PURSUE corpus
Browse 120 source records across 7 case files, including text documents, photographs, videos, and image-only exhibits.
Featured record
Record 153FBI File 62-HQ-83894 Serial 153: "Flying Saucers" Photographed Over Oak Ridge, Tennessee, July 1947
In July 1947, W.R. Presley of 218 Illinois Avenue, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, photographed what the Knoxville News-Sentinel called a flying saucer. Presley had been photographing his family and house and used his last frame on a shot of a nearby mountain; when the roll was developed, a bright circular object appeared in that final image. The newspaper reported it as the first time a flying saucer had ever been photographed over Oak Ridge and noted that the picture had "all of Oak Ridge talking." The FBI Knoxville Field Office forwarded two prints and a photostatic copy of the newspaper clipping to FBI Headquarters under an Internal Security file.
[page 1] 62-HQ-83894 VOLI SERIAL 153 ONLY ## FBI CENTRAL RECORDS CENTER ## HQ HEADQUARTERS | Class/Case # | Sub | Vol. | Serial # | | |-|-|-|-|-| | 0062 83894 | | 1 | 153 | ONLY | 8/11/1274168 RRP0031XGA Declassification authority derived from FBI Automatic Declassification Guide, issued May 24, 2007. [page 2] ## KNOXVILLE FILE #65-11 RE: "FLYING SAUCERS" OBSERVED OVER OAK RIDGE AREA INTERNAL SECURITY - X ## ENCLOSURES TO BUREAU: Two photographs of reputedly "flying saucers" seen at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, during July 1947. Photostatic copy of newspaper clipping appearing in the Knoxville News-Sentinel concerning these "flying saucers." [page 3] 2-83891-153 ENCLOSURE [page 7] 62-8.3894-153 [page 9] 62-83894-153
Recently added
Incidents and release notes
PURSUE-RELEASE-02 / Serial c5ec265a-5be5-4525-89aa-8ef42cf6c3e1
James Tuck Correspondence: Green Light Sightings at Los Alamos, 1948,1951
A correspondent wrote to James L. Tuck at Los Alamos reporting several sightings of green lights in the Jemez Mountains between 1948 and 1951, typically between 9 and 11 PM, and one afternoon sighting of five objects flying in formation from southeast to northwest over Los Alamos. The writer directed Tuck to Protective Force logs as the record of times and dates, and named redacted Protective Force members as witnesses.
PURSUE-RELEASE-02 / Serial 1c9334cb-2949-4725-95b5-4079dc6609d8
Senior USIC Officer Helicopter UAP Encounter Over Mountain Test Range
In late 2025, a senior U.S. intelligence officer and two pilots departed a Joint Operations Center by helicopter to investigate loud thuds and UAP sightings over a weapons test range. Hovering at 700 feet AGL, they observed countless orange orbs swarming near a mountain, then two large oval orbs stationary just above the rotor disk that expanded into a "T" formation of four or five before dimming over 10 to 15 seconds. Orange orbs also appeared directly above transiting fighter jets, matching their speed and flight path, and separately formed a triangle formation before vanishing.
PURSUE-RELEASE-02 / Serial 2ca3e217-bca9-4f62-a240-9da873fefe56
Pantex Unidentified Object Incident Report, Ground Surveillance Radar and Sandia-Enhanced Images (Pages 5,6 of 6)
Pages 5 and 6 of a six-page "Pantex UAP Incident Report," produced by Pantex Plant (managed by Consolidated Nuclear Security, LLC), show a Ground Surveillance Radar Tower image with a small point target circled in red; the lower half of the radar image is withheld under exemption (b)(3) (UCNI). Page 6 presents two Sandia National Labs enhanced photographs of the UAP, each showing a dark, roughly mushroom-shaped form surrounded by a diffuse blue-gray halo. No incident date, scale reference, or witness information appears in either page.
