Transcript of Col Halt’s tape
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HALT: From now on, let’s identify that as point number one – that stake there. So you all know where it is if we have to sketch it. You got that, Sergeant Nevels?
NEVELS: Yessir.
HALT: OK.
VOICE: Closest to the Woodbridge...
HALT: Closest to the Woodbridge base...
VOICE: Be point one?
HALT: Be point one. [WHISTLING OR SCREECHING NOISE IN BACKGROUND.] Let’s go clockwise from there.
VOICE: Point two...
HALT: Point two.
BALL: Go ahead, Ed[?]
HALT: So this tree is between point two and point three.
SECURITY COMMUNICATION: ‘(indistinct) ...Burroughs and two other personnel requesting to ride ‘em[?] on a jeep at your location’
BALL: Tell them negative at this time. We’ll tell them when they can come out here. We don’t want them out here right now.
HALT: The sample...you’re going to mark this sample number one...
NEVELS: Yes, sir.
HALT: Have them cut it off, and include some of that sap and all...is between indentation two and three on a pine tree about five feet away, about three and a half feet off the ground.
NEVELS (faint): Put it in here. I’ve got some more...
HALT: There’s a round abrasion on the tree about three and a half, four inches in diameter...it looks like it might be old, but, er...strange, there’s a crystalline...pine sap that has come out that fast. You say there was other trees here that are damaged in a similar fashion?
ENGLUND: Yes, all facing in toward the centre of the landing site...
HALT: OK, why don’t you take a picture of that and remember your picture, we ain’t gonna be writing this down. Oh, it’s gonna be on the tape.
ENGLUND: You got a tape measure with you?
HALT: This is the picture, your first picture will be at the first tree, the one between mark two and three. Meantime I’m gonna look at a couple other of these trees over here.
NEVELS: We are getting some...
HALT: You’re getting readings on the tree you’re taking samples from on the side facing the suspected landing site.
ENGLUND: Four clicks max.
HALT: Up to four. Interesting. That’s right where you’re taking the sample now. Four? That’s the strongest point on the tree?
NEVELS: Yessir. And if you come to the back...there’s no clicks whatsoever.
HALT: No clicks at all on the back – it’s all on the...
NEVELS: ...maybe one or two...
HALT: ...side facing the...interesting. The indentations look like something twisted as it dropped... you know, as it sat down on them. Looks like someone took something and sat it down and twisted it from side to side. Very strange.
HALT: We’re looking at the same tree we took the sample off with this – what d’you call it – Starscope?
ENGLUND: Uh huh, starlight scope.
[Ian’s note: The starlight scope was an image intensifier, or night-vision scope. They were using a first-generation type known as the AN/PVS-2. Credit to John Burroughs for the research.]
HALT: And you’re getting...getting a definite heat reflection off the tree about, what, three to four feet off the ground?
ENGLUND: Yes, where the spot is...
HALT: Same place where the spot is, we’re getting a heat...
BALL: ...and a spot on the tree directly behind us I picked up the same thing, and one off to your right.
ENGLUND: All right, let me...
HALT: Three trees in the area, immediately adjacent to the site, within ten feet of the suspected landing site, we’re picking up heat reflection off the trees.
ENGLUND: Gimme light, Bob.
HALT: What’s that again?
ENGLUND: Shine the light on it again, Bob. [Bobby Ball]
HALT: What, are you having trouble...(indistinct)
ENGLUND: (indistinct)...right on the spot, and then when you want...
HALT: OK, turn the light off.
ENGLUND: ...you’ll notice the white....
[A high-pitched electronic whine is audible on the tape at this point, presumably emitted by the Starscope]
HALT [apparently now using the Starscope for himself]: Hey! You’re right. There is a white streak on the tree.
ENGLUND: Indicates a heat...
HALT: Let me turn around and look at this tree over here now. Just a second – watch, ‘cos you’re right in front of the tree. I can see it. OK, give me a little side lighting so I can find the tree. OK. Ah...
SECURITY COMMUNICATION: Alpha Two, security.
HALT: Now I’ve lost the tree. OK. Stop, stop. Light off! Hey this is eerie.
VOICE (BALL?): Why don’t you do the pod spots and then the centre?
HALT: This is strange. Here, someone wanna look at the spots on the ground? Whoops, watch you don’t step...you’re walking all over ‘em.
[Background sound like a vehicle hooter]
HALT: OK, let’s step back and not walk all over ‘em. Come back here and somebody put a beam on ‘em. You’re gonna have to be back ten or fifteen feet. You see it?
VOICE (BALL?): OK, fine.
HALT: OK, lights off.
[VOICE ON TAPE, OVER-RECORDED: ‘he took this long to document…’]
HALT: What d’you think about the spot? [LONG PAUSE] Nothing[?] at the first spot? OK, that’s what we’d call spot number three. Let’s go to the back corner and get spot number one. Spot number one, here’s spot number one right here. Spot number one, right here. D’you need some light? There it is, right there. Focused?
VOICE (BALL?): Focused.
HALT: OK. Looking now at spot number one through the Starlight scope.
BALL(?): Picking up a slight increase in light as I go over it.
HALT: Slight increase in light at spot number one. Let’s go look at spot number two. Spot number two’s right over here. Right here – see it? OK, get focused on it. Tell me when. OK, lights off, let’s see what we get on it.
BALL(?): Slight increase.
HALT: Just a slight increase?
BALL(?): Try the centre.
HALT: The centre spot...well it really isn’t the centre, it’s slightly off centre. It’s right there.
BALL(?): Right here.
ENGLUND(?): Let’s mark that as the centre...
HALT: OK. We’re gonna get your reading on it right there.
VOICE (BALL?): OK.
HALT: Tell me when you’re ready.
BALL(?): Ready.
HALT: OK, lights out. It’s the centre spot we’re looking at now, or almost the centre.
BALL(?): Slight increase.
HALT: Slight increase there? This is slightly off centre toward the one–two side. It’s some type of an abrasion or something in the ground where the pine needles are all pushed back where we get a high radioactive reading... er, a high reading, about, er... deflection of, er, two to three, maybe four, depending on the point of it.
BALL(?): Someone wanna check it?
ENGLUND: Yes.
HALT: You say there is a positive after-effect?
ENGLUND: Yes, there is, definitely. That’s on the centre spot. There is an after-effect.
NEVELS: What does that mean?
ENGLUND: It means that when the lights are turned off, once we are focused in and allow time for the eyes to adjust we are getting an indication of a heat source coming out of that centre spot, as er, which will show up on...
HALT: Heat or some form of energy. It’s hardly heat at this stage of the game.
HALT: Looking directly overhead one can see an opening in the trees, plus some freshly broken pine branches on the ground underneath. Looks like some of ‘em came off about 15 to 20 feet up. Some small branches about an inch or less in diameter.
HALT: 01.48. We’re hearing very strange sounds out of the farmer’s barnyard animals.
ENGLUND: (Indistinct – sounds like ’28…7’)
HALT: They’re very, very active, making an awful lot of noise.
[Ian’s note: The farm next to the forest is an arable farm, and there were no ‘barnyard animals’. The ‘strange sounds’ Halt mentions, which were also reported by John Burroughs on Night One, probably came from animals in the forest, most likely the small type of deer known as muntjac deer.]
ENGLUND: (indistinct – possibly ‘wasn’t a’) ...pigmentation.
HALT: You just saw a light? Where? Wait a minute. Slow down. Where?
ENGLUND: Right on this position here. Straight ahead, in between the trees – there it is again. Watch – straight ahead, off my flashlight there, sir. There it is.
[Ian’s note: The UFO at last! The time interval between ‘There it is again...there it is’ is 5 seconds, the flash rate of the Orford Ness lighthouse. For a video clip of the lighthouse flashing at night as seen from the forest, click here.]
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