US Air Force colonel blasts claims that SAS pranksters staged British ‘Roswell’ incident to terrify American soldiers
Colonel Charles Halt spoke out after claims the biggest UFO mysteries in British history was just a joke the SAS played on US forces for detaining a team of their soldiers.
A RETIRED US Air Force colonel has blasted "silly" claims that SAS pranksters were behind Britain's biggest UFO mystery.
Colonel Charles Halt, one of the base commanders at the time, spoke out after it was alleged the infamous Rendlesham Forest incident - often referred to as the British Roswell - was a practical joke on US forces for detaining a team of SAS soldiers.
Panicked American soldiers reported the UFO encounter to their superiors after spotting unexplained lights hovering in Rendlesham Forest in December 1980.
However an insider claimed this week that the sighting was actually set up by SAS men who were captured by the Americans after they parachuted into the woods to test the security at RAF Bentwaters in Suffolk.
The whistle-blower alleges the SAS men were beaten up, interrogated and branded "unidentified aliens".
Several weeks later they allegedly decided to pull a huge prank on their captors by rigging up lights and flares in the trees and fly remote-controlled kites with black helium balloons attached to them - to terrify them into thinking a UFO had landed.
But Halt, who was deputy base commander at the time and investigated the sighting, has rubbished the latest theory to explain away the UFO sightings.
He told Sun Online: "I would like to meet this so-called SAS officer and put him in his place. He's a disgrace to his organisation."
Halt led a team of military experts into the woods to "debunk" the reports but they were shocked when a UFO fired a beam of light just a few feet away from them.
Halt, who made an 18-minute audio recording of the incident, went on to write a memo detailing what happened which he sent to the Ministry of Defence but top brass said the incident was of "no defence significance."
In a letter penned to Dr David Clarke, a folklore expert at Sheffield Hallam University, the source wrote: "A great deal of nocturnal Christmas fun was had at the expense of the USAF – and the matter should have ended there.
"Unfortunately, a senior US officer (Lt Col Halt) led the US contingent out into the forest on the second night and took along his tape recorder. The hovering and whizzing lights were sufficiently impressive for him to send a report to the MoD.
"Someone in London recalled the events of the previous August and questions were asked. A few red faces but also some satisfaction and amusement followed.
"The USAF was 'reassured' at a very senior level and no UK investigation was undertaken – for obvious reasons."
The source said a series of "exercises" were carried out by UK special forces to test the base's defences against any potential Soviet attack during the Cold War.
He said troops were parachuted into the forest but their black parachutes were detected by a new surveillance equipment.
The squad was interrogated by a young ARRS (Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron) lieutenant who was unaware of the exercise. He claims they were abused and roughly treated for 18 hours before being released.
But Halt said his men were not fooled by balloons, flares and kites.
He said: "When I initially saw the story I thought it was a joke. Surely one of your SAS officers would be smart enough to not be drawn onto such a silly story.
"That is unless he was helping the MoD into muddying the waters. The ARRS never had weapons on the base.
"Yes, they had interesting weapons but they were only issued when loading up for a covert mission. Until then they were kept in the armoury.
"The 81TFW Security Police had exclusive responsibility for the security of the base. If they saw an ARRS member with a weapon they would have been taken into custody, period.
"Their commander Col Charley Wicker was my racket ball partner. We talked about the incident the next day. His comment was 'We were down for the holiday but if it happens again call me and I'll get a crew airborne'.
"Both the Air Force Air Traffic Controllers as well as their British counterparts picked up the objects as well as numerous civilians and the whole WSA crew."
He added: "The SAS did not have any personal stationed on the base. The only UK military person was the RAF Liaison officer Squadron Leader Don Moreland.
"Our only interface with the UK military was with the local TA and then we only exercised with them from time to time.
"They certainly were not on base during the incident."
MoD insider Nick Pope, who ran the UK's official UFO project, also weighed in on the SAS prank claims.
He told Sun Online: "I'm skeptical of this latest theory and in evidential terms it's worthless: a ufologist claims someone contacted him, claiming to be in the SAS, and claiming the events were attributable to a prank.
"It's a classic friend of a friend story. Ironically it's ufologists like Clarke who get pranked all the time, by people making unverifiable claims about UFOs that play to the belief system of the particular ufologist concerned, whether they are a believer or a skeptic.
"The problem is that ufologists don't have the specialist military or intelligence knowledge to assess such claims or to vet the identity of the people making them.
"Having run the Ministry of Defence's UFO project and having undertaken a cold case review of the incident I can categorically confirm that no explanation for the Rendlesham Forest incident was ever found.
"We looked at all the theories - and the claim that this was a prank isn't new - and none of them fit the facts. My cold case review was the last of the various official investigations into these events, so while the MoD terminated its UFO project in 2009, this means that the official verdict is that the case remains unexplained.
In January last year, Halt claimed two airmen involved in the incident, which marked its 38th anniversary this week, may have been abducted by aliens in secret video footage.
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Sgt Jim Penniston and Airman John Burroughs witnessed a small triangular craft in the forest which landed in the forest.
Sgt Penniston got so close, he even managed to touch it, describing it as "smooth to the touch" with strange symbols similar to ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs before it took off.
Halt has released a book called The Halt Perspective and a sequel is in the pipeline.