www.ufomatrix.

com Volume 1 Issue 3

EXCLUSIVE THE LATEST

UFO LANDING ALIEN IMPLANT
AT WOODBRIDGE SURGERY FROM
New witnesses. DR ROGER LEIR
A new investigation
by John Hanson.

UFO
FACE–OFF.
Scotland’s Livingston
Incident Debated.
UFO REPORTS David Slater &
Malcolm Robinson.
from Malaysia & Brazil

Bentwaters
screenplay underway. Gary Heseltine reports.

Sgt John Burroughs Interview

Firsthand eyewitness. An interview by Philip Mantle.

UK £5.99

Bentwaters 30th
Anniversary Edition

44
06 AND NOW THE NEWS…
The latest ufological news from around
the globe by Steve Johnson.
10 REPORTS FROM PUERTO RICO
1987 - 1997: Puerto Rico's Incredible
Decade. Ten years of UFO sightings go
under the spotlight by Scott Corrales.
16 NICK POPE MOD FILES
The Rendlesham Forest Incident. Nick
Pope starts our look at the 30th
anniversary of this landmark event.
04 UFO MATRIX
20 PHILIP GARDNER
Sceptic's Guide. Philip Gardiner tries to
restore the balance with his down-to-
earth look at things.
24 THE LIVINGSTON INCIDENT
The Livingston Incident - A new
perspective from Malcolm Robinson.
28 THE LIVINGSTON INCIDENT EXPLAINED?
Spaceships, Spheres and the Devil's Herb.
A possible explanation for the Livingston
Incident by David Slater.
54
16
32 PORTER’S WOOD UFO LANDING, SUFFOLK
Report of a UFO landing and occupants
seen in Porter's Wood, Woodbridge,
Suffolk in December 1980. Are there more
witnesses to the Rendlesham events? An
exclusive from John Hanson.
36 OZ COLUMN
Help, some of our pineapples are
missing! Our regular column from down-
under takes a look at some very curious
UFO sightings around some very curious
looking landforms.

32
38 RENDLESHAM FOREST SCREENPLAY
Three Nights in December. Gary Heseltine
updates us on his efforts to turn the
Rendlesham events into a movie and his
recent meeting with Colonel Halt.
43 SUBSCRIBE TODAY!
44 MIKE HALLOWELL, BACKLIGHT
Mike Hallowell's cold case review
looks back at some intriguing close
encounter cases.
48 CASH-LANDRUM CASE
The Cash-Landrum case by Steven S. Bass.
A unique close encounter case from the
USA that took place around the same
time as the Rendlesham events.
50 CLAS SVAHN COLUMN
Clas Svahn delves once again into the
archives and brings us yet more
fascinating UFO cases from around
Scandinavia and Europe.
54 ALIEN IMPLANTS, WHAT HAVE WE
LEARNED?
Dr Roger Leir details two recent surgeries
to remove alleged alien implants.
CONTENTS
Volume 1 Issue 3
60 UFO PHOTOS FROM MALAYSIA 82 JOHN BURROUGHS INTERVIEW
Ahmad Jamaludin takes us around Philip Mantle takes the opportunity to
Malaysia looking at some of the interview John Burroughs, one of the
photographic evidence there for UFOs. principle witnesses to the Rendlesham
Forest UFO sightings.
64 SCIENTIFIC RENDLESHAM?
The Rendlesham Forest Incident: A 85 MAILBOX (READER’S LETTERS)
Scientists View. Astrophysicist Andrew Your letters to UFO MATRIX.
Pike looks at the possible scientific
explanations for the Rendlesham 87 THE RENDLESHAM FILES
Forest sightings. Dr David Clarke offers his latest sceptical
look at Britain's most famous UFO event,
69 UFO MATRIX EXCLUSIVE!!! Rendlesham.
70 READERS UFO SIGHTINGS 94 COMPETITION
A look at some UFO sightings reported More books up for grabs in our
by the readers of UFO MATRIX. competition!
74 PETER ROBBINS: ON ASSIGNMENT 95 COMING NEXT ISSUE
Rendlesham at Thirty: Why Larry What to expect in our fact
Warren continues to matter. Peter packed issue 4.
Robbins discusses the contribution to
the Rendlesham Forest Incident by 96 REVIEWS
Larry Warren. Our resident
reviewer Kevin
79 BRAZIL - THE PLACE FOR UFOs. Goodman casts
Thiago Luiz Ticchetti takes an in-depth his eyes over
look at UFO sightings around Brasilia, his the latest
nations capital. ufological releases.
UFO MATRIX 05
HEALINGS OF ATLANTIS, SPONSORS OF THE STONE
MoD X-Files
The Rendlesham Forest Incident by Nick Pope
Introduction
December, 2010, is the thirtieth anniversary of
Britain’s best-known and most compelling UFO
case, known in the UK as the Rendlesham
Forest Incident, though often referred to by
Americans as the Bentwaters Incident. In this
article, I intend to give an overview of the case,
focus on the official Ministry of Defence (MoD)
and United States Air Force (USAF)
investigations and then assess some of the
sent out to investigate. Two of them
approached the light and encountered a small,
triangular-shaped craft that had landed in a
clearing. Nearby farm animals were going into a
frenzy. One of the security police officers, Jim
Penniston, got close enough to touch the side
of the object. He and another of the airmen
present, John Burroughs, attached sketches of
the craft to the witness statements they
subsequently made. Penniston’s sketch includes
Rendlesham beams of light (artist impression): Modo

theories that have been put forward to explain
what happened.
The First Night
In the early hours of 26th December, 1980,
military personnel at the twin bases of RAF
Bentwaters and RAF Woodbridge (UK bases
operated by the USAF), in Suffolk, saw a strange
light in Rendlesham Forest, which lies between
the two bases. Acting on the possibility that an
aircraft might have crashed, three men were
strange symbols that he saw on the craft’s hull,
which he likened to Egyptian hieroglyphs.
The Second Night
Two nights later, the UFO returned. The Deputy
Base Commander, Lieutenant Colonel Charles
Halt, was informed and, together with a small
group of men, went out into the forest to
investigate. As they progressed, radio
communications were subjected to
interference and powerful mobile generators
(called light-alls), that Halt had brought to
illuminate the forest, began to cut out. Despite
his initial plan to “debunk” the UFO sighting, Halt
and his team then encountered the UFO,
which, at one point, fired beams of light down
at his party and, later on, at the Woodbridge
facility. “Here I am, a senior official who routinely
denies this sort of thing and diligently works to
debunk them and I’m involved in the middle of

16 UFO MATRIX
 MOD X-FILES

something I can’t explain,” he subsequently

commented.
Halt had taken a hand-held tape recorder
into the forest with him to document his
investigation. This tape is now in the public
domain and one can hear the rising tension in
his voice and the voices of his men as the UFO
approaches:
“I see it too... It’s back again... It’s coming this
way... There’s no doubt about it... This is weird... It
looks like an eye winking at you... It almost
burns your eyes... He’s coming toward us now...
Now we’re observing what appears to be a
beam coming down to the ground... One
object still hovering over Woodbridge base...
beaming down.”

