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00:00Tonight, a surreal event outside a U.S. Air Force base
00:06near the Rendlesham Forest in England
00:09becomes an international legend.
00:12Lieutenant Colonel Halt's team goes out in the forest at night,
00:16and they are investigating these lights,
00:17recording what they're saying in real time.
00:21You just saw a light?
00:22Where? I know it's a photo.
00:23Where? It's coming this way.
00:25We're talking about a watershed moment in UFO history.
00:28It is definitely coming this way.
00:30These were highly trained military men shaken to their core.
00:34For more than 40 years, the question has endured.
00:38What was really out there in the Rendlesham Forest?
00:41Maybe it was an experimental aircraft,
00:44or maybe the ones being experimented on were the men themselves.
00:50Was it all a test to see how far mines could be manipulated?
00:54Now, we'll explore the top theories
00:56surrounding one of history's strangest encounters.
01:00This was an experiment straight out of science fiction.
01:03It would have been the perfect way to gauge their readiness
01:06without anyone getting hurt.
01:09What were the Rendlesham Lights?
01:11Christmas night, 1980.
01:31All is calm in Rendlesham Forest.
01:34Six square miles of woods
01:35stretching between the Bentwaters
01:38and Woodbridge military air bases.
01:40Bentwaters and Woodbridge, known as the twin bases,
01:46are in England, in the county of Suffolk.
01:50The U.S. Air Force leased these bases,
01:55and they're very important in the NATO military alliance.
02:00In the aftermath of the Second World War,
02:02Bentwaters and Woodbridge become a single aerodrome complex
02:05because they're quite close to one another.
02:07And by 1980, there are 12,000 U.S. Air Force personnel
02:11stationed at Bentwaters' Woodbridge,
02:13and it's one of the largest air bases available to NATO.
02:19With the Cold War raging,
02:21no one here takes security lightly.
02:23Even though Rendlesham is public land,
02:26the base is very well protected.
02:29It's surrounded by razor wire,
02:31there are motion sensors,
02:33there's an electric fence,
02:35there's 24-7 security.
02:38The officers and personnel making these rounds
02:40and security checks are very highly trained,
02:42so anything out of the ordinary,
02:45the security on these bases
02:46would be able to catch it.
02:48Among the guards responsible for protecting Woodbridge
02:54is 20-year-old American Airman First Class John Burroughs.
02:58Burroughs and his staff sergeant Bud Steffens
03:01are making their rounds around the perimeter
03:04of Woodbridge Air Base
03:05when they see lights in the sky
03:09that are very unfamiliar.
03:12They're red and blue and then yellow and orange.
03:16They're moving in a strange way,
03:18and then all of them suddenly descend
03:24into Rendlesham Forest outside the base.
03:28Their minds immediately go to,
03:30these are aircraft,
03:32and since they descend downward,
03:34maybe the aircraft crashed,
03:36maybe there is an emergency
03:37that they need to alert somebody to.
03:40The thing about it that was weird to them
03:41is the fact that there was no sound.
03:44Burroughs and Steffens alert
03:48the base's central security control
03:49to the situation,
03:51and Sergeant Jim Penniston,
03:53the base's senior security officer,
03:55is assigned to investigate.
03:57It turns out there are no missing planes.
03:59Every aircraft is accounted for
04:01by the military in this area.
04:03But there is an anomalous radar signal
04:06that people saw,
04:07but then the signal disappeared,
04:09and that's not a normal thing that occurs.
04:12That's weird.
04:15When John Burroughs and Steffens
04:17are waiting at the East Gate,
04:18Sergeant Penniston and his driver show up,
04:21and they have to leave their weapons with Steffens
04:23as they start to investigate off the base.
04:25With a glow still visible in the distance,
04:28the men drive about 100 yards
04:30along an old logging road
04:32where, due to the rough terrain,
04:34they're forced to carry on by foot.
04:36It's 3 a.m.
04:39It's dark.
04:40They're in this old growth forest,
04:43and the radios start to malfunction.
04:48There's this static.
04:50It's almost as if there's some sort of disruption
04:52with their signaling.
04:54As they approached,
04:55their hair on the back of their neck
04:57was standing up.
04:59And as they reach the clearing
05:00where these lights are coming from,
05:02there's instantly this large burst of light.
05:04And he sees this craft,
05:15triangular-shaped,
05:179 feet high,
05:199 feet across,
05:20about the size of a tank.
05:24Burroughs, who's about 20 yards behind Penniston,
05:26he has a different account of what he sees.
05:29He does not see this triangular craft,
05:31but what he does see is even more perplexing.
05:34He claims he sees a red orb
05:37suddenly rise from the clearing
05:39and then shoot toward the coast
05:41faster than any craft he's ever seen before.
05:46Penniston and Burroughs are still in a state of shock.
05:49To them, they've only been gone for a few minutes.
05:51But by the time they get back to the east gate,
05:54Steffens informs them
05:55that they've been gone for almost an hour.
