Rendlesham Forest Incident — Night One: December 25–26, 1980

Rendlesham Forest Incident — Night One: December 25–26, 1980

The Initial Observation

At approximately 3:00 AM on December 26, 1980 (reported as December 27 by Halt due to a date error in his memo), a security patrol near the east gate of RAF Woodbridge observed lights apparently descending into nearby Rendlesham Forest. The patrol initially believed an aircraft had crashed in the forest.

Personnel involved in the initial observation and subsequent investigation:

• Staff Sergeant Jim Penniston (81st Security Police Squadron)
• Airman First Class John Burroughs (81st LE)
• Airman First Class Ed Cabansag (81st Security Police Squadron)
• Master Sergeant J.D. Chandler (81st Security Police Squadron)
• Additional security personnel

Entering the Forest

Penniston and Burroughs, with Cabansag, entered the forest to investigate. Their accounts of what they encountered diverge significantly:

Ed Cabansag's Account

Cabansag's contemporaneous witness statement — taken by Colonel Halt — describes the event in the most prosaic terms: "We thought the lights were beyond the forest... We would see a glowing near the beacon light, but as we got closer we found it to be a lit up farmhouse. We ran and walked a good 2 miles past our vehicle, until we got to a vantage point where we could determine that what we were chasing was only a beacon light off in the distance."

Cabansag's account describes nothing more extraordinary than a farmhouse light and a distant beacon.

John Burroughs's Account (1981)

Burroughs's initial 1981 statement was somewhat more dramatic than Cabansag's: "The woods lit up and you could hear the farm animals making a lot of noises... You could see the lights down by a farmer's house [on the forest's edge]... We climbed over the fence and started walking toward the red and blue lights and they just disappeared."

Burroughs subsequently developed more extensive accounts over the years.

Jim Penniston's Account (Initial vs. Later)

Penniston's initial 1981 statement described observing a "bright glowing object" through the trees. Over subsequent decades, his account expanded significantly — eventually including close approach to a triangular craft, physical contact with its warm hull, examination of hieroglyphic-like symbols, and the receiving of a telepathic binary code transmission. The evolution of his account is addressed in the dedicated Penniston article.

The Morning After: Ground Impressions

At daybreak on December 26, servicemen returned to a small clearing near the eastern edge of the forest and found:

• Three small circular impressions in the ground, arranged in a triangle; each approximately 7 inches (18 cm) in diameter; described as approximately 3 inches (7.5 cm) deep
• Burn marks on nearby trees, on the south-facing sides
• Broken branches at about 15 feet (4.5 m) above the ground

Local police were called to examine the impressions at approximately 10:30 AM. The officers concluded that the impressions were most likely made by an animal — possibly a rabbit digging and jumping. Plaster casts of the impressions were taken by Penniston.

The Police Response

Suffolk Police attended the scene twice on December 26:

• Shortly after 4:00 AM, when they were called to assist the initial investigation; they reported seeing only the lights of the Orfordness Lighthouse
• At 10:30 AM, when they were shown the ground impressions; they attributed them to animal activity

The police's lighthouse identification on their first visit is one of the key data points in the skeptical analysis of the incident.