THE DOCUMENTS
DOW-UAP-D155, “Air Intelligence Information Report Saudi Arabia 1957”; DOW-UAP-D156, “Air Intelligence Information Report Guam 1956”; DOW-UAP-D157, “Air Intelligence Information Report Italy 1953”; DOW-UAP-D158, “Flying Object Report Canada 1953”; DOW-UAP-D159, “Air Intelligence Information Report Germany 1953”; DOW-UAP-D160, “Air Intelligence Information Report Morocco 1953”; DOW-UAP-D161 and DOW-UAP-D162, each “Air Intelligence Information Report Alaska 1953”; DOW-UAP-D163, “Air Intelligence Information Report Sweden 1953”; and DOW-UAP-D164, “Flying Object Report Indiana 1954”. Ten Department of War records from the U.S. Department of War’s PURSUE Release 07, published at war.gov/ufo on 23 October 2026. The titles are the release’s, taken from the file names; the war.gov site titles add commas and, for DOW-UAP-D157 and DOW-UAP-D164, a different year (1952 and 1953). Eight are on AF Form 112, the Air Intelligence Information Report, with Part II continuation sheets; DOW-UAP-D158 and DOW-UAP-D164 are letters submitted under AFR 200-2. They run to 41 pages. Three pages are the backs of sheets, carrying a received or dispatched stamp and show-through and no usable text (DOW-UAP-D158 p. 2; DOW-UAP-D164 pp. 2, 6); two are mirror images of the page before (DOW-UAP-D155 p. 5; DOW-UAP-D156 p. 5); and DOW-UAP-D155 holds its two-page report twice (pp. 1 to 4). The original markings run from SECRET struck through (DOW-UAP-D155) to none (DOW-UAP-D164 p. 1). DOW-UAP-D155 and DOW-UAP-D156 carry a rubber stamp DECLASSIFIED, Authority NW 78452, on p. 1 only; the other eight carry a printed overlay citing NND 57597 on p. 1 (read from the page images). No page of the ten carries a release redaction box, bar, label or exemption code. On DOW-UAP-D160 heavy marker strokes cover the typed classification line at the head and foot of each page; they are marker strokes over a classification marking, not a release redaction.
Why this one is worth your time
These are the forms and letters through which Air Force units and attaché offices passed sightings up the line between 1953 and 1957. Each sets down what one person or crew reported and then, in a few lines, what the reporting office made of it.
Read side by side, the ten show how far those few lines go. Each office offers a candidate, a possibility or nothing, and none of the ten states an identification.
What the documents say
D155, Saudi Arabia, 18 January 1957. The 22d Bombardment Wing (M) at March AFB reports that a bomber from Castle AFB, taking part in a Strategic Air Command mission, picked up an unidentified aircraft on its gunnery scope just before a rendezvous with a tanker (p. 1). The return stayed at the centre marker for approximately five to seven minutes, until the bomber banked left and it disappeared off the scope to the left. The page allows that the disappearance may have been caused by the change in direction, and adds that the return seemed to disappear in the direction of the Baghdad Flight Identification Region; it was smaller than the return from a second bomber in the cell. Major Robert Sullivan signs it, and p. 2 charts the scope (pp. 1, 2, read from the page images).
D156, Guam, 31 December 1956. The Air Technical Intelligence Liaison Office of FEAF forwards a message from the 7th Air Force (Advanced) on an unidentified aerial blinking light seen at night by a fighter-interceptor pilot, First Lieutenant Ted Brunson, flying in the Guam radio range holding pattern (pp. 1 to 3). The light passed under the aircraft, turned with it when the pilot turned into it, could not be closed on even with afterburner, climbed above him and circled him twice, and contact ended when he returned to base on low fuel, after approximately 10 minutes (p. 2). A lighted weather balloon had been launched by the U.S. Weather Bureau before the sighting; questioned again, the pilot said he did not believe the object was a weather balloon, because it manoeuvred with his aircraft and accelerated past it (p. 3). The preparing officer, Captain Alan G. Pound, notes that the balloon rose somewhat slower than standard, that it would have been much higher than the sighting had it ascended normally, and that if it had malfunctioned and levelled off or descended it could possibly explain the object (p. 4).