05:57And so Penniston and Burroughs
06:01decide that they need to go
06:02and investigate the clearing
06:03in the light of day.
06:06The men return to that clearing in the woods.
06:09And when they reach it,
06:10they find there are three indentations
06:12that are 7 inches in diameter and circular,
06:161 1⁄2 inches deep.
06:17And these indentations in the ground
06:19seem to corroborate Penniston's story
06:22of something sitting on a tripod of legs.
06:27U.S. Lieutenant Colonel Charles Halt
06:29is deputy base commander at Bentwaters.
06:32When he hears about the incident,
06:34he assumes it's some sort of Christmas prank
06:36that's gotten out of hand.
06:37On December 27th,
06:39Colonel Halt is enjoying
06:41the annual awards Christmas dinner
06:42when one of the airmen bursts into the room,
06:46very much wide-eyed, pale-faced,
06:48and goes right over to Colonel Halt
06:49and says, whispering,
06:51it's back.
06:53Halt decides that the way to silence these rumors
06:56is to do a thorough investigation.
06:59So he assembles a team,
07:01and he brings along a night scope,
07:03he brings along a Geiger counter,
07:05which measures radiation,
07:06and he brings along a tape recorder
07:08so that he can record all of the conversations
07:11as they are finding things.
07:15At 1.25 a.m.,
07:17Halt turns on the Geiger counter
07:19as well as his cassette recorder
07:20while he and his lieutenant search the forest.
07:25Just jumped in, Dr. L.A.
07:26Seven tents there.
07:27Seven tents right there in the center?
07:29Uh-huh.
07:30We've got very positive ratings.
07:32Let's see, is that here in the center?
07:33Yes, it is.
07:34This one would be a dead center.
07:37The Geiger counter seems to get higher readings
07:40on the sides of the trees facing the clearing.
07:46Specifically, where they absolutely peak
07:49is in those three indentations.
07:51It's like an operation point into the center.
07:57It's not an immediate panic.
08:00It's a sort of, that's interesting moment.
08:04At 1.48 a.m., Halt's attention is drawn
08:07from the landing site to the sky overhead.
08:09As they get closer to the location of these lights,
08:23they realize that we're not actually chasing the light.
08:25The light is coming towards us.
08:28It's coming its way.
08:30It is definitely coming its way.
08:33After around five hours in the woods,
08:35Halt and his men are no closer to figuring out
08:38what these lights could be,
08:39and they return to the base
08:40with more questions than answers.
08:42Halt is ultimately told that since this event
08:46unfolded off-base on U.K. soil,
08:49that it is technically within the purview
08:51of the Ministry of Defense to deal with it,
08:53not the U.S. Air Force.
08:54Halt gets told,
08:56go write up a memo
08:57and send it to the Ministry of Defense.
09:01We'll let them deal with it as the host nation.
09:04But because of the key Brit officer
09:06being away on Christmas leave,
09:09Halt's memo wasn't sent until January 13th.
09:14This interval of two weeks
09:16provides the basis by which
09:18the Ministry of Defense declines to do anything,
09:21and they decline to do anything on the basis
09:23that if this was serious,
09:24you would have informed us sooner,
09:26and if we're brought into it two weeks later,
09:28why should we even waste a minute
09:30looking into this matter?
09:31So while the Brits are downplaying the incident,
09:34it's not the same case on the base.
09:37Rumors are already starting to swirl.
09:40And over time, Halt, Penniston, and Burroughs
09:43all become convinced
09:44that whatever occurred in Rendlesham Forest
09:47was not of this earth.
09:56After the incident, Penniston and Burroughs
09:59begin to experience unusual symptoms
10:02of anxiety, nightmares.
10:05Burroughs develops white gums,
10:08and he's diagnosed with a heart murmur
10:10that he didn't have before.
10:12And in fact, his physician asks him
10:14whether he's been exposed to radiation.
10:16But both Penniston and Burroughs
10:19fear sharing some of the details.
10:22They know that there's a stigma
10:23to reporting things like UFOs
10:25or paranormal phenomenon.
10:26So they don't feel very comfortable
10:28giving outright everything that took place.
10:32Some 14 years after his first report
10:34of the incident,
10:36Penniston adds a crucial bit of new information.
10:38Finally, in 1994,
10:43Penniston reports that not only did he see
10:45this strange black triangular object in the woods,
10:49but that he actually touched it.
10:53And that the surface of it was smooth in some places,
10:57but in other places felt like sandpaper.
11:00It was as if the surface was covered with hieroglyphics.
11:04This was a trained airman,
11:06and this was like nothing he had ever seen before.
11:11Although his claim sparked some skepticism,
11:14critics acknowledge that unlike many UFO sightings,
11:17his claim is well documented.
11:20The accounts from those directly involved
11:22are also corroborated by others on and off the base.
11:26Although most of the Rendlesham Forest witnesses are military,
11:29turns out at least eight witnesses in the local community
11:33reported a triangular-shaped object
11:36zipping around very rapidly.
