The "Western US Event" — release 3's largest single incident, 21 cross-linked records

Cluster composition (21 records — 22 if you count the release-1 slide deck callback):

Analysis layer (DOW): - DOW-UAP-D077 — Unresolved Case Analysis Update, Western United States Event - DOW-UAP-D078 — Notional Map, Western United States Event

Narratives 1–5 (DOW): - DoW-UAP-D079 — Narrative 1 - DoW-UAP-D080 — Narrative 2 - DoW-UAP-D081 — Narrative 3 - DoW-UAP-D082 — Narrative 4 - DoW-UAP-D083 — Narrative 5

FBI digital renderings of Incident 1: - FBI-UAP-D014 — