Part 1:  1980 RAF Bentwaters Disaster Preparedness Tech
S/Sgt. Monroe Nevels Describes “Top Secret” Investigation

© 2010 by Linda Moulton Howe

“Lt. Englund told me that one of the airmen had been taken
aboard the spacecraft (in Rendlesham Forest).”

- Monroe Nevels, S/Sgt. (Ret.),
1980 RAF Bentwaters Disaster Preparedness

Click for podcast.

July 30, 2010  Tuscola, Texas - For the past 30 years since December 1980, no one ever said there was a TOP SECRET investigation organized right after sunup on December 26th, by RAF Bentwaters Base Commander Col. Ted Conrad. That was the morning that Staff Sgt. James Penniston, Airman 1st Class John Burroughs and Airman Ed Cabansag encountered lights and a craft in Rendlesham Forest, England. There were rumors right from the beginning that “one of the men jumped up on a UFO or was taken up in a beam of light.” The airman allegedly taken was John Burroughs, but even he did not know until recently that Commander Ted Conrad was already getting men he trusted out into the forest to examine tripod indentations in the forest floor and burn marks on the trees – even before the famous December 28th  night of Deputy Base Commander Lt. Col. Charles Halt. That’s when the famous audiocassette tape recording was made by Col. Halt out in the forest.

For  several hours, some two dozen Air Force personnel reported moving, jumping lights; thin beams of light coming down to the ground; and even a multi-colored aerial craft on or above the farmer’s field.

One of the handpicked men in the TOP SECRET Base Commander’s investigation was Staff Sergeant Monroe Nevels, a photographer and Disaster Preparedness technician at RAF Bentwaters.

Monroe Nevels was born in Phenix City, Alabama, on October 15, 1948. Today he is 61-years-old. In December 1980 at RAF Bentwaters AFB in England, Monroe was 32-years-old in his second military career after serving first in the U. S. Marine Corps during the Vietnam war from 1966 to 1970. He enlisted in the USAF March 1, 1971 for duty until November 18, 1984. In the Marines, Monroe had trained as a Nuclear, Biological and Chemical specialist, which the U. S. Air Force called Disaster Preparedness. “At that time in 1971,” Monroe explained, “there were only forty or fifty of us in that disaster preparedness field for the U. S. Air Force. We were trained for aircraft accidents and some training included simulated nuclear weapons on board as well as biological and chemical threats.”

“My RAF Bentwaters assignment was to the Disaster Preparedness Office where I was the on the Disaster Preparedness Response Team, or DPST and my primary mission was as a Chemical Defense Instructor.  But I also trained the DPST on nuclear and biological threats. Our office consisted of twenty or twenty-five people, but I was sort of the chief instructor because I taught all the newcomer classes and refresher courses and I related more to the chemical side. However, that included knowledge about RADIAC instruments for measuring radioactivity from nuclear materials because we had nuclear weapons stored at the RAF Bentwaters Weapons Storage Area.” [RADIAC is an acronym for Radiation, Detection, Identification, and Computation]

Ground level at RAF Bentwaters “Hot Row” of stored nuclear weapons,
a TOP SECRET in December 1980. Image by RAF Bentwaters History.

What no one has known until now is that Saturday afternoon around 4 PM on December 27, 1980, Staff Sergeant Monroe Nevels, Disaster Preparedness technician at RAF Bentwaters, had a surprise visit from Lt. Bruce Englund, the Shift Commander for Bravo Flight Security Police.  Both Sgt. Nevels and Lt. Englund had served in the Marines before re-enlisting in the U. S. Air Force. Lt. Englund told Sgt. Nevels he was there on TOP SECRET orders of the RAF Bentwaters Base Commander Col. Ted Conrad.

Lt. Bruce Englund (middle), former Marine and USAF Shift Commander
for Bravo Flight Security Police at RAF Bentwaters in
December 1980. Photo © 1980 by Lori Buoen.

Interview:

1980 photograph of USAF Staff Sergeant Monroe Nevels, Disaster Preparedness
Technician, RAF Bentwaters, Suffolk County, England. Photo courtesy Monroe Nevels.

Monroe Nevels, Retired Staff Sergeant and Disaster Preparedness Technician, RAF Bentwaters, December 1980, Suffolk County, England:  “I was in my home on Woodbridge base. I got a knock on the door and it was Lt. Bruce Englund from the Security Police. He came in and started walking through my home and looking throughout my home to see if there was anybody else there with me. And I told him my daughter was in there, that she was 3-years-old. He asked, ‘Does she understand what I’m talking about? Because what I’m about to say is TOP SECRET.’

Lt. Englund said, ‘I’m here because I was sent by the Base Commander Col. Ted Conrad. He asked me to come here and pick you up and let me go into detail about what he said.’ So then he started going back and relating all the instances of the UFO on December 25th through that time frame.

The story I got from Lt. Englund was that the London tower on December 25 to 26, when all this started, contacted the tower at Woodbridge base and asked them to identify the object that was above them because it was on their radar and they could not determine what it was.

SO LONDON IS LOOKING AT WOODBRIDGE AND SEEING AN OBJECT ON RADAR. LONDON CONTACTS WOODBRIDGE TO ASK,'WHAT IS IT WE ARE SEEING?’ AND WOODBRIDGE SAYS, ‘WE DON’T SEE ANYTHING.’

Exactly.

HAD HE SAID TO YOU SPECIFICALLY IN THE HOUSE ABOUT THE ABDUCTION AT THE SITE?

Lt. Englund told me that one of the airmen had been taken aboard the spacecraft (in Rendlesham Forest). 

He was talking about what had happened at 3 AM on December 26th - can you talk about that?

Yes. He just basically went through and told me that Sgt. Jim Penniston and John Burroughs were involved. I do remember their names were mentioned and Lt. Englund said even to the point that someone had been abducted into the aircraft.

And he also said, ‘The reason Col. Conrad had asked for me to come and get you is because he felt that if he wanted an honest answer from anybody, then you would give it to him. So, it’s my orders – they are down at the Woodbridge Officer’s Club and they are having a party down there. And when we get through on our investigation, Col. Conrad will be waiting for us and we have to go back and you report to him what you saw (at Rendlesham Forest spacecraft landing site.)”

We left about 4:30 PM that day and we went over to RAF Bentwaters and carried my daughter to the Base Chaplin’s office because my wife was there in a Chaplin’s event for the ladies.

Then I got back in the jeep. We had lightscopes, the night vision goggles, with us. And I also had my camera. When we got there (beyond the East Gate) at the scene in Rendlesham Forest,  Lt. Englund began to pinpoint things that had happened.

Google aerial of RAF Bentwaters and RAF Woodbridge with big Rendlesham Forest in between.
The RAF Bentwaters WSA contained nuclear weapons, a TOP SECRET in December 1980. The orange line is the road beyond the RAF Woodbridge East Gate to a logging road that went into Rendlesham Forest and toward the site of a landed craft at 3 AM on December 26, 1980, encountered by Airman 1st Class John Burroughs and Staff Sergeant James Penniston while Airman Edward Cabansag monitored radio communications at their truck further from the landing site marked by the orange circle near the farmer's open field. Text overlay provided by John Lartington, U. K.

Lt. Bruce Englund, the Shift Commander for Bravo Flight, already knew the site of the previous landing of a craft of unknown origin and it was Lt. Englund who took you there?

Yes.

This goes right to the heart of what exactly was happening by December 28, 1980? Col. Conrad had already ordered Lt. Bruce Englund to go into the forest because Lt. Englund would not have known where to take you if he had not already been out at the December 26, 1980, craft landing site, right?

Right, unless he had been given instructions [ by Col. Conrad? Or who?] All I know is when we went out there to do the investigation, Lt. Englund stopped the jeep and said, ‘Right here is where we need to stop.’

Do you know where you stopped in relationship to the East Gate?

No, all I know is that we stopped. It was dark and I’d never been out that way before. I was astounded by the forest. I told Lt. Englund, ‘Man, those trees are tall!’ And he said, ‘Yes, they said the craft that came in did not break any limbs and came right through the trees and sat down.’

Which seems impossible.

It’s an impossible thing in our realm, but not impossible for whatever They were doing.

From perhaps outer space.

Right. And he took me to the site of the landing. We proceeded to go into the area to see what my observation might be. I had my camera , loaded with Kodak Tri X, to be pushed to ASA 800. When we got in there, I saw the three indentations in the ground and really studied the three indentations on the forest floor. When we got back in the jeep and slowly headed back towards the East Gate, on the way I looked over to my left and saw the bright light in the forest.

After sunup in the early morning of Friday, December 26, 1980, British PC Brian Cresswell
of Suffolk Police nearest central marker of three sticks (highlighted by orange circles) used to mark tripod pattern of depressions discovered in Rendlesham Forest after lights and craft encountered only hours earlier at 3 AM by USAF Staff Sergeant James Penniston, Airman 1st Class John Burroughs and Airman Ed Cabansag. Each depression measured about 5 inches in diameter, about 2 inches deep
and 2.5 meters (appx. 8.5 feet) apart. USAF Capt. and Day Shift Commander Mike Verano
is on far right next to marker stick. Photograph taken by USAF Delta Flight Master Sergeant
Ray Gulyas and reprinted in You Can't Tell the People © 2000 by Georgina Bruni.

You were looking through the night vision goggles from your jeep?

At that time, I wasn’t. All I saw was the light.

With your naked eye?

Right.  And it was already dark and probably by then 7 or 8 PM.  We stayed out there for some time. As I looked, I grabbed the night vision goggles I had and looked through them and what I saw was the bright green through there picking up the heat from the object. What I saw was something that looked like an eyeball.

It was very green around it, but the dark inside looked like the pupil of an eye. It would just pulsate very slowly until I would get out of the jeep.  I had Lt. Englund stop the jeep and I got out. When I got out, the lights got brighter.

Like they were coming toward you?

No, it was just like they knew I was there. And the light got brighter. And I said, ‘I’m going to get back in the jeep and see what happens.’

By that time, I had electrostatic charge all over my head and arms and everything. I knew something was wrong.

You mean the hair was standing up on your head and arms?

Yes, like static in the air.

Like an electrostatic field in a thunderstorm?

Right. And I got out there and I got scared, too, because I didn’t know what I was looking at! So I get back in the jeep and when I get back in the jeep, Lt. Englund is a little bit agitated, but then I could see the light would get dim. And then I’d move out, start to open the door, and the light would get bright again. What the light would do is sit there pulsating.

Reacting to what you did in the jeep?

Right.

What Lt. Englund must have been thinking about was that earlier on December 26th, one of the men in the forest - John Burroughs and Jim Penniston - had been abducted into the 'craft of unknown origin' as they described it to Lt. Fred Buran (C Flight Shift Commander.)

All I heard was the word ‘abduction.’ He just said an airman at the time. [ John Burroughs was a USAF Airman 1st Class and James Penniston was a Staff Sergeant.]

Finally I just said, 'OK, now we can go.' And we went back to the Woodbridge Officer's Club. And when we reported in, the maitre d' went to Col. Conrad. Col. Conrad came out and ushered both of us in. Inside that room, I saw Col. Halt and I saw Col. Conrad. I believe Col. Williams was there. I'm not sure, but I think he was. The Security Police Chief was there and he was in uniform.

So, when I got in, we discussed a little bit about what I saw and then Col. Conrad asked me, ‘Sgt. Nevels, do you think it warrants further investigation?’

I said, ‘Yes, sir, most definitely.’

That's when Col. Halt jumped in and began to assemble a team and we went back from there to the base over at RAF Bentwaters [Woodbridge and Bentwaters were about 4 miles apart]. And I picked up the RADIAC instruments.”

