Charles Irwin Halt (born 1939) is a retired United States Air Force colonel and a former deputy 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.
Charles I. Halt | |
|---|---|
| Allegiance | United States of America |
| Service | United States Air Force |
| Rank | Colonel |
| Commands | Kunsan Air Base, Korea; RAF Bentwaters |
Rendlesham Forest Investigation
editIn 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 as first pointed out by a local forester, Vince Thurkettle.[1] Later in the night they witnessed bright starlike objects hovering in the sky for several hours.[2] In January 1981 Halt composed an official Air Force memorandum[3] 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.[4]
Post-military
editAfter 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 five listed below.
In June 2010 Halt issued a notarized affidavit[5] 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."
Bibliography
edit- Halt, Charles I.; Hanson, John (2016). The Halt Perspective. Haunted Skies Publishing. ISBN 9780957494497.
- Halt, Charles I.; Hanson, John (2021). The Halt Perspective 2. Haunted Skies Publishing. ISBN 9780995642881.
TV documentaries
edit- Unsolved Mysteries – Bentwaters UFO
- U.S. Sci Fi Channels "UFO Invasion at Rendlesham" – available to watch here[permanent dead link] – First broadcast December 1, 2005
- U.S. History Channels "UFO Files – Britain's Roswell[permanent dead link] – available to watch here – First broadcast December 17, 2005
- Galileo Mystery – Das UFO von Rendlesham Forest (German TV show about the UFO landing in Rendlesham Forest)
- Paranormal Witness – The Rendelsham Files
References
edit
- ^ "Rendlesham Forest UFO 40 years on". BBC. Retrieved 2021-12-27.
- ^ "What were the other lights seen by Colonel Halt?". Ian Ridpath. Retrieved 2021-12-22.
- ^ "Col Halt's memo". Ian Ridpath. Retrieved 2007-04-13.
- ^ "Transcript of Col Halt's tape recording". Ian Ridpath. Retrieved 2007-09-23.
- ^ Col Halt's affidavit – differences from the original story
- "UK opens its own 'X-file'". CNN. 2002-11-29. Archived from the original on 2007-01-16. Retrieved 2007-04-18.
- "Ministers lift lid on UFO secrets". BBC News. 2002-11-28. Retrieved 2007-04-18.
- "Ministers lift lid on UFO secrets". BBC News. 2002-11-28. Retrieved 2007-04-18.