Pentagon Releases 162 Unidentified Flying Object Files
The Pentagon released 162 previously secret files on Friday documenting reports of unidentified flying object sightings, opening hundreds of pages of material that had been kept out of public view. Pete Hegseth said the files had long fueled justified speculation and that it was time for the American people to see them.
Those pages include a 1969 debrief of Buzz Aldrin, video files from military cameras around the globe, and older eyewitness accounts dating back to 1947. The release follows Donald Trump’s February directive for federal agencies to begin identifying, declassifying and releasing government files related to unidentified flying objects and the possibility of alien life beyond Earth.
Pentagon website release
The files appeared on a monochrome new defense department website as a first batch of material that had been requested for decades by some advocates of disclosure. The release included old State Department cables, FBI documents, transcripts from Nasa’s crewed flights into space, and ambiguous eyewitness accounts, all assembled into hundreds of pages rather than a single summary report.
Hegseth said, "These files, hidden behind classifications, have long fueled justified speculation – and it’s time the American people see it for themselves." That statement set the tone for a release meant to show the underlying records rather than a polished narrative from the Pentagon.
Buzz Aldrin and 1947 reports
Among the most notable items is a 1969 debrief in which Aldrin said he saw a "sizeable" object close to the lunar surface and a "fairly bright light source" that the crew felt could be a laser. The material does not turn that account into a conclusion; it preserves the report as recorded at the time.
Another newly public document is a previously confidential 1947 Air Defense Command report from New York describing a Pan American World Airways Constellation crew sighting a bright orange object in the sky. The crew said the object was visible for only seconds before disappearing behind a cloud, and the file now sits alongside later military footage from Iraq, Syria, the United Arab Emirates and the East China Sea.
That mix of material is the friction point in the release: some files are vivid, but they are still fragments. A 2022 video showed a football-shaped object over the East China Sea, while other footage recorded in recent years showed dots moving erratically and at different speeds, but the Pentagon has not paired the files with a single explanation in the released batch.
Trump directive and NASA remarks
The release grew out of Trump’s February order for agencies to identify, declassify and release government files tied to unidentified flying objects and possible alien life beyond Earth. Last month, Jared Isaacman said on NBC’s Meet the Press, "The odds that we will find something at some point to suggest that we are not alone are pretty high."
One more file adds a later civilian-military thread: an FBI interview with a drone pilot in September 2023 described a linear object with a light bright enough to see bands within the light. The pilot said the object was visible for five to 10 seconds and then vanished, a reminder that the release is not one event but a stack of old reports now brought into the open together.
The practical next step is in the records themselves: readers, researchers and policymakers can now examine the newly public files on the defense department site as the release continues in batches. The question left by Friday’s disclosure is not whether the Pentagon opened the archive, but how much more of the archive will follow and what, if anything, the remaining files add to the record already published.