AN-PDR-27F Portable RADIACmeter
Low Range Beta and Gamma Survey Meter

Sgt. Nevels took his AN-PDR-27F portable RADIACmeter that measured both beta and gamma radiation. The AN/PDR-27 is described by the 1961 to 1962 Directory of RADIAC Equipment as a “portable, watertight, battery-operated instrument that furnishes visual and audible indication, detection and computation of radioactivity data.”

AN-PDR-27F portable RADIACmeter originally made
for the U. S. Navy Department Bureau of Ships in 1950s as “low-range;
suitable for personnel monitoring for beta and/or gamma emitters only.
Not useful for alpha emissions. May saturate and read 0 in high
radiation fields above 1,000 R/hr.

The meter had a selector switch and four meter settings along with a battery check. Note the different scales are different colors. This is to help read and keep separate the different 500, 50, 5, and .5 meter settings. Also, the meter scale selector was set to make you start your reading at the highest setting of 500 and work down to .5, as S/Sgt. Monroe Nevels describes his own actions below. This is to protect the operator and the meter.

Monroe Nevels:  “We checked the background radiation before we ever went in and it was very minimal. When we got into the site of the landing, I took a look at the spots on the ground, the tripod depressions. I also had an alpha radiation monitor. I don’t recall using it, but I do know that when I used the AN/PDR-27 (portable radiation detector) that we did get readings after we went back out to the forest.

That measured beta and gamma radiation?

Yes.  I did take the beta shield off and checked it and I did not catch anything. It was all gamma.

So, when the silver tube shield was off to look for beta, you didn't get any radiation reading, but when you were measuring gamma radiation, that's when it pegged on the .5 meter and on the 5 meter it was hovering around 7 (milliroentgens)?

Right. You start at the 500, which is the strongest. If you don’t get a reading on 500, you drop it down to the 50 scale. Then if you don’t get anything on the 50 scale, you drop it down to the 5 scale. Then if you don’t get a reading, you drop it down to the lowest point that is the .5 scale.

So you started at the highest level and what happened?

Nothing. So then I dropped it down to the 50 and I still didn’t get anything. I dropped it down to the 5 and I noticed the needle was twigging a little bit. So, then I dropped it down to the .5 and it blasted all the way over to the right, pegging out of the range.

When I got to that point where the needle started jiggling, I got excited. And I told Col. Halt, ‘Yes, we’re getting some readings.’ I was basically relaying my information back to Col. Halt.

AN/PDR-27 (portable radiation detector)

Highest Meter Setting:  500 Milliroentgens Per Hour

50 Milliroentgens Per Hour

5 Milliroentgens Per Hour

Lowest Meter Setting:  .5 Milliroentgens Per Hour

Sgt. Nevels used the Geiger counter at the tripod depressions and burn marks at the same height on all the trees that grew in a circle around the tripod depressions. Sgt. Nevels did not get any beta readings, but did see an average of 7 milliroentgens of gamma radiation.

Implications of 7 Milliroentgens Gamma Radiation
At Rendlesham Forest Landing Site

I contacted Richard Ratliff, M. S., a radiation physics technician who has worked forty years in the Texas Department of State Health Services. I asked him about the RADIAC AN/PDR 27F. He explained that the silver ionization-measuring silver rod at the end of the spiral cord had a closed window for measuring gamma radiation ionization only. If the window were opened and the needle rose, it meant beta radiation was there as well.

Monroe Nevels told me, “I started out with only gamma radiation, or the tube shielded with the cap. I  also took readings with the beta shield off, but was unable to get any noticeable reading.”

Mr. Ratcliff said if you were exposed to 7 milliroentgens of gamma radiation for an hour that would be equivalent to one-third of a single chest x-ray that averages 20 milliroentgens. Fortunately, 7 milliroentgens for an hour is not a lot of radiation. Another comparison is that in every airline ride from Albuquerque to Austin, passengers are exposed to 150 milliroentgens.

