24 October 2026 - 5:00pm
Acting under an executive order from President Donald Trump, the Pentagon released its seventh tranche of previously classified unidentified flying objects (UFO) reports on Friday. Among them is a collection of reports on so-called “Foo fighters” witnessed by aircrews during the Second World War.
The decades-long delay in releasing these files speaks to a broader truth about the UFO phenomenon: official secrecy has done as much to fuel public suspicion as the sightings themselves.
Numerous aircrews described seeing Foo fighters during operations. The UFOs were often described as bright objects that would follow and observe Allied aircraft. When pilots attempted to approach these UFOs, they reportedly sped away with extraordinary speed and manoeuvrability, suggesting intelligent control and capabilities difficult to reconcile with conventional weather phenomena or other prosaic explanations.
The newly declassified files show that aircrews were deeply concerned by what they were seeing. One document considers the experience of the US 415th Night Fighter Squadron while operating over Germany in December 1944: “We have encountered a phenomenon that we cannot explain; crews have been followed by lights that blink on and off changing colours etc. The lights come very close and fly formation with our planes. They are agitating and keep crews on edge when they encounter them, mainly because they cannot explain them. It is requested further information be furnished on this subject, such as similar experiences of other night units.”
We also have a February 1945 follow-up note from Allied Air Staff Headquarters to an Air Intelligence division. It observes that, “from the number of reports quoted… from the 415th Night Fighter Squadron, it would seem that there is something more than imagination behind the matter, and in view of the fact that pilots and crews are becoming slightly worried by them, it is considered that everything possible be done to get to the root of the matter.”
This is just the tip of the iceberg.
Previously released witness reports show that Allied bomber crews also reported very similar incidents, especially during the latter stages of the war. Japanese and German aircrews did too, with Allied and Axis powers each believing the phenomena might have been secret superweapons belonging to the other side.
So what comes next in the ongoing declassification process? It’s impossible to know what the Pentagon or defence contractors may have, or have had, buried away. But the Trump administration’s declassification effort is certainly lending credibility to those who are more open-minded about this topic.
Consider another recently declassified report involving a March 1949 Atomic Energy Commission study on the apparent intelligent control of green fireball UFOs that were witnessed around the Los Alamos nuclear facility. It also points to a broader pattern: while most UFOs are indeed weather phenomena, balloons, fabrications created by fraudsters, there is overwhelming evidence suggesting a connection between truly strange UFOs and nuclear facilities/capabilities. And there is also strong circumstantial evidence that some UFOs may be surveilling military installations and advanced technological activities around the world.
Moreover, the litany of credible witness reports, combined with sensor data suggests that some UFOs have indeed been operating under unknown intelligent control with capabilities far beyond anything in our inventory.
Coverage of this subject is often split between journalists afraid of ridicule and those who resort to sensationalism to sell Netflix shows. But the fact that the US government has sat on so many reports for so long and, according to military sources, continues to withhold high-fidelity video of apparently extraordinary craft tells us at least one thing: this story cannot be dismissed as a product of overactive imaginations and misidentified balloons.
