"The Rendlesham Colonel" · b. 1939
Colonel Charles I. Halt (USAF, Ret.) served a distinguished 27-year career in the United States Air Force, rising to the rank of Colonel. In December 1980, he was serving as Deputy Base Commander at RAF Bentwaters/Woodbridge, a dual-base complex in Suffolk, England, that hosted the 81st Tactical Fighter Wing and was, at the time, one of the most significant NATO nuclear weapons storage sites in Europe. He was a senior officer of exceptional career standing — not a junior airman inclined to embellishment.
His connection to UFO history derives from his direct personal participation in the second night of the Rendlesham Forest incident of 26–28 December 1980, and specifically from the memorandum he wrote afterwards — now universally known as the Halt Memo — which was declassified in 1983 under a FOIA request and became one of the most significant government documents in UAP history.
Full details of the Rendlesham Forest incident are documented on this site's Rendlesham page. Halt's direct involvement began on the second night — 27–28 December 1980 — when he led a patrol into Rendlesham Forest to investigate after further reports of unusual lights following the previous night's encounter involving Staff Sergeant Jim Penniston and Airman John Burroughs. Halt carried an AN/PDR-27 radiation detector and a Dictaphone, and recorded a running commentary of events in real time.
That recording — known as the Halt tape — documents Halt and his team observing a structured, lighted object moving through the forest, radiation readings significantly above background, and what Halt describes as a light that "exploded" into multiple objects. He describes beams of light descending from one of the objects onto the ground near the nuclear weapons storage area of the base. The tape is remarkable for its calm, military-professional tone — Halt is not excitable, and his evident attempt to maintain bureaucratic composure while describing extraordinary events gives the recording unusual authenticity.
The Halt Memo, dated 13 January 1981 and addressed to the UK Ministry of Defence, describes both nights' events in measured official language. Its significance is twofold: it is an official government document, signed by a senior military officer, formally reporting what he describes as a possible extraterrestrial craft; and it was addressed to the MoD not as a curiosity but as a potentially significant military event requiring attention. The MoD's response — essentially "thank you, no further action required" — became itself a subject of controversy.
Halt has spent decades giving public testimony about Rendlesham, and his account has been remarkably consistent. He has stated plainly that he believes the objects observed were of non-human origin and that the official explanations (lighthouse misidentification, re-entering space debris) are inadequate to account for what he and his team directly observed. He has also alleged that the incident was subject to systematic official denial and that witnesses were pressured to remain silent.