The Rendlesham forest UFO trail [Article Discussion]

[Andy]

Hi Observer, i'm intrigued to know about the apparent contention you mention, and hoping Admin will enlighten me on this?

As for the training capsule, i must say it is one of the better and more feasible explanations to date. However, i still cannot get my head round the fact that if this was the case, the men standing at East gate would surely have heard and possibly seen the helicopter involved in the alleged hoax?

Last night i was working with a colleague i've known for years about the hospital, but only recently started working with him, and the conversation happened to get onto UFO's/Rendlesham. Apparently his father was actually working on Bentwaters air base at the time of the alleged incidents! I asked him about anything his father had might had said? (however bearing in mind he is only a young guy in his very early 30's). He said his dad has not spoken about it for years, but he said he recalled his father saying everything suddenly became very 'tight-lipped' for want of a better word. He also recalled his father mentioning missiles being dropped into the forest? Interesting there is a brief mention of this in SkyCrash. He said he will speak to his father today to see if he can get any further information of his recollections at the time. If there is anything of interest, rest assured there will be feedback.

[Observer]

Hi Andy

I seem to remember that the UFO trail has been slightly revised not that long ago which puts an even greyer tinge on the actual landing sites. Admin can possibly clarify this.

If we take the senario for a moment that it was missiles that had been dropped/jettisoned into the forest, it beggers the question from what? There was no operational flying from either base at the time of the incident. Perhaps an F-117 did make an unscheduled visit to Woodbridge and had a problem, but i doubt very much that it would be carrying missiles.
They didn't realy get into service untill about 1982/3.
It could have been a trial flight and what best time to do it than when most bases would have the minimum of staff on the ground plus at night!
The UFO story could be just a smoke screen.

The USAF would need a forward base in Europe to deploy the F-117 as its range was not that good. Yes, stealth was top secret and as said would have been an un announced blow to the Russians in the event of war.
Its interesting to note that the Russians now claim that they can detect stealth intrusion into their air space. However, the British have unofficially said they can as well which is why i think the US is working on the next generation of stealth. Aurora?

Another interesting theory is that it was a Russian aircraft that had defected to the West and Woodbridge was the designated landing site.
The Apollo theory still hold more credence though than most other theories to date.
I wonder if it was deliberately deployed in the forest as the smoke screen?

Observer

[Andy]

My colleague spoke with his father, (who as previously mentioned was working on one of the bases at the time), and here's what he had to say.

What was amusing is that although it was supposed to be 'hush-hush' everyone was talking about it on base. The word going around was that some men had seen some lights in the forest, but on going to have a look, found nothing. For the first couple of days the area seemed to have relatively low security, with the SP's (security police) travelling into the forest in their vehicles to guard the area. However, it was still possible to wander into the forest at that time (and apparently a number of curious people did, to have have a look, including colleague's father). They did this by entering the area opposite where the vehicles were parked, and being discreet to avoid detection, could view the area which was in a clearing in the forest. My colleague said his father sounded almost apologetic because there was little to say about it, because there was little to see. However, what he did see were three round scorched areas about five to six feet apart from each other, appearing, as he likened, 'to the remains of a bonfire, but without the ash.' It did not appear like a crash incident area, but apparently more like something had purposefully landed, in order to make those sort of marks.

Now this is what really intrigued me.
Apparently after the first couple of days security suddenly became much more heightened (? After Halt's excursion into the forest?) and NO-ONE could enter the forest. This would also seem to tie in with my own father's experience passing by the area in the days following whilst going on a fishing trip, and seeing SP's guarding the edge of the forest. Apparently the site was then surrounded by fencing and bulldozed to the ground and ploughed. (We know that area of forest was apparently due for felling, but i was interested to hear that only in that area was it immediately ploughed whereas in other areas tree stumps were left in the ground).

[Andy]

What i have done now is drawn a rough map of the forest, and asked for his father to try and pin-point, if he can remember, what route he took into the forest, and to mark roughly whereabouts the area in question was, on said map.

[Observer]

Hi Andy

Very interesting what your colleagues father recalled. I was a 'Brit' member of the Bentwaters Rod & Gun club around that time and they were all making jokes about the incident, mostly in accusations of 'Must have been the drugs' or too much Christmas booze.

I know that RAF Guterslow [not sure of spelling] in Germany were plagued with alleged East German spyes loitering in the adjacent woods at night watching RAF Lightnings and Phantoms doing night ops. We would go into a standard off base procedure to sweep the forest and arrest any body especially if they had cameras who were then handed over to the German civil Police. I guess the Woodbridge security Police had a similar procedure for any thing strange going on adjacent to their base. It was the cold war and there were procedures in place.

Its interesting to note that Lt Col Halt who has said many times on TV interviews about the 3 indentations in the forest floor and how they were equally spaced never said they were scorch marked, or to my knowledge he didn't. Yes, some witnesses mentioned scorch marks on the trees but not on the footprints. Also has any body else mentioned a landing area being ploughed up and fenced off. Perhaps Admin can help.

Observer

[Andy]

I must admit, i cannot recall Halt ever mentioning it either. However, one of my colleagues (one of the one's who saw the orange balls of light hovering over the forest, at that time), although she did not witness it herself, did say that various other collagues in the hospital had gone into the forest and reported seeing scorched areas also. Also, wasn't there some mention of it in Bruni's book? (I've no longer got my copy to refer to) where Vince Thurkettle had gone to look some six weeks later after being told by fellow foresters of scorched areas, although did not see any himself?

(Regarding the Bruni book - if anyone has a copy they could sell me, it would be appreciated as it's out of print at the moment).

[Observer]

Hi Andy

Although it was a few months ago, i did see it for sale on ebay and on the Amazon web site.
Do a book search on Amazon, they some times turn up second hand ones.
Regards

Observer