A bombshell revelation about the Rendlesham Forest incident has just been made. This latest news has profound implications not just for our understanding of what happened in Rendlesham Forest, but for ufology as a whole.
Those people following recent developments in the case will recall that a key issue is John Burroughs and Jim Penniston’s struggle to obtain their military medical records from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). This was due to concerns that various health problems they have were associated with their encounter in Rendlesham Forest. Intriguingly, these medical records were lodged in the VA’s classified records section. Senator Jon Kyl was involved in the case, as was Senator John McCain, who now chairs the Senate Committee on Armed Services. Six former Congressional representatives even wrote to the President of the United States about the issue. Clearly, discussions about the Rendlesham Forest incident, and the effect it had on key witnesses John Burroughs and Jim Penniston, went right to the very top.
Ironically, it was the British Government that (perhaps inadvertently) provided the smoking gun. In 2006 the Ministry of Defence declassified parts of an intelligence study on UFOs, codenamed Project Condign, and classified Secret UK Eyes Only. I had been involved in the work that led to the setting up of this study, but wasn’t the final report’s anonymous author, as has been claimed. Parts of this document are still highly classified and extremely sensitive, and are being withheld to this day, along with many of the report’s working papers, many of which were deliberately placed outside the scope of the Freedom of Information Act, by using a defence contractor to undertake the work. However, one statement in the final report, perhaps missed by the censor’s pen, read as follows:
“The well-reported Rendlesham Forest/Bentwaters event is an example where it might be postulated that several observers were probably exposed to UAP [Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon] radiation for longer than normal UAP sighting periods.”
After years of official denial and obfuscation, John Burroughs and Jim Penniston had been entirely vindicated. The MoD was effectively saying “yes, this was real, and yes, you were irradiated”. Armed with this, John Burroughs, John and Jim’s crusading attorney Pat Frascogna, and Senator McCain, had enough of a smoking gun to reengage with the VA. And here’s the bombshell development: the VA just settled with John Burroughs. In full.
Let there be no doubt here. Settlement of this claim should be seen for what it is: a tacit US Government acknowledgment that what happened was real, and harmful. Add that to the Project Condign quote, and one can see that both the British and American Governments have now, effectively, confirmed the reality of the Rendlesham Forest incident. It’s not Disclosure in the sense that the UFO community envisage (with the US President addressing the nation: “My fellow Americans, people of the world, we are not alone”), but it’s the best you’ll get. It’s Confirmation.
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