In article <pbnMa.13723$sh4.1115384@newsfep2-win.server.ntli.net>, Stephen
Peterson says...

On our local BBC TV ( BBC1 East) -a programme (InsideOut) had a report last
night that the infamous Rendlesham Forest 1980's incident was a hoax
perpetrated by a couple of Guards who were winding up a rather gullible
fellow officer. Apparently they moved around the forest flashing lights, and
when "the Balloon went up!" quickly doused their lights and ran to assist
the base commander in his search for the UFO! Me-thinks someone has been
doing a bit of creative thinking probably in the BBC bar!

True, the spOOk are loose.
Here are the facts:

BENTWATERS SOLDIER SAW INSIDE SUPER-SECRET VAULT

Base Was Site of Famous UFO Events in 1980 
by Michael Lindemann 

The military base known as RAF Bentwaters in England is  associated with one of
the most impressive yet controversial UFO cases of all time.  Almost no one
disputes that something strange occurred near the base during late December of
1980, but what it was remains shrouded in mystery.  Odd moving lights were
reported in the sky and in the Rendlesham Forest that separates Bentwaters from
its nearby sister base (now closed) called RAF  Woodbridge.  Soldiers were
dispatched into the woods, led by Lt. Colonel Charles Halt, USAF.  (Though on
British soil, both bases were manned by American forces).  

On January 13, 1981, Halt sent a classified memo regarding the events to the
British Ministry of Defence.  That memo, released to U.S. UFO researcher Robert
Todd in June of 1983 through the Freedom of Information Act, says that several
witnesses reported a triangular, metallic, highly luminous object either
hovering or standing on legs, and then maneuvering through the forest, on the
night of December 27.  Though not a witness to 
this object himself, Halt said that the next morning he did witness three
depressions in the ground, arranged in a triangular pattern, that apparently
marked where the object had stood.  Halt further stated that on the following
night he and others witnessed an astounding display of moving lights in the sky.


Halt's memo left little doubt that whatever happened was out of the ordinary,
but continuing efforts by independent researchers have not resolved the
Bentwaters mystery, and current opinions vary widely.  Some now believe the
strange events were all staged as part of a very elaborate psychological warfare
test, possibly involving mind-control techniques.  Others say craft of unknown
origin were seen at close range, and that extensive photo and physical evidence
was gathered at the site -- all of which was then locked away in government
vaults.  Still others say not only craft but "aliens" were seen and contacted.
Finally, there are the hard-line skeptics who say nothing at all 
remarkable happened, except that airmen who should know better mistook the light
of a nearby lighthouse in the fog for something otherworldly.  

Now CNI News has learned of a U.S. soldier who was stationed at Bentwaters some
years after the famous 1980 events, but who saw several things that lend strong
credence to the strange claims associated with the base.  This soldier prefers
that his name not be used in this story, but he has communicated under his own
name with CNI News editor Michael Lindemann.  

Concerning his military background, the soldier says: "I entered the service in
1983 and was assigned to RAF Bentwaters in 1984.  I was involved in nuclear
weapons and because of our extensive background investigations, members of our
section were often called upon to do other high-security details.  Since even
the Security Police didn't have as high a clearence, a lot of these details were
simply being our own guards -- hence my access to the vault (see below).  I
volunteered for as many of these details as I could because it was supposed to
create an impressive military record.  However, when I arrived at my next base
(I left Bentwaters late in '86) no records of my special duties followed me.  I
called my immediate supervisor when I discovered this and he said, 'What happens
at Bentwaters stays at Bentwaters.'  I think this had more to do with security
than UFOs.  I was an enlisted man and I was an E-4 Sgt when I entered the vault.
I left the service in 1988.  I was still angry that none of my record followed
me.  I simply didn't re-enlist and had an honorable discharge.  I was still an
E-4."  

Here is the soldier's account of his extraordinary experience in "the vault" at
Bentwaters, where apparently something very interesting and very secret is
hidden.  

