United States Air Force Colonel Theodore "Ted" Conrad Speaks for the first time about The Rendlesham Forest Incident

 

Colonel Ted Conrad, RAF Bentwaters

 

In 1980, United States Air Force Colonel Ted Conrad was base commander of the twin airfields of Woodbridge and Bentwaters, near Ipswich, which are understood at the time to have stored nuclear weapons.  Just after Christmas mysterious lights were seen in the sky above nearby Rendlesham Forest, and after a second night of reports from his men, Col. Conrad investigated himself.  During the day, he went into the forest himself to a clearing where the lights had been seen and where markings on trees and on the ground had been found, indicating a possible landing by a spacecraft.

Col. Conrad said he found them “unremarkable”. Nevertheless, he returned to the base and handpicked a team of his best security officers and sent them in the forest that evening to investigate.  Armed with a Geiger counter, cameras and night vision devices they staked out the “landing site”. After seeing nothing suspicious, most of the team returned to base late that night. A handful remained, including his deputy, Charles Halt, who stayed in contact with his superior by radio.  It is his account of what happened next which has fueled rumors of a UFO landing. Over the radio, he reported seeing more lights on the ground and in the sky.

At home on the base, the commander and his wife went outside to look for the lights after hearing about the sighting. Other senior officers on the base and their wives did the same. But despite it being a clear, cloudless night, they saw nothing suspicious.  Halt filed a report of the incident to the Ministry of Defence some days later and has since go on to say the lights he saw were “extraterrestrial in origin” and accuse the US and UK security services of a cover-up. Conrad, has remained silent.

“We saw nothing that resembled Halt’s descriptions either in the sky or on the ground,”  Conrad said.  "We had people in position to validate Halt’s narrative, but none of them could.” There was no “hard evidence”. 

“He (Halt) should be ashamed and embarrassed by his allegation that his country and England both conspired to deceive their citizens over this issue. He (Halt) knows better,”.  “The search for an explanation could go many places including the perpetration of a clever hoax. Natural phenomenon such as the very clear cold air having a theoretical ability to guide and reflect light across great distances or even the presence of an alien spacecraft.   “If someone had the time, money and technical resources to determine the exact cause of the reported Rendlesham Forest lights, I think it could be done. I also think the odds are way high against there being an extraterrestrial spacecraft involved, and almost equally high against it being an intrusion of hostile earthly craft.”