11:38Speeded up, and it came towards the lodge.
11:41And the closer it got,
11:43the more I realized it was not an aircraft.
11:46Many of the details around this case
11:48make people believe that this was some type
11:50of an extraterrestrial craft.
11:52We have missing time.
11:54We have physical effects taking place.
11:56And multiple witnesses from trained people
11:59seeing something anomalous in the sky.
12:02Not everybody believes that it was aliens
12:04or extraterrestrials in Suffolk, England that night.
12:06But it's very possible that this is some type of a phenomenon
12:09that we don't understand.
12:11For nearly three years,
12:16the unexplained lights in Rendlesham Forest
12:18were largely an Air Force secret.
12:21Then, in October of 1983,
12:24a popular British tabloid called News of the World
12:27publishes the first public account
12:29of the Rendlesham incident.
12:31From the beginning of the case,
12:35Air Force personnel had been known
12:36to be leaking parts of the information
12:38to the local population.
12:41As the interest started to rise in this case,
12:43some of these ufologists
12:45filed a Freedom of Information Act request
12:47with the U.S. government
12:48and actually retrieved the memo
12:50that Colonel Halt filed to the Ministry of Defense
12:53of the incidents that took place that night.
12:55So now the cat's out of the bag.
12:58When this account is finally made public,
12:59many people believe that this is the first official account
13:02of military personnel
13:04interacting with some type of extraterrestrial spacecraft.
13:08We're talking about a watershed moment in UFO history.
13:12For UFO enthusiasts,
13:14this is irrefutable proof that UFOs are real.
13:18They're actually documented.
13:20They think this proves it once and for all,
13:22to the point that CNN even made a documentary about this.
13:27CNN has found others who were there
13:29in the forest separating the Bentwaters-Woodbridge Air Force bases,
13:33who have given strikingly similar accounts of the UFOs.
13:36We saw flying objects containing maybe other people
13:40or another life form.
13:42But not everyone believes that the lights were otherworldly.
13:47Like a lot of UFO sightings,
13:49there's not necessarily a single neat explanation.
13:52But what if a number of things,
13:55all of them decidedly terrestrial and normal,
13:59what if they all came together
14:01to create a sort of perfect storm of confusion?
14:05Ian Ridpath, a UK astronomer and known UFO debunker,
14:10starts to investigate the Bentwaters case himself.
14:14Digging through police reports and witness statements,
14:17Ridpath soon discovers that in the memo
14:20Charles Halt sent to the MOD,
14:22he got the dates of both encounters wrong.
14:25The lieutenant colonel reported that the first sighting
14:28happened early in the morning on the 27th
14:30when it really happened early in the morning on the 26th,
14:32and he reported that his own encounter
14:34happened early in the morning on the 29th,
14:36and it was actually the 28th.
14:39When you're out in the woods at 3 o'clock in the morning,
14:41do you really think about it in terms of the night before
14:44or the next morning?
14:45And that causes some of the confusion and the chaos.
14:49When Ridpath realizes that,
14:51according to Suffolk police,
14:53Halt's dates are wrong,
14:54he makes a startling discovery.
14:56And what was assumed to be extraterrestrial
14:59might have been a more common phenomenon.
15:03On the very night when Penniston and Burroughs
15:07see these strange lights in the trees,
15:10it just so happens that astronomers all around the UK
15:15reported some very bright fireball meteors.
15:24Meteors are essentially pieces of space rock,
15:28and when they enter Earth's atmosphere,
15:31they catch on fire,
15:33usually break up into multiple pieces,
15:36and fall harmlessly to Earth or into the ocean.
15:39The meteors that were supposed to be visible on that night
15:45had actually hit at 5.20 p.m.,
15:497.20 p.m., and 2.50 a.m.
15:53And that corresponds to the time that Burroughs
15:57and the other men were in the forest
15:59seeing those weird lights behave strangely.
16:05Witnesses in Suffolk, England,
16:06noticed that just before 3 a.m.,
16:08this meteor was streaking across the sky
16:11and causing this unbelievable light show
16:13of sparks and things coming off of it.
16:16An astronomer at the time described it
16:17as being almost as bright as the full moon.
16:22Meteors are also known as shooting stars,
16:25and most of them are little bits of rock
16:28that enter our upper atmosphere,
16:30and due to friction and compression of the atmosphere,
16:32they generate light,
16:33and most of them, they can explode
16:36and they can burst into flames,
16:38making these big fireballs.
16:41So these fireballs,
16:43we give them different names based on how they behave.
16:46If it explodes and you get this really bright light,
16:50we call those fireballs,
16:51but also bolides.
16:53Back at the twin bases,
16:57another guard claims to have witnessed
16:59a similar light show in the sky that Christmas night.
17:03And he described it as a very bright ball of fire in the sky
17:08with a sparkle tail.
17:10He reports that he and his fellow guards
17:13had the feeling that this meteor was close
17:16and that, in fact, it had fallen right between the two bases.