"On RAF Bentwaters there is a secured area around the flightline. This is normal
and many people have access, but not all.  Inside this area is another secured
area containing the munitions dump.  Again, this is normal; fewer people have
access to this.  On this particular base there is another weapons storage area
that only a few people can get in.  You are searched and must travel around in
pairs inside this area.  It is heavily guarded.  The bunkers in this area
require an elaborate key and password sequence to get in.  One particular bunker
is different.  

"Inside this bunker is a vault with two combinations and two locks.  Because of
regulations, no one person can have access to more than one [combination or
lock].  Hence, if you can get a key you won't get the combo, or vice-versa.  It
takes four people to open the door -- plus the security team verifying
passwords, etc.  This is the most secure area I have ever seen in the Air Force.


"I was picked to be a key holder, which meant that I was armed, and told to
escort the individual who needed [access to] the vault, along with the three
others needed to open the door.  I don't know who the individual was; he was
American and a civilian.  We opened the door and I at first couldn't believe it.
It contained a roughly-made shelf made out of two-by-fours holding two old
wooden crates.  The individual opened one of the crates, which was only sealed
with a lead seal, and inside was a green styrofoam container  in two halves.  He
opened it up and inside was a rod about a quarter inch in diameter and bent
about three times along its length.  It looked solid and if it were straight it
would be about a foot long.  It was dull but corrosion free from what I could
tell.  The man looked at it for about a minute, then put it away and resealed
the box with a new lead seal.  "For his minute we spent about four hours
preparing to open the vault.  It is that secure.  That was when I started asking
questions about why a small rod would require so much security.  The underlings
such as me hadn't a clue, but when I started asking others I was told not to
worry about it.  One officer that I knew personally once said under his breath
that it was 'proof,' but when I pressed him he denied saying it.  The only other
response I got, from people who obviously didn't know, [was] that it probably
had something to do with all the UFOs that supposedly visit the base."  

This soldier has no doubt that he saw something very extraordinary in that
vault, but he was highly skeptical of a UFO connection until he had his own
amazing sighting at Bentwaters some time later.  Here is his account.  

"I was working nights and for once the sky above the base was clear.  I took an
astronomy class in college and was testing my knowledge of the constellations
when I saw what looked like an equilateral triangle.  Of all the constellations,
none I could think of formed a triangle with such bright stars.  I had been
looking and thinking for about five or ten minutes when, right when I was
looking directly at them, the stars turned a full circle, each ending up where
they started, and then shot out at 90 degree angles from the direction they were
moving, and within a second were gone over the horizon, each going a different
direction.  Because they were just points of light I figured they were far away
and that would make their speed something incredible.  I was so shook up I took
the rest of the night off and for weeks had this nightmare that all the stars in
the sky were spinning, and thus the end of the universe was near.  That may
sound strange, but it was that disturbing."  

It is interesting to compare this soldier's sighting with 
Colonel Halt's eyewitness description of events on December 28, 1980.  Halt
wrote in his memo: "Three star-like objects were noticed in the sky, two objects
to the north and one to the south, all of which were about 10 degrees off the
horizon.  The objects moved rapidly in sharp angular movements and displayed
red, green and blue lights.  The objects to the north appeared to be elliptical
through an 8-12 power lens.  They then turned to full circles.  The objects to
the north remained in the sky for an hour or more.  The object to the south was
visible for two or three hours and beamed down a stream of light from time to
time."  

=================================================================
"In all times and all places, with the possible exception of 
Western Europe for the past two hundred years, a social commerce between human
beings and various types of discarnate entities, or non-human intelligences, was
taken for granted."  

-Terence McKenna 
=================================================================

Excerpt from:
CNI News - Volume 13.7 
December 28, 1995 
Published by the ISCNI News Center 
Editor: Michael Lindemann 
ISCNI@aol.com

ISCNI encourages you to respond to stories in CNI News.  
Private responses can be emailed to ISCNI@aol.com, 
subj: CNI News Editor