THE DOCUMENTS
This briefing covers two written FBI files from the U.S. Department of War’s PURSUE Release 03, published at war.gov/ufo, cleared 12 June 2026. They are FBI-UAP-D012, the Newark Field Office file dated across 1952 to 1967, and FBI-UAP-D013, the Washington UFO Investigation file (Seattle and Washington State) dated across 1952 to 1960. Each is a collection of internal memoranda, citizen correspondence, records-search slips and inter-agency letters accumulated over years, not a single report.
Why this one is worth your time
Most of the UAP documents in these releases are single reports about a single event. These two are different: they are working field-office files, built up over fifteen years, and what they show is not one sighting but a routine. A member of the public telephones a local FBI office to say they have seen something in the sky; a clerk or agent types a short memo; the office decides what, if anything, to do with it. Read across the years, the files record how the Bureau handled a class of calls it did not itself investigate. This briefing sets out what the two files contain and how that handling looks on paper, and notes plainly where one of the two scans is too degraded to quote.
What the documents say
What kind of files these are. Both are field-office files: the running paperwork of a single FBI office. FBI-UAP-D012 is the Newark, New Jersey office; FBI-UAP-D013 covers the Seattle office and sightings around Washington State. They are made up of standard internal memoranda on the Bureau’s “UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT” office-memorandum form, addressed from an agent or clerk to the Special Agent in Charge; of “Indices Search Slips”, the forms used to check whether a name already appears in Bureau records; of letters to and from other agencies; and, in the Washington file, of newspaper clippings. The dates on the loose items run from 1952 into the 1960s.
The recurring shape of an entry. The bulk of both files is short reports of the same kind. A named member of the public contacts the office, usually by telephone, to report an unidentified flying object. An agent or clerk records the caller’s name, address and telephone number, the date and time, and the caller’s description of what they saw: in the Newark file, objects variously described as cylindrical, cigar-shaped, bullet-shaped, disc-like or like a flaming rocket, moving across the sky, often silent, sometimes with a vapour trail. The memos note how many people called and whether the witnesses had others with them. On busy evenings a single memo lists several callers in sequence. The files record what the witnesses said; in most entries they do not record any Bureau finding about what the object was.
Where the reports were sent. A repeated feature of the Newark file is the onward routing. Many memos end by noting that the information was, or would be, passed to the Air Force Office of Special Investigations (OSI), the body that ran the Air Force’s UFO work, with instructions as short as “Advise OSI.” Several entries record an agent telephoning an OSI duty officer, or noting that an OSI representative would collect a list of reports. The file also opens with a 1952 letter from the Air Force OSI district office to the Newark Special Agent in Charge, transmitting photographs said to show unidentified aerial objects and asking the FBI to investigate the photographer’s and a witness’s reliability. The traffic in the file runs in both directions between the Bureau and the Air Force.
How the Bureau characterised its own role. In at least one Newark memo the office records that “no action is deemed warranted” on a flying-saucer report, while suggesting the caller’s name be indexed in case he contacted the FBI again, and noting that the caller intended to take his material to the Air Force himself. Entries of this kind show the office logging the contact and the referral rather than opening an investigation of the object. The Washington file holds, alongside its memos, citizen letters written directly to the Bureau, including a detailed account from a Richland, Washington man describing what he saw through a spotting telescope, and reports relayed to Seattle agents of objects seen near Sand Point Naval Air Station and over Kennewick.
What the documents do not say
They are not, for the most part, investigative findings. Across the recurring entries the files record what callers reported and where the reports were sent; in most cases they record no Bureau conclusion about the nature of any object.
They are collections, not continuous narratives. The loose items span years and many separate incidents and witnesses, gathered in one folder because that is where flying-object correspondence was filed. They do not add up to a single case, and the files draw no overall conclusion across the years they cover.
They are redacted and, in one file, badly degraded. Both files carry the marks of declassification review, with names and identifying details withheld and FBI processing stamps on the pages. FBI-UAP-D013 in particular survives as a poor-quality scan: long stretches of its memos and clippings are not legibly readable, and this briefing does not reconstruct text that cannot be read with confidence.
They do not establish what any witness saw. The descriptions are the callers’ own, recorded as reported. The files do not corroborate them, and in the recurring entries they do not record any Bureau evaluation of them.
From the record
UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT The header on the Bureau’s office-memorandum form, recurring throughout both files
Advise OSI. The instruction closing a Newark memo, referring the report to the Air Force Office of Special Investigations
Where the case connects
These field-office files sit alongside the other FBI material in these releases. Briefing 18 covers the 1957 FBI Krasuski file, another field-office file captioned “Unidentified Flying Objects” and kept for reasons other than investigating a craft; the recurring referral-to-OSI pattern and the use of a single caption to gather unlike documents both appear there as well. Briefing 16 covers the modern FBI FD-302 case and the difference between recording what a witness said and assessing what was seen, the same distinction visible across these mid-century memos. Briefing 1 of Release 01 covers PURSUE and the tier system.
The files also leave their own loose ends. Many entries name an OSI referral but do not record what the Air Force did with it; the OSI files those reports were sent to are not part of these two folders. Names and details are redacted throughout, and much of FBI-UAP-D013 is illegible. Any later tranche that releases the matching OSI or Air Force records, or a cleaner scan of the Washington file, lands in this series when it does.
Read it yourself
FBI-UAP-D012, the Newark Field Office file (1952-1967), and FBI-UAP-D013, the Washington UFO Investigation file (1952-1960), are hosted at war.gov in PURSUE Release 03.
Read the files. Decide for yourself.
Related wiki entries
The wiki entries below give background on the programme and the publisher behind this briefing.
References and further reading
- Primary document: FBI-UAP-D012, “Newark Field Office, 1952-1967”, PURSUE Release 03, U.S. Department of War, hosted at war.gov/ufo
- Primary document: FBI-UAP-D013, “Washington UFO Investigation, 1952-1960”, PURSUE Release 03, U.S. Department of War, hosted at war.gov/ufo
- Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters, U.S. Department of War, war.gov/ufo
- AARO UAP Records, All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, aaro.mil/UAP-Records
- Briefing 18 in this series, on the 1957 FBI Krasuski field-office file
- Briefing 16 in this series, on the FD-302 form and the difference between recording a witness and assessing a sighting
- Briefing 1 of Release 01, on PURSUE and the evidence tier system