This was the first UFO conference that I have ever attended and I wasnt exactly certain what to expect. Luckily I was not cornered by any kooks or weirdos and the evening was most intruiging and informative. The evening began at 6pm with an hours talk by Peter Robbins, followed by a talk along with video samples presented by Linda Moulton Howe. After a break and a short speech from Nick Pope, Jim Penniston and John Burrough opened up the evening to questions from the audience. At 11pm the evening wound up and the audience was invited to relocate to Rendlesham Forest where Jim and John took us through the events on the eventful night 30 years ago.
Date:
2010-12-29
Conference Attendees:
- Peter Robbins: Peter Robbins co-authored 'Left At East Gate' with Larry Warren, a feat which he testified to driving him to bankruptcy. Peter appeared to be a interrogative researcher looking for facts and evidence rather than speculation and heresay.
- Linda Moutlon Howe: Linda is a documentary maker for Earthfiles. She gave a presentation which focused on newly released videos of hypntoic sessions conducted with both John Burroughs and Jinm Penniston. Unfortunately she concluded her presentation with a speculation on timetravel and beings from the future which appeared to go beyond the facts that were being presesnted.
- Nick Pope: Nick is the ex-MoD front desk personnal for UFO files. Nick did not speak much other than to offer aplogies to John and Jim over the official line that the MoD took over the whole affair.
- John Burroughs: Airman Burrough was one of the main witnesses on the initial event, he was part of the team sent out to investigate a possible aircraft crash in the forest.
- Jim Penniston: Sgt Penniston led the sorte out ito the forest upon the initial night after it was reported that there was a possible aircraft crash in the forest.
Also in Attendance at the conference:
- Larry Warren: Co-author of 'Left at East Gate' and a principle witness to the events in Rendlesham Forest. It was Larry's suggestion that for this conference he took a backseat and let Jim Penniston and John Burroughs take the limelight. Peter Robbins did invite Larry on stage for a brief speech.
- Brenda Butler: Co-author of 'Sky Crash' and one of the first investigators to break the story of the Rendlesham Forest Incident, along with Dot Street and Jenny Randles.
- Dot Street: Co-author of 'Sky Crash' and one of the first investigators to break the story of the Rendlesham Forest Incident, along with Brenda Butler and Jenny Randles.
Revelations:
- Soil Samples: Peter Robbins explained how he had taken soil samples (20lbs for each sample) which were then sent for scientific analysis. These were taken form the field at Capel Green where the landing witnessed by Larry Warren was said to have taken place. He presented several slides to show a marked colour difference of an elliptical area to the rest of the field. The samples from this area had 4% more metallic elements, and the sand content had been converted to glass.
- RAF Neatishead Radar Tapes: A member of the audience claimed that he was a member of the RAF and at the time of the incident was based at RAF Neatishead, the site that was in charge of radar for eastern england. He testified that persons unknown visited the site and removed all copies of the radar tapes from the evenings concerned. His speculation was that this was a government cover-up.
- Lights seen from former Mental Hospital: A member of the audience who was, at the time, employed at the former Woodbridge mental hospital testified to watching from the hospital myseterious lights in the sky over the RAF Woodbridge/Bentwaters area.
- Gentleman stopped by armed US guards through Rendlesham: A member from the audience testified that at approx. 10pm and 1980-12-26 he was stopped in his car by armed guards in Rendlesham Forest, whom stated that an event was occuring
- Digital Codes: Jim Penniston revelated that 12 pages of scribbling in his notebook had recently been analysed to determine that it was digital code. The interpretation of this code would not be revealed (probably due to contractual obligations with the History channel which was due to broadcast the revelation on 2010-12-30). If I wasnt mistaken, Jim did indicate that the notebook had been sent away for analysis to determine its authenticity with refernece to its age.
