Rendlesham Forest: US Airmen Chased a Glowing Triangle Through an English Forest. One of Them Wrote It Was a Lighthouse
What the record shows
- When: 26–28 December 1980
- Key record: Lt Col Charles Halt’s memo “Unexplained Lights”, 13 January 1981
- Status: Unexplained officially; disputed
Still uncertain
- What the three patrolmen first saw descending into the forest.
- What made the three marks in the pine needles.
- Why the ministry chose not to ask for Halt’s tape.
Narrated Mystery: press play and hear the whole case read aloud, like a true crime podcast episode, or an audiobook for a long drive (about 10 minutes). The narrator is an AI voice.
Listen to the narration above first, then read along. The key words are underlined in the story.
- leasedrented for use over a long period
- coincidedhappened at the same time
- illuminatedlit up with light
- maneuveredmoved carefully around things in its way
- run-of-the-millordinary, not special in any way
- sceptica person who doubts claims until there is proof
- circulatedpassed from person to person
- intervalthe time between two repeated events
1. Who used the Woodbridge and Bentwaters bases?
They were British airfields leased to the US Air Force.
2. What happened in the sky at the time of the first sighting, about 3 a.m.?
An exceptionally bright meteor burned up over southern England.
3. How often did the flashing light blink, according to the sceptic’s timing?
About once every five seconds, matching the Orford Ness lighthouse.
Late in December 1980, outside RAF Woodbridge in Suffolk, US airmen followed lights into Rendlesham Forest. Their deputy base commander later filed a memo titled “Unexplained Lights.”
Lights beyond the back gate
Around three in the morning on Friday 26 December 1980, Boxing Day, two US Air Force security patrolmen at RAF Woodbridge in Suffolk saw lights coming down into the forest outside the base’s back gate.
Woodbridge and its twin base, Bentwaters, were British airfields leased to the US Air Force. Beyond the fence lay Rendlesham Forest, rows of dark pine running toward the North Sea coast.
The lights looked like they were sinking among the trees. A plane in trouble, maybe.
Within three weeks, the deputy base commander would put his name to a one-page memo about what happened next. He called it “Unexplained Lights.” (SKUK) (WEEK) (PG-MEMO)
Three men on foot
Three patrolmen went out to look: Staff Sergeant Jim Penniston, Airman First Class John Burroughs and Airman Ed Cabansag.
They could not drive in. They walked, with flashlights, along the tracks into the pines.
The memo would later date this night to 27 December. The airmen, the police and later researchers put it on the 26th. Even the calendar of this case does not agree with itself. (SKUK) (WEEK) (PG-MEMO)
“Metallic in appearance and triangular in shape”
What the patrol reported is set down in the memo in plain military language.
“The object was described as being metallic in appearance and triangular in shape, approximately two to three meters across the base and approximately two meters high. It illuminated the entire forest with a white light.”
It had, the memo says, “a pulsing red light on top and a bank(s) of blue lights underneath. The object was hovering or on legs.”
Then, “as the patrolmen approached the object, it maneuvered through the trees and disappeared.” (PG-MEMO) (BV)
The animals on the farm
At that moment, the memo goes on, “the animals on the nearby farm went into a frenzy.”
About an hour later the object was “briefly sighted” again near the back gate.
That is the version in the official memo. The airmen’s own written statements tell a slightly different story. (PG-MEMO)
Two miles to a lighthouse
John Burroughs wrote a statement about the chase. One line in it has followed the case ever since.
“We followed it for about 2 miles before we could see it was coming from a lighthouse.”
Out on the coast, at Orford Ness, a lighthouse was flashing across the flat land.
The sceptic Ian Ridpath later pointed out something else. The first sighting at about 3 a.m. coincided with the burn-up of an exceptionally bright meteor over southern England. (SKUK) (WEEK)
The police arrive
Suffolk Police were called shortly after 4 a.m.
