Oak Ridge Knoxville-Radar Detections (Mar 1–2 1950).

Per a Pentagon UAP document set released May 8, 2026, a radar station near Knoxville — in operation only about three weeks — picked up an object on March 1, 1950 at 21:35 bearing 340° at 18 miles, placing it directly over Oak Ridge, with a similar return the next day. No scheduled flights from nearby Smyrna Air Base were confirmed. The military's documented concern was not extraterrestrial but the possibility of 'nuclear powered missiles flying in American airspace,' calling it 'a source of great concern' though 'purely a matter of guesswork.' No 14th Air Force assets were available to respond; a CIA technician later traveled to Knoxville to assess the radar's reliability (findings not in the release).