Halt memo
| Halt memo | |
|---|---|
| First page of the Halt memo | |
| Created | 13 January 1981 |
| Location | RAF Woodbridge |
| Author | Lt. Col. Charles Halt |
| Media type | Official memorandum |
| Subject | Rendlesham Forest incident |
| Purpose | Report anomalous events to UK Ministry of Defence |
The Halt memo (formally titled "Unexplained Lights") is a memorandum dated 13 January 1981, written by USAF Lieutenant Colonel Charles Halt, deputy base commander of RAF Woodbridge, addressed to the UK Ministry of Defence, summarising the events of the Rendlesham Forest incident of late December 1980. The memo was not classified in any way. Together with the audio recording Halt made on-site, it is one of the two primary documents through which the case entered the public record.
Composition and dating
The two-week delay between the incident and the writing of the memorandum may account for errors in dates and times: Halt recorded the first night as 27 December (rather than 26 December) and the second night as 29 December (rather than 28 December).
Content
The memo describes anomalous lights, a metallic glowing object in the forest, animal disturbance on a nearby farm, three depressions in the ground, elevated radiation readings, and star-like objects that hovered and beamed light downward.
Nuclear context
Larry Warren, a security specialist who guarded nuclear weapons at the base, described the memo as reading "like science fiction," noting that it made no mention of the nuclear weapons stored at the facility — a fact that remained classified long after the document's release.
Public release
The memo was released to the public under the United States Freedom of Information Act in June 1983, to Robert Todd of Citizens Against UFO Secrecy (CAUS). David Clarke, a consultant to the National Archives, investigated its background; his interviews with the MoD personnel who received the document described the cursory nature of the investigation it prompted. Clarke found no evidence that any report beyond the Halt memo was ever produced by either the USAF or UK authorities. When the full MoD file on the incident was released in 2001, it consisted mostly of internal correspondence and responses to public inquiries, consistent with the MoD's position that the case was never treated as a security matter.
Documents
This is to serve as a repository for text-based and otherwise lightweight primary data on the Halt memo.
See also
References
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