- Locations: The location of the landing site and where Jim Penniston/John Burroughs exited the forest was updated from what was previously thought. The previous days, working with the History Channel they had attempted to retrace the events on that night 30 years ago. This revealed that the route they had taken was to the south of what is normally considered to be the trail. This means that they entered the field at Capel Green with the farmhouse to the north-east. It was noted that from this angle the lights from the windows of the house gave it a glow - as reported by Col Holt.
- Initial story revelation: It was interesting to note that in response to a question from Brenda Butler, Jim Penneston responded to say that Brenda could have broke the story much earlier if she had asked the right question. On their initial meeting Brendas first question was 'Are nuclear weapons stored on the site' to which Jim was not at liberty to say, and thus the conversation ended. If she had asked about the events in the forest, Jim could have responded freely!
Notes:
It is without a doubt that this event has a huge amount of witnesses both military and civilian and it must be said that SOMETHING out of the ordinary happened 30 years ago. The theories that have been put forward to explain the events leave a lot to be desired. The most documented is the lighthouse theory, that the witnesses mistook the Ordfordness Lighthouse beam as the mystery lights in the forest. This, on reflection, does seem rather ludicrous and if it was the case then for over an hour trained airmen were deceived by a lighthouse. I have to admit given the right conditions Orfordness Lighhouse can produce some stunning effects - I have seen its beam reflecting off low cloud layers as fas inland as Stowmarket - but it is easily recognisable that it is a beam from a lighthouse. Being in the forest on this occassion we did not even see the lighthouse beam from East Gate and John Burroughs related that it could not be detected until you were at the eastern edge of the forest. A more recent theory is that it was a prank from the 67th Squadron based at Bentwaters who took up a helicoptor with a dummy Apollo capsule chained below it. It is claimed that this hit one of the landing lights and had to be jetisonned in the forest. Jim Penniston said it was his duty to check on the landing lights and none were damaged - this he recorded in his notebook. It was also pointed out by John Burroughs as to the quietness of the forest at night and even with 50+ people there it was indeed very quiet. Surely a helicopter in such peaceful environment would have been easy to detect, especially for trained airmen.
John Burroughs refused to speculate over an explanation although he did express that so called 'spook lights' did offer an explanation for the static electricity that he experienced in the area. Spook Lights, I think I am correct in saying, are a sort of ball lightning or plasma and is the US term for what is known in England as Wil-o-the-wisp or Jack-o-lanterns or more locally to Suffolk as Hobby Lanterns. There are similar reports of such lights in this area throughout history and I have heard of reports of balls of light floating across the sea. Indeed, there is a section on Orford Ness named the Lantern Marshes which predates the lighthouse.
No reference was made to the late 1990s mystery lights over Sizewell. Here, triangular craft were seen to hover over the Power Stations and a video of one of these landing is in existence. It would be interesting to conduct an anlysis of the similarities of these events given their close proximity. Unfortunately the original investigators have not been seen or heard from in recent times.
It was interesting to note that both Jim Penniston and John Burroughs made the claim that Col Holt was implicated in the cover-up and that it was Holt who had prevented the direct meeting between Jim and John until earlier this year. This meeting, which was the to discuss the conference was to reveal the digital codes that Jim had unwittingly taken down.
It is my personal opinion that I dont think that anything conclusive will ever be proved due to the nature of the parties involved (USAF/MoD) and the secrecy that has surrounded the events. Something undoudtedly happened which has haunted its principle witnesses and you cannot dispute their testimonies.
Videos:
John Burroughs and Jim Penniston led the conference to the East Gate where everything began 30 years ago. In this video he explains what happened on that first night.
Videos:
Jim Penniston led the conference to the East Gate where everything began 30 years ago. In this video he explains what happened on that first night.
Returning eastwards along the track from East Gate we stopped at the junctin with the road down to the campsite. As the forest was very wet with a lot of ice undefoot, for safety concerns the story, teken up by Jim Penniston, continued from this point.
more from East Gate
audio part 1
audio part 2
audio part 3
audio part 4
more from East Gate
View Rendlesham Incident 1980 in a larger map
No comments:
Post a Comment