The lights in the forest
U.S. military personnel reported lights and an object near British bases. An official memo and recording exist, while accounts changed over time.
Lights beyond the east gate
Around 03:00 on 26 December 1980, security personnel at RAF Woodbridge saw lights apparently descend into Rendlesham Forest and went out fearing an aircraft crash. John Burroughs, Jim Penniston and Ed Cabansag described lights moving through the trees and a metallic-looking object. Depressions and marks were reported the following morning. On a later night, deputy base commander Lieutenant Colonel Charles Halt led another team into the forest while recording their observations.
The Halt tape and memorandum
Halt recorded radiation readings, a flashing red light beyond a field and three star-like lights in the sky. On 13 January 1981 he sent the British Ministry of Defence a memorandum titled Unexplained Lights. That memo and his field recording provide a contemporary core against which later testimony can be compared, and made Rendlesham one of the best-known military witness cases in Britain.