D157, Sassari, Sardinia, August 1952. The Air Attaché in Rome, Lt Col Joseph A. Woida, transmits on 15 December 1953 a witness’s report of an unusual aerial phenomenon (p. 1). Most of the record (pp. 2 to 5) is an English translation of the witness’s statement, dated 19 November 1953. It quotes his newspaper article of 28 August 1952 on the evening before, at 2145 hours: a sphere of “astonishing brightness”, slightly larger than the full moon, moving east to west, vanishing and reappearing with a luminous ribbon behind it, in sight three to five seconds in all (p. 2). It then gives an astronomer’s computation, as the witness reports it, that the object would be 14.67 or 9.25 kilometres across, depending on its distance, and so could not be a common terrestrial flying saucer (p. 3), and closes with personal remarks on heavenly intervention and a request for a reward for the benefit of an orphans’ institute and a body given by its initials (pp. 4, 5). The attaché’s comment is about the witness, not the object: intelligent, pleasant and very eager, convinced the phenomenon was either an American scientific advance or super-natural or the work of another government, and, while not exactly fanatic, in the attaché’s view very close to fitting that title (p. 1).
D158, Prince George, British Columbia, November 1953. A letter of 13 November 1953 from the 918th Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron, headed Flying Objects Report, gives the sighting as 080315Z November 1953, at night, from Prince George Airport (pp. 1, 3). Two airmen guarding an aircraft at the airport, T/Sgt Arvel Lee Daniel and S/Sgt John Junior Bricker, both rated reliable, saw one round white light with a blue tint, blinking, the size of a basketball at arm’s length, which at first looked like a falling star (pp. 1, 3). It came to within approximately 150 feet of the ground and stayed there about 30 seconds, rose straight up about 300 feet, hung nearly 10 seconds, then disappeared westward, climbing; a humming sound was heard for about two seconds, and it was in sight approximately 4 minutes (pp. 1, 3). The preparing officer’s comment, over the signature of Captain James F. Mitchell, is two words: Cause unknown (p. 4). All of this is read from the page images.
D159, the Berlin corridors, August 1953. The 7350th Base Complement Squadron, in a report prepared by Captain Fred L. Allen, copies four entries from the Tempelhof air traffic control logs (p. 1). On 10 August 1953 a British European Airways crew inbound via the Center Corridor reported what appeared to be red rockets fired about a mile ahead; a second crew reported a stationary red light twenty nautical miles west of Genthin; and the British Berlin Air Safety Center reported that the Soviets had checked on the light and could not account for it. Early on 11 August a third airline pilot crossing the area saw nothing, but said that on the night of 7 August he had seen ground to air firing there, which stopped as his aircraft approached. The office had been unable to contact him further (p. 2). The evaluation field reads NONE (p. 1).
D160, French Morocco, 16 December 1953. The 316th Air Division (Defense) reports a radar return seen by personnel of Detachment 2, 737th AC&W Squadron, varying from a V to a W to an M shape, between one and twelve objects with the sweep, along a straight line (pp. 1, 2). It lists three possible causes: anomalous propagation, ship-borne radar jamming of the detachment’s radar, or geese or storks in flight (pp. 1, 3). The summary calls it a logical deduction that one of these is the cause (p. 1); the comments of Major Edward O. Wittmer add that maintenance personnel at the site offered no possible cause (p. 3).
D161, Little Diomede, October 1953. The 5004th Air Intelligence Service Squadron reports a light seen on the southern tip of Big Diomede Island, USSR, from Little Diomede Village (pp. 1, 2). The source described it as the size of a nickel coin at arm’s length and about the colour of a burning match or dim flashlight, lasting several seconds; he thought it came from a large flashlight or spotlight (p. 2). Roy N. Fowler of the squadron thought him fairly reliable and the sighting possibly true (p. 2). Major Francis M. Brown, the preparing officer, notes that anyone on Big Diomede wanting to signal to the Alaskan mainland could best do it from the southern tip, raises this only to mention the possibility, however slight, and adds that there is no evidence to support a conclusion that this was the light’s purpose (pp. 2, 3).
D162, Gambell, St. Lawrence Island, December 1953. The same squadron reports a light seen on the horizon west of Gambell at about 1110Z on 1 December 1953, on a true heading of 283 degrees; it did not move, was the colour of a flashlight, and at 1115Z disappeared as though someone had turned it off (pp. 1, 2). The source first put it at about 10 inches across, then said a 5½ inch disk at arm’s length would cover it, which the preparing officer, Captain John V. Wright, calls apparently in error (pp. 2, 3). William W. Caldwell of the squadron took the bearing with a compass and checked the village; no one else had seen the light (p. 3). No land lies on that bearing for a considerable distance, so a land-based light is ruled out; no conclusion is reached, and a ship at sea is offered as a possibility (p. 3).