The officers who drove out reported that the only lights they could see were from the Orford Ness lighthouse. (WEEK) (WIKI)
Three marks in the pine needles
At half past ten that morning, police were called back to the forest to look at marks on the ground. Military witnesses also chased lights over Iran, where in 1976 an F-4 crew lost instruments and radio during the Tehran UFO jet chase, a case still unexplained today.
The memo describes them: “three depressions 1 1/2″ deep and 7″ in diameter were found where the object had been sighted on the ground.”
The police thought an animal could have made them. (WIKI) (PG-MEMO)
The deputy commander goes in
The next night, 27 to 28 December, the deputy base commander, Lieutenant Colonel Charles Halt, led a team into the forest himself.
He took a radiation survey meter. He also took a pocket tape recorder and talked into it as they walked, recording what they saw minute by minute.
His memo would place this second night on 29 December. Again, the dates drift. (SKUK) (WIKI) (PG-MEMO)
One side of the tree
According to the memo, “Beta/Gamma readings of 0.1 milliroentgens were recorded with peak readings in the three depressions.”
And: “A nearby tree had moderate (.05-.07) readings on the side of the tree toward the depressions.”
Later analysis described these figures as around normal background level. (PG-MEMO) (WIKI)
“Like an eye winking at you”
“Later in the night,” the memo says, “a red sun-like light was seen through the trees.”
On Halt’s tape, he describes it: “It looks like an eye winking at you.”
When a copy of the tape reached researchers in 1984, Ridpath timed the flashing light at about once every five seconds. That matches the Orford Ness lighthouse. (PG-MEMO) (SKUK) (WIKI)
Five white objects
In the memo, the red light moved, “and then broke into five separate white objects” before it disappeared.
Then, “three star-like objects were noticed in the sky.” Through an 8-12 power lens, the ones to the north “appeared to be elliptical.”
They “remained in the sky for an hour or more.” (PG-MEMO)
“A beam coming down to the ground”
The object to the south, the memo says, “was visible for two or three hours and beamed down a stream of light from time to time.”
On the tape: “Now we’re observing what appears to be a beam coming down to the ground.” Later: “0400 hours. One object still hovering over Woodbridge base.”
“Numerous individuals, including the undersigned, witnessed the activity,” Halt wrote. (PG-MEMO) (SKUK)
“Unexplained Lights”
On 13 January 1981 Halt signed the memo as Deputy Base Commander and sent it to the British RAF commander at the bases.
Two days later an RAF officer forwarded it to the Ministry of Defence in London. It was the first the ministry had heard of the events.
It was one page long. (BV) (PG-MEMO) (DC2020)
Filed with the ordinary reports
At the ministry, a junior civil servant circulated the memo. Radar records at RAF Watton and RAF Neatishead showed nothing unusual. Defence Intelligence did not follow up the radiation figures. Forty-six years later, federal agents reported a silent shape too, and we went through the Pentagon’s 2026 UFO files on the black triangle to see what they actually say.
Officials knew Halt had a tape, and decided not to ask for it.
The memo was “filed alongside other more run-of-the-mill reports” that came in that January. (DC2020) (DC2018)
“UFO lands in Suffolk”
For more than two years almost nobody outside the bases knew. Then an American researcher, Robert Todd, obtained the memo through a US Freedom of Information request.
On 2 October 1983 the News of the World ran it across the front page: “UFO LANDS IN SUFFOLK – AND THAT’S OFFICIAL!”
The Ministry of Defence said the matter was “of no defence significance.” (SKUK) (WIKI) (DC2020)
Stories that grew
Over the years, some accounts got bigger. Penniston later said he had touched a “craft of unknown origin.” The base commander at the time said Penniston never mentioned it when he was interviewed.
In 2010 Halt signed a sworn statement saying he believed the event was extraterrestrial and had been covered up. In 2015 he said radar operators told him they had tracked the object crossing their screen in two or three seconds. Neither claim is in the 1981 record.
