Discussion the Credibility of Well Known UFO Cases

#1 Most Credible UFO Sighting
26-28 December 1980, Rendlesham Forest, Suffolk, UK

The Rendlesham Forest UFO sighting(s) occurred over a three night period the last week of December 1980 outside Bentwaters Air Base in the UK. The objects were seen each night by multiple USAF personnel, many of them security police officers, with the best known/documented being the sighting of 27 Dec. This event was witnessed by a number of personnel, including the deputy base commander, Lt. Col. Charles Halt. Using a portable tape recorder, Halt recorded his observations real time during the sighting. He later submitted an official report of the sighting to the UK Ministry of Defence. (See attachments for details.)

As with most UFO cases, a number of possible explanations have been offered over the years including revolving lights from a nearby lighthouse, meteors, and various hoax theories. While all these purposed explanations might offer at least a possible explanation for aspects of the sightings/reports, none appear to answer the total series of events that went on over those three nights. As to what was actually seen, investigators and researchers have opined, among other explanations, alien spacecraft, a time machine from our own future, travel by inter-dimensional beings, and classified military projects. The official positions of the US and UK governments are the objects/lights remain unknown.

The Rendlesham Incident has taken something of a beating over the past several years due to the apparent disingenuous efforts of a couple of the men who claimed to have taken part in the sightings. One of them waited a number of years to go public with a claim of having received a "binary coded" message when he touched one of the objects. This claim has been received with great scepticism. Another of the more visable/vocal experiencers turned out to have been a fraud, forcing a veteran UFO author/investigator to disavow the book he wrote with this individual. There is also a degree of ill will among some of the experiencers toward one another that comes out during interviews, conferences, and book/articles.

It's hard to believe this incident occurred over 35 years ago. Still, in my mind the Rendlesham incident continues to be the most credible of all modern UFO cases. Multiple sightings by a number of believable witnesses, including a senior USAF officer who officially documented the encounter, and no efforts by the US or UK government to discount the sightings. In all likelihood, there were nuclear weapons on the base, a known interest area for UFOs. It is also noteworthy Lt. Col. Halt was promoted to full Colonel, in spite of his part in the Rendlesham Incident. For years the conventional wisdom was the reporting of a UFO by a military officer was a career killer.

It would be be a great thing for ufology if all those who were involved would get together to work out their issues. They are not getting any younger, hopefully they can come together and put together a complete picture of what happened.

 

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#1 Most Credible UFO Sighting
26-28 December 1980, Rendlesham Forest, Suffolk, UK

The Rendlesham Forest UFO sighting(s) occurred over a three night period the last week of December 1980 outside Bentwaters Air Base in the UK. The objects were seen each night by multiple USAF personnel, many of them security police officers, with the best known/documented being the sighting of 27 Dec. This event was witnessed by a number of personnel, including the deputy base commander, Lt. Col. Charles Halt. Using a portable tape recorder, Halt recorded his observations real time during the sighting. He later submitted an official report of the sighting to the UK Ministry of Defence. (See attachments for details.)

As with most UFO cases, a number of possible explanations have been offered over the years including revolving lights from a nearby lighthouse, meteors, and various hoax theories. While all these purposed explanations might offer at least a possible explanation for aspects of the sightings/reports, none appear to answer the total series of events that went on over those three nights. As to what was actually seen, investigators and researchers have opined, among other explanations, alien spacecraft, a time machine from our own future, travel by inter-dimensional beings, and classified military projects. The official positions of the US and UK governments are the objects/lights remain unknown.

The Rendlesham Incident has taken something of a beating over the past several years due to the apparent disingenuous efforts of a couple of the men who claimed to have taken part in the sightings. One of them waited a number of years to go public with a claim of having received a "binary coded" message when he touched one of the objects. This claim has been received with great scepticism. Another of the more visable/vocal experiencers turned out to have been a fraud, forcing a veteran UFO author/investigator to disavow the book he wrote with this individual. There is also a degree of ill will among some of the experiencers toward one another that comes out during interviews, conferences, and book/articles.

It's hard to believe this incident occurred over 35 years ago. Still, in my mind the Rendlesham incident continues to be the most credible of all modern UFO cases. Multiple sightings by a number of believable witnesses, including a senior USAF officer who officially documented the encounter, and no efforts by the US or UK government to discount the sightings. In all likelihood, there were nuclear weapons on the base, a known interest area for UFOs. It is also noteworthy Lt. Col. Halt was promoted to full Colonel, in spite of his part in the Rendlesham Incident. For years the conventional wisdom was the reporting of a UFO by a military officer was a career killer.

It would be be a great thing for ufology if all those who were involved would get together to work out their issues. They are not getting any younger, hopefully they can come together to and put together a complete picture of what happened.

Duke, I'm really glad this is your #1 choice. I'm with you on this. Of all the sightings, it is the most credible, imo. The witnesses are truly outstanding, and the independent observations make it #1 in my book as well. If any of the sightings convince me of the reality of UFO's, this one's it. Still doesn't explain what the heck they are, but it goes a long way to validating the reality of them.
 
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I will now address what I feel are the three least credible, well known UFO sightings. Again, these are my personal opinions, I expect some disagreements as to the lack of credibility of these sightings, but hopefully that will prompt discussions.

#3 Least Credible UFO Sighting(s)
November 1987-1988, Gulf Breeze, FL

The Gulf Breeze "flap" from late 1987 through 1988 was one of the best known pre-internet/pre-social media series of sightings in ufology. The sightings stated on 11 November when local resident Ed Walters took one of the clearest, some claimed the best, UFO photograph ever made public (see attached). The object was a blue, double-decked saucer shaped object with clearly definable windows/port holes around its circumference. Over the next year or so, Walters continued to get additional photographs of the same or similar craft, and even claimed to have been abducted by the alien crew. Walters wrote multiple books about his sightings.

The Gulf Breeze area became of the world's primary hotspots for those keen to see UFOs through the late 80s. Not surprisingly, many did claim to see strange things in the sky, but no one other than Walters saw the object he claimed to have seen and photographed. Many ufologists bought into the legitimacy of Walters' claims, that is until 1990 when he moved out of Gulf Breeze and the new owners of his home found a crudely made model saucer that looked remarkably like those he photographed. A photographer from a Pensacola newspaper used that model to produce UFO photos that were virtually indistinguishable from those of Walters. Walters claimed the model was planted, and stuck to his story.

Despite the finding of the model and third party reproduction of Walters' photographs, there are still those who believe the sightings/photos were legitimate, including well respected ufologist Dr Bruce Maccabee. Some also point to the large number of UFO sightings by witnesses other than Walters as well. It is worth noting, however, this is not uncommon after other publicized sightings when those who ordinarily wouldn't look skyward begin to do so. Considering Gulf Breeze is just across the bay from Pensacola Naval Air Station, one of the largest and busiest air stations in the nation, it isn't too surprising those people saw aerial activity.
 

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Over the years I have admittedly lost interest in the whole UFO phenomena thing. No conclusive physical evidence has ever been presented. And that leaves just witness accounts, questionable and sketchy corroborative evidence and the powerful psycho-social effect of government and military secrecy and denial surrounding the whole issue to keep things alive.

I'm doubtful of the Zamora case for one overriding reason. The craft allegedly seen by Zamora and other witnesses was just too similar to our all-to-familiar rocket technology. A blast and roar followed by flame followed by a silent, fast moving object is an almost exact description of the stages of a rocket or missile being launched. The rocket motor ignites. The rocket slowly accelerates, but begins to move faster and faster. The rocket motor is finally expended. But propelled by the rocket motor that has now burned out, the rocket continues to fly to its destination in a ballistic trajectory. So on the one hand, there is this implication that what Zamora saw was some form of extra-terrestrial craft. Yet on the other hand, one is supposed to believe that extra-terrestrials arrived here from the stars using rocket technology that is indistinguishable from any human technology that was current at the time. I am thus at a loss as to how to reconcile these opposing factors.