields especially those from wartime days had them. A good case in point is the one that the MHAS has recently found and renovated behind the control tower, there are several others dotted around what used to be the airfield.

Observer

We discussed this at the museum a while back and thought it odd that there weren't any air raid shelters at Bentwaters. We came to the conclusion that the command post, alternate command post, hardened squadron ops buildings and the hardened aircraft shelters, were more that adequate to protect key personnel during a conventional attack.
Interestingly we had the same set-up at Wattisham when I was based there.
I suspect that there were air raid shelters at Bentwaters (and Woodbridge) when it was originally built in WWII but these have long since gone.
Wasn't aware MHAS found a shelter near the tower, I know the Parham museum guys found one.
Regards.

Graham

[IanR]

It was Charles Halt on his own. Jim Penniston was not involved.

Vince Thurkettle, the (former) local forester emailed me on December 10:
“I spent last Sunday with a crew from the History Channel, possibly the least prepared crew I've met in terms of actually having any feel or research of what may have happened.  They seemed to be building the whole thing around Col Halt's story.”

And two days later in response to a request for more information about which site they visited:
“The Americans didn't go to any landing site - they seemed to choose a spot that was easy to film out in the field.  Col Halt seemed to go along with it as they felt filming in the trees was too difficult.  I did point out to the scientists, who were taking photographs, gps fixes, etc, that the site was in the trees - they seemed a little uneasy but there was not enough daylight to change what they were doing.  I told them that they were very brave to go along with a show that had them measuring in the wrong place, for convenience.  Can't help an academic career much!  When I met them they seemed to be concentrating on dismissing the lighthouse theory - which if you move the landing site 300m down into the field is easy!!”

So the programme doesn’t sound too rigorous. Whether it has anything really new to say we will have to wait and see. I would love to hear this 4-hour tape of security police traffic that Halt says he has, but even so that applies to the night on which he was involved, not the first night when Burroughs, Cabansag and Penniston were out there, which is the night we are mostly discussing here.

Ian

[John Burroughs]

Ian
Both nights are important trust me because there are allot of events that tie together!