17:20These objects can play optical illusions with you.
17:25They can look like they're at a much lower altitude
17:28than they really are.
17:30Sometimes they look like they're right above you,
17:32but actually they're miles in the sky
17:34because there is no contrast.
17:36There's just a blackness of space behind you.
17:38Especially for an object that's big and bright,
17:41it can appear to be a lot closer than it is.
17:46The guard was listening to the radio that night
17:48and he heard someone speaking into the radio saying,
17:50it's a UFO, it's a UFO.
17:52Humans are very susceptible to this thing
17:54called confirmation bias.
17:56So if you're told, it's a UFO, it's a UFO,
17:59don't be surprised when suddenly people
18:01are manufacturing UFO explanations.
18:04All they got was a light show
18:05and then they struggled to explain.
18:11Three years after the Rendlesham Forest incident,
18:14the public remains intrigued
18:15about those strange lights in the woods.
18:18Some say it's an alien encounter.
18:19Some raise the possibility
18:21that it's a meteor shower.
18:23But is there actually a more earthly reason
18:25for what eyewitnesses saw?
18:29Investigators try to gather information
18:31about what happened that night
18:33by meeting with locals,
18:34by going into the forest,
18:36gathering data, gathering evidence,
18:38putting together information,
18:40trying to get the facts.
18:41As they start to piece together the information,
18:44they hear about something nearby
18:46that could have accounted for this mystery.
18:54The 100-foot-tall Orford Ness Lighthouse
18:57is located just about six miles
18:59from Rendlesham Forest,
19:01on the coast of the North Sea.
19:03In this particular area
19:05is the Orford Ness Lighthouse,
19:08and it's actually
19:09the second most powerful lighthouse
19:11in the United Kingdom.
19:13It's got a beam that you can see
19:15for 30 miles out to sea,
19:17and what it does is it tracks around,
19:22so you get a beam that sweeps
19:25across the whole surrounding area.
19:28The lighthouse has been there
19:32since the 18th century,
19:34and the beam from the lighthouse
19:37is shielded towards the town
19:39so that it doesn't bother citizens in the town.
19:41But the part of the lighthouse
19:43that faces the forest,
19:44that's not shielded
19:45because there's nobody living there to bother.
19:48Depending on atmospheric conditions,
19:50the lighthouse can either glow a yellowish
19:52or an orangish color
19:53and is rotating in five-second intervals.
19:56It's highly likely that the military personnel
19:58in the base were not even aware
20:00of this lighthouse
20:01just because the terrain of the forest
20:04isn't something that you can directly see through
20:05and make out a lighthouse.
20:08But a few hundred yards into the forest,
20:10that would have been a different story.
20:13From these guards' perspective,
20:15the light would appear
20:17to enter just above the forest,
20:19and you have the effect
20:20of the light bouncing off of low clouds,
20:23so it really could appear
20:24to be something hovering just above the forest
20:27when actually it's a beam of light
20:29that originates from the coast six miles away.
20:32Because this is considered really a British problem,
20:36since it's not occurring on a U.S. Air Force base,
20:39local constables are alerted
20:40and asked to investigate the matter.
20:42Not surprisingly, as locals,
20:44they're well aware of the existence of the lighthouse.
20:47There have been other reports
20:48of mysterious lights being caused by it.
20:51So when a report came from the base
20:53that there was something weird going on in the woods
20:55and they were investigating,
20:56the local police decided
20:57they also were going to take a look that first night.
20:59And they arrived out there an hour later
21:02at around 4 a.m.
21:03And what did they report?
21:04All we see are the lights from the lighthouse.
21:09According to the proponents of the lighthouse theory,
21:12Halt's own tape proves their case.
21:15As he's narrating this into his tape recorder,
21:19he is saying,
21:20the lights, here they come again.
21:21And then five seconds later,
21:22the lights are back again.
21:24Small red light,
21:25maybe a quarter to a half mile,
21:27maybe further out.
21:29Based on Halt's recording,
21:31after trudging through the forest
21:32a little bit further in,
21:34the bright beam becomes visible once again.
21:36This looks like it's clear after the coast.
21:39It's right on the horizon.
21:40Right on the horizon,
21:42where the lighthouse Bortfordness is located.
21:44According to some,
21:48the frequent intervals of light
21:49suggest a secondary source
21:51for the Rendlesham's mysterious light show,
21:53a vessel with a warning beam
21:55known as a light ship.
21:57It's a vessel that's effectively
21:59like a mobile lighthouse
22:01that's put over a particularly dangerous area of coastline.
22:05If the coastline shifts
22:06as the result of a large storm or tidal levels,
22:11a light ship might account
22:12for the reports of five other lights
22:15that are being presented
22:16by some of the witnesses.
22:17As the lighthouse theory goes public,
22:21the three main witnesses
22:22stand by their accounts.
22:24Lieutenant Colonel Halt,
22:26he's a base commander.
22:27He has a sterling reputation.
