Range Fouler: a solid white object makes "erratic moments" over the northern Gulf (14 May 2020)
On a night ISR mission on 14 May 2020, the crew's infrared sensor (black hot) caught a solid white object passing through the field of view at 20:40Z. They lost it briefly, reacquired it, and followed it as it made "erratic moments" above the water, reaching 4x zoom before poor track placement lost it. The writer notes that the operator kept moving the sensor, which is why the waves sometimes appear and sometimes do not. The form records one round contact at 20,000 ft, moving, with an intermittent trackfile. DOW-UAP-PR36 is a byte-identical copy of the form. The mirror's page for PR36 also summarises a video timeline (a blue reticle at 02:10 that fails to lock; track lost at 02:15-02:17), but no video file is in this set. No explanation is offered. *Method note: war.gov blocks this server. The form was read from the original PDF served by the ufotransparency.com mirror. It is a scanned Range Fouler form with a poor OCR text layer, so the quotations were read from the page image. Checkbox values are given as ticked on the scan.*
Evidence, in date order (1)
- 14 May 2020Sensor video (per official PR36 description)sensor datavideo timeline with a failed lock and lost track DOW-UAP-PR36 (war.gov), mirror page with the official description
How plausible · High
An official form records erratic movement over water, and the official description confirms a video.
- ●●Access The ISR crew tracked it on their own sensor.
- ●●No gain sought An official reporting form.
- ●●Checkable details check out Released in PURSUE.
- ●●Physical traces or official reaction Sensor track with video confirmed.
- ●○Restraint Describes motion and signature, no explanation.
- ●○Character record An official report; crew names withheld.
Plausibility weighs how well an account fits where secrecy hides the documents by design, so missing records never count against it. Strength measures what is documented. Assessed 2026-10-23.
On the record
- Header fields: date "05/14/20"; time of detection "20:40:00"; "Night"; mission "ISR"; contact working area "28314"; contact latitude "28314" N; contact longitude "49524" E; contact altitude "20000"; altitude constant "Yes"; contact moving "Yes"; stable trackfile "Intermittent"; contacts in group "1"; "Round" ticked. Name, rank and squadron are blank or redacted. (DOW-UAP-D38, p. 1; read from the page image)
- "While preforming an ISR tasking (ULTN/Black Hot/Lin), a solid white object flew through the FOV. There was a temporarily lose of the object but re-acquired shortly there after. The crew was able to follow the object as it appeared to make erratic moments above the water." (DOW-UAP-D38, p. 1; read from the page image)
- "During the follow, crew was able to obtain 4x zoom on the object but lost the object due to poor track placement. While following, the sensor operator was continuously manipulating the sensor to maintain eyes on the object. This is apparent by the waves of the water in the background being visible and not being visible." (DOW-UAP-D38, p. 1; read from the page image)
- Release stamp: "USCENTCOM MDR 26-0019 Approved for Release to AARO 01/26/26". (DOW-UAP-D38, p. 1)
- The mirror's summary of PR36 gives the altitude as 22,000 ft; the form says 20000 ("22000" is the form's printed example). (DOW-UAP-PR36, mirror page, checked against the form)
Claims
Where
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Sources
- war.gov/ufo, PURSUE Release 01 listing (8 May 2026; not reachable from this server)
- Mirror file list for Release 01 (ufotransparency.com)
- DOW-UAP-D38 (war.gov), mirror page with the official description
- DOW-UAP-D38 original file, via mirror
- DOW-UAP-PR36 (war.gov), mirror page with the official description
- DOW-UAP-PR36 original file, via mirror