Rendlesham Forest UFO mystery: What two US airmen said happened in 1980

Rendlesham Forest is located in Suffolk, England, next to RAF Bentwaters, which is an airbase the US ran during the Cold War. Nuclear missiles were stationed there in 1980. Nick Pope worked at the UK Ministry of Defence from 1985 to 2006, and from 1991 to 1994 he was staffed at the “UFO desk.” This desk judged whether sightings mattered for national defense.

He later co-wrote a book about the Rendlesham UFO case with two of the eyewitnesses. When the author interviewed him for the book Chasing Aliens, he said, “It’s the perfect storm of a UFO case.” Here is what the witnesses reported and what really happened.

On Christmas night in 1980, Airman John Burroughs was on patrol near the base’s east gate when he noticed blinking red and blue lights in the forest. He and his supervisor, Staff Sgt. Bud Steffens, then drove toward them, and a white light appeared as well. Neither man had seen those lights on any aircraft.

Central Security Control shared that an unidentified object had appeared on the base’s radar and then vanished about 15 minutes earlier.

Jim Penniston, who was the staff sergeant at that time, shared that he and Burroughs found a black, triangular craft in a small clearing. It had colored lights moving across its surface. When he pushed on it, he says, it felt like dead weight. Even a car rocks slightly when pushed, but this one didn’t.

He says he touched one of the engravings, which looked like ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. A bright white light flooded the scene and blinded him, and he pictured a strange series of ones and zeros in his mind. Burroughs remembers things differently, though. He recalls a red, oval object, not a triangular craft, and says the whole episode lasted only seconds.

On December 27, deputy base commander Lt. Col. Charles Halt went to the clearing with a tape recorder. Their Geiger counter, a device that measures radiation, gave low readings consistent with normal background levels. Later, they saw flashing lights, and Halt described objects that swept overhead and sent beams to the ground.

“This is unreal,” he added. Penniston also wrote a report that described glowing lights but no triangular craft.

When Halt returned to base, he was ordered to hand over his tape. He later told the History Channel, “I played the tape for the general and the staff.” He said the general responded by saying that this “happened off the base. It’s a British affair. Case closed.” Penniston, who left the Air Force in 1993, says he has had nightmares since that night and has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.

The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) officially closed its investigation into the Rendlesham Forest incident, saying that there was no threat to national security. In 2009, the MoD permanently shut down its entire "UFO desk." This case now remains a mystery.