22:28Burroughs is young,
22:29but he's well-trained.
22:31Penniston is also a professional.
22:33He's a top security person there.
22:36When they hear this lighthouse theory,
22:38they don't take kindly to it.
22:39Halt says,
22:40yeah, you think it's a lighthouse?
22:42Well, guess what?
22:43Lighthouses don't fly.
22:44When this empirical argument
22:47is presented to both Halt
22:49and Penniston later on,
22:51Penniston backs him up.
22:53Penniston further states that,
22:54yeah, lighthouses do what they do,
22:56but that doesn't explain this black craft
22:58that was spotted in the middle of the woods
23:00that emitted this powerful light
23:02that he walked up to
23:04and laid a hand on physically.
23:07All the while,
23:08another theory starts to bubble up,
23:10which explains perhaps why
23:12the Ministry of Defense
23:13denied looking into the case.
23:20In December 1980,
23:22Cold War tensions are rising
23:24between the world's two superpowers,
23:27the U.S. and the USSR.
23:30Is it possible that new technologies
23:32forged in that supercharged moment
23:34might hold clues to what people saw
23:37in Rendlesham Forest?
23:38Ronald Reagan is elected president
23:43in the 1980 presidential election.
23:46One of his major campaign promises
23:48is to expand the size
23:50and funding of the United States military.
23:53The U.S. government sought
23:55to return the perception
23:57of great American strength
23:58to the Cold War balance of power.
24:00It would do this
24:01by increasing the amount of money
24:03that would flow into the American military,
24:05particularly into agencies
24:08like the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency,
24:10DARPA.
24:11So what takes place
24:12is a heightened sense
24:13of military action on both sides,
24:16each increasing their arms regiment,
24:18including new weapons for spying
24:19and for destruction.
24:22So perhaps there is more
24:24to the Rendlesham case
24:25than meets the eye.
24:26Maybe this was an orchestrated diversion
24:28from what was really going on
24:30in the skies over Rendlesham.
24:38At almost any time
24:40in the history of aviation,
24:41there have been things
24:42that the public won't be told about
24:45for some years.
24:47And you can look back
24:48to the 50s and the 60s
24:50at programs like the U-2,
24:53the SR-71 Blackbird.
24:56None of these things
24:57appeared magically overnight.
25:01If you are a government
25:03and you are developing secret craft
25:06and someone spots it
25:08and they say it's something
25:09that it's not,
25:10you like that.
25:11You want people thinking it's a UFO.
25:13You don't want them to know
25:14about what you're doing
25:15because it is secret.
25:18Not only did the government like it,
25:21sometimes they actively
25:23promoted that narrative.
25:25It's a smoke screen.
25:27It's a distraction.
25:28At the time,
25:29they were much happier
25:30with people thinking it's a UFO
25:32than the Soviets getting a glimpse
25:34or any type of knowledge
25:35about some of these
25:36game-changing technologies
25:37that were being developed.
25:41At the time of the Rendlesham
25:43incident,
25:43there's a truly groundbreaking
25:44technology in the pipeline,
25:47stealth aircraft.
25:50The stealth program
25:51is one of those
25:52quintessential examples
25:53of something that took
25:54more than a decade
25:55to actually put into operation
25:57and was a very tightly
25:59held secret.
26:00In 1977,
26:02the first test flights
26:03of a U.S. Air Force
26:05development project
26:06was done between DARPA
26:07and the Lockheed Skunk Works
26:09called Have Blue.
26:10The overall anatomy
26:12of the aircraft
26:12was developed
26:13to disperse radar reflectivity
26:15so that the aircraft
26:17will show up
26:18at a greatly reduced
26:19radar profile.
26:22Have Blue eventually
26:23is adopted
26:24in the form of the F-117A
26:26Nighthawk
26:26stealth fighter.
26:28While the stealth fighter
26:31wasn't operational
26:32until the fall of 1983,
26:35it bears a striking resemblance
26:36to the craft
26:37Penniston claims
26:38to have seen
26:39in the Rendlesham Forest.
26:41The stealth bomber
26:42was black,
26:43it was triangular,
26:45it had a very smooth surface,
26:47it had many
26:48of the characteristics
26:49of that craft
26:51that Penniston
26:52reported seeing.
26:53So that object
26:55might have been
26:56some kind of prototype
26:58for the stealth bomber.
27:01We can also consider
27:02that there are
27:04other types of aircraft
27:05that were in development
27:06at the time.
27:07For example,
27:08combat drones
27:09and surveillance drones.
27:11So by around 1980,
27:13they probably
27:13were testing prototypes.
27:15If the U.S. was working
27:18on such classified technology,
27:20a test flight
27:21in Rendlesham Forest
27:22on Christmas night
27:23could have been
27:24an ideal time
27:25and place
27:26to do it.
27:27One of the reasons
27:28that the Ministry of Defense
27:29didn't actively investigate it
27:31might have been
27:33that they were
27:33very well aware
27:34that the Americans
27:35were testing
27:36new prototypes
27:37of technology
27:38at the time.