PURSUE-RELEASE-02 / Serial 01b53189-084f-4568-8a9b-df03f07f3414
CIA Intelligence Information Report: Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon at Sary Shagan Weapons Testing Range, USSR (1973)
A former Soviet citizen reported observing an unidentified sharp green circular object or mass in the sky over Site 7 at the Sary Shagan weapons testing range in the USSR sometime between November 1972 and November 1973. The source stepped outside while watching a Canada-USSR televised sports competition and saw the object to the west at approximately 70 degrees elevation; within 10 to 15 seconds the green circle widened and several green concentric circles formed around the mass, which faded within minutes with no associated sound. The source had no opinion as to what the phenomenon was, and there were no resultant rumors.
PURSUE-RELEASE-02 / Serial 01baf760-c0aa-4fd5-9894-28d9f9771ff4
Pajarito Astronomers Club Meeting Notice: "Why Should a Scientist be Concerned about UFO's?", Los Alamos, May 1986
A May 20, 1986 newsletter from the Pajarito Astronomers of Los Alamos, New Mexico announces a club meeting scheduled for May 29, 1986, at 7:30 p.m. in the Ranch Room at Fuller Lodge. Guest speaker Dr. John Warren of AT-6 was to address the topic "Why Should a Scientist be Concerned about UFO's?" The newsletter's closing signature block is redacted, with two lines blacked out following "Sincerely."
PURSUE-RELEASE-02 / Serial 43ad166c-06e5-49d1-b05f-c5eeffc392df
Sandia Base Security Inspection Response & Green Fireball Airborne Particle Collection Study, 1949
On July 24, 1949, a fireball was reported over the general neighborhood of Socorro, New Mexico at 8:26 p.m. Researchers W. D. Crozier and Ben K. Seely of the New Mexico School of Mines then made systematic airborne particle collections at Socorro from July 25 through August 1, finding copper-bearing opaque particles and three apparently perfect spherical cobalt-indication particles twelve microns in diameter in the July 26 afternoon collection.
PURSUE-RELEASE-01 / Serial 6b96704e-6de4-46f3-a329-3bf5a5843c53
Western US Event: Federal Agents Report Four Categories of UAP Over Two Days in 2023
Seven federal law enforcement special agents working in the western United States reported four categories of sightings over two days in 2023. The reported events included orange orbs launching smaller red orbs at dusk, a large glowing orange orb hovering near a rock pinnacle, a kite-shaped object with lights pursued after being mistaken for a car, and a transparent kite-shaped object roughly 6 meters off the ground through which stars were faintly visible. The Department of War summary was released by AARO on May 8, 2026.
PURSUE-RELEASE-01 / Serial b8b42a2a-b0b4-40e4-8592-a29eb37ee1ad
FBI 302: Senior US Intelligence Official's First-Hand Account of UAP Orb Encounter at US Military Facility
An FBI 302 interview, classified SECRET//NOFORN, documents a senior US intelligence official's first-hand account of a multi-hour aerial search at a US military facility in 2025. Personnel aboard a state partner helicopter observed a "super-hot" orb that came within ten feet of the aircraft before traveling an estimated 20 miles southeast at a speed the helicopter could not match. Over the following thirty minutes, crews observed a swarm of lights too many to count, and repeated formations of four to six oval orange orbs with white or yellow centers that flared up and down in sequence.
PURSUE-RELEASE-01 / Serial f65996ab-adeb-4c04-87be-93caa45d095a
Apollo 11 Technical Crew Debriefing: Three Anomalous Observations (1969)
During the Apollo 11 Technical Crew Debriefing on July 31, 1969, Buzz Aldrin described three observations from the mission. Approximately one day from the Moon, the crew spotted an object of sizeable dimension that appeared L-shaped through the monocular and like a hollow cylinder through the sextant; ground control confirmed the S-IVB stage was 6,000 miles away, and the crew reached no conclusion about the object's size, range, or identity. Aldrin also reported recurring small flashes of light inside the darkened cabin, spaced roughly a minute apart, which he guessed were caused by some penetration of an object into the spacecraft.