Mr. Ratliff explained that known sources of ionizing gamma radiation on Earth are substances such as Cesium 137 that has a 30-year-half-life. That means it takes thirty years for a quantity of Cesium 137 to decay down to one-half its original gamma ray radiation intensity. Cobalt 50 has a half-life of five years. X-rays give off gamma radiation, but there is no residual radiation. X-rays emit gamma radiation when an x-ray machine is turned on. As soon as equipment is turned off, x-ray emissions stop.

I asked Mr. Ratliff if he knew of any bright light source that can give off ionizing gamma radiation?

He answered, “There is nothing that I know about that would give off intense light, fly in the air and emit gamma radiation - nothing I've ever encountered in my forty years of radiation physics work. But if someone took samples of the soil and burned tree bark in Rendlesham Forest for analysis, that would have determined what radioactive chemical was emitting the 7 milliroentgens of gamma radiation.” To date, no such laboratory analysis of forest sampling has been reported.

“Some people say there were 35mm or 16mm motion picture film cameras out there in the woods where the light-alls were. I wondered if you saw that with your own eyes?

No. The reason being is that no one from the photo lab was out there but me. I represented the base photo lab as much as I did disaster preparedness. I was the only one out there with a camera as far as I know. Now, there might have been someone, but I never saw any.

And another thing, Col. Halt questioned me (years later), ‘All those pictures that you took - did you get anything out of it? Wasn't that film fogged?’ And I said,‘Yes, sir. I processed that film myself. I went home and processed it.’

You know you got at least some gamma rays.

Radiation, so the radiation would have fogged the film.

Lights, Beams and Aerial Craft in Rendlesham
Forest After Midnight December 28, 1980

[ That December 28, 1980, with Col. Halt's team in Rendlesham Forest] I looked out in the woods and saw the light and somebody else saw the light about the same time. They were on their radios and they contacted Col. Halt. And we proceeded to try to find the lights. And at that time, the cattle were starting to get kind of edgy - you know, like they knew something was there. But when we got to the light, it disappeared. We couldn't figure out how it got out of those trees and where it went.

Because the trees were very tall and very close together, right?

The trees were close together, approximately 100 feet tall. So, when we went out to the edge where there was a farmer's field and Lt. Col. Halt and myself were mainly the leaders. We were in front. We looked out and saw this object that was sitting over in the farmer's field about 200 yards away. To me, it looked kind of yellowish-orange - like very hot and it looked like it was on fire burning. Every once in awhile, I would see something shoot off that looked like molten metal. Col. Halt and I both observed that and we watched it. So, we jumped the fence and as we jumped the fence, it disappeared.

Compare it to the illustration that John Burroughs did with the U. K. computer illustrator.

Immediately I knew what I saw.”

Later, Monroe Nevels clarified that he meant the whitish-yellow “rectangular” glow underneath the blue lights in the Burroughs illustration below.

Computer illustration based on original January 2, 1981, sketch by
John Burroughs of lighted aerial craft in Rendlesham Forest that he and
Staff Sgt. James Penniston encountered around 3 AM, on
December 26, 1980. Artwork by John Rackham.

[The bottom glow] looked very close to it, very close. I saw it and I got excited about it. There! Somebody finally drew something that made sense.

To what you had seen?

To what I had seen.

From your and Col. Halt's perspective standing at the edge of the farmer's field looking out at the colored lights of the aerial craft, you had the distinct impression that it rose up a ways and started coming toward you and Col. Halt?

Yes.”

USAF Staff Sergeant Monroe Nevels stood with RAF Bentwaters Deputy Base Commander
Lt Col. Charles Halt in the early on an aerial craft of unknown origin, as depicted above in
illustration based on sketch by former Airman 1st Class John Burroughs who was also there
during Col. Halt's investigation. When S/Sgt. Nevels and Lt. Col. Halt climbed over a farm fence,
the aerial craft appeared to come toward them before disappearing. Artwork by John Rackham.

Continued in Part 2.

Former U. S. Air Force Sgt. John Burroughs is now organizing a reunion in England for all the military personnel in RAF Bentwaters and RAF Woodbridge who were involved in the mysterious light phenomena of December 26 - 28, 1980. John would like to hear from all who were there and has created a website and email account to organize a Bentwaters reunion.

Justice for Bentwaters 81st Security Police, 1980 Rendlesham Forest:  http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=118776534810576

More Information:

For further information about the RAF Bentwaters phenomena of 1980-1981, please click on hot links to reports below from the Earthfiles Archive:

• 04/30/2010 — Part 5: Update - Bentwaters 1980, Telepathic Lights?
• 04/27/2010 — Part 4: Update - Bentwaters 1980, Telepathic Lights?
• 04/21/2010 — Part 3: Update - Bentwaters 1980: Telepathic Lights?
• 04/17/2010 — Part 2: Update - Bentwaters 1980: Telepathic Lights?
• 04/16/2010 — Part 1: Update - Bentwaters 1980, Telepathic Lights?

• 09/24/2009 — Former RAF Bentwaters Staff Sgt. James Penniston Recalls Black, Glassy, Triangular Craft, Symbols and Missing Time
• 09/24/2009 — Former RAF Bentwaters Airman John Burroughs - Was He Taken Into A Craft?

• 09/15/2009 — Part 2: RAF Bentwaters Feedback, Another Military Eyewitness Speaks for First Time
• 09/03/2009 — Part 1: RAF Bentwaters Feedback from Viewers and Listeners

• 08/30/2009 — Part 7: UFOs and the National Security State with Historian Richard M. Dolan
• 08/27/2009 — Part 6: Is Time Travel Past and Future Possible?
• 08/27/2009 — Part 5: USAF Col. Charles I. Halt (Ret.) Says 1980 RAF Bentwaters Lights and Craft Were “Extraterrestrial In Origin”
• 08/27/2009 — Part 4: 1980 Bentwaters Lights - Were They Time Travelers?
• 07/22/2009 — Part 3: 1980 RAF Bentwaters Lights and Craft Were “Extraterrestrial In Origin”
• 07/19/2009 — Part 2: 1980 RAF Bentwaters Lights and Craft Were “Extraterrestrial In Origin”
• 07/17/2009 — Part 1: 1980 RAF Bentwaters Lights and Craft Were “Extraterrestrial In Origin”

Websites:

Justice for Bentwaters 81st Security Police, 1980 Rendlesham Forest:  http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=118776534810576

RAF Bentwaters History:  http://www.bunkertours.co.uk/milhist2/raf_bentwaters.htm

http://twinbases.org.uk/wentback/egercic.htm

AN-PDR-27 RADIACmeter:  http://www.alpharubicon.com/basicnbc/anpdr27ser.htm

U. K. Ministry of Defense August 2009 UFO File Release:
http://ufos.nationalarchives.gov.uk/

RAF Bentwaters History:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Bentwaters

You Can't Tell the People © 2000 by Georgina Bruni:
http://www.amazon.com/You-Cant-Tell-People-Cover-up/dp/0283063580/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1251680102&sr=1-1

Left At East Gate © 1997 by Larry Warren and Peter Robbins; updated 2005 edition published by Cosimo Press, N.Y.:  http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Left+At+East+Gate&x=0&y=0

December 29, 1980 Cash-Landrum UFO Encounter, Texas:http://www.ufoevidence.org/cases/case86.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cash-Landrum_incident

1967 Malmstrom AFB UFOs Over Minuteman Missile Sites:
http://www.cufon.org/cufon/malmstrom/malm1.htm

1968 Minot AFB UFOs Over Minuteman Missile Sites: http://www.ufocasebook.com/minotafb.html

Police Reporting UFO Sightings, PRUFOS:  http://www.prufospolicedatabase.co.uk/1.html

Majestic 12 Documents:  http://www.majesticdocuments.com

American Presidents:  http://www.presidentialufo.com