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Rendlesham Forest UFO incident
My analysis of Col. Halt’s tape
This is my analysis of the tape recording made by Lt.Col. Charles Halt during
the Rendlesham Forest UFO incident, based on the three-page transcript I have made of the tape. I deal with each page of the transcript in turn.
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1. For most of the first page of my transcript we hear Halt and his men taking
geiger counter readings around the three indentations. Halt doesn’t sound very impressed with the indentations when he is first shown them: “Is that all the bigger they are?” he asks. Halt reports “minor readings” around the first of them (which they call ‘pod spots’). The second one is dismissed as “dead”.
2. They go to the centre of the triangle and report slightly higher readings.
Nevels gives the reading as “half a millirem”. This must mean 0.05 on their scale, as all the other readings are in the
region of three to four clicks (0.03–0.04), i.e. barely registering. For more on the radiation readings, and a
photograph of the dial of the instrument they were using, see here. Halt’s memo gives the peak reading as 0.1, but we don’t hear that called out on the tape.
3. They then go back towards what Halt calls the “number one indentation” and find similar readings to those in the centre.
4. Next they return to the centre and the needle jumps up towards seven tenths
(0.07). This jump did not happen the first time they were at the centre, so it
is clear this this is not a steady level. This is one of the few parts of the
tape on which clicks can be heard. They are not very numerous, confirming that
the levels were low.
5. They then make a sweep around the whole area but the impression is that they are
not finding anything of note. Halt says: “I’m going to shut the recorder off until we find something”. Nevels claims to be “picking up” but Halt notes “it’s still not going above three or four units”, i.e. the same “minor readings” they started with. Later in the tape (page 3 of the transcript) we hear them
getting the same readings as they move out across the field and past the farmer’s house into the next field beyond. In other words, these levels are simply
background.
6. Halt’s attention is drawn to some abrasions on the trees. Here he reveals some
knowledge of the countryside when he says: “I’ve never seen a pine tree that’s been damaged react that fast”. Quite right. We know that these abrasions were in fact axe marks in the bark
made by the local foresters to signify that these trees were ready for felling.
The trees were indeed cut down not long after the event for commercial sale as
timber.
7. They take samples from the trees, including sap. We’ve never heard any more about these samples, but since the marks were nothing to
do with the supposed UFO it hardly matters.
1. Page two of my transcript starts with them taking samples from the trees. There
is also mention of taking pictures.
2. They then start looking at the trees and the landing spots with the starscope.
Halt told me that Englund handed it to him and he handed it back after using
it. There’s talk about picking up a heat source but Halt says “It’s hardly heat at this stage of the game”. As far as I’m aware the starscope is only an image intensifier and not an infrared device.
Given that the marks on the trees were axe cuts they have no significance for
the case.
3. Halt looks up to see an opening in the trees above. He also reports “strange sounds out of the farmer’s barnyard animals”. These sounds might actually be due to animals in the forest such as muntjac
deer.
4. Englund points out a light between the trees. Presumably this is the light that
Englund had seen earlier when he called Halt out with the words “it’s back”. Why has it taken so long for them to point it out to him?
5. Englund says: “Right on this position here. Straight ahead, in between the trees – there it is again. Watch – straight ahead, off my flashlight there, sir. There it is.” As has been pointed out many times, the interval between “there it is again” and “there it is” is 5 seconds, the flash rate of the Orford Ness lighthouse. Chuck DeCaro of CNN
was the first to play this tape over footage of the lighthouse flashing and it
matched exactly. Since then others have done the same and found the same match.
6. For comparison, it seems that the witnesses on the first night were standing in
much the same place and seeing the same thing. In his witness statement, John
Burroughs says: “We got up to a fense (sic) that separated the trees from the open field and you
could see the lights down by a farmer’s house... Once we reached the farmer’s house we could see a beacon going around so we went towards it. We followed it
for about 2 miles before we could [see] it was comming (sic) from a light
house.” Cabansag said: “We would see a glowing near the beacon light, but as we got closer we found it
to be a lit up farm house... We ran and walked a good 2 miles past our vehicle,
until we got to a vantage point where we could determine that what we were
chasing was only a beacon light off in the distance.”