Kia ora, hi everyone. Thank you all for joining us today.

England is a country that has a very ancient history, also a history of strange and unusual happenings, hauntings, weird and mythical cryptids, and of course, they are not short of their share of UFO sightings and incidents. One of the most famous and credible UFO encounters in the world happened in the UK in the nineteen-eighties. What makes these encounters stand out were two things. Firstly, amongst the flurry of sightings in these accounts, not only were lights witnessed in the sky, but a UFO actually landed and was witnessed by some very credible witnesses on the ground, and radar. Secondly, these credible witnesses were women and men, who were on active military duty at the time these events took place.

They happened in Rendlesham Forest, located in the United Kingdom, between two USA Air Force bases, called Woodbridge, and Bentwaters, on England’s East Coast. These bases became the focal point of some now very famous and well known UFO incidents. With books having been written about the subject because of its very high profile.

What happened basically was this. Just after midnight on December the twenty-sixth, radar screens picked up and followed an unidentified flying object – also seen by many military and most likely civilian witnesses as well. The radar followed it as it disappeared into the forest. Soldiers were sent to the spot and one Colonel Halt, recorded a running commentary into a dictation machine as he and the personal looked for the strange light that had landed.

When they got there they saw a luminous, triangular-shaped ship, about ten feet across and eight feet high. Which was there briefly then flew away. But this wasn’t the only sighting of anomalous lights in the sky in that area. There were several nights of sightings witnessed by many people, both during this flurry of activity, and as you will hear today, sometime prior to this particular UFO flap.

This event garnered media attention world-wide. Not the least, because, it was between the military bases. And military personal were directly involved in the case. Of course, for many years, the event was covered up. Then some few witnesses started coming forward, speaking to different authors who wrote books about the incident, or researchers fascinated by the incident and because the military were involved, especially suspicious of the cover up, who also wrote books. However, these high profile figures who have been public about their experiences were not the only witnesses to the events that took place those nights. There are many service women and men, who also were witnesses. In fact, I spoke to a gentleman, by the name of Stacy, in my second season of this podcast. It was spur of the moment interview with this gentleman, whom I have never forgotten, about his experiences as a member of the security police of those bases. Most notably the East Gate at Bentwaters. In this episode, I have the opportunity to have a conversation with another member of the military who served on the Bentwaters base. And she tells us all of her encounters with some interesting star people and what she and her colleague’s witnessed during her time on the base. As always, the question is, are you willing to walk with me into this part of the Shadowlands and see what awaits us there? Then let’s begin.

Major Lori E. Rehfeldt is a retired United States Army Major who in 1978 began her military career in the United States Air Force as an airman. Major Rehfeldt’s first orders out of technical school sent her to RAF Bentwaters where she was assigned to the 81st Security Police Squadron (SPS) as a law enforcement specialist.

In February 1980, during a midnight shift at 0300 hours then-Airman [sic] Major Rehfeldt and her partner Airman Keith Duffield witnessed a UFO that breached military air space flying approximately 25 feet off the RAF Woodbridge Runway. Major Rehfeldt has participated in the “Disclosure Project” with Stephen Greer, collaborated with Georgina Bruni on her book, You Can’t Tell the People, and was recently mentioned in Jim Penniston’s 2020 book The Rendlesham Enigma. In 2013, Major Rehfeldt created the Rendlesham Lone Ranger UFO site Facebook, a very popular hub for those interested in UFO activity on military bases. Major Rehfeldt has participated in several podcasts including, “The Unexplained with Howard Hughes”.

Major Lori E. Rehfeldt

Marianne: Laurie, thank you so very much for agreeing to talk with me and my listeners today are being really excited to talk with you about your experiences. When I first started in the second season of my podcast, I actually found a chap who’d never spoken about his experiences at ah , the Rendlesham forest incident before, and I found him on a group. It might have been the MUFON group, or something like that. And I saw him. And he was just he was quite distressed, talking about what had happened to him. And how he had no support and stuff like that. And so, I contacted him on the group. And I said, Look, would you be interested in talking to me about your experiences? I don’t make fun of people. I’m very serious about this, being an experiencer my entire life. I have a lot of empathy for, you know, people whose lives are turned upside down by experiences such as yours. And anyway, so, it was a spur of the moment interview. I didn’t have any questions or anything organized, because, he just rang me. He lives in the states. His name was in M. Stacy Smith and he was a sergeant in the security guard task force.

Lori: Yes.

Did you know him?

Oh yes. Yeah. I was just talking to him yesterday.

Oh, he’s such a lovely man. Such a lovely yes. And I felt so bad for him. I felt so bad for him, because, he obviously going through a bad time when I spoke to him and just, you know, down and dealing with the physical issues. So that left him, but anywhere. Well, so I was wondering if you might know him. That’s why I brought him up, because it’s not like it’s a huge base, really?

No, no. Where are you now?

I’m in New Zealand.

OK? OK, that’s not far from England, or United States.

Not too far. Only about eleven or twelve hours straight flying.

Yeah, really, really. I’d love to go there, though. I hear it’s really beautiful there.

It is. We are, we’re a bit lucky. Anyway, so, I’m really grateful that you agreed to come and talk with me after I reached out to you on Twitter. This is a subject that absolutely has fascinated me, since I first heard of it. Now maybe we could start, Laurie. Maybe you could tell my listeners, what age were you when you joined the military? And what was your role?

I actually enlisted ­– Well, technically right out of high school, I was eighteen and I was supposed to I was planning on going to college and I was accepted to the School of Visual Arts in New York City. The biggest problem there was, logistically, I could not, they didn’t have dormitories and things like that. So I couldn’t, couldn’t do it. And my mom decided to take lemons and make lemonade by taking me to the Statue of Liberty. So I’m on the ferry and I’m thinking, Oh my God, what am I going to do with my life? And all this stuff in the summer brainstorming, and remembered this woman in English class in 11th grade, and she had all these brochures about the Air Force.