27:39And they're not going
27:40to investigate something
27:41that their allies
27:42are developing
27:43to defend them
27:44against Soviet missiles.
27:47This all presumes
27:48that the craft
27:48we see in Rendlesham
27:49is some type
27:50of American test flight.
27:52But what if it was
27:52something that the U.S. saw
27:53was actually testing?
27:58It's rumored,
27:59not completely known,
28:01that Bentwaters
28:02and Woodbridge
28:03had more nuclear weapons
28:05than any other military base
28:07that the U.S. operated
28:08in Europe.
28:09So if it was
28:10from an adversarial nation
28:11like the Soviet Union,
28:13they definitely
28:14would want to see
28:15what's going on there.
28:17In theory,
28:18if there was
28:19some kind of an incursion
28:21of Soviet personnel
28:22or Soviet equipment
28:24into an American air base
28:26that may or may not
28:27have been equipped
28:28with nuclear weapons,
28:29this could create
28:30an escalating incident.
28:32Maybe this story
28:34was buried
28:35because we don't want
28:37to let people know
28:38that there is this
28:39Soviet cutting-edge drone
28:41that's looking at
28:42our military bases.
28:46Even 40 years later,
28:47we still have
28:48very little idea
28:49about the technology
28:50that the Soviets
28:51were developing
28:52at the time
28:53in the 1980s.
28:54If it was Soviet technology,
28:56then it's possible
28:57that the hieroglyphics
29:00that Penniston reported
29:01seeing and feeling
29:03on the surface
29:04of the object
29:04might have, in fact,
29:06been Cyrillic.
29:06Perhaps what Penniston
29:09was feeling on the craft
29:10was a type of Cyrillic character
29:12actually from
29:13the Russian alphabet.
29:16Given the tensions
29:17at the time,
29:19the idea that
29:20a Soviet military
29:22surveillance drone
29:23was hovering
29:24over a U.S. nuclear base,
29:27oh, that could have been bad
29:29all the way around.
29:30And some people think
29:31it could have gone as far
29:32as triggering World War III.
29:36Over two decades later,
29:40the public still wants answers
29:42about the Rendlesham incident.
29:43In her 2001 book titled
29:46You Can't Tell the People,
29:48the late Georgina Bruni,
29:49a British UFO researcher,
29:52claims to have turned up
29:53some new evidence.
29:54She says that she has evidence
29:57from four scientists
29:58who visited the twin air bases
30:02in December of 1980,
30:04right around the time
30:05of the incidents.
30:07Allegedly, they put on
30:09some type of contamination suit
30:10with air compressors
30:11and began going through
30:13the Rendlesham Forest area.
30:14Now, after a few hours
30:15of doing these investigations
30:17in the woods,
30:17they offered no explanation
30:19for what they were doing.
30:20They changed their uniforms
30:22back into normal clothes
30:23and then left the scene.
30:25Bruni and her associates
30:27theorized that these scientists
30:28could have been
30:29from the Porton Down Research Center,
30:31one of the UK's most secretive
30:33and sensitive sites.
30:38Located about 200 miles
30:40southwest of the twin bases,
30:42Porton Down is the oldest
30:44chemical and biological warfare
30:46research installation
30:47in the world.
30:49One of the more unsavory aspects
30:53of Porton Down
30:54is that during World War II,
30:56they actually weaponized
30:57anthrax spores.
30:59In order to test
31:01their new weaponized anthrax,
31:03Porton Down apparently
31:05duped their own soldiers
31:06into being test subjects,
31:09guinea pigs,
31:10for anthrax,
31:11which is deadly.
31:12Or maybe what happened
31:15in the Rendlesham Forest
31:16was also part
31:18of some secret
31:19government test.
31:21Six months before
31:21the Rendlesham Forest incident,
31:23the U.S. Department of Defense
31:24prepared a secret report
31:26titled,
31:27The Role of Behavioral Science
31:28in Physical Security.
31:30And in that report,
31:32they recommended
31:33a method for evaluating
31:35their ability
31:36to withstand
31:37being probed
31:38by the enemy.
31:40Maybe Porton Down
31:40was helping them
31:41carry out that trial run.
31:50In 1964,
31:51at Porton Down
31:52they conducted
31:53Operation Moneybags.
31:55This was the first test
31:56conducted
31:57on human subjects
31:58to determine
31:59if LSD could be used
32:01to incapacitate
32:02an individual.
32:03At 11.40,
32:04the first effects
32:05of the drug
32:05make their appearance.
32:07Two Marines
32:08were reported
32:09to the troop commander
32:09for insubordination.
32:10Drug is also beginning
32:12to affect the other men.
32:13They no longer take cover.
32:15They relax
32:15and begin to giggle.
32:17Most of the soldiers
32:18just got silly
32:19and sleepy
32:20and kind of goofy.
32:22But they found also
32:23that among some people
32:24that it triggered
32:25strong hallucinogenic reactions.