D163, Sweden, 17 December 1953. The Air Attaché’s office in Stockholm forwards a translated newspaper account of a Swedish airline captain and his crew chief, who saw a shining metal spherical elliptical object pass about 600 metres below their airliner, the other way, at what the captain called the speed of sound, for six or seven seconds (pp. 1, 2). He thought it possibly an unmanned robot, and said it could definitely not have been a meteor (p. 2). The Swedish Defense Staff knew of no Swedish aircraft in the area and was investigating, and the Swedish Air Force chief said they were investigating what Swedish radar stations might have spotted (pp. 2, 3). The office adds a character sketch from a personal source who doubts the captain’s story, and says it is seeking further information (p. 3).
D164, Indiana, December 1953. A letter of 13 January 1954 from the 2466th Air Force Reserve Combat Training Center, Atterbury Air Force Base, written in lieu of AF Form 112b, reports two objects seen by two civilians, a husband and wife, from a moving car (pp. 1, 3). The page gives the place of observation as Seymour, Indiana (p. 3). Each object’s shape is given as a circular ring of smoke, white and gaseous, with four bright points of light within the same plane, rotating slowly clockwise; they approached in a staggered formation, hovered, then left to the south-west, with “Incredible speed when disappearing”, over five to six minutes in all (pp. 1, 3). The comments come from a staff sergeant, no officer being assigned at the time, and say the story came out through a doctor and that the husband had told only three friends, to avoid ridicule (pp. 4, 5).
What the ten have in common. Eight use AF Form 112, and four cite AFR 200-2 (D156 p. 1; D158 p. 1; D160 p. 2; D164 p. 1). Read in order, the preparing officers’ conclusions are a conditional balloon (D156), no comment on the object (D157), cause unknown (D158), no evaluation (D159), one of three possible causes (D160), no evidence for a signal (D161), a ship as a possibility (D162), and none in the office’s own voice for D155, D163 and D164. The two Alaska reports come from one squadron two weeks apart, with the same eleven distribution addressees in the same order, each signed as Commander by a different major (D161 p. 1; D162 p. 1); neither refers to the other.
What the documents do not say
None of the ten names what was seen. Unresolved and UAP return zero in all ten text layers, and the pages use their own terms: unidentified aircraft, Unidentified Flying Object and UFOB, Flying Objects Report, unusual aerial phenomenon, a light. D156 does not say whether the balloon malfunctioned. D163 reports no outcome of the Swedish investigation, and D159 nothing beyond its failed attempt to reach the third pilot.
Some pieces are missing. D157 lists one inclosure, a drawing, with to ATIC written beside it, and calls Enclosure #1 the witness’s sketch; no drawing is among its five pages (p. 1). D164 has no date for the sighting: the observers were unable to remember, and the weather section covers the week of 8 to 15 December 1953 (pp. 3, 4). No air traffic check was possible without that date (p. 4).
Some dates do not line up on the pages. D157’s summary gives the 28th of August 1952, where the article describes the evening of the 27th (pp. 1, 2). D161 times the sighting at 081015Z and 081025Z but says the report was made on 6 October 1953 (pp. 1, 2). D158 gives the elevation on disappearance as approximately 135 degrees (p. 3, read from the page image). None of the pages explains these.
The war.gov site’s text differs from the pages in places, and the following is the site’s, not the record’s. The site title years for D157 (1952) and D164 (1953) differ from the file names (1953 and 1954); the pages print the sighting of D157 in August 1952 and its report in December 1953, and the letter of D164 on 13 January 1954. The site’s Incident Date for D164, 1 December 1953, is on no page, and its Incident Location is blank. For D158 the site’s date is the letter’s, and its description has three servicemembers where the page lists two military observers and no civilians (p. 3). For D161 the site’s date is 6 October 1953, the date on which p. 2 says the report was made. The site’s thumbnail alt text for D162 speaks of blacked-out redaction boxes; none of its four pages carries one. Its description for D160 calls one cause the most likely explanation, where p. 1 calls it a logical deduction that one of the three is the cause, and an AARO comment there places the squadron at a Moroccan town no page names.
The release leaves personal data unredacted in these records, among them service numbers (D158 p. 3; D160 p. 3), a minor’s details, a source’s age, race, education, Guard service and employment, derogatory detail about a private pilot, street addresses and a hospital stay. None of it is repeated here, and the private witnesses whom the pages and the site name are given by role.
From the record
Significance; The unidentified aircraft appeared on the scope
DOW-UAP-D155, p. 1, the first line of the significance paragraph that closes the summary; the sentence continues: where no aircraft were expected
3. Unless the lighted balloon which was launched prior to the sighting malfunctioned and remained at a relatively low altitude, the Unidentified Flying Object
DOW-UAP-D156, p. 1, paragraph 3 of the summary, the preparing office’s conditional; the sentence continues: can not be readily explained.
moon, of green-blue color, silver bright like the mother-of-pearl, with metal streaks
DOW-UAP-D157, p. 2, a line within the sentence of the translated newspaper article that describes the sphere’s size, colour and brightness
Soviets checked on this reported red light and could
DOW-UAP-D159, p. 1, the log extract for 2315Z on 10 August 1953, from the British Berlin Air Safety Center; the sentence continues: not account for it.