The MoD Investigation

Charles Halt reported the various incidents to
the MoD in a memorandum dated 13th January,
1981. Despite the innocuous title, “Unexplained
Lights”, the document described the UFO as
being “metallic in appearance and triangular in
shape... hovering or on legs”. In what may have
been either a typographical error or a slip of the
memory, Halt gave incorrect dates for both
sightings, recording each as having taken place
a day later than was, in fact, the case.
The MoD’s investigation included an
inconclusive search for radar evidence that
might have corroborated what was seen, but
the error in the dates meant the wrong tapes
were checked. Of far more interest was an
assessment of radiation readings that had been
taken from the landing site with a Geiger
counter. The readings had peaked in three
holes in the ground, which formed the shape of
an equilateral triangle, which had been found at
the spot where the craft landed. The Defence
Intelligence Staff stated that the readings
seemed “significantly higher than the average
background”. Their report suggested that the
radiation was between seven and eight times
what would have been expected for the area
concerned. This official assessment is now in
the public domain, as the MoD’s case file on the
including Base Commander, Colonel Ted
Conrad, and Chief of Security Police, Major
Malcolm Zickler, were undertaking separate
investigations. It is also alleged that the Air
Force Office of Special Investigations was
involved, along with other unidentified
agencies.
Shortly after the event, General Gabriel,
Commander in Chief, United States Air Forces in
Europe, visited the bases and took possession
of Charles Halt’s tape recording. This is
confirmed in a document in MoD’s case file, but
it is not known if other material relating to the
incident was involved or what further action
was taken.
Cold Case Review
In 1994, I undertook what police would call a
‘cold case review’ of the Rendlesham Forest
Incident. What I found shocked me. It was soon
clear that the original investigation had been
fundamentally flawed by procedural errors,
Craft symbols artist
impression: David Sankey
delay and poor information-sharing. The USAF
had not cordoned-off the landing site, taken
soil samples or used a metal detector to search
the area. The incident was not reported to the
MoD until nearly three weeks after the events
and, when it was, the dates in the official USAF
report were incorrect. The USAF didn’t pass the
witness statements (including Jim Penniston’s
sketch, which would have made it abundantly
clear to everyone that a structured craft was
involved) to the MoD, nor did they tell MoD
until some time later that General Gabriel had
been given evidence relating to the case, which
had not been passed to MoD.
MoD, too, had committed errors. The
Defence Intelligence Staff assessment of the
radiation levels at the landing site had not been
passed to the USAF. Critically, no follow-up
interviews were conducted with Halt or any of
the witnesses. The fact that the USAF had been
so slow to report to the MoD may have been a
factor here, as the clear implication was that the

“
event was released to author, Georgina Bruni,
and to other UFO researchers in 2001. I see it too... It’s back again... It’s coming this
way... There’s no doubt about it... This is weird... It
The USAF Investigation
In parallel to the MoD investigation, Charles Halt looks like an eye winking at you... It almost burns
undertook his own inquiry, interviewing
Penniston and Burroughs and taking formal
your eyes... He’s coming toward us now... Now
statements from them and three other airmen, we’re observing what appears to be a beam coming
who had been involved in the first night’s
activity. However, some of the USAF witnesses
down to the ground... One object still hovering

”
have claimed that other senior officers, over Woodbridge base... beaming down
UFO MATRIX 17

