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The original was posted on /r/ufos by /u/PunchbowlPorkSoda on 2026-05-15 01:51:29+00:00.

Original Title: The single highest-rank witness in the entire Pentagon UAP release is a senior US intelligence official describing a thirty-minute multi-orb event at a US military facility in late 2025. His FBI 302 is in the file. Almost no coverage.

PURSUE Release 01 dropped 162 files on May 8. The bulk of the coverage went to the Apollo 17 photo and the "Eye of Sauron" line from the Western US orbs case.

One of the documents in the release is titled "USPER Statement (Redacted)." USPER is FBI shorthand for "U.S. Person," the standard redaction for a named American witness. The document is an FBI 302 interview conducted with a senior US intelligence official. AARO's own description, verbatim:

"This is an FBI 302 interview conducted with a senior US intelligence official regarding his first-hand account of a UAP encounter at a US military facility. USPER relayed to FBI agents that he and other federal and state personnel conducted searches to where orbs had been previously seen. After searching the area with a helicopter, they found a 'super-hot' orb hovering over the ground. The orb is reported to have travelled for 20 miles at a speed too fast for the helicopter in pursuit. An additional 'swarm' of lights were seen moving in all directions. A total of four or five additional orbs were seen shortly thereafter for a short time, flaring up and then down. This pattern of four or five orbs flaring up, then down continued over the next thirty minutes across the area."

What that paragraph contains, broken out:

• Witness rank. "Senior US intelligence official." Not a third-party retelling. A first-hand account from someone who, by definition, holds classified-information clearance and has been judged credible by the intelligence community.

• Multi-jurisdictional. Federal and state personnel coordinating searches on the ground.

• Active aerial pursuit. A helicopter was deployed. The orb traveled twenty miles at a speed the helicopter could not match. That puts a hard lower bound on the orb's velocity above the helicopter's max speed (typically 150 to 200 mph).

• Thermal observation. "Super-hot." That language implies passive thermal sensing, almost certainly FLIR off the helicopter.

• Sustained event. Thirty minutes of orbs flaring up and down across the area. Not one flash. Not a passing light. Half an hour of repeated activity.

• "Swarm" of lights moving in all directions. The witness's word.

• Late 2025. Months ago. Not the 1940s.

This is functionally a modern equivalent of the 1976 Tehran case (Yarbi): high-rank witnesses, military pursuit, equipment-tracked behavior, sustained encounter, on the public record.

What is not in the release:

• The witness's name or agency.

• The specific facility.

• Helicopter FLIR or radar tracks.

• Statements from the other federal and state personnel referenced.

If any of those four come out in a later PURSUE tranche, this case becomes the spine of the disclosure conversation.

Why the coverage missed it: the document is text, not a viral image. The football-shaped Apollo photo and the "Eye of Sauron" comparison gave the cycle something to render. The highest-rank single witness in the file gave them a paragraph.

Source: AARO USPER Statement (Redacted), war.gov/UFO/, released 2026-05-08.