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in an instant. We wish we had! The interesting thing about this was that somebody in the United States was still clearly taking an interest in UFOs, despite the apparent disengagement from the subject in 1969 with the closing of Project Blue Book. Given the MoD's "no defense significance" conclusion on UFOs, it seems fitting to conclude this section with quotes from MoD documents which contradict the usual stance. In a briefing that I prepared for the division head on April 16,1993, after the Cosford investigation, I wrote: "It seems that an unidentified object of unknown origin was operating in the UK Air Defence Region without being detected on radar; this would appear to be of considerable defense significance, and I recommend that we investigate further, within MoD or with the U.S. authorities." My division head was normally skeptical about the UFO My division head was normally skeptical about the UFO phenomenon, but on this occasion he agreed with my conclusion. His April 22,1993, brief to the Assistant Chief of the Air Staff (one of the UK's most senior RAF officers) stated: "In summary, there would seem to be some evidence on this occasion that an unidentified object (or objects) of about the UFO was unknown origin was operating over the UK." This is about as close as the MoD will ever get to saying that there's wn 4 1 oo night 1980 and in the early hours of Boxing Day, when strange lights were seen in Rendlesham Forest, near Ipswich. The many witnesses were mainly United States Air Force personnel based at the joint U.S. Air Force/NATO twin bases RAF Bentwaters and RAF Woodbridge in Suffolk. Even though the events took place on British soil, these bases were U.S. Air Force facilities at that time. Rendlesham Forest lies between the twin bases, and as the Cold War was still decidedly frosty, a UFO sighting at two of the nation's most sensitive military sites was most decidedly of interest. At the UFO project, I had [2] access to the large MoD file on this incident, which at that time had not been released to the public. Even the most basic information on this case was extraordinary, and I decided to launch what police would call a cold case Teview of the incident. This was wenn essentially an analysis of the MoD file on the case, assessing what we knew and—more important seeing what the investigators had missed. The series of events began in the early hours of December 26, when duty personnel reported seeing lights so bright that they feared an aircraft had crashed. They sought and obtained permission to go off-base and investigate. They didn't find a crashed aircraft—they found a UFO. The three-man patrol from the 8ist Security Police Squadron—Jim Penniston, John Burroughs, and Ed Cabansag—saw a small metallic craft moving through the trees. At one point it appeared to land in a small more to UFOs than misidentiflcations or hoaxes. The Rendlesham Forest Incident: A Cold Case Review Britian's most spectacular UFO incident occurred late on Christmas