Bentwaters/Rendlesham Forest UFO

[TheCars1986]

So I've finally made it to season 4 (yay procrastination), and saw this case again. It's the case with the USAF personnel stationed in England who claims to have seen unexplained lights over the course of a 3 day span back in 1980. I always thought this one had more credibility than many of the other UFO cases because there were actual military reports done, acknowledged, and handed over. But I found this article from a skeptic who claims that the entire thing was nothing more than the men witnesses reflective lights from a nearby lighthouse (which most of the men did not know existed), and also lights from 5 nearby radio towers. And the landing spot was written off by the local English police as rabbit diggings. And there was an undisputed fact that on the first night of the sightings, a meteor had been witnessed by multiple people in the surrounding area, which could explain the craft like structure described by the air force.

On the surface, all of this makes sense. But the skeptic article does not address the fact that the "landing spot" described by the men was a perfectly symmetrical triangle, with each hole being an equal distance apart. I don't see how random rabbit diggings would be that precise. Nor does it mention the 2nd in command of the base (Col. Halt), who claims to have seen one object approach and shoot a beam of light down for a few seconds before disappearing into the sky. I still don't believe in aliens, but I am curious as to what these men could've witnessed that night. I'm still not convinced that they were all confused by nearby lights from a light house and radio towers. What are you're thoughts on this case?

[freakbook]

Aliens don't exist.

So they saw lights.

[neognosis]

skeptics have vivid imagination

[RobinW]

I've always found this story extra-intriguing when you account for the fact that the Cash-Landrum UFO incident literally occurred only one day after the last reported sighting in Rendlesham. I know this happened in England and the Cash-Landrum sighting occurred in Texas, but the latter is undoubtedly the most credible UFO story on UM since the witnesses all developed serious illnesses, so they definitely encountered something strange, even if it wasn't aliens. When I originally watched these segments back in the nineties, I was convinced an alien spacecraft had traveled all the way from England to the U.S. and the military was trying to track it down.

Logically, there probably isn't any connection between these two incidents, but the timing is one hell of a coincidence.

[neognosis]

interesting observation.

perhaps both encountered aliens from same fleet

[TheCars1986]

Originally Posted by RobinW

I've always found this story extra-intriguing when you account for the fact that the Cash-Landrum UFO incident literally occurred only one day after the last reported sighting in Rendlesham. I know this happened in England and the Cash-Landrum sighting occurred in Texas, but the latter is undoubtedly the most credible UFO story on UM since the witnesses all developed serious illnesses, so they definitely encountered something strange, even if it wasn't aliens. When I originally watched these segments back in the nineties, I was convinced an alien spacecraft had traveled all the way from England to the U.S. and the military was trying to track it down.

Logically, there probably isn't any connection between these two incidents, but the timing is one hell of a coincidence.

The Cash-Landrum incident, from my understanding, never produced any real concrete evidence outside of their illnesses. No photographs were produced of the burn mark in the road, and they kept their medical records private. They never took pictures of the car, although they did let testing be done which showed no signs of radiation. And here's the transcript from their interview with the military. They did not contact the police about what they saw, but did get in touch with a UFO research group. They also claimed that over 20 helicopters were essentially trying to corral the object as they headed towards the airport. You would think there would've been more witnesses of this, outside of 3 people (2 separate people did claim to see helicopters that night). You can read more about the possibility of it being an outright hoax, here.

That's what makes the Bentwaters incident more believable to me. Multiple people, all stationed at an air force base, all claim to have seen similar, unexplained lights, with varying degrees of physical evidence to back up their claims.

[DP1]

I don't believe in UFOs myself (used to) but I've always found this one of the more credible stories. The people involved are military personal, including a Lt. Colonel. The last place you need to be making up stories like this is the military for the sake of your own career.

