Cold War reports of mysterious rotating saucers; recent sightings of metallic elliptical objects floating in mid-air. Those and other reports of unidentified anomalous phenomena or UAPs — the military’s term for UFOs — are described in a trove of documents released by the Department of Defense on Friday.

In all, the Pentagon released more than 160 records, citing President Trump’s call for unprecedented transparency in giving the public access to federal and military records related to unexplained encounters with strange phenomena.

President Trump said via Truth Social that with the documents and other records available to the public, “the people can decide for themselves, ‘WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?’ Have Fun and Enjoy!”

The records are posted to a specialized web portal, war.gov/info, which will house additional files as they’re released on a rolling basis.

“These files, hidden behind classifications, have long fueled justified speculation — and it’s time the American people see it for themselves,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in a Defense Department posting on Facebook as it made the files public.

Friday’s action “is the first in what will be an ongoing joint declassification and release effort,” Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said.

One document cites unusual phenomena arising during the debriefing of the Apollo 11 technical crew in July of 1969, attributing three observations to astronaut Buzz Aldrin, from that lunar mission: “one, an object on the way out to the Moon; two, flashes of light inside the cabin; and three, a sighting on the return trip of a bright light tentatively assumed by the crew to be a laser.”

One of the oldest files dates from November 1948. The report from the U.S. Air Force Directorate of Intelligence is marked Top Secret, and it notes recurring instances of unidentified objects spotted in the skies over Europe.

“They have been reported by so many sources and from such a variety of places that we are convinced that they cannot be disregarded,” the report states, “and must be explained on some basis which is perhaps slightly beyond the scope of our present intelligence thinking.”

The report goes on to say that U.S. officers consulted their peers in Sweden’s intelligence service about the objects, and they were told, “these phenomena are obviously the result of a high technical skill which cannot be credited to any presently known culture on earth.”

That document is seemingly free of redactions. But many details in a more recent entry are obscured, as it relays the account of a woman with deep experience with U.S. military aircraft and drones who reported an inexplicable sighting in September of 2023, in an area where airspace had been closed for testing purposes.

Materials related to that incident include a composite sketch of an ovaloid metallic object floating above a treeline, with a bright light at one end of the object.

“They watched the object for five to ten seconds and then the object just disappeared,” the report states.

Several people in at least two cars corroborated the sighting, according to the report. It states that the unidentified woman who spoke to the FBI ” would not have reported the object if she had seen it by herself.”

And hinting at the stigma that is seen as a prevalent challenge to collecting and discussing such eyewitness accounts, the report states, “Several of her co-workers subsequently made fun of her due to her report.”

Some records include venerable witnesses — such as a well-known case in 1955, when a group led by then-Sen. Richard Russell, who chaired the Senate Armed Services Committee at the time, reported that they saw two strange objects from the window of a train in the former Soviet Union. The group, which included U.S. Army Lt. Col. E. U. Hathaway, reported seeing what looked to be “flying disc aircraft.”

The U.S. Air Attache who prepared the report describes the witnesses as “excellent sources.”

That 1955 sighting was described in records previously released by the CIA. But that report, based on a cable received from the U.S. Air Force, seems to have been partially redacted.

The report of the unidentified object isn’t the only bit of intelligence that the American visitors brought back: the folder also includes descriptions and a diagram of a jet bomber, and accounts of a railroad switching system designed to resolve the differing widths of Russian and Czech train tracks.

A former sheriff’s deputy was found guilty of reckless homicide at trial Thursday for shooting a Black man who was bringing sandwiches to his grandmother’s house.

The killing of Casey Goodson Jr. by Jason Meade in December 2020 had provoked outrage in Ohio.

Trial jurors said they couldn’t agree on the more serious charge of murder, prompting the judge to declare a mistrial on that count.

Meade, who is White, said his shooting of Goodson — five times in the back and once in the side — was justified because he saw the 23-year-old holding a gun and turning toward him in the doorway of the house in Columbus. But no one else testified they saw Goodson holding the gun he was licensed to carry, and no cameras recorded the shooting.

This was Meade’s second murder trial after the first one ended in a mistrial two years ago. He is now the second White law enforcement officer to be convicted in the killing of a Black man in the state since the 2020 killing of George Floyd in Minnesota sparked national protests.

Tamala Payne, Goodson’s mother, said the guilty verdict gives her family closure and peace. She previously told CBS News that she believed her son had been “murdered in cold blood.” 

“I’m happy, I’m sad and I’m everywhere,” Payne told CBS affiliate WBNS. She said that to have Meade “convicted of something is still a great feeling.” 

Meade had testified in the first trial that he pursued Goodson after the man waved a gun at him as they passed each other in their vehicles. According to his family and prosecutors, Goodson was holding a bag of Subway sandwiches in one hand and his keys in the other, and was listening to music through earbuds when he was killed.

Meade did not take the stand at his second trial.

Prosecutors also said the evidence suggests the gun wasn’t in his hands, but in a flimsy holder under his belt. They added it was found under his body, its safety mechanism still engaged, as Goodson laid mortally wounded on the kitchen floor of his grandmother’s house.

Meade, now 47, retired from the Franklin County Sheriff’s Department in 2021. He’s also a Baptist pastor. His attorney cited Meade’s oral and written accounts of what happened, and said the shooting was justified.

Ohio law defines murder as the purposeful causing of a death, while the lesser charge of reckless murder means the defendant acted recklessly in causing a death. The former is punishable by up to life in prison, while the latter carries a maximum prison sentence of five years.

Judge David Young set sentencing for July 16.

Prosecutors said they were pleased with the guilty verdict on the reckless homicide charge and haven’t decided yet whether to pursue a third trial on the murder charge — something Payne said she would like to see happen.

“Knowing that in the first trial, nine jurors wanted to convict him of murder, and (in) this trial, 10 jurors wanted to convict him of murder, there’s an overwhelming number of folks who hear this case and they understand that this was murder,” Sean Walton, the attorney for the Payne family, told WBNS.

Defense attorneys Mark Collins and Kaitlyn Stephens did not address the media afterward.

Following the verdict, Brian Steel, president and chief executive of the Fraternal Order of Police Capital City Lodge #9, said he respects the jury but was “disappointed” with the decision. He said he hopes the prosecutor’s office does not seek a retrial on the murder charge.

“This was long six years drawn out. This is the second trial. I hope they’re for the sake of not only the Meade family, the Goodson family and the community, I hope we don’t try to do a third trial on this murder charge,” Steel said.

Christopher Corne was driving nearby that day and testified for the prosecution at both trials. He said Goodson seemed to be dancing and singing in his truck shortly before the shooting. He also testified during the first trial that he did not see a gun in Goodson’s hand.

Columbus police Officer Samuel Rippey testified at the second trial that while he was administering emergency treatment to Goodson, he saw the gun, with an extended magazine, lying on the floor.

Goodson’s death provoked public outrage in Ohio as the killings of Black people by White officers increased demands for police reform following the killing of Floyd by a White police officer in Minneapolis.

Banners were hung from highway overpasses in Columbus, carrying messages such as “Justice for Casey Goodson Jr.” and “Convict Murderer Meade.” The judge ordered the banners taken down during the trial.

Previous Ohio prosecutions in such cases led to only one conviction — that of Columbus police officer Adam Coy, who was indicted on charges including murder in the 2020 killing of Andre Hill.