A former security policeman, Kevin Conde, said he once staged a prank with patrol-car lights in the fog just after Christmas 1980. There is no evidence it happened on these nights.
In 2011, when the ministry’s UFO files went to The National Archives, a set of Defence Intelligence files covering 1980 to 1982 was missing. The historian David Clarke said they had most likely been judged not worth keeping and destroyed. (WIKI) (WEEK) (SKUK) (LS)
Rendlesham tonight
The bases closed long ago. The forest is still there, and so is the lighthouse on the coast, flashing at the same interval.
One side says a craft landed in an English forest and the evidence was buried. The other says three young airmen saw a meteor, then a lighthouse through the trees, on a cold night after Christmas.
A police constable who went back in daylight put his view in a letter years later. He “remains unconvinced that the occurrence was genuine.” (WIKI) (SKUK)
Case notes: a memo, a meteor and a lighthouse
At Christmas 1980, US airmen in England reported lights and an object in the forest next to their base. Their deputy commander wrote it up as “Unexplained Lights” (PG-MEMO) (SKUK).
Where the case stands (as of November 2026)
There is no official explanation. The Ministry of Defence said in 1983 that the events were “of no defence significance” (DC2020).
Sceptics point to a bright meteor and the Orford Ness lighthouse; some of the original witnesses insist they saw a craft (WEEK) (WIKI).
US airmen saw a metallic, triangular craft land in Rendlesham Forest in December 1980.
Timeline
| When | What happened |
|---|---|
| About 3 a.m., 26 Dec 1980 | Patrolmen at RAF Woodbridge see lights descending into Rendlesham Forest (SKUK) (WEEK) |
| Same night | Three patrolmen go in on foot; the memo describes a metallic, triangular object (PG-MEMO) |
| Shortly after 4 a.m. | Suffolk Police attend; they see only the Orford Ness lighthouse (WEEK) |
| 10:30 a.m., 26 Dec | Police called back to see marks on the ground; suspect an animal (WIKI) |
| Night of 27–28 Dec | Lt Col Halt leads a team in with a radiation meter and tape recorder (SKUK) (PG-MEMO) |
| 13 Jan 1981 | Halt signs the memo “Unexplained Lights” (BV) |
| 15 Jan 1981 | Memo forwarded to the Ministry of Defence (DC2020) |
| 1983 | Memo released through a US FOI request (SKUK) |
| 2 Oct 1983 | News of the World: “UFO LANDS IN SUFFOLK – AND THAT’S OFFICIAL!” (SKUK) (DC2020) |
| 1984 | A copy of Halt’s tape reaches researchers (WIKI) |
| 2001 / 2005 | MoD file and Suffolk police file released (WIKI) |
| 2011 | Defence Intelligence UFO files for 1980–82 found missing (LS) |
Evidence locker
Primary records and the closest copies we could trace. The document scan below is real; illustrations elsewhere in this file are AI-generated.
EXHIBIT DAccess: Copy (a scan of the memo; the original sits in the Ministry of Defence UFO files at The National Archives, Kew).
Supports: What the officer reported to the RAF two weeks after the events.
Limits: It puts both nights a day later than the airmen and police do, and the radiation figures were later described as around normal background level. A report is not proof of what was seen.
Access: Via a researcher who has worked through the released MoD files and interviewed the civil servant who handled them.
Supports: That the ministry saw the report and treated it as routine.
Limits: A historian’s reading of the file, not the file itself. Some Defence Intelligence files from 1980–82 were later found to be missing, and their contents are unknown.
Access: Via press (a reprint quoting the released statements).
Supports: That one first-night witness himself tied the light he chased to the lighthouse.
Limits: The airmen’s statements are undated, and later accounts by other witnesses changed over the decades.
