Rendlesham Shock

Rendlesham shock: 'CIA showed up after UK UFO sighting and witnesses were never the same'

CIA officers mysteriously turned up after the infamous Rendlesham UFO sighting, and afterwards three key witnesses were never the same again, it has sensationally been claimed.

Colonel Charles Halt, a fourth witness to the mysterious event, made the shock statement as he returned to the site near Woodbridge in Suffolk nearly 37 years on.

The Rendlesham legend has been dubbed Britain's Roswell - after the mystery UFO crash which was said to have happened outside the town in New Mexico, USA, in July 1947.

The UK alien sighting n the Suffolk forest is said to involve three USAF officers based at RAF Bentwaters who claimed a "triangular shaped craft" landed in neighbouring woods in the early hours of December 26 1980.

The three airmen - John Burroughs, Bud Steffens, and James Penniston - who first saw the lights and then a UFO "on the floor" could not account for a 40 minute period while searching in the woods when their communication systems went "off air", it is claimed.

The three later told of feeling "static" as they observed the object's flashing lights and hieroglyphic-like markings.

Mr Halt became involved on the evening of December 27 1980 after officers had shouted: "It's back, the UFO's back."

The mysterious sighting was later explained away by the MoD as light beams from nearby Orford Ness lighthouse, but believers claim this is a ludicrous explanation.

Mr Halt, who as deputy commander of the Bentwaters and nearby Woodbridge bases is one of the US's former most senior military men to go public on UFOs, told the East Anglian Daily Times: “Whatever we saw was under intelligent control.

“The story has become muddied over the years."

He revealed that after the first night of sightings, officials from the US CIA were sent over and suggested they may have interfered with the three airmen.

He added: "I still don’t know why the CIA turned up here after the first night – and what was done to the three airmen, who have never been the same.”

In 2015, Mr Burroughs won compensation for illnesses he blamed on exposure to radiation from the event.

Mr Halt, who returned to the scene with UFO investigators who are working on a new book, added: "It brings back old memories."

After becoming involved Mr Halt recorded the events unfolding and wrote a memo for the Ministry of Defence (MoD) about the incident.

Known as the Halt Tape it was released a year later.

He said: "I never intended for it to get out.

“I did all I could to keep my memo private."

Initially he was sceptical of what the three men claimed.

He said: “When the three individuals came back, the desk sergeant and I had a chuckle and agreed there must be a logical explanation.

“The next day, we realised all the military cops were looking to the skies. 

"[Lieutenant] Bruce Englund came in and said ‘it’s back’. That’s when I became involved.

“I was very much a sceptic and expected to find nothing."

He went to investigate with a team who found three 1.5inch "impact holes," damage to the canopies of trees and "higher radiation levels" in the "landing" area.

A plaster cast was later taken of one of the holes, but mysteriously disappeared from a box it was stored in.

He said soon after they saw a mysterious object in a field between the woods and a farmhouse with "a red light moving".

He said: "It came towards us into the forest, moving, bobbing up and down in the trees. It was oval, about 100 to 150 yards away, with a dark centre and red around it."

He claimed there were "sparks" coming from it and after a minute it "exploded and disappeared".

They then spotted objects in the sky, 3,000 to 4,000ft up.

One was "elliptical", but became a "full circle".

Also on the visit was Gary Baker, a radar operator at RAF Neatishead from 1978-1980.

Mr Baker, from Ipswich, returned from leave at the end of 1980 and got caught up in the aftermath of Rendlesham.

He says there was an attempt at a cover up, and was told “this never happened” by RAF officers.

He also claims that radar tapes and bridge logs from the night mysteriously vanished.

He said: "Whatever the radar picked up, it wasn’t a subject of interest for interceptor aircraft because it didn’t come from the east – this was the height of the Cold War.

“It would have been sensible to quash any evidence. If something had happened, and it wasn’t picked up, it would have showed we weren’t capable of dealing with something from ‘above’.

“Later, I read the MoD said the radar had been switched off at the time, which is a load of rubbish.

“I’m no UFO nut, but something extraordinary happened here – outside the parameters of manned aircraft.”

Rendlesham remains one of the world's most perplexing unsolved UFO cases.

Investigators hope 18 confidential files set for release by the MoD will be able to shed more light on the case.