1983 04 - Probe Report - Ian Myzyglod & Martin Shipp

7/30/2019 1983 04 - Probe Report - Ian Myzyglod & Martin Shipp

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JOUR AL OF UFO INVESTIGATION

GIORGIADAMSKI:

.. THE BIRTH OF THE UFO ffiYTH ..

~ ~ ~ a

I I I I IN ' D

r n B ~ ~ ~ B ~ m ~ r n u a r n B ~ u r n u ~ u B r n u@ U F O ~ D r n B ~ a r n U

Vo l 3 i N o 4. APR I L 1 9 8 3


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RINDliSHAM REVISITEDAs recent a r h .cles and rumours portra,y , therei s a firm bel ie f by many that somethingunknown crashed in to Rendlesham Forest , nearWoodbridge , Suffolk . Woodbridge i s a smallVl.llnge nine miles north-east of Ipswich .The s tor ies reveal how several people in th evicin1ty witnessed strange l ights between 27thand 30th December 1980 , and from these reportsemerged gradually an account of how somethingcame down 1nto the woods . The nature of th i sal leged object has been a topic of m&Jorcontroversy since the very f1rs t snippets ofin.format1on became ava.Uable 1 and t ius i s du eto the small pieces of inside information thathave been leaked from vartous personnel r igh tfrom the beginning.I t seems that on on e hand, there i s the s torytha t an a i rc ra f t crashed (and the possibi l i tyof this a i rc ra f t being armed wi b nuclearweapons bas been made r ipe ) , an d the s tory ofa UFO laDding or crashing was ' leaked 1 tocover up the rea l horror of a near nucleardisaster . Another action seem to think thatth.e 1 nuclear a i rc ra f t 1 s tory (which has alsobeen ' leaked ) was put out to take thea-ttention o ff of a r ea l UFO land1ng. Sincethis 1%\Ystery began to unfold a t the beginningof 1981 , noth1ng bas been made c lear whatsc.ever by the auth.ori t ies involved or by th.einvest igators involved.Do t Street an d Brenda Butler 1 the two maininvest igators into th i s case 1 have provideda great number of summaries and interimreports 1 and from these have emerged s e vera lar t1oles

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8UFORA BULLETIN No 004 1 Dot Street , p20-21.NOR'l'RERN tJro NETWORK - CASE HISTQRIES ,Jeney Randles.

e L m ~ a 5AUCER REVIE'tl Vol 27 , No 6 , Jtuli\YRandles , p ~4) THE UNEXPLAINED, Volume 9, Jenn,y Ra.cdles ,p2101- 2105.Appreeiahng that th.is case could h.aveextreme illlportance , it was necesGary to v is i tthe area an d conduct an on-s i te survey to t ryand establ ish u the case did b.ave somesubstance . Wi tb th e a.greemellt or JennyRandles , a couple of SCOFORI (Swindon Centrefor UF'O Research and Investigation 1 tnvestlgators went to Rendlesham Forest . The twoteam members went to es tabbsb whether or no tthere was n ca.se to answer 1 and that it wasno t JUSt a hoax or something that ba d grownou of proportion from JUSt a rumours .Here follows th e SCUFORI report : -

