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be completed in 2024, should be able to detect them. Could we have been visited by an extraterrestrial civilization? Several of my colleagues in the MoD, in the military, and in intelligence believed we have been, and I certainly can't rule out the possibility. If just one UFO turned out to be an extraterrestrial spacecraft, the implications are incalculable. CHAPTER 18 by Sergeant James Penniston (Ret.), U.S. Air Force, and by Colonel Charles I. Halt (Ret.), U.S. Air Force In 1980, when I was twenty-five years old, I was assigned to the st tactical fighter wing in the Air Force, the RAF largest tactical fighter wing in the Air Force, the RAF Bentwaters/Woodbridge complex in England. I was the senior security officer in charge of Woodbridge base security. At the time, I held a top- secret U.S. and NATO security clearance and was responsible for the e ° woud in Force, RAF protection of war-making resources for that base. Shortly after midnight on Christmas night—the early morning of December 26,1980—Staff Sergeant Steffens briefed me that some lights had been seen in Rendlesham Forest, just outside the base. He informed me that whatever it was didn't crash... it landed. I discounted what he said and reported to the control center back at the base that we had a possible downed aircraft. I then ordered Airman First Class Edward Cabansag and Sat rad nn 1 ’ 1 tat Airman First Class John F. Burroughs to respond with me. When we arrived near the suspected crash site it quickly became apparent that we were not dealing with a plane crash or anything else we'd ever responded to. There was a bright light emanating from an object on the forest floor. As we approached it on foot, a silhouetted triangular craft about 9 feet long by 6.5 feet high came into view. The craft was fully intact, sitting in a small clearing inside the woods. As the three of us got closer to the craft, we started experiencing problems with our radios. I then asked Cabansag to relay radio transmissions back to Central Security Control (CSC), and he stayed back while Burroughs and I proceeded toward the craft. At first I was confused, not understanding what I was seeing. This was truly unbelievable. Then fear struck me, but I told myself that I had to stay focused. Was this a threat to the base and to us? I had to determine that first and foremost. problems with then asked to When we came up on the triangular-shaped craft, there were blue and yellow lights swirling around the exterior as though part of the surface and the air around us were electrically charged. We could feel it on our clothes, skin, and hair. It felt like static electricity, which made your hair stand up and dance on your skin. But there was no sound at all coming THE EXTRAORDINARY INCIDENT AT RENDLESHAM FOREST 1. Sergeant James Penniston.