Rendlesham Forest Incident – Eyewitness Accounts

The Rendlesham Forest Incident is one of the best documented and most interesting cases in history. Several United States Air Force officers and trained military policemen who were witnesses to a UFO – up close and personal.

This article has been reproduced by Haunted Auckland courtesy of The Rendlesham Forest Incident – Official Wesbite.

Rendlesham Forest
Rendlesham Forest – Photo courtesy of Matthew Sheppard / The Rendlesham Forest Incident – Official Website

The event occurred between the Christmas and New Year’s holidays in 1980. While stationed at RAF Bentwaters, a former U.S. Air Force facility in the United Kingdom, Penniston witnessed a landed UFO with two military patrolmen in the adjacent Rendlesham Forest.

He conducted a 45-minute ground investigation and filed an official report. Penniston has the original log book with drawings, including details of symbols on the side of the craft; radiation records; and plaster casts of landing gear imprints that were on the ground.

Solid evidence by trained military security forces was taken in this high profile UFO case.
Penniston is the only person out of the three witnesses that actually touched the UFO.

At the time, Penniston was the senior security officer in charge of base security at RAF Woodbridge, and held Top Secret U.S. and NATO security clearances. He was in charge of the air police team called out to investigate unexplained lights in the Rendlesham Forest, assumed at first to be an aircraft crash.

Instead, he and the two others found the strange triangular craft resting on three legs.
“There was a bright light emanating from an object on the forest floor . . . a silhouetted triangular craft about 9 feet long by 6.5 feet high, which came into clear view. The craft was fully intact sitting in a small clearing inside the woods,” Penniston said. “As we neared the craft, we started experiencing radio problems and so set up a communications relay system.”

As Staff Sergeant Penniston and Airman First Class Edward Cabansag proceeded toward the craft, they saw blue and yellow lights swirling around its surface and he said the air felt electrically charged.
Sgt. Penniston conducted a thorough on-site investigation, making notes in his notebook and taking photographs (which were blurred out on return from the photo lab).

On one side, a group of pictorial symbols about three inches’ high and 2- 1/2 feet long were etched into the surface of the craft. Penniston said it felt warm to the touch and it felt like metal.
“After about 45 minutes the light from the craft began to intensify,” Penniston said.

As the men took cover, it lifted off the ground, not making any sounds, maneuvered through the trees and “shot off at an unbelievable rate of speed.”

More than 80 air policemen assigned to the 81st Security Police Squadron witnessed the takeoff, he said.
“This encounter was no type of aircraft that I have ever seen before,” Sgt. Penniston said. “The information acquired during the investigation was reported through military channels. The team and other witnesses were told to treat the investigation as ‘Top Secret’ and no further discussion was allowed.”
The rest is UFO history.

James Penniston, United State Air Force, Security Forces, Retired is one of the witnesses who has come forward. This case could eventually help blow the lid off of the UFO government cover-up.

James Penniston discusses the incident at the National Press Club

James Penniston
Sgt.James Penniston discusses the incident at the National Press Club in 2007 / The Rendlesham Forest Incident – Official Website

My name is James Penniston, United States Air Force Retired.

In 1980, I was assigned to the largest Tactical Fighter Wing in the Air Force, RAF Woodbridge in England. I was the senior security officer in charge of base security.

At that time I held a top-secret US and NATO security clearance and was responsible for the protection of war-making resources for that base.

Shortly after midnight on the 26th of December, 1980, Staff Sergeant Steffens briefed me that some lights were seen in Rendlesham Forest, just outside the base. He informed me that what ever it was didn’t crash…it landed. I discounted what he said and reported to the control center back at the base that we had a possible downed aircraft. I then ordered Amn. Cabanzak, AIC Burroughs to respond with me.

When we arrived near the suspected crash site it quickly became apparent that we were not dealing with a plane crash or anything else we’d ever responded to. There was a bright light emanating from an object on the forest floor. As we approached it on foot, a silhouetted triangular craft about 9 feet long by 6.5 feet high, came into view. The craft was fully intact sitting in a small clearing inside the woods.

As the three of us got closer to the craft we started experiencing problems with our radios. I then asked Cabansag to relay radio transmissions back to the control center. Burroughs and I proceeded towards the craft.

When we came up on the triangular shaped craft there were blue and yellow lights swirling around the exterior as though part of the surface and the air around us was electrically charged. We could feel it on our cloths, skin and hair. Nothing in my training prepared me for what we were witnessing.

After ten minutes without any apparent aggression, I determined the craft was non hostile to my team or to the base. Following security protocol, we completed a thorough on-site investigation, including a full physical examination of the craft. This included photographs, notebook entries, and radio relays through airman Cabansag to the control center as required. On one side of the craft were symbols that measured about 3 inches high and two and a half feet across.

These symbols were pictorial in design; the largest symbol was a triangle, which was centered in the middle of the others. These symbols were etched into the surface of the craft, which was warm to the touch and felt like metal.

The feeling I had during this encounter was no type of aircraft that I’ve eve seen before.

After roughly 45 minutes the light from the craft began to intensify. Burroughs and I then took a defensive position away from the craft as it lifted off the ground without any noise or air disturbance. It maneuvered through the trees and shot off at an unbelievable rate of speed. It was gone in the blink of an eye.

In my logbook, (that I have right here) I wrote, Speed: IMPOSSIBLE. Over 80 Air Force Personnel, all trained observers assigned to the 81st Security Police Squadron, witnessed the takeoff.

The information acquired during the investigation was reported through military channels. The team and witnesses were told to treat the investigation as “top secret” and no further discussion was allowed.

The photos we retrieved from the base lab (two rolls of 35 mm) were apparently over exposed.

 

Original article is available at The Rendlesham Forest Incident – Official Website.

4 Comments

  1. Pingback: 10 Paranormal Events Witnessed By Police - JustTopTens.com

  2. Pingback: 10 Paranormal Events Witnessed By Police | AbcNewsInsider #1 sources for news

  3. Pingback: 10 Paranormal Events Witnessed By Police – BABYBUZZ

  4. Ken

    Although intriguing, the witness accounts keep changing over time, getting more elaborate, and not like they are remembering more, just embellishing more for another TV or movie pay check.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *