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The Rendlesham UFO Incident: A Study in Folly JAMES MCGAHA and

rch UFO proponent Nick Pope served as an employee of the ABritish Ministry of Defense and Encounter in Rendlesham Forest: The Inside Story of the his varied duties included the part- World’s Best-Documented UFO Incident. By Nick Pope with time assessment of UFO reports for John Burroughs, USAF (Ret.), and Jim Penniston, USAF (Ret.). St. Martin’s Press, New York, 2014. ISBN: 978-1- any possible defense significance. In 250-03810-4. 311 pp. Hardcover, $25.99. 2009, the ministry determined there had never been any (pp. 168–169). Pope’s views were once relatively cau- tious. He emphasized he was “wary of the UFOlogical obsession with official cover-ups and conspiracies,” urging What has happened to Nick Pope? UFOlogists to “try to get away from Several things: He seems newly inter- the believers versus skeptic mindset,” ested in salesmanship, stating, “This is and insisting that “undisputed proof Encounter in Rendle- a timely book,” in part, he says, because that we are not alone in the uni- of modern “concerns over government verse is more likely to come from sham Forest describes ” (xix). Second, he has teamed optical or radio astronomy than from what Pope calls “by far up with Burroughs and Penniston, who ,” according to Pope’s entry in the best-documented have become the embodiment of what Ronald D. Story’s 2001 Encyclopedia of and most compelling we call “The Roswellian Syndrome.” Extraterrestrial Encounters. As we explained in the May/June Yet Pope’s latest book, Encounter in UFO incident ever to 2012 issue of , Rendlesham Forest, is from the opposite have taken place.” this syndrome refers to “a UFO inci- perspective. Written with two retired dent’s occurring, being debunked, go U.S. airmen, John Burroughs and Jim It also attempts to ing underground, beginning the myth- Penniston (for a time stationed at twin discredit skeptical making processes, and reemerging as a U.S. air bases in Britain—RAF Bentwa- tale with ongoing mytholo- ters and Woodbridge—flanking Rend- theories and constantly gizing and media hype.” That is what lesham), it describes what Pope calls “by speaks of secrecy, happened with the Roswell incident, far the best-documented and most com- cover-up, and the 1947 crash of a U.S. spy balloon pelling UFO incident ever to have taken array that morphed over time into a tale place” (xvi). It also attempts to discredit conspiracy. of crashed saucers and their humanoid skeptical theories and constantly speaks occupants. of secrecy, cover-up, and conspiracy. At Rendlesham, the initial sighting

60 Volume 38 Issue 5 | Skeptical Inquirer REVIEWS]

of early December 26, 1980, occurred Over the years since the incident, ning line after line, for sixteen pages). at the same time that a bolide (a bril- matters have become still more con- Under hypnosis, he says he learned liant meteor) streaked over southern fused, and the duo have had trouble that the entities were not ETs after all; England. As local police soon deter- keeping their stories straight. For ex- “They are time travelers—they are us” mined, an additional light visible from ample, although the earliest source, the (239). Who would venture to wager on the area was from the Orford light- Halt memo, says the UFO left “As the what Jim Penniston will claim next? house that stood in the direction the patrolmen approached the object” (74), Even Deputy Base Commander airmen were looking and flashed at the Penniston would later claim to have ac- Halt’s statements have become inflated same five-second interval as the UFO. tually touched the hard, smooth object over time. Whereas in 2007—describ- Other claims were likewise debunked, and to have observed symbols thereon ing lights he had witnessed on the including certain red and blue lights like “ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs” night following the initial incident—he (a police car), “landing” depressions said he had “no idea” what he had seen. (rabbit diggings), and “burn marks” on However, in 2010 he gave an affidavit pines (axe blazings oozing resin). The The responses of the (for reasons that are unclear) stating his low radiation readings had been taken USAF and the RAF belief that the lights “were extraterres- with equipment that was not intended trial in origin” and that security forces to measure background radiation and appear to be mostly in the U.S. and U.K. had “attempted— so were meaningless. The “star-like passive, as if they wish both then and now—to subvert the objects” cited in Deputy Base Com- significance of what occurred at Rend- mander Charles Halt’s memorandum the original comedy of lesham Forest and RAF Bentwaters by report from January 13, 1981, were errors would simply the use of well-practiced methods of probably indeed stars: Sirius, Vega, go away and their ” (41–42). and Deneb. Actually, the responses of the USAF Case closed—for nearly three years. serious military and the RAF appear to be mostly pas- Then, in October of 1983 the story agencies would sive, as if they wish the original com- resurfaced and was hyped, first in the edy of errors would simply go away and British tabloid News of the World and not be further their serious military agencies would not then in a book, Sky Crash: A Cosmic threatened to become be further threatened to become laugh- Conspiracy, published the following laughingstocks. ingstocks. In contrast, left looking very year. Although one of that book’s co- much like fools, Burroughs, Halt, and authors, British UFOlogist Jenny Ran- most especially the remarkable Pen- dles, subsequently became a skeptic of niston appear unable to see how their the Rendlesham Forest case, the con- increasingly strident and exaggerated spiracy was off and running. (clearly evoking the “hieroglyphs” pre- “memories” are making them appear Pope is bent on reviving the Ren- viously reported on the Roswell debris). like loose cannons indeed. They will, of dle sham incident again. Unfor tu nately, At the same time, Burroughs remem- course, sell some books, get some atten- in doing so he is shackled to Burroughs bers almost nothing after the flash of tion, and fool some people. n and Penniston. The two were USAF se- light. And while Penniston now claims curity personnel at Bentwaters/Wood- (says Pope) “the inspection of the craft James McGaha, major, USAF retired, is a bridge and were largely responsible for took many minutes,” for Burroughs, former special operations and electronic the initial mis perceptions and hype— the interval between the time he hit warfare pilot and now an astronomer and especially Airman Burroughs. After see- the ground until the UFO departed director of the Grasslands Observatory ing unexplained lights, although lacking “seemed like a few seconds” (6–9). in Tucson, Arizona. He has frequently ap- proper authorization, he went off base Even more unbelievably, over thirty peared as a UFO expert on such television and saw the lights flashing red and blue. years after the fact, Penniston produced shows as Larry King Live. Soon, Sgt. Penniston (along with a few his alleged notebook in which he had Joe Nickell, PhD, is CSI’s senior research fel- others) came on the scene and the two recorded an incredible secret from the seemed to feed each other’s developing encounter with the UFO. Not only had low. He is author (and coauthor or editor) hysteria. At one point, with a flash of he touched the craft but he now claims of many investigative books, including En- light Penniston “was fear struck” and he in doing so to have received by “tele- tities and The UFO Invasion, and he contrib- and Burroughs threw themselves to the pathic download” a “binary code mes- uted to The Encyclopedia of Extraterrestrial ground (1–8). sage” (a string of ones and zeroes, run- Encounters.

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