Where the records disagree
| Detail | What sources say |
|---|---|
| The dates | Memo: 27 and 29 December; airmen, police and researchers: 26 December and the night of 27–28 (PG-MEMO) (SKUK) |
| What the patrol saw | A triangular craft (memo) or a meteor followed by the Orford Ness lighthouse (Ridpath, police, Burroughs’s own statement) (PG-MEMO) (SKUK) (WEEK) |
| The ground marks | “Three depressions” (memo) or animal diggings (police) (PG-MEMO) (WIKI) |
| The radiation | “Peak readings” in the marks (memo) or around normal background (later analysis) (PG-MEMO) (WIKI) |
| The missing files | A cover-up (believers) or routine destruction (David Clarke) (LS) |
| Later testimony | Touching a craft, a 2010 affidavit and a 2015 radar story all appear decades later (WIKI) (WEEK) |
What we still don’t know
- What the three patrolmen first saw descending into the forest.
- What made the three marks in the pine needles.
- Why the ministry chose not to ask for Halt’s tape.
- What was in the Defence Intelligence files that went missing.
What happened after
The ministry’s own Rendlesham file was released in 2001 and the Suffolk police file in 2005. The memo is now held at The National Archives (WIKI) (TNA) (DC2018).
Editor’s note
The lighthouse explanation makes more sense to us than its reputation suggests. A light moving between pine trunks at three in the morning is not the same thing as that light seen at noon, and once something has felt wrong in the dark, going back out to check it again is exactly what most of us would do. One of the airmen said in his own statement that they followed it for about two miles before they could see it was coming from a lighthouse. That counts for a lot.
What it doesn’t do is settle everything. One man reaching the lighthouse doesn’t automatically explain what the others described, or the marks in the pine needles, or what happened on the later night. We think the fair way to read this case is piece by piece: this sighting fits the Orford Ness beam well, this one fits it less well, and this one we can’t place at all.
The deputy commander’s memo is a good reason to take the case seriously. It isn’t proof of what the men saw. Between “they made it up” and “they saw a craft” there’s a lot of room, and most of it is taken up by people who really did see something and read it wrong: in a strange place, at night, each of them reacting partly to the man beside him. You can respect how real that night was for them and still ask whether the explanation holds.
And “no threat to national security” is not the same answer as “here is what it was.” The Ministry of Defence may well have answered its own question. The men in the forest were left holding theirs: so what did we see? We wouldn’t call that a cover-up. But if the ministry had said plainly why it judged there was no threat, and what it never managed to pin down, we suspect this case wouldn’t still feel unfinished more than forty years later.
Case file summary
- What: US airmen reported strange lights and an object in a forest beside their base
- Where: Rendlesham Forest, beside RAF Woodbridge and RAF Bentwaters, Suffolk, England
- When: 26–28 December 1980
- Key record: Lt Col Charles Halt’s memo “Unexplained Lights”, 13 January 1981
- Status: Unexplained officially; disputed
Illustrations are AI-generated artistic interpretations, not photos. No real person is depicted with a recognizable face. Read how we research and illustrate these files.
Sources
- The National Archives — UFO reports guide (MoD UFO files, DEFE 24)
- Halt memo “Unexplained Lights”, 13 Jan 1981, text transcription (P. Gross)
- The Halt Memo – The Rendlesham Forest Incident (scan, FOIA 97-F-1677), The Black Vault
- “From the archive: The Truth about Rendlesham”, The Skeptic (UK)
- “Rendlesham UFOs 40th anniversary: The Man from the Ministry speaks”, Dr David Clarke, 26 Dec 2020
- “Top 10 UFO documents at The National Archives”, Dr David Clarke, 15 Mar 2018
- “Rendlesham Forest: did UFO really land in Suffolk?”, The Week
- “UFO Cover-Up? Britain’s ‘Roswell Event’ Missing From Released Files”, Live Science, 4 Mar 2011
- Wikipedia, “Rendlesham Forest incident”