[RobinW]

Originally Posted by TheCars1986

The Cash-Landrum incident, from my understanding, never produced any real concrete evidence outside of their illnesses. No photographs were produced of the burn mark in the road, and they kept their medical records private. They never took pictures of the car, although they did let testing be done which showed no signs of radiation. And here's the transcript from their interview with the military. They did not contact the police about what they saw, but did get in touch with a UFO research group. They also claimed that over 20 helicopters were essentially trying to corral the object as they headed towards the airport. You would think there would've been more witnesses of this, outside of 3 people (2 separate people did claim to see helicopters that night). You can read more about the possibility of it being an outright hoax, here.

Wow, thanks for those links. I had no idea the Cash-Landrum incident was under so much dispute. It's frightening to think they could have been deliberately making themselves sick in order to orchestrate a hoax. If they made everything up, part of me now wonders if they might have been inspired by the Rendlesham incident, but I highly doubt Cash and Landrum could have learned about it in such a short amount of time. Just an odd coincidence, I guess.

[Landa1943]

Originally Posted by RobinW

I've always found this story extra-intriguing when you account for the fact that the Cash-Landrum UFO incident literally occurred only one day after the last reported sighting in Rendlesham.....

....Logically, there probably isn't any connection between these two incidents, but the timing is one hell of a coincidence.

Wow.....I never made that connection.

Concerning the Landrum UFO incident, there's been a lot of debunking of this incident. IIRC, one counter-argument is that if the people really did suffer as much radiation as they claimed to the point of getting sick, it would've been fatal.

[justins5256]

I remember the Bentwaters/Rendlesham Forest sightings were reenacted on the TV show Sightings and they showed one of the officers with a movie camera and it was implied much of the incident was filmed, but the films were withheld by he government. Of course, the UM episode shows no one with a camera, so I wonder what the truth was.

[soilentgreen]

I think there's a reasonable explanation for what they witnessed - whether it was the meteors, the landing beacon beams at Bentwaters or the lighthouse (which the witnesses, excepting Colonel Halt, were apparently unfamiliar with) - but what happened will probably never be determined. I don't think they were lying in their original statements or impressions, but there have been some contradictions in statements and embellishments since then. Plus the Ministry of Defence keeping things low key at the time later stoked conspiracy theories.

[Landa1943]

Originally Posted by soilentgreen

Plus the Ministry of Defence keeping things low key at the time later stoked conspiracy theories.

This is one thing that often gets lost in UFO discussions, and is never really ever considered in any UFO segment that I have ever watched(on UM or any other paranormal show). In light of the declassification of military files related to the Roswell incident in the late 90s, it was revealed that the military actually did its utmost to help promote the concept of UFOs and alien spacecraft being tested on American military bases. Why so? Because that would help divert attention away from actual top secret weapons programs if people pursued wild goose chases. So when the military claimed it was a weather balloon, they said that because they WANTED people to speculate it was a UFO rather than a top secret military exercise.

Furthermore, with the Cold War, it was helpful to keep the impression that US military capabilities were stronger than they actually were to intimidate the Soviets. People often forget how interwoven the UFO craze was with the Cold War. It's helpful to keep this all in mind when re-watching the UFO segments.

Speaking of which, here's a video from the Smithsonian Channel about how the Bentwaters incident was connected to Cold War tensions:
https://www.smithsonianchannel.com/v...paranoia/40501

[bluejazz87]

I think the guys out in the field did see something that night. Perhaps not of this Earth. Probably never going to get answers though.

[Huskerz85]

This has always been one of my favorite UFO cases on UM. Again, after a copy disappeared from the site that shall not be named, I watched a few other documentaries including this one below (where Larry Warren makes claims of some rather nefarious activity on the part of the gov't)

[Janel "Jaycee" Miller]

Originally Posted by RobinW

Logically, there probably isn't any connection between these two incidents, but the timing is one hell of a coincidence.

Respectfully snipped.
I too, was always intrigued by the timing of the two alleged sightings.