Craft symbols
line drawing
events were not judged to be of any concern.
In fact, the delay was a consequence of Halt’s
uncertainty about how to proceed, given the
unprecedented nature of the events. The
person whom he needed to ask, the RAF
Liaison Officer, Squadron Leader Donald
Moreland, was on leave.
Most of these failings resulted from
confusion about jurisdiction, though my
assessment was that both the US and the UK
had jurisdiction (jurisdiction can be concurrent
– i.e. shared) but that the UK had primacy – i.e.
should have led the investigation.
In fact, each party thought the other should
take (and was taking) the lead. The MoD view
seemed to be that the USAF had matters in
hand. But when the senior USAF officer in the
UK, General Robert Bazley, was briefed on the
incident by the officer in overall command of
the twin bases, Colonel Gordon Williams, he
stated, “It’s a Brit affair”, on the basis that the
incident had occurred off-base.
It’s well-documented that policy – both in
MoD and in the USAF – was to ‘play down’ the
UFO phenomenon and the extent of official
involvement with the subject. Therefore, it
suited each party to drop the matter, on the
assumption that the other had lead
responsibility.
The Believers
A number of exotic theories have been
suggested in an attempt to explain the
Rendlesham Forest Incident. These include
18 UFO MATRIX
extraterrestrial visitation, inter-dimensional
activity and even the involvement of time
travellers from the future. Intriguingly, this latter
theory has found favour with two of the key
witnesses, Jim Penniston and John Burroughs.
Even the ever-cautious Charles Halt, while
choosing his words carefully, states, “I still have
no idea what we saw that night. It must have
been beyond our technology... I do know one
thing, without a doubt: these objects were
under intelligent control.”
Exotic theories are put forward on the basis
that no conventional explanation seems to
satisfactorily explain what occurred. However, as
I know from my own official UFO investigations,
when a sighting cannot be explained in
conventional terms, it can only ever be
legitimately categorised as “unknown”. Anything
else is only a guess.
The Sceptics
A number of theories have been put forward by
sceptics, in an attempt to provide a
conventional explanation for what happened.
The most serious allegation is that alcohol
and/or hallucinogenic drugs had played a part
in this. It would be foolish to suggest that
excessive drinking and illegal drug-taking never
occurred at Bentwaters and Woodbridge.
However, there is no evidence to suggest any of
the witnesses were drunk or had taken illegal
drugs. Moreover, security police and law
enforcement personnel are routinely checked
for any indications of drink or drugs before
going on duty.
Two other suggestions are that the incident
was caused by a prank involving a police car
with its flashing lights being used to spook
personnel on guard duty or a stolen truck of
manure that was set on fire in Rendlesham
Forest. In evidential terms, both theories hang
on unsubstantiated claims from a single
individual. There is no evidence that such a
prank or a crime ever occurred, let alone
evidence that such events – even if they did
take place, as claimed – had anything to do
with the Rendlesham Forest Incident.
Astronomical events such as meteors,
fireballs and rocket re-entries have also been
proposed, but such events are short-lived and it
is very difficult to see how any such events
would be compatible with what the witnesses
saw and the time period over which their
experiences occurred.
The best-known sceptical theory is that the
witnesses misidentified the Orford Ness
lighthouse (or possibly the nearby Shipwash
lightship). This idea was first proposed by local
forester, Vince Thurkettle, but seems unlikely.
The lighthouse was a well-known local feature
and not one likely to confuse the witnesses.
Furthermore, it isn’t visible from most of the
locations where the witnesses actually were.
The lighthouse cannot possibly explain Charles
Halt’s sighting of a UFO firing beams down at
them from above (“lighthouses don’t fly” was his
terse response to the suggestion) or hovering
over the base at Woodbridge. Indeed, at one
point Halt stated he saw the lighthouse to one
side of the UFO – proving that they were not
one and the same. On a personal note, I have
filmed in Rendlesham Forest several times for
various TV documentaries and news features.
Where the lighthouse is visible from the forest
at all, it appears in the distance, as a tiny
pinprick of light.
Possible Military Explanations
Two suggestions have been made involving
unusual military activity that might explain
events. The first is that the craft was a secret,
prototype aircraft or drone, probably American,
but perhaps even Soviet – might the symbols
that Jim Penniston saw have been Cyrillic
script? The second theory is that the events
were caused by some sort of psyop
(psychological operation), where the witnesses
were used as ‘guinea pigs’ to see how they
would respond to an unusual experience,
perhaps involving apparently solid objects
being generated by holographic technology –