It faded after several minutes of observation.
DOW-UAP-D160, p. 1, the closing sentence of summary paragraph 1, on the radar return
The sighting is unusual because persons have not been seen previously in
DOW-UAP-D161, p. 1, the first line of the closing paragraph of the summary; the sentence continues: that location and because it is believed to be a difficult place to reach, particularly at night
A possibility exists that the light came from a ship at sea, identity of which
DOW-UAP-D162, p. 3, the closing paragraph of the preparing officer’s comments; the sentence continues: is unknown
Date: Observers unable to remember exactly.
DOW-UAP-D164, p. 3, the date line of item d, under the time of the sighting
Where the case connects
Release 07 Briefing 1 covers the four other Air Force reports in the release, from Catalina Island. Their declassification marking differs from these ten: each of the four cites NND 923007 on p. 1, where these ten carry NND 57597 or NW 78452 on p. 1 (D177, D178, D179 and D181, each p. 1, by text-layer count). D164 p. 5 mentions Saudi Arabia, the country of D155’s area field (p. 1); the dates are three years apart, and neither page draws a link.
Read it yourself
DOW-UAP-D155, “Air Intelligence Information Report Saudi Arabia 1957”, DOW-UAP-D156, “Air Intelligence Information Report Guam 1956”, DOW-UAP-D157, “Air Intelligence Information Report Italy 1953”, DOW-UAP-D158, “Flying Object Report Canada 1953”, DOW-UAP-D159, “Air Intelligence Information Report Germany 1953”, DOW-UAP-D160, “Air Intelligence Information Report Morocco 1953”, DOW-UAP-D161 and DOW-UAP-D162, “Air Intelligence Information Report Alaska 1953”, DOW-UAP-D163, “Air Intelligence Information Report Sweden 1953”, and DOW-UAP-D164, “Flying Object Report Indiana 1954”, are hosted at war.gov in PURSUE Release 07. Each report’s summary or opening paragraph is on its first page.
Read the files. Decide for yourself.
Related wiki entries
The wiki entries below give background on the programme and publisher behind this briefing, and on the subjects it touches.
- PURSUE
- Department of War
- Air Intelligence Information Report
- Air Force Regulation 200-2
- Catalina Island Sightings 1949-1955
References and further reading
- DOW-UAP-D155, “Air Intelligence Information Report Saudi Arabia 1957”, PURSUE Release 07, U.S. Department of War, hosted at war.gov/ufo
- DOW-UAP-D156, “Air Intelligence Information Report Guam 1956”, PURSUE Release 07, U.S. Department of War, hosted at war.gov/ufo
- DOW-UAP-D157, “Air Intelligence Information Report Italy 1953”, PURSUE Release 07, U.S. Department of War, hosted at war.gov/ufo
- DOW-UAP-D158, “Flying Object Report Canada 1953”, PURSUE Release 07, U.S. Department of War, hosted at war.gov/ufo
- DOW-UAP-D159, “Air Intelligence Information Report Germany 1953”, PURSUE Release 07, U.S. Department of War, hosted at war.gov/ufo
- DOW-UAP-D160, “Air Intelligence Information Report Morocco 1953”, PURSUE Release 07, U.S. Department of War, hosted at war.gov/ufo
- DOW-UAP-D161, “Air Intelligence Information Report Alaska 1953”, PURSUE Release 07, U.S. Department of War, hosted at war.gov/ufo
- DOW-UAP-D162, “Air Intelligence Information Report Alaska 1953”, PURSUE Release 07, U.S. Department of War, hosted at war.gov/ufo
- DOW-UAP-D163, “Air Intelligence Information Report Sweden 1953”, PURSUE Release 07, U.S. Department of War, hosted at war.gov/ufo
- DOW-UAP-D164, “Flying Object Report Indiana 1954”, PURSUE Release 07, U.S. Department of War, hosted at war.gov/ufo
- Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters (PURSUE), U.S. Department of War, war.gov/ufo
- AARO UAP Records, All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, aaro.mil/UAP-Records
- Signals from the Periphery, Release 07 Briefing 1, on DOW-UAP-D177, DOW-UAP-D178, DOW-UAP-D179 and DOW-UAP-D181, the Catalina Island reports