32:28The troop commander,
32:29although feeling
32:30more capable
32:31of thinking
32:31and acting normally,
32:33is in fact
32:33still experiencing
32:35one of the characteristic
32:36effects of the drug.
32:38Everything he looks at
32:39appears to be patterned.
32:41While looking
32:42at the white ceiling,
32:43he describes
32:44geometrical patterns
32:45which are colored
32:46and three-dimensional.
32:48They appear
32:49to move in
32:49and out
32:50of each other.
32:55Anonymous sources
32:56say that in 1980
32:57on Christmas night,
32:58Port and Down researchers
32:59had another batch
33:00of hallucinogens,
33:02but these doses
33:02would be delivered
33:03throughout the woods
33:04using some type
33:06of an aerosol delivery system.
33:08Mind-altering drugs
33:09were just one part
33:10of the assessment.
33:11The rest of the readiness test
33:13involved light
33:14and holographic imagery.
33:16A 1997 article
33:18discusses the possibility
33:19of the use
33:21of hallucinogens
33:22combined with
33:23holographic imagery
33:24of troops
33:26and tanks
33:27so that enemy soldiers
33:29would be
33:30under the psychological impression
33:32that they were being
33:33overwhelmed
33:34by huge numbers
33:35of soldiers
33:36from the other side.
33:39It would have
33:40been the perfect way
33:42to gauge their readiness
33:43without anyone
33:44getting hurt.
33:46Were Halt and his men
33:47also part of an experiment
33:49as they chased lights
33:51in and out
33:51of the forest?
33:53Strange.
33:54You want to do it
33:55without lights?
33:56Let's do it carefully.
33:56Come on.
33:57Okay, we're looking
33:58at the thing
33:58and we're probably
33:59about 200 to 300 yards away.
34:00It looks like an eye
34:01winking at you.
34:02It's still moving
34:02from side to side.
34:04It sort of has
34:05a hollow center
34:06or a dark center.
34:07You're like the pupil
34:08of an eye
34:08looking at you
34:09and winking it.
34:09and the flash
34:10is so bright
34:11to the star scope
34:12that it almost
34:12burns your eye.
34:14We see strange
34:14stroke-like flashes
34:16or sporadic
34:17but there's definitely
34:18some kind of phenomenal.
34:22This hallucinogen theory
34:24can actually close
34:25a couple of loopholes
34:26in what occurred
34:27that night.
34:27For example,
34:29why did Penniston
34:29and Burroughs
34:30report having
34:31different experiences
34:32to the same event?
34:34Just don't make sense.
34:35Why do they both
34:36report losing time?
34:38Well,
34:39hallucinogens
34:40could create
34:41those sort of effects
34:42using so-called
34:44active procedures.
34:46What happened
34:48in Rendlesham
34:48was possibly
34:49an incredible series
34:51of experiments
34:52to see just how far
34:54the human mind
34:55could be manipulated.
34:56More than four decades
35:01after the Rendlesham incident,
35:03a new theory
35:04is emerging,
35:05one that the U.S. Air Force
35:06may have wanted
35:07to keep hidden.
35:09Some proposed
35:10that what was experienced
35:11that night
35:11was actually
35:12a military experiment
35:14involving nothing more
35:15than lasers,
35:17radar,
35:17and air.
35:18On December 29, 1980,
35:28an astronomer
35:29talks to people
35:30who claim
35:30that they've seen
35:31this triangular thing
35:32zipping about,
35:33and he comes up
35:34with his own theory
35:35that what people
35:36are seeing
35:37is consistent
35:38with the idea
35:39of being a plasma globe.
35:41Plasma is often called
35:43the fourth state of matter.
35:45If you make a gas
35:46really hot,
35:47it begins to dissociate
35:48to its elementary particles
35:49and you end up
35:51with a state
35:52called a plasma.
35:53And although they're rare
35:54here on Earth,
35:55relatively speaking,
35:5799% of the volume
35:59of all that we call
36:00normal matter
36:01is in the plasma state.
36:05It isn't solid.
36:07It isn't liquid.
36:08It's not a gas.
36:09And you can find it
36:11in lightning.
36:12You can find it
36:13inside the tubes
36:14of fluorescent lights
36:16or neon lights.
36:17You can find it
36:18in stars.
36:19It is a type of matter.
36:21There is a plasma glow
36:23phenomenon
36:23that people witness
36:24and it's called
36:25ball lightning.
36:27Ball lightning
36:28involves the ionization
36:29of a small area
36:30that results in essentially
36:32a plasma ball
36:33spontaneously erupting.
36:35It almost looks like
36:36lightning
36:37kind of hovering
36:38above the ground
36:39for a short period of time.
36:40plasma balls
36:43can be any color
36:45but red,
36:46orange,
36:47yellow
36:47are quite common
36:49and sometimes
36:49they move very slowly
36:51but other times
36:52they can be really erratic
36:54and can sometimes
36:55even go through glass.
