U.S. Air Force personnel report close encounter at Rendlesham Forest
U.S. Air Force security personnel stationed at the twin Royal Air Force bases of Bentwaters and Woodbridge report a triangular, metallic craft on the ground in adjacent Rendlesham Forest, followed by aerial light phenomena two nights later. The deputy base commander signs a memorandum to the U.K. Ministry of Defence summarizing the events.
Beginning shortly before 3:00 a.m. on 26 December 1980, U.S. Air Force security personnel from RAF Woodbridge — used by the U.S. Air Force during the Cold War — reported strange lights in adjacent Rendlesham Forest. A small team led by Sgt. James Penniston entered the forest and reported encountering a small, triangular, metallic craft resting in a clearing. Two nights later, on 27–28 December, additional personnel led by deputy base commander Lt. Col. Charles Halt returned to the site, recorded ambient radiation readings, and tape-recorded their observations of unexplained airborne lights.
On 13 January 1981, Halt sent a one-page memorandum titled 'Unexplained Lights' to the U.K. Ministry of Defence at RAF Bentwaters summarizing the events. The 'Halt Memo' was released under the U.K. Freedom of Information Act in 1983 and is widely regarded as the most consequential first-person military document on a UAP encounter in the European record.
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