Two members of :lCUFOR1 v ia it.er3 Rendlesha.mForeat Cor a three-


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Using a Ceiger- cou.oter , area was -testedfo r signs or possible radiation, but asexpected, none registered . This resul t wasi n c o n c l u a ~ v e as e ~ t h e r ~ h e r e ba d been noradiat ion there at ~ t i m e or i t had been andhad since washed away. Tbe ground v.l8 thenexamined very closely and several eDWples ofplant l i f e sprouting through tbe dead leaveswere round. The branchee w e r ~ also looked a tand they t < ~ e r e found to be dry and very br i t t l e .They also had th e colour of silvery- white.MoVing out from the centre of the area to theedges , the plant l i f e , mainly ferns 1 wns mor eabundant and very dense by th e time th e t reeswere reached.The question to ask was : what could havecaused such a huge area to be almost devoid ofl i fe? Dot Stree t was certa10 that th is areahad been subjected to radiation gJ.ven o ff bythe obJect as :tt. came down, thus ki l l ing offa l l the l i fe in the immediate vicini ty .SCUFORI bad other ideas. F i r s t l y it wasnoticed tllat buried beneath a l l debn.s ofleaves and branches were stumps of t ree tru.nks .A closer look a t these revealed that a saw hadbeen the responsible instrument. The fores thad obVl.ously been developed to provide woodand therefore the t rees bad been cult ivated i na certain way . I t seemed probable tha t t reesthat once stood in th e area bad been cut downand taken a ~ Furthermore , th e dead brancheswhich were scattered about had obviously beenstr ipped o ff the main trunk and. discarded asthey were of hhle uae .The two wvest igatore deo1d.ed. that 1 t would beworthwhile oheoking th e forest to see i f 'sJJIU.lar areas could be found. This bad notbeen done by e i ther Dot or Brenda . Artersearching for jUst a short while 1 a spot waBfound that appeared to be ident ical to theal leged crash/landing u te . The ground was

~ J C < U n h t tered ton.th t reestumps t dead leavesand. branches 1 tuUi the ent ire area was barren .However, two factors present gave this locationan ent ire ly d:t.fi'erent look. Firs t ly 1 therewre several rows of t ree tru.n.ks stockBd intop i les . They were stripped of tbe1r branchesan d out to s1m1lar lengths 1 and looked readyt or a h i p p i ~ out . Secondl.,y, th e ground wasinunaated m th tyre marks from a ~ r y largevehicle . I t was obvious that th ls area andthe previous one had been subjected to thesame process - t ree fel l ing - and no t due tothe land:Lng or some type of craf t , as cla1medby Do-t . Naturally , th is area bad only recently been worked on whereas th e ' landing' s i te ' st ree felling took place some time ago. Theactual fel l ing and monng of t rees usingthe large machinery ki l l s off a l l the f lora inthe immediate area , and then when th e branchesare cut away, they are jus t l e f t on thP groundan d for some reason turn silver-1thite incolour . To f lnd out how this fel l ing procedurei s carr ied out , and why the branches discolour,Shipp, Affleck and Dot se t about l o c a t 1 ~ th eoffices of th e F o r e s ~ r y Coarnssion . At th ishme, Dot was no t very happy a t SCUFORI ' sfindings but agreed with them tha t th e s i tewas cleared throUKh t ree fel l ing .

Dot thought she knew of the Foretttry Commusionoff ices whereabouts , as sh e bad spoken toseveral of the fores t ry workers concerning thescorched t ree- toptl . Thia was another re.usonwhy SCUFORI wanted to see them. The journeyto the offices took them dl.rectl.y past 1:he endof th e runway of RAP Woodbrid8e. There werenotices s ta t ing ' Prohibited Place ' and' Private ' so the airbase was observed from adistance . Arriving a t Forestry Comissionoff ices , it was found tha t they were closed.However 1 Shipp arut A:f'fleok did 81'!'" the larget raotorn and pull ing vehicles parked a t therear . These were no doubt used in th e fellingan d the i r size clearl,y ind.1cated ~ the areaswere so devastated. Nevertheleee 1 it was theopinion of th e two invest igators that theal leged landing/crash s i te was devoid of l i f edue to t ree fel l ing and not beaause of anobject coming down.2) The Farmer Visited by Men-In-Black (MIRa )In Jenny Randles' reports ~ t h e aforementionedpublications (previous page), i t ~ s sta tedthat a farmer and his wife, who l ived verynear the a irbase, were p a ~ d a viai by tvomen in black ' . To quote from THE UHE."


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w1sh to co-operate as sh e bad seen them previously . Only the farmer ~ available and hesaid that. he had not seen a..n.Ything, but heards tor ies from other farmeNJ in +he loca l inn .However , he doos remember two people coming tose e him an d asking questions about the al legedlanding. The n s i t o r a were a man an d a ~ o ~ o m a . nand be reca l l s the woman wearJ.ng a blue andwhite scarf. He had no recollection or twomen - dressed in black or otherwise - cal l ingon him. 'o/ben shown a reference to th.l.s f"romFlYing Saucer Review , he did no t know w h a ~ tomake of it , but was adamant that two men ha dnot vi shed - it was def:lni tely a man an d awoman .ReturnJ.ng to the car , Shipp an!! Aft'leckquestioned Dot about th is , and i t t r a n s p i r e ~tha t it was her and a male companion that thefarmer was referring to . It appeared that yetanother part or the story did not Therarmer d1d mention that a rarm furthe r up theroad ha d l ivestock (ca t t le ) and it was repor ted tha.'t these had pb,yed-up on the night ofthe al leged UFO landing . This was to be theJ.nvestigatoru ' por t of ca l l .3) Am.llllll Dl.sturbanoeaIn Brenda 3ut ler s written report i t sa,ys, ontbe night in question , 11 the fa.:rmer phonedth e Base (RAP ..roodbridge) agaw two weeksla ter af te r the f i r s t land:ing complluningabout his ca t t l e playing up he was to ldi t . was an aircraf ' t but there was no a i rc ra f tfl.vJ.ng on that night . " This was the samefarmer the invest igators were des t ined for ,an d the farm was about on e mile from the i rprevious ca l l . Unfortunatel,y, ths head farmerwas 0\1\ on business , but the t.,.'O SctrroRIinvestl .gators were able to speak to a farmhand . He said that a i rc ra f t pass very lowover the farm a l l the time and the ca t t le wereused to 1 t . But , sometimes, ca t t le new to thearea might have occasion to be disturbed . I fsome o f the ca t t le had been affected by something tn the sky, it i s possible that thesewere indeed ca t t le which were not accustomedto the a i rc ra f t and were naturally s cared .Witl::.out being able t.o disouss the matter withthe bead. farmer , i t w s not possible toformulate an y conclusions, bu t it i s worthment1on1.ng t h a t even i . f the ca.ttle weredisturbed , there i s no reason to connect th iswith the incident that was reported to haveoccurred the a irbase .4) Effects on the carIt was stated in Brazda's report that as sh ean d Do t Street drove along a u-ack inRendlesbam Forest on their way to se e witnesses 1 th e ca r (Ford Cortl.na E'sta.te Mark 1)Brenda WilS ~ 1 . . n . n g app- ared to act in a verys trange manner. Br-enda says , " I t was gt!ttingla te by th e time we go t to the forest , WP.entered a track which learl Lbrough the fores t . ~ c a r n e t o ~ clearing , then my car s tartedplayinY up, it s t a r t e ~ v i b r a t i n ~ l ike mad . Icarr ied on further al or:ur thP track an d 11\Y do gnho was in th e back ota.rted JUmping :ud i" ' inground 1.nd round . Tbn, cru- w:ls si.i l l . vibrll t ing1ni o 1 c k 1 n ~ un speed , I ~ ' P l l i n i ~ doe to i t :iC'"7t e1n1 ~ QUiPt , a: : e>he was wh.tmp d o m e t < > r ) shou1.1M outtha t th i" f e l t lil'.e pee1 that ehe an d"Brenda h::ui been t r ~ v e 1 n ~ a t . Sh!! 11.1 so h':ld

t ~ e o r i e A that i t was s o m e t h i n ~ rio ~ t n~ ~ f > r r u n n t ~ a l o n ~ t ~ ~ C K and power r.ablcooV""rhP"ld ur .cr.1nv th e .. ~ e ' ~ ! ' i c a l tJyatem ofcar . noma r e ~ ~ o n It ~ s nn t a f f e c ~ -inlt the l;uta. . That e v n n . n ~


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to read claahboard i n s t r u ~ ~ e n t a due to the angleO f VieW. ~ r e f ore t Do\ 0 Statement cannot betaken ao beiag to o acurate . It. i s possibletbat ehe vu actually l o o k i ~ at the revcounter u tbia wau present in Brenda's car .Depending on which p a r io enp.sed 1 the revcounter oan KlYe contueiagly high readings ,especially i :f in a lowar ~ a r , which vou1dhave been neoeaaary a t acme stage on the track .Furthermore, Brenda' a oar 1a old an d sbak;y.She said that the car could atop while infourth p a r vtthout diaengagiag th e clutch,although th e clutch platea were no t worn. Itcould be poaa1ble that the accelerator stuckand th e vibration was aUipl.y a coabinatioll ora very bumpy road and an old car rat t l ingunder th e poor conditione.As tor tho clog, i t dose haVG a heart conditionand thia oan cause oonvultiona during a heartattaclc . The excitement or the two women an dbung thrown about 1n th e oa r may have broughton such &n attack.One v i l l never know Wilt reall.)' happened withBrenda's car that even iq , but ~ a . the SCIJlil'aUinves t ip ta r s ' own exper18noe or driving a.longthat track, they f e l t that the tv o WODena 'account ~ contain a degree or exaggeration.The l&.ne eventually le d to th e bouae oftur tber vttneaaes an d 1t wa.a here that theynext called.5) T e l e ~ a l o n J E l e c t r l o a l Interference,TliO old brothers who l iwd in th e baart o fRendleabam Forest an d near the airbase of RAPWoodbr1dge were V'l&1 ted by Dot and Brenda a.apart of the i r inveet ip t ton. in th e uaedia"tearea . The two men dtd not actually se e ~thing, but oatd that the television an d l ightskept fl ickering during January 1981 . Inaddit ion to this , the,y had notioed an increasein military activity during this time.After an uneventful journey along the t rack ,the three 1nveahcators anived a t th e house.I t waa 1ndaed 1aolated. Only one or thegentlemen waa there; the other -.. in hospitalrecovertn& frOID a road accident . Their gardenwas run of a l l kind s or junk; broken-downahacka, old cards etc , and a bup aer ia l a.ca;.ying in th e wind. ( H enended above th e r oottop). They questioned th e aa n and be told thei l lveaUptora th.a1 tbe aer1al waa needed torace1ve the television signal due to th e poorreception . The tree a aaJce l l aatur&l 'wall ' toU\terrere vith the atnal. Apparentl,y 1 telvtalon and electr ical disturbances are acommon event to r the two ,gentlemen an d 'theyaccept u aa a price for hviOK in the forest .That January was no t reall,y an exceptio.nalmonth, although in winter 1 th e reception i sll&de wor.. a a a resul t of th e bad wather .I t ie the Op1nion ot Shipp and Affleck thatthe interference waa caused (and 1& s t i l lbeintJ caused ) by the house being located in adense forest. Bad weather would have accounteel t or the electr ical disturbances.Tbe ros t or th e weekend waa ooaupied t ry ing tosee M i t n ~ a e e e to the actual event 1 but theattempts OI.UIIO to a dead-end.

Conolyiopa.A previousl,y s tated, i t - . not SCUPaU ' sintention to iaveat ip te the a i b t l . ~ ; oD.l,y to&tteapt to dateNiDa i f tlw caae W U varttuo or.a d.eta.ihd. fellow up. The ti.adiDga over tlwthree ca.J"s l . r t a tee l i .q or coaturioa, aapreviou.a read.inp in the otlwr pablicatiol18,P l . r i ~ ~ & Sauoer Re vie v, lllJPCRl liULL&"fill eto, a 11pve the Ulpreaaioa that theee enl l te actll&ll.;roccurred u deac:ribed..tfaturall.:r, due to th e tao\ that by v i nesseeV'Sl'e not in ternewed, an:t aa.. 8118nt th evbole aee - .de wor... hver thelesa , inthree d.a.ra, the two SCUJI'ORI illveatip.tora ba duncovered five inatanoea w h e N ~ thiD'& did. 11otappear quite aa reported . Based on th is , i ti s quite possible that further research wouldlocate even more diecrepanciee. All or t het iva events inveatigated m ~ have occurredrthe ca r !!r l have reached the speed olaiaed,the cat t le could have been disturbed and thetelevia1on/eleotrioal interference been voraethan usual . But there 1a abaolutel,y DO evidence that tbeae events ware reaotel,y ooaaeotedto an al lepd UPO.In ad.diUon to th is , the entire report hi.ageeon one th1ng, and the other e.anta are justsuperfluous. Brenda Butler a the oal.r persontold o f the evente that occurred. a t the a i r b a . The a i r orce personnel ba d confided inbar , and in her alone . Breod.a swore DOt toreveal tb e ident1h e a or th e illf'orwa.nta toaeyone . Apparently 1 this te a no t the t i ra tti . that UPOe bad viaited RAF Woodbridge.Aocorcliq to Brenda'e contacts, they bad beenthere twice before, and u.n.Y other llilit&r,y&lrbaaea 1D tbe oountr,r had received suchvis i tat ione .Therefore, the Renclleaham Forest case re l ieson o n ~ th e information obtained by Brenda.It does eeem unusual that these airf'oroe menshould io.toMD her or t.beae events, knowingtha t abe would no t keep tbla lalowled.ge to herse l f (which abe obviously nevar). Wb.r did.the.r no t anonyaoualy contact ttm nati.onalne wspapera V l b tb i aea..atiOD&l ator,r i.JUJtudot just tellin& an entbuaiu t io aaateur UJ1'0urveatiptor? I t JIIU8t be said Ulat Shipp andAttleclc were no t happ,r w1 th th e tta..r tha tBrenda received th e lcnowledp ot the ewnt ,an d believe that i t ....,. be suapeot . Partberreaearcb in tha t area could be interest ing.In w . a i q up , 1t ia questionable &s towhether something unusual did occar a t RlPWoodbridge a ir base. in late Deceaber 1980.However, one thing 1a certa in, au d that iathat the dl.acrepanoiea unearthed 11U8t car idoubts on the entire oa.aa 1 &D1i iD SCUPOU'acpiJUon th e case d.oea no t warrant furtherinv . igat ion.

- So concludes 'be SOIJP'ORI report on theirvis i t to Rend.leaham Forest . They conclude thatth is oaee i s suspect in that tb e whole conceptot a araabe4 UP'O 1a baaed on the 1D.f'oruhonobtained 'Qy one person. I t ia true that &.1.1'-baee otf1cia la , one would tbiDk, would ~


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reveal class i f ied 1nformation to one who wasao enthusiashoal ly 1.nvolved in ufology . Itmust have been apparent to these informersthat Brenda Butler would not (could nat?) keepsuoh an account secre t , and tnerefore it mustbe surmised that the story was concelved in theknowledge that it would shortly become publio .Yet it ap pears that it was not only BrendaButler who was gtven information. Paul Begg{autb.or o.f INTO TF!IN AIR) also received as tory that a UFO had been tracked on radart ha t was headed for Suffolk:. The t rackings ta t ion was a c iv i l r adar establishment, an d acouple of days l a te r the military arrived a tthe base and took away the radar tapes of theincident . Needless to say, th is a l l happeneda t the time of th e Rendlesham ~ s t e r ySeoondl,y , Norman Oliver (Director of Inves t igat ions fo r BUFOS) was a t the time edi tor ofBUFORA 1s llllFORA JOORNAL , and he received amessage .from America from a servicell\aD who ha dreturned af te r a s t in t 111 the UK. He toldOliver t h a ~ someth1ng big had happened a tWood.br1.dge a t the turn of the year ( 1980/81).In the meantime , Do t and. Brenda were worlcitlgon thei r aspect of the case an d were makingthe enquir ies which led to the publicat1.on o fth e Rendleaham Forest ar t ic les .So Brenda Butler wasn ' t th e only on e who heardsnippets of S'taries . But of eourae , t tds doesnot validate the story or give i t a.ny credence.SCUFORI found other s imilar areas to Do t andaTenda s "Landing ei te" , an d th is does posetb e possibi l i ty that they happened to stumbleupon j us t one of mai\Y areas that baci b!!encleared by fe l l i ng a t an ear l ie r date. Theyfound out that the 'pen.pberal ' events to theoaae bad been exaggerated out of proportionan d poss1bl,y even non-existent .What they did not check was the main event;w b a t ~ r or not an object descended into thefo res t 1.n la te December 1980 . They never ba dthe time to do so, an d it would have beenextremely d i f f i cu l t to uncover informationt.hat was somewhat well- concealed two yearsprior to their Vl.sit . But overa l l they areno t convinced anything d id happen.As Wl.th. many cases that have been promising inthe i r or iginal p r ~ s e n t a t i o n much of theadd1.tional reystery i s only added to gtve the

SS!S P u h l J c a t i o n ~ ~ v ~ ~ r o i u o P ~ t h ~ i r 1n83catalogue of bnolco ;utJ sr .c ia l itftms. T h ~ < : 1catalogue l& fre'! c.o anyonP -..ho -n-1 tfts fo r "copy , to Gen"! Oupl!lntier , 17 :)he t l!lnct t:;t.re . t ,"l i\1owdale, Ontario , C."\'!ari'\ 1 P-11worth o b t 3 i n 1 n ~ i r.opy ."lonn1.e ,, 'beeler of the C a ~ n b r 1 . d ~ UFO ! F in fC',.. sub::r.r i; . t ..,, J ' .,11" 1n :'lbovn .

story more in tr igue and 1nterest . The famousDyfed r tap or a few years back was found. to becoated in a wealth of ~ 1 - n a t i v e gloss , andunderneath there was found to be l i t t l efoundation . I t i s not clear what the posit ioni s with tbP Rendlesham Forest case , but asone of the few inveshgat ion groups who haveactual ly v e n t ~ e d into th e forest i t s ~ l f i ti s only just that SCUFORl's op1.nions aretreated wtth r e s p a ~ After a l l 1 tbey badnothlne to ga1n Ol" lose by thei r efforts ; onlythe reward of determi.n1ng as to whethel' or notothers should spend f"Urthor time and money oninves t igat ions . They feel th6t others wouldonly waste that t1.me and money on thl.a case .As with moot UFO e v e n ~ a t)'lat i nvolve themili tary a t some leve1 or another , very l i t t l einformation of an.r sat1afactory l e ~ l i s everreleased to those in terested. Bendlesham W1llgo th9 ~ or maey others l.n the past and i.will be recorded as another great enigma ofthe 1980s . I t has received immortal coveragein 'I'll'"' IDEX?LAINED (which T understand i s oni t s ';hi' .d run) . It has bean reported inFlying S a u c e ~ Revjew ( s t J l l world's mostfamous a.n:l respected uro perl.od.l c a l ' arui i tbas also been featured i n other publicationsas well as th e o n ~ s mentioned a t the beginningo f th is ar t ic le .SCUFlQRI did no t find out. whether or not anythl.ng O>J.ne down in the forest., be it an ' l i r -cra.ft or a UFO , but as nothing i s e ~ r l ikelyto emerge from thiF eaae , dO"!a i t reallymatter?

JOUR.illL FUH U ! " C - F O R ~ c n m ; r . The off ic ia ljourn11.l of OP.m'!1.nar.baf1. zur ::rrorschungunbeY.annt r Ph.liuore'-"r.e (OF.P) 1s l l l ~ J ; h l . v recnmmttn.ied t ~ o r ~ h o 3 e ...,ho C"\1'1 reari tAman an d t a burolor;Y serioa!.:ly . :

Documents

1983 04 - Probe Report - Ian Myzyglod & Martin Shipp