36:58It could be turned
37:00into a very powerful weapon
37:02which would essentially
37:03be like
37:04making a giant lightning bolt
37:07to strike your enemy.
37:10The idea of trying
37:11to weaponize plasma
37:12has been around
37:13for decades.
37:15Most people would argue
37:16it's not a very practical
37:17approach to weapons
37:18but that doesn't mean
37:19that there weren't
37:20at least attempts
37:21to create a plasma weapon.
37:26As far back
37:27as the 1950s,
37:29scientists have been
37:30exploring ways
37:31to harness
37:31the devastating power
37:33of plasma
37:33and perhaps
37:35they even succeeded.
37:36In 1965,
37:37two American scientists
37:38come up with the idea
37:39of focusing lasers
37:41as a means
37:42of manipulating
37:43plasma or ball lightning.
37:45They even give it
37:46the German nickname
37:47Kugelblitz,
37:48the German word
37:49for ball lightning.
37:50Although there's
37:51no evidence
37:51that a test
37:52of this nature
37:53was ever conducted
37:53by the U.S. government,
37:54there's evidence
37:55that tests with plasma
37:57have been conducted
37:58historically
37:58and who knows,
38:00maybe a test
38:01such as that
38:02was being conducted
38:03that night
38:04in Rendlesham Forest.
38:06Some theorists think
38:07that perhaps
38:08the U.K. did in fact
38:10develop a plasma weapon.
38:11And if they did,
38:12what better time
38:13and place
38:14to test it
38:15than in the middle
38:17of the forest
38:17at night
38:18between two military bases
38:20during Christmas.
38:22The men on the base
38:23had no idea
38:24that they were walking
38:25into a hot zone.
38:26John Burroughs claims
38:29to see a red orb
38:31that lifts up
38:32and there's some type
38:34of plasma
38:34or electricity
38:35like dripping off of it.
38:37The presence of plasma
38:38might explain
38:39the other odd occurrences
38:40that night,
38:42including an atmospheric
38:43mixture of electric
38:44and magnetic forces
38:45that creates
38:46an electromagnetic field
38:48or EMM.
38:49an electromagnetic field
38:51from plasma
38:52can be one of the things
38:55that can cause
38:55interference
38:56with radio communications.
39:01Penniston and Burroughs,
39:02they've talked about it
39:04as if they were
39:05wading through water.
39:07The hairs on the back
39:09of their neck
39:09standing up.
39:11There's a static
39:12electricity field.
39:15All sorts of things
39:16can emit an EMF.
39:19You can get them
39:20from plasmas.
39:21You can get them
39:22from certain
39:23propulsion systems.
39:26Exposure to high levels
39:28of plasma
39:28can also cause confusion.
39:30It's approximately
39:31120 degrees
39:32from the site.
39:33It can cause
39:33optical illusions.
39:35Is it back again?
39:36Yes, sir.
39:36It can cause
39:37any number of
39:38mental and psychological
39:40effects.
39:43So why no one
39:44from the Ministry
39:45of Defense
39:45in the UK
39:46will comment
39:47on the events
39:48in the Rendlesham Forest
39:49that night.
39:50There was an official
39:51study of UFO phenomena
39:52in the UK
39:53and in that report
39:55it does state
39:56that the UK government
39:58was aware
39:59of this idea
40:00of weaponizing plasma.
40:03Penniston to this day
40:04maintains his belief
40:06that he saw
40:07something extraterrestrial
40:08in Rendlesham Forest.
40:10Burroughs,
40:11on the other hand,
40:11has become convinced
40:12that he and his fellow
40:14members of the
40:14patrol were actually
40:16just caught up
40:16in some form
40:17of secret demonstration
40:19or test.
40:22Part of the reason
40:23that so much attention
40:24is attracted to this
40:25incident is because
40:25of the incredible
40:27importance of these
40:28twin bases.
40:29Bentwaters and Woodridge
40:31both are known
40:32to have nuclear weapons
40:34on them.
40:34And we were developing
40:35even newer and even
40:36more impressive
40:37technologies.
40:38And then the whole
40:39thing was shushed up
40:40in the aftermath
40:41so that word of this
40:43technology would not
40:43get out,
40:44potentially reaching
40:45our Soviet adversaries.
40:51In the decades
40:52since the Rendlesham
40:53incident,
40:54the U.S. Air Force
40:55has left Suffolk.
40:56The 100-foot lighthouse
40:57has been torn down.
40:59And the twin bases
41:00of Bentwaters and Woodbridge
41:01are now occupied
41:02by the Ministry of Defense.
41:05But between them
41:06lies the same dark woods
41:08whose secret remains hidden
41:10to this day.
41:12I'm Lawrence Fishburne.
41:13Thank you for watching
41:14History's Greatest Mysteries.
41:17is hereof the
41:18and University of
41:34the 온 gegenüber
41:35with the
41:37pioneer
41:38in the
41:39retrouve
41:39during the
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