Pope, Penniston & Halt.
a so-called ‘ghost gun’.
The problem with these theories is that
there’s no evidence to support them, either in
terms of personal testimony or documentation.
Moreover, if a psyop or a secret US aircraft or
drone was responsible, it’s most unlikely that a
UFO report would have been sent to the MoD,
which might have set all sorts of hares running.
If rumours of a psyop or a secret aircraft/drone
were circulating among USAF personnel or
among the local population, it might arguably
make sense to launch a counter-intelligence
operation and ‘rebrand’ the event as a UFO
sighting, but there’s no evidence that any such
rumours had started.
A Soviet aircraft/drone is a slightly more
plausible theory. This was a time of high
international tension and the
Bentwaters/Woodbridge bases were two of the
most important military facilities in the UK.
Critically, all governments involved would have
had good reason for saying nothing or even
developing a cover story. The Soviets would not
admit to having been conducting espionage
activity of this sort, while the US and the UK
would have been horrified that the UK’s Air
Defence Region had been penetrated with
such ease and would not wish any knowledge
of such a security breach to circulate among
junior military personnel (for morale reasons) or
to become public knowledge. But I should
stress that this is speculation. As I say, I am
aware of no documentary evidence or personal
testimony that would support this
interpretation of events.
Rendlesham + 30
On the thirtieth anniversary of these
events, some of the witnesses are not
coping well. Some are angry. Others
still show signs of Post-Traumatic Stress
Disorder. People such as Jim
Penniston, John Burroughs and Larry
Warren all claim they were let down
by the chain of command, which failed to
provide proper support after the events. There
are more serious accusations that some
witnesses were subjected to interrogations in
“
A number of theories have been put forward
by sceptics, in an attempt to provide a
conventional explanation for what happened. The
most serious allegation is that alcohol and/or
hallucinogenic drugs had played a part in this. It
would be foolish to suggest that excessive drinking
and illegal drug-taking never occurred at
Bentwaters and Woodbridge.
which threats and drugs were used, perhaps to
uncover the truth about what they saw or,
perhaps, to obscure it.
Some witnesses are calling for Congressional
hearings about this and there has even been
the suggestion of legal action. A Facebook
group, entitled “Justice for the Bentwaters 81st
Security Police at Rendlesham Forest 1980” is at
the heart of campaigning and, as I write this
article, has nearly 3500 members – a figure that
is rising every day.
While talk of Congressional hearings and
legal action may seem far-fetched, the door
may have been opened to such an outcome as
a result of an extraordinarily frank comment
from Charles Halt. Writing in a chapter of Leslie
Kean’s new book, UFOs: Generals, Pilots and
Government Officials Go on the Record, he made
the following statement:
“OSI [Office of Special Investigations]
operatives harshly interrogated five young
airmen, some of them in shock at the time, who
were key witnesses.”
Halt went on to write:
“Drugs, such as sodium pentothal, often called a
“truth serum” when used with some form of
brainwashing or hypnosis, were administered
MOD X-FILES
during these interrogations and the whole
thing has had damaging, and lasting, effects on
the men involved.”
Conclusion
The Rendlesham Forest Incident remains
unexplained. This is one of the few things one
can say with any degree of certainty about
these events. Theories – whether they are about
extraterrestrials, lighthouses, time travellers from
the future, burning trucks of manure, psyops,
practical jokes or secret prototype drones – are
just that, theories and nothing more.
Georgina Bruni once called Rendlesham
“Britain’s Roswell”. She was right, but not just in
”
the sense that she meant it, i.e. in terms of the
case being significant and well-known. Other
parallels can be drawn. New witnesses will
emerge, some genuine and some not.
Additional documents may come to light. New
theories will be put forward. In time, the
fortieth anniversary will come and then the
fiftieth. Witnesses will pass on, until, eventually,
nobody directly involved will remain. Ultimately,
like Roswell, the events will pass from history
into legend.
NICK POPE: (UK) The
Real X-Files. Author,
journalist and
broadcaster Nick
Pope commentates
extensively in the
media on the
unexplained,
conspiracy theories, fringe science,
space and science fiction. He worked for
the Ministry of Defence for 21 years and
from 1991 to 1994 was responsible for
investigating UFOs, alien abductions,
crop circles and other mysteries.
www.nickpope.net
UFO MATRIX 19
 www.ufomatrix.com
www.healingsofatlantis.com
 COMING NEXT ISSUE

Issue
Coming Next

Ancient Astronauts
ET contact from Peru
The Fatima Apparitions
The McMinnville photos revisited
Detecting UFOS
Interview with James Gilliland
UFO MATRIX 95