This FOIA release stems from a request seeking emails to or from the Vice Chief of Staff of the U.S. Air Force, General Stephen W. “Seve” Wilson, using Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP)-related keywords. While the resulting records do not contain substantive internal discussions of UAPs, they provide an unfiltered snapshot of the type of daily intelligence and media monitoring products circulated among senior military leadership.
The primary document released is titled “Morning News of Note – 11 March 2018”, an unclassified briefing product forwarded to the Office of the Secretary of Defense and distributed within senior Department of Defense channels. The email itself is marked UNCLASSIFIED and appears to be part of a routine, standardized news aggregation prepared by OSD Public Affairs Research and Analysis.
The briefing is structured as a curated digest of major national security, defense, and geopolitical news, broken down into sections such as Top Stories, Defense Department, Air Force, Veterans, Asia/Pacific, and other regional or issue-based categories. The content is drawn almost entirely from mainstream media outlets including Reuters, The Washington Post, The New York Times, Associated Press, Agence France-Presse, Military.com, and regional newspapers.
The document reflects what senior defense leadership was exposed to in near-real time, rather than internal assessments or classified reporting. Its value lies in showing what issues were prioritized for awareness, not how those issues were internally analyzed.
One of the more notable features of the document is a dedicated “Tweets of Note” section. This section compiles verbatim social media posts from President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, cabinet officials, and members of Congress.
Among the highlighted tweets are President Trump’s statements on:
- Diplomatic engagement with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un
- Trade tensions involving China, the European Union, steel, and aluminum tariffs
- Missile testing claims related to North Korea
- Communications with foreign leaders including China’s President Xi Jinping and Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe
These tweets are reproduced directly, complete with timestamps and Twitter handles, underscoring that presidential social media statements were treated as official signals warranting inclusion in senior-level defense briefings.
Within the Air Force section, the document includes reporting on operational and readiness issues, including articles detailing:
- An “unprecedented spike” in cockpit oxygen and hypoxia-like incidents affecting T-6A trainer aircraft
- Maintenance concerns related to On-Board Oxygen Generating Systems (OBOGS)
- Congressional testimony and internal reviews addressing pilot safety and aircraft readiness
These selections reflect ongoing concerns at the time about aviation safety and training pipeline disruptions, issues directly relevant to Air Force leadership.
While the FOIA request targeted UAP-related keywords, the release does not include internal correspondence or direct discussions by General Wilson regarding UAPs. However, the broader compilation does include media commentary touching on unidentified aerial phenomena.
Notably, the document includes a Washington Post opinion piece by Christopher Mellon titled “The Pentagon isn’t taking UFOs seriously enough.” The article references Navy encounters with unidentified aircraft, declassified videos, and calls for a more coordinated intelligence response. Its inclusion demonstrates that UAP-related coverage in mainstream media was being tracked and surfaced to senior defense officials as early as March 2018, even if no internal commentary accompanied it.
Although the contents are largely composed of publicly available reporting, the document provides insight into:
- The information environment presented to senior military leadership
- The role of media monitoring in shaping situational awareness at the highest levels
- The normalization of presidential tweets as briefing material alongside traditional news reporting
- The presence of UAP-related media coverage within official defense digests, even absent classified analysis
In that sense, the release serves as a small but illustrative window into how external narratives—ranging from global conflict and aircraft safety to UFO reporting and presidential social media—were compiled and elevated within the Department of Defense.
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Document Archive
Document: Morning News of Note – 11 March 2018 (UNCLASSIFIED) [71 Pages, 15MB]
FOIA Case: 24-F-0835
Source: Office of the Secretary of Defense / OSD Public Affairs Research and Analysis
This page functions primarily as an archival reference, documenting the scope and nature of material surfaced to senior Air Force and Department of Defense leadership during this period.
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