| Charles I. Halt | |
|---|---|
| Allegiance | United States of America |
| Service/branch | United States Air Force |
| Rank | Colonel |
| Commands held | Kunsan Air Base, Korea; RAF Bentwaters |
Charles I. Halt is a retired United States Air Force colonel and the former base commander of RAF Bentwaters, near Woodbridge, Suffolk. After serving in Vietnam, Japan and Korea, he was assigned to Bentwaters as deputy commander. The Rendlesham Forest incident of late December 1980 occurred shortly afterwards, and he was an important witness to events on the second night of sightings.
Rendlesham Forest Investigation[]
In the late hours of December 27, and early December 28, 1980 then Lieutenant Colonel Halt led a patrol to investigate an alleged UFO landing site near the eastern edge of Rendlesham Forest. During this investigation they witnessed several unidentified lights, most prominent of them being a bright flashing light in the direction of Orford Ness. In January 1981 Halt composed an official Air Force memorandum[1] listing details of the events. The memo was then dispatched to the Ministry of Defence. Halt also made an audio tape recording of the incident.[2]
Post-military[]
After retiring from the US Air Force in 1991, Halt made his first public appearance in a television documentary, where he confirmed the authenticity of the Rendlesham Forest incident. In 1997 he was interviewed by Georgina Bruni for a book about the Rendlesham event, You Can't Tell the People. He has also appeared in several television documentaries, including the three listed below.
In June 2010 Halt issued a notarized affidavit in which he summarized the alleged events of the Rendlesham Forest UFO incident and concluded: "I believe the objects that I saw at close quarter were extraterrestrial in origin and that the security services of both the United States and the United Kingdom have attempted – both then and now – to subvert the significance of what occurred at Rendlesham Forest and RAF Bentwaters by the use of well-practiced methods of disinformation."
However, there are some contradictions between this affidavit and the events as recorded by Halt at the time of the incident.[3] Halt’s then commanding officer, Col Theodore (Ted) Conrad, has said “[Halt] should be ashamed and embarrassed by his allegation that his country and England both conspired to deceive their citizens over this issue. He knows better.”.[4]
TV Documentaries[]
- Unsolved Mysteries - Bentwaters UFO
- U.S. Sci Fi Channels "UFO Invasion at Rendlesham". - available to watch here - First broadcast December 1, 2005
- U.S. History Channels "UFO Files - Britain's Roswell - available to watch here - First broadcast December 17, 2005
- Galileo Mystery - Das UFO von Bendlesham Forest (German TV show about the UFO landing in Rendlesham Forest)
References[]
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- ↑ "Col Halt's memo". Ian Ridpath. http://www.ianridpath.com/ufo/appendix.htm. Retrieved 2007-04-13.
- ↑ "Transcript of Col Halt's tape recording". Ian Ridpath. http://www.ianridpath.com/ufo/halttape.htm. Retrieved 2007-09-23.
- ↑ Col Halt's affidavit – differences from the original story
- ↑ David Clarke. "The Rendlesham files". http://drdavidclarke.blogspot.com/p/rendlesham-files.html. Retrieved 2010-09-29.
- "UK opens its own 'X-file'". CNN. 2002-11-29. http://archives.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/europe/11/29/uk.ufo/. Retrieved 2007-04-18.
- "Ministers lift lid on UFO secrets". BBC News. 2002-11-28. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/2525223.stm. Retrieved 2007-04-18.
- "Ministers lift lid on UFO secrets". BBC News. 2002-11-28. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/2525223.stm. Retrieved 2007-04-18.
External links[]
- Colonel Halt on the UFO Casebook
- Charles Halt - Guests - Coast to Coast AM.
- Rendlesham UFO Incident - Shows - Coast to Coast AM.
The original article can be found at Charles I. Halt and the edit history here.