And I thought, Well, maybe that’s an option. Maybe I’ll check it out. So I ended up going up contacting the recruiting office when I got home, and that started the that really started the journey. And he told me, I’ll have to take a test and then said, OK, I’ll take a test. And growing up on Long Island. We don’t have any military bases there. So the closest that I’ve been around military people was my neighbour, Bill Phifer, whose father happened to be retired from the Air Force.

So I had no. It was like Private Benjamin, you know, I mean, I had no, you know, sir, ma’am, are you kidding me? And I, so anyway, I went through the whole process I took did the physical and everything. And then the they offered me a job. They said, Well, what do you think of inventory management? I’m like, I don’t want to work in stock room. So they said, Well, we’ll come up with a job for you. And if you don’t like it, you could say goodbye to the Air Force, find little care. I was so mad at the recruiter and he called me several days later and he said, Well, guess what? And I said, Can you please tell me? He said no, no, you got to take a guess. I’m like, I don’t want to guess  I want to smack him over the head. And he said, Well, what do you what do you think about law enforcement specialists?

And I said, Oh, that sounds really cool. You know, that sounds great. So I didn’t realize that law enforcement meant that I would be a gate guard. I’d have to stand on post. And, you know, you know, flag, you know, wave people on to the base and whatnot. So, so but I was excited. I was so excited. And then I was in what they called delayed enlistment. So I didn’t go in until January nineteen-seventy-eight. And I then went through my text, my basic training and then my technical school, which is all at the same base at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas.

Then I went home for a couple of weeks in New York. And then I got on a plane at McGuire Air Force Base in Jersey for England. I had gotten an assignment to RAF Bentwaters, and I was just so thrilled, it was like I ‘d won a paid vacation. I’m like, Oh my God, I’m going to England! And the base is called the Royal Air Force Base. And you know, I was thinking, this is like too good to be true, right?

So, so then I get to England and I get tired because I stayed up all night. And so, technically, I was eighteen years old when I got to England. Not realizing that they really didn’t like women in the career field. I learned that one real fast. And only about five percent of the military was women anyway. So in a squadron of two to three hundred men, it was like Lori you know? And it was like, I was it.

So yeah, there were actually about five or ten women total that were active enlisted. And but I had a really thick accent, New York accent. So I was, you know, people were making kind of fun of that. Can you say that again, you know, like shut up!  But, I felt as soon as I got to Bentwaters, it was very different from the base we landed in at RAF Mildenhall All right.

Mildenhall felt, it was a nice base. And I was like why can’t I stay here? Because, when I got to RAF Bentwaters, it was like all these dark green Quonset huts and every – I felt like I’d gone back in time. Back to like World War Two. I’m thinking, yeah, I was thinking, this is this is not good. Then I started feeling like the atmosphere, like there was a heaviness in the air that I couldn’t describe. It was like something was pushing down on me. And, you know, I was partially thinking that maybe I’m being a little cranky, didn’t get much sleep. So I figured, get some sleep and then feel better about it, you know? But what happened? It was like it didn’t get better.

I had a couple of days with my sponsor who took me around and showed me the ropes and everything, and it was nice and we got, he had a little MG and we’d go driving around a little side roads and what not. But, but all in all, as soon as I got back from the base, I felt that heaviness. So there was something like I felt like there was something off about the base. Oh, and it’s funny because if you talk to other people, they’ll say, Oh, we have a great time and all this stuff. I just had a different experience, you know? And so I went to my techs. I went through more training before I went on to what we called flight, flight meant it’s a group of people working together, a small group of people. So I was told I was going to be on Bravo Flight B flight. And that meant I was going to be working swings and mid’s.

And it was still like everything was just really, really off . Of the people that I dealt with in training had a real negative attitude. And they were like, we felt, you know, what do you do? You know, I started hearing things like from other young airmen saying, Yeah, you should be barefoot and pregnant and all this stuff, you know, we don’t. I mean, literally, I was told I was not wanted, you know. And I’m thinking, you know, I’m just kid, you know?

Yeah eighteen! Gosh, yeah.

Yeah. And but one thing that I didn’t tell anybody because I didn’t feel like it was something to share, is that throughout my life, before I even got to into the Air Force, I’ve always been a very sensitive person. I mean, I’ve always had this sensitivity that I can feel things that that a lot of people can’t feel. And you know, and I just kind of like my intuition is like through the roof, right? And you know, and I just couldn’t I couldn’t tell people. Or, I felt because I wasn’t wanted to begin with.  Like when I started feeling certain things happening, I couldn’t talk to somebody, tell them about it or say, I’m scared or what not. Because, you know, it was like I was in a hyper masculine career field. So you just can’t say, I don’t want to be out here. Really scared.

The one thing I learned about when I got to England was the fact that it was, when I got to the bases RAF Bentwaters and  Woodbridge, is that, it was in Suffolk County. Which in England is considered the most haunted county in wherever. And if you look at the ley lines and look at all different things, I mean, it’s definitely a hot spot for, for a lot of activity.

Oh absolutely, yeah!

Yeah. And a year or so down the road, it’s when I saw the UFO, the one that flew across the runway. But before that, I was just still trying. And I was just struggling and started to lose my stamina, start to put on weight. And I really think, I mean, it was like I was, I was becoming something else. And I, you know, I was where, you know, it’s cloudy in England, right? And I had to wear sunglasses because I couldn’t. The light was too much from my eyes. So, a lot of photographs that I have from England, I’m wearing sunglasses. And it’s like I was just, you know, I just couldn’t believe it, that I was losing –  as an eighteen. Now I’m nineteen A few weeks after I got to England, I turned nineteen. So you know, I’m thinking, what’s going on? How could I be losing my stamina and whatnot? You know? It was crazy

That’s really interesting. Sorry, I was going to ask you immediately when you started talking and said, the first thing you felt was this heavy feeling, I thought, oh, here we go. We’ve got somebody here who’s really in touch with what they feel.  With their spiritual sensitivity, so it must have been extra hard for you? As hence, you know, you put on the weight. And you were uncomfortable and knew something just wasn’t right for you here. Apart from all the misogynistic behaviour around you.

Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And yeah, and I really appreciate the fact that you, as the interviewer happen to be a woman, you know. Because, it just seems like the whole crew and the whole crew filled the whole UFO. Most of them are just white men. You know, and I’m thinking, we need a little diversity here. The million people. But yeah, so I yeah, after being there for a while, I mean, I started seeing a lot of people, their behaviours were just really again, their behaviours were off. It was a lot of people will say, Well, you know, you get these young airmen, they get to the base. It’s like drinking and partying and whatnot. But the party admitted there was like Drew. It was just through – it was just over the top, I really think a lot of these young men ended up leaving the base and ended up being alcoholics, or whatnot. We had a lot of airmen who were. . .  The squadron commander at the time. If you did something that he didn’t like, and there were a lot of people doing really, really stupid things. Like shooting their weapon off while on post just to get out of there. I mean, people had that fight or flight feeling of being there

That’s interesting.

and sure enough, they were processed out and they, you know, and it was weird because you’d be working with these guys and then the next few days they were gone. I mean, it literally would process amount and they were on a flight back to the to the U.S. So I started reading, you know, the signs that I have to really watch my back. Because squadron commander was definitely, you know it. If you did something or if you pursued . . .  I mean if I started asking questions about things that I was experiencing. He would probably say, Oh, you’ve got some psychological issues going on. So we think you need to get out. We’re going to kick you out and I’m talking about. We had probably, I don’t know, fifty or sixty while I was there, about fifty or sixty airmen that were kicked out.

WOW! That’s a huge number!

Yeah. Yeah. When you were talking about a squadron of like two hundred. And in fact, some people, when we got over there, we were told that there was, it was like an attrition that we were replacing people that got in trouble for doing drugs on post, or doing all this stuff. During that time, you know, I was just realizing that I had – there were a lot of, I was like on obstacle course for navigating my time, I’m trying to do. I’m a kid and trying to do a good job.

You know, I want those warm fuzzies where people say, way to go Laurie! You know, you’re doing great! That kind of thing. And you know, it just wasn’t really happening. And so I, you know, I just started to learn to work under kind of like, I felt like I was low crawling through like this really dangerous obstacle course. But then, the first really strange thing that happened besides – So you get an idea that there’s a lot of negativity in people there and there’s the atmosphere is off.

Now, I was working on patrol and I went over to the Ivy Lodge gate, at RAF Bentwaters side, and there was this – We had this fuel area. It was called liquid oxygen locks. We called it and was like, So we had to check. Most of the things we did was we had a sheet that we would sign off on, like a building check sheet. So I, you know, so I went over there. And to the left of me was just this chain-link fence that was covered in in a lot of trees, a lot of leaves and whatnot.

And I just had this feeling that there was a there was a pond on the other side. And the creepy thing about it is, I saw the flash in my head. It was this crazy man who had dark black hair, and he looked like he looked like he just got out of the swamp. And I didn’t see him with my eyes. It was just something I felt every time I went there, it was like, I’d get a clear vision of what he looked like. And I looked and I would go there and I put the brakes on. My car was working at night, and then I, I’d have to run out to the to the gate and pull on the lock because sometimes they would put a note behind there to make sure we were checking our locks. And then, I run back into the truck and put it in reverse. And I mean, I would fly out of there and that would happen like, several times.

Yeah, it happened quite a bit. And I always thought, you know, when it was daylight, I was always thinking, there’s got to be a pond over there. But, it was it was off base this pond. It was like on the other side of the fence. It was on civilian side. And it turned out that through Google Earth, yes, there is a pond there. Which is like, that really freaked me out. I’m like, Oh my God, who knows when you start thinking about what you’re feeling and then you start seeing it like reality. The other thing is that not far from there was this old mansion that in the nineteen-twenties was called Rendlesham Hall. And in the nineteen-twenties they had turned it into a place for people that were inebriated, you know, people that had psychological problems. So, I’m thinking that that person could have died, and he was haunting that spot? Could have drowned? The other thing was there was also this crazed, crazy man that’s known from near Orford Castle. And same thing. So Orford Castle was pretty close to where we were. So it was like, you know, I mean, I had been doing my own research to try and figure this out. And but he scared the heck out of me!

Oh, I can, I can well imagine. Now, that hall that you mentioned, that’s been on several ghost investigation shows as being very well known, as being haunted by a number of beings.

Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. Well, that was the first. And you know, and again, I didn’t want to tell people, you know? I didn’t want to tell them I was really uncomfortable, because, then they would, you know, give me a hard time, make fun.

And then there’s the female aspect as well.

Absolutely. Absolutely.

And they’d just say, you’re a hysterical female.

Yeah. And the interesting thing is, is not long ago, recently, Alan Cohen. Who was one of my colleagues that I worked with, he actually apologized for his behaviour toward me. And I really, really thought I thanked him and he goes, Yeah, because I really need because I’ve been thinking about you all these years and goes, Yeah, I really treated you poorly, and I should take you out to lunch. And I said, You don’t have to take me out to lunch. It’s just the fact that you said that and admitted it, you know, it meant the world to me. That apology.

Oh, wow, that’s really lovely. Yeah, that would have been very appreciated, for sure.

Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah. Then, then a lot of the activity that I experienced actually happened at RAF Woodbridge. It was our twin base. It was our sister base, but we knew all the bases there seemed to have a two bases together. And you know, so and  they are both really small bases. So, most of the activity happened over where it was known for being really haunted. Where the activity happened near Rendlesham Forest, it was over at the back gate of RAF Woodbridge. It was called Eastgate.

Oh, this was Stacey was based. Where he had his experience.

Yeah, yeah, and yeah, and it was just, you know, if you were there, you would look at it and say, you know, it looks like a telephone, a dark, ugly green telephone booth. And it’s at the end of the runway. Where it gets scary, is when the, when the fog was rolling in and you could hear the foghorn in the distance. And you felt like I was, you were in an old black and white movie is like, what could happen now?

And the fact that there were windows on all sides. So technically from your waist up, you were pretty much on the spotlight. And to know, yeah, to know that Rendlesham forest was directly behind you. The forest really, really beautiful during the day. But in the evening, at night it was. It was just, yeah, it was scary. It was scary. And I, I you know, I talked to people about this and I really kept myself, I really kept myself together. Because, you know, I would start hearing about other people, like I said, being on East Gate and taking their weapon out and shooting it off. Because, they couldn’t bear to be there. There were people crying, being on the gate and literally crying and saying I can’t be by myself here I’m literally scared! And I was too.

But, I just felt like I couldn’t tell anybody again, you know. Again, I was just in the survival mode, you know, I mean, I really felt like for most of my time, I was there, I felt like I was in a war zone.  And I had to deal with not just like the crazed guy at Ivy Lodge Gate, but you know, the other thing . . . The next thing that happened is about three o’clock in the morning. And I’m struggling to keep awake at East Gate. But also, I felt like there was this deathly white face. This grey was behind me. And I was just so tired, and this grey was telling me in my mind, it says, like, I know you’re tired. Don’t turn around. You know, just do yourself a favour, don’t turn around. And I’m like, I was so tired. I was like, I don’t care. I’m not turning around. I don’t want to be scared, you know? And you know, I just stayed awake.

And but, in my mind, I could see what he looked like. And it dawned on me that he was short because again, like I said, the window, it was from the waist up. If I’m standing in the gate check, you could. You could see me from the waist up. But if I’m sitting down, he had to be about three or four feet tall, imposing tall. In fact, if you are on Twitter, the picture that they have of me on there at the East Gate. That’s a photo of me at East Gate.

Oh right.

Yeah, yeah. So then the

How did you feel when you realized that there was this alien being behind you? Not a spirit. An alien being.

How did I feel about about?

You know, sensing that there was this alien being behind you?

How did it feel? Yeah, this this is the thing is that I just kind of kept myself together and just kind of, you know?  That happened once it wasn’t like every time, like the Ivy Lodge guy. Every time I went there, he was. It was like he was tormenting me. Or, just kind of wanting to scare me. The grey was like only one time. How about this?

How, how –  I’m so sorry, Lori. I know.

No. No. Go ahead.

How long? Was it from the time you encountered this grey, to the time you saw the UFOs? What sort of time distance are we talking about?

Yeah, I would say the grey was probably around early nineteen-seventy-nine.

Okay, so it was a whole year!

Oh, yeah. Yeah, about early. Yeah. About a year. Yes. And then I had two other encounters. One, the other one that I had was at again at East Gate. We had a, and this was probably, I think it was in the summer of seventy-nine. There was this Colonel Thompson, who was an eight term pilot and he was at Chicksands at an air show. Chick’s RAAF Chicksands and his plane kind of cartwheeled. He flew low. Anyway, he died. And one day it was about, oh gosh, it was probably about six or seven o’clock, five or six o’clock in the evening. Most of the traffic had left East Gate and, or left out of East Gate. So I’m there and I turn around and I see this Colonel, full bird colonel, which is like one notch below a general. And I think, Oh my God, what is he doing there?

And then I started thinking he was just like leaning on some, um – it was like this cement pad. It looked like a parking area. We’re right beside the gate check. And sometimes people would store boxes or, you know, things on it. Just because, to get them out of the way. And he was over by these, this stuff.  And there was no way that he could get around me without me seeing him! And so it was, my concern at that time. That’s literally how, how my noodle was. Remember, I’m dealing with these men in this career field.

The colonel did not have his hat, OK?  When, when you’re not near the runway, you have got to wear your hat. It’s just, it’s just a rule. When you’re outside you wear the hat. When you’re when you walk inside, you take the hat off. Unless, you’re working in law enforcement, then you keep your hat on. But anyway, it was just one of these rules. I kept thinking. I kept worrying, because I said I got to go up to this colonel to put his hat on. And he’s in his. He was in his flight suit. He was, you know, was wearing this pilot suit. And he was kind of leaning back smoking a cigarette. And I’m thinking, you know, I’m like, really stressed out. And the problem is, is that I was afraid the patrol, one of the sergeants would come up to me and give me a hard time because I did not tell the colonel to put his hat on.

So I’m really oh God, I don’t want to do this. I don’t want to do this. And he, that turned back and finally, finally getting the gumption to go up there and tell him that, he was gone! And I’m thinking, Where do he go? Now, I can’t really leave my gate check area. But, I kind of walked out into the middle of the street, because, there was this fence that was behind him. So he couldn’t really go behind me and jump over this tall fence. And then, he’d have to actually walk up the perimeter road. Because, the road that East Gate was on, was this long road that was parallel with the with the runway.

So once, if you stood in the middle of the road, you could see about a mile down the road. And you know, so I mean, I went looking for –  where the heck did he go? And it took me, oh gosh, several years to realize that the only colonel that I knew that died after that time was Colonel Thompson. And he was like one of two or three colonels, full bird colonels on the base. So and we say full bird, because that means they wore eagles on their shoulders.

Yeah. So that’s why we call him full bird. So, you know, fortunately, I didn’t have to tell him to put his hat on, because, he was gone. You know, that whole thing. And but, you know, my point is, is that, you know, the fact that I saw him. And the way I was thinking, it wasn’t like I was thinking, that I’m seeing, you know, seeing a ghost or seeing whatever, you know? I mean, you know, you look as real as anyone. And so, you know, I kept that in my mind. And then, um, but again, you know, of course, I didn’t share it with anybody.

Now this one, this this one last thing that happened, that was before the UFO. The UFO happened. It was like one of the last things that happened. And I will. Get to that.

No, it’s alright. This is a good journey.

I was again, I was at RAF Woodbridge, but this time and it’s right, it’s not that far from East Gate. And it was in what we called the non-nuclear munition storage area. So, I had to guard this building. And it was in the winter time was probably trying to think. Yeah, it was it was either in the winter of seventy-nine. Or, like January, February or so. I don’t think it was that close to the time when I was . . . Yeah, I think it was seventy-nine and that I was in the gate. I was in the in this, you know, non- munition storage area.

My job was to check again. I had my building sheet right and I had to check these buildings. And I was heading to the, to start my building check.  And I was working the midnight shift. And it was cold. It was the rain. I see rain was pouring down. And I just want to get out there and do my first, my first go around. Check it. And then go back to my gate check.

And so I. With walking about maybe twenty, thirty feet away from the gate check. When all of a sudden –  Again, it was like it in my mind, I saw this like eight foot, seven – eight foot, praying dark, really, really dark green, praying mantis. And he was, he was pacing. He was pacing back and forth. And he told me, Don’t go. It was like he, he was saying, he was saying, go back to your gate check. It was almost like he was so busy, so focused on something. He didn’t want me to interrupt what he was doing or whatever.

And I was like, Oh my God! You know that one really, really, really. Because, personally, I did not want to go back there if I knew there was an eight foot praying mantis, walking on two legs. I mean, very, very muscular. Yeah. Well, you know, I just you know I was thinking, this is, this is insane! I mean . . .

You must have thought that you were losing it?

I was just terrified. I was just terrified. I mean, I wasn’t even thinking about, you know? I was kind of thinking that whatever is out there, I’m really glad that he flash whatever it was to get me back to the gate check, because, I got back to the gate check and I said, fine, I’m settling in here. I’ll wait until it becomes daylight. I’ll wait a little while. And I had my cassette player and my music. I was listening to the soundtrack from Annie. It was like The Sun will come up tomorrow. Bet your  bottom dollar that tomorrow, like, I don’t want to be here. And so anyway, so by the time – Yeah.

You know, February nineteen-eighty, this is the, the main one that I was, that I shared right off the bat. Because, I wasn’t alone. I was with another airman, Keith Duffield. He and I were on patrol at Woodbridge and we were checking the back gate. And we just wanting to do our job. Stay awake. That was the main thing. And, and then I went to the gate. I checked the lock. And then we ah, back the truck back over to East Gate. Because, at this point now, we actually would lock the back gates. So no one had to be out there in the middle of the night, at East Gate.

And so I, I was parked at East Gate, facing them in the direction of the North Sea, and we could see this, this aircraft coming in. And it was this look like –  the light. I would have thought it was a cargo plane. It was a big. You know, a good-sized  plane. And I kept looking over to my left, where the runway was. And thinking, the lights are going to go on the runway. And because it was coming over the North Sea, that I would have to do a customs check. Because, it was coming in from another country. I didn’t realize it could have been coming in from a different planet.

So, it actually stopped! And it was coming in like a regular approach. It was high and it would start to go lower and slow down. And then it stopped in mid-air and just hovered! And we were like –  just completely changed our, you know, we were –  I know we were both processing. What the heck? You know? You know, it was just too, you know, what’s going on? And it went and then it made these geometric movements, you know. Going up, down, left, right, and then it kind of throbbed before it burst into three pieces.

And then it took it took like a dive down and then it flew up into the into the night sky. It didn’t make any sounds, didn’t make any noise, no mechanical movements. And we were both like, What do we do? What we did was kind of like, Do you think it’ll come back? Maybe we can figure out what this thing is, you know? And so, we realized, because it flew over the base. We, we had –  it breached military airspace space ride that we had to report it, if I didn’t report it, that would that would have been really bad.

So I didn’t. I felt like I was different between a rock and a hard, but because I did not want to report it like that, the praying mantis, you know, I’m not reporting it. I’m not saying, Hey, I got this flash in my head and he was pacing. And because he’s all upset, you know? So this but this one here we had to. So I handed the radio over to Keith. It’s like, I guess you got to report it. And then he hands the radio back over to me, said, No, no, you’re the lead patrol, you report it. So, I get on the radio and this, like the handheld radio, and it was that guy, Alan Cohen, the one who did apologize to me recently. But, back then he was –  I was like, Oh God, I got to tell him of all people. And so but I did.

And he told me immediately, he kind of cut me off and told me, get on a landline at East Gate. So I said, Yeah, that makes more sense. That way I’m not broadcasting, you know, and I’m saying to you about even though I said enough that anyone that was listening on the radio frequency heard me talk about the UFO. So in the next several weeks, it was like, Yeah, Reinfeldt seen UFO’s.  It was not, it just wasn’t pleasant. And so, I told them what happened and how it made the movements, and then burst into three pieces and flew over the base.

He told me to go to the air tower, which I thought was smart. So, I went over to the air tower and woke the guy up, by climbing the metal steps and then coming to the door. The door was really this metal door that if you knocked on it, you couldn’t even hear the knock. So, I had to kick it to, to get him to open the door. BAM!  Just kicked it with my foot. And I could tell immediately that I woke him up, so I was really upset.

And then –  but I thought, Well, maybe, you know, because I I don’t work in the air power, so I don’t know what kind of technology they had at that time. And I know they had radar. But, you know, did they have it that they could record it? Or, it was recorded? You know, that kind of thing? I don’t know. So I asked him, Do you know? Did he see it? And did they have recordings?

He said no.  And then he said that he thinks it could have been afterburners on a on a British aircraft. And I’m thinking, no. No, no.  When you see afterburners or you hear there’s always a sonic boom, there’s always a noise. And, you know, I was just really, really, really, really so annoyed and frustrated and just felt like I, you know, I just I didn’t want it to be me that had to, that had to deal with it. If I was a guy, it would have been easier. But you know, it was so –  so, those were like all the little elements that I had to deal with to get heard.  And the funny thing about when you start looking at my UFO sightings that happened in February nineteen-eighty. And it was reported to law enforcement desk, yet no one knows about it.

I mean, you know, it’s when I finally learned about Rendlesham Forest, forest incidents, you know? You know, I was like, Oh my god. I  guess they don’t remember that it happened before. You know, so about ten months before, December. And I didn’t learn about the December UFO sighting because I actually left the base permanently, on December fifteenth. So I missed it by the two weeks, which, which was fine by me. I mean, you know, I was like, you know, power to them. You guys do that.

You had enough by that stage. Enough experiences with –  Lori, can I just go back? When you saw these lights, what kind of colour were they? Where they just white or?

White, yeah. You know, they were just white, very, very bright. I mean, I couldn’t see. You couldn’t see through them to see what the object looked like. It was just really, really bright.

Right? And how long?

But you did . . .

Sorry, go ahead.

Ok, I was going to say we did lose about two hours. Because, we were at the gate when we were at the air tower. Well, see, it happened at three in the morning when we saw the UFO.  And then it was daybreak when we went to the air tower. So, we did lose some time, but it was so seamless we didn’t realize we lost time. It was kind of like the time flies when you’re having not so much fun. But yeah, so I, you know, that was again something that I share with people because I think it needs to be explored, you know.

Oh, absolutely. I was going to ask you if there was any missing time. In fact, I was going to ask you, are you back when you saw the grey? Did you have any missing time then that you were aware of?

No, no, not, not that I’m aware of.

And the time span from the time you saw the praying mantis type being, to the time you saw the UFOs, what sort of time distance was that?

You know that I, I really, I really can’t say, I don’t know. I don’t know. It’s been so long.

Right. Yeah, it has been a few years.

Yeah. Let me think I was on. I do remember! I was on Bravo flight. And then, I was on D flight. So, yeah, I think the praying mantis thing happened was in nineteen-seventy-nine, that winter, like January, February or whatever. And then the –  and the grey was before that. So, they were pretty, pretty close together. And the same with the crazed guy. The one at Ivy Lodge gate.  

That’s really interesting. And often, I’ve heard quite often that there’s a correlation between paranormal events and UFO encounters as well. There seems to be a correlation of some sort.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, I like I said.  Like when I was a kid, you know, we had this, or it was something in the basement. You know, this is something that, you know, I would get scared really, really easily. I wouldn’t want to go to places. But, it happened with my mom and dad, nineteen-seventy-four, when they were going through –  They had a really, really nasty fight. This was before they got a divorce. And all of a sudden I could hear that it was a man’s voice, coming from the basement. And he was laughing, like ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.

And he kept getting louder and louder. And my mom was so mad at her dad that she decided to sleep in the bed with me. And I tried to wake her up. Do you hear that? Do you hear that? And then she would wake up and it would be gone, you know? Just try and, just go to sleep. Just fall asleep, you know? Yeah. And then, when my mom and dad divorced, I decided to stay back and live with my dad. And I was sitting in what we called the stone room. And all of a sudden I heard that laughter again. And it was really, really loud. And I, I had left the house, I left the house. I had to go babysitting any way at a house.  But, I got there about two hours early. So I mean, I’ve had these things happen throughout my life and it’s just so, you know, I just kind of, I don’t know, this just . . .

Felt like a continuation?

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, I yeah, I accept it. I found that throughout my life too, I was actually. I got, I don’t know, I said to my mom. She was talking about, you know, these things were going to change or whatever. And I jumped up and I said, you getting divorced? And this was like about six months before they got a divorce. You know, I was getting a lot of premonitions that kind of thing, all that.

And then when I was like in third grade, I actually saw Mary, the mother of Jesus, in, in my – I went to Catholic school and it was in the ultimate purpose room. It was very different from all the other statues in the church. So, I was just trying to figure out what, you know. I was walking past the double doors and looking down in and I saw this beautiful, amazingly beautiful, lifelike statue. And then we passed another set of double doors and it’s gone.

I had told my mom and my mom contacted, my grandma, who was living in Ireland at the time. She said, you know, Lori had a sighting, you know. Thinking, I’m thinking, it’s a statue, you know? But then, I as an adult, I look back to the school and wanted to share the information with the people at church. And they told me that they’ve had several people that have said throughout the years, they would feel the essence of Mary. The mother of Jesus, there.

So I thought, Wow, I mean, you know, that kind of corroborated some of the things I felt. And then recently, like with my brother, about six months before –  about six or seven months. He never told us that he was abusing drugs, heroin and that kind of thing. But I told them, I said, I said, I don’t need to get out of there. I told them that where he was living, he’s living in Wilmington, North Carolina, and said, It’s going to kill you. It’s going to kill you. I said, You’ve got to get out. You need to go. We need to be close to your daughter. And it wasn’t, not even a year later that he died. So, I mean, you know, just kind of, you know, when I start seeing things like that. I mean, I do know that are somehow connected into something bigger than anything.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And with your missing time, Lori, do you have any recollection of what happened since then? Have you had any recollection of what happened in that missing time? Like I know, that for Stacey, when he had his missing time. He got all these mathematical equations downloaded into his brain.

Yeah, well, I had. But my thing would be having recurring dreams. And I would have this dream that I’m over in England and I’m talking to all these guys that I used to work with. And I kept telling them, I don’t belong here. I don’t, you know, it’s like, I’m not an airman anymore. I’m in fact I’m a I’m an army major, you know, I don’t belong. But, I’m at the gate and  something grabs me.

But, what happens is, I call it a travelling dream. Because, you know, then I’m on patrol. And I’m driving, and it’s all dark and cold and rainy. And then, next thing you know, I’m in the desert. And then, I’m on this dirt road in the desert. And I come upon this aqua colour water. And it’s, it’s like, so beautiful. It doesn’t belong there. And it’s like salt water. And the sand on the bottom is all white and it’s butted up around these like brown, dirt kind of mountains, it’s in the desert.

And so, one day I get a complimentary copy of National Geographic magazine, in the mail.  And I’m thumbing through it. And, there’s the pond!  And I’m like, Oh my God, there it is! And it was this place called Pozas, Pozas Azules. It turns out it’s a place in Mexico. Interestingly, it’s not far from – It’s about maybe fifty miles or something like that. Very, very close to this place, called the zone. The zone of silence, which is known for high UFO activity.

And also, there are these are known for having these, these aliens from the Pleiades. And yeah, they help people, I guess.. People get lost in the desert and they come upon these three tall, blond haired people and they help them and then they disappear, or something? where they go. And the connection with that in England is that over near Bentwaters and Woodbridge, they were doing a lot of radar jamming. They were doing a lot of things with frequencies, and they did a project called Cobra Mist.

And so they were doing. They were definitely doing some projects, you know, top secret kind of stuff, going on. And then. Then I find out that Pleiades has a big piece of this, too. Because, not far from Rendlesham Forest is a place called, Sutton Hoo. And at Sutton Hoo they actually have these mounds that are on the ground, that are shaped like the star cluster Pleiades. So, they’re there to solve these little connections and the up down left right, the movements of, the geometric movements of the of the UFO. You know, there’s a connection there.

And you know, the funny thing is it was like the sign of the cross. And the other thing that came to my mind and I put on one of my drawings and then I saw it on Larry Warren. He drew a picture and he had it on his. And it was with the triangle and two circles and circles kind of oval, a little overlap in the edge of triangle. And then there’s another circle. And I think that’s also some of the hieroglyphs that I think Jim Pannerston saw that I, you know. And I drew the photo, I think in 1996, and at the time I didn’t talk. I did talk to Jim a few times. But, he never got into the whole night seeing photos of the of the hieroglyphics that he saw. Maybe a year or so later that I learned about it. But, hieroglyphics and you know, how he came up with the, you know, the binary code, the whole thing.

And there a, if you do – there’s also some kind of triangulation between where Rendlesham Forest is to say the zone of silence. And it intersects with also the Egyptian pyramids and the Bermuda Triangle. So, that really also brings in the political Atlantis. Atlantis is part of it. So yeah, I just got done reading, reading a book about that. So it’s, you know, all these pieces are interconnected. It’s just the matter of, you know, what we do with it.

Joining them up, yeah.

And what people, what people, you know, as an experiencer, it’s like, I’ve got this information. Maybe somebody out there could actually look at it and, you know, help to decipher it, like Stanton Friedman.  Because, I think that what Stacy saw. And Jim Palestinian, Larry Warren saw, and John Burrows. That everyone had very, very different experiences, even at the same time. I mean, apparently, John Burroughs, you know he disappeared for about five minutes before he came back. And Linda Moulton-Howe had told me not long ago that at the Rendlesham Forest incident, when Colonel Williams, the wing commander, was out there in the field, that someone said that the praying mantis was out there, too.

So somebody else had also mentioned that. And but, I think for a lot of us, it’s just something that’s become a part of who we are. You know, it’s like, Yeah, and for me, it’s just having the opportunity. And really, I had a need to share this story. Because, mainly because, someone out there can really, really help me understand, you know what we have like. I do believe that we’re all given gifts.

And I really do believe that what I have is this gift. And I like to really hone in on that gift, you know? But right now, I do the best I can. I have like zero interest in disclosure or anything like that because I don’t think even the people in the Pentagon know that really know. They don’t really know what’s going on. And to see what we experienced as a, you know, Star Wars. Or, to see it’s something as the weaponization of whatever this entity is. I really think we’re going down the wrong road if we start looking at what’s happening here around us, as something that we should all jumping on the bandwagon and be a part of in a war. I think that what’s going on with the powers that be that’s out there. However, we want to define it. I do believe that. The one commonality that we all have is I don’t think there’s any real interest in us humans. It’s the problem. Is it with us humans are doing to this beautiful gem of a planet we call Earth. And I really think that that’s where, where they’re upset.

Yeah, I know. For me personally, that’s one of the things that my star people encounters have drummed into me, is the need to look after our Earth. And what are we doing to it? We have to take care of it. It’s our only planet, you know? Yeah, there’s no Earth two we can go to. We have to look after what we have!

Absolutely. And I think I think the lesson that they want us to know, is that – Not until we treat each other better will we ever get to. You know, I don’t think they want to say, Oh, well, we need proof, we got it. We got to see one of these people or whatever, aliens. And I was one of them. I wouldn’t want to come up and meet someone from Earth here, because they, you know, they want to dissect, you know? They want to, you know, this is, it’s like, we’re just really good, you know, we like to

kill people and break things all the time, you know? The fact that we have to. – I mean, it’s just all over. It’s just all over the place. Black Lives Matter. I mean, you know, it’s like, Yeah, yeah, it’s about time. We, you know? What about loving each other? And really be thankful that everyone has something to eat and the people? You know that? That there’s more love in the world than that kind of thing. I kind of think because of my sensitivity that way, and so I think that’s what makes these kind of like an antenna or a magnet to a lot of the what’s out there in the universe. So, you know. Yeah, I genuinely care. But we sort of, we got to change our evil ways.

Yeah, I totally hear what you’re saying. But, to the point that you made about being loving, one of the things –  I bring this up so many times when I’m talking about UFOs with people, is one of the major things that my, one of my most beloved star people said to me was this: Marianne, when you do anything, you must do it from your heart. When you think, think from your heart. When you act, act from your heart. When you talk, talk from your heart. I probably got that back to front. But, that was the basic message. You must do everything from your heart, come from a space of love, and compassion, and understanding.

Absolutely. Absolutely. That’s key. You’ve got you’ve got the key. And you know, do it from the heart, do it from the soul.

Yeah, absolutely. Just to get back to your military service Lori. How long after these incidents did you leave Bentwaters and that area?

Yeah, I have I left there in December of nineteen-eighty. So, I’d been there about two and a half years. I’d actually extended to be there while longer, because, I was living off base. As soon as I got off base, I, you know,  it’s like I felt like I  could breathe. But any time I went on there – But,  I was counting my days down. Literally, literally. And like many other airmen, but we were, you know, I mean, it was just a really, really unusually difficult assignment.

And, and after I left there, I went to a base at Lowry Air Force Base in Denver and ran into one of the flight chiefs that I knew over at Bentwaters. And I asked him, I said, what was going on? Did you feel what was going on over there? I mean, you know, I was just asking him genuinely. But, he had this really weird smile on his face as if to say, Oh, it was great, you know, I had a great time.

I didn’t realize it was pretty much again. It was the same kind of mentality Lori, don’t pursue it, you know, don’t go there. And I didn’t I. But a lot of people that I met up my next days could tell that I looked like I’d been in. I look like I’ve been in war. I mean, yeah,  I was not a not a happy camper. But I, you know, but I was just also very relieved to be away from Bentwaters and just didn’t. But I felt like also there was so much that was unresolved. You know, I left there and yeah, I left it kind of like, I escaped. I survived. But, you know, did it really have to be that way? You know, if I could have probably learned a whole lot more about my experiences, if I had others around me, that would, you know, you know, not ridicule. And do all that to make it really, really difficult or try and throw me out.

So I left. So I got to Lowry in Denver, and it was it was a good assignment. You know, it was like something was freaking wrong with Bentwaters! And then, when I get to my next assignment now I’m stationed in Las Vegas. At Nellis Air Force base.  And again it, that wasn’t the feeling wasn’t there. What I dealt with over in England. Except for one time. I was now, I left law enforcement and I was working in a television production. Actually videotaping bomb drops on a dried out lake bed.And one, it was a brief moment that I’m sitting in this, what they call a connex-box, which has all the electrical equipment in it, and it doesn’t have any windows. And all of a sudden, I had the feeling like the world went dark. And it really – and this was during about twelve, about noon time. And so bright out, it was in the desert. And I jumped out as if to say, I mean, I felt that fight or flight feeling.

But that was it. And then I left there and I went to Fort Belvoir in Virginia before I got off of active duty. You know, that was my last duty assignment before I went into the reserves. But I never, never, never, never. But I mean, I spent twenty seven years in the military having retired as an army major. I, I never experienced anything like what I experienced in England at RAF Bentwaters and Woodbridge, and I’m still trying to wrap my head around it.

And it’s yeah, and I think that. I just think that more people have  to listen to this kind of a story as opposed to, you know, like I said, all the disclosure stuff, you know. Oh we’re finding out this document and blah blah blah, and I’m like, there’s a whole lot more to what’s going on.

Oh, it’s absolutely. And in any case? Well, my star people told me back in the eighties,  around the time you were having your experience that the. The world’s governments have been told that they had to release information about, about star people or the choice would be taken out of their hands. And I honestly feel like any disclosure is going to come from experiencers like you, like myself. Ah,  people on the ground. People have an innate distrust of governments. Because, for the most part, governments really aren’t there for the people. They’re there to serve the interests of, well, certainly in your country –  of the military-industrial complex rather than ground people. I really believe, so the more I speak to people like yourself, the more I believe that what we are doing speaking out is so important. Because, I believe the disclosure is going to come from us.

Yes, definitely. Definitely. Well, said. Thank you.

And Lori, I really appreciate your time today and your little dog’s been so patient, bless him.

That’s ok thank you. Well, I appreciate you give me the opportunity. Totally, and you’re a wonderful woman, and I so appreciate you.

Oh, thank you, Lori.

During our conversation Lori talked about her paranormal experiences whilst on the base as well as her encounters with a grey being and a very large, muscular Praying Mantis type being, who told her not to turn around as he didn’t want to scare her. She discussed the lights that both she and her workmate experienced. It was about a year after she left the base that the famous, landing experiences occurred, but, from our conversation you can see that this site had been active for some time.

Unfortunately our conversation was cut short because of computer issues on my side. So I never got to let you all know where you can follow Lori, nor could I follow up on some questions I had. Lori has a Twitter account, which is linked from this episodes page on our podcast website www.walkingtheshadowlands.com, and she has a private FB Group called ‘Rendlesham “Lone Ranger’ UFO Sightings’.

I want to thank Lori for allowing herself to be so vulnerable and open about what she experienced. There’s no doubt in my mind that this continues to impact her in her day to day life, even all these many years later. How could such an experience not? Lori and Stacey both continue to feel the effects of their experiences as youngsters in the military. If you haven’t already, go and check out my conversation with Stacey about his time at Bentwaters as well.

This episodes bumper music was called The Alien.

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