Charles I. Halt

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 after that and he was an important witness to events on the second night of sightings.

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]

Summary of Charles Halt's Own Story

My name is Charles I. Halt. I retired from the US Air Force in 1991 as a Colonel. I was a base commander at two large installations and at the time of my retirement was Director, Inspections Directorate for the DOD IG. In that position I had inspection oversight of all military services and defense agencies. In 1980 I was the Deputy Base Commander of RAF Bentwaters, the large twin base complex in East Anglia England. At the time this was the largest Tactical Fighter Wing in the Air Force. In late December 1980 I was called upon to investigate a strange event that was distracting our Security Police from their primary duties. Early on the morning of December 26, 1980 our police patrolmen discovered strange lights in the forest east of the back gate of RAF Woodbridge. Three patrolmen were dispatched into the forest to investigate. They reported discovering a strange triangular craft sitting on three legs. The craft was approximately 3 meters on a side. The craft had multiple lights. It rapidly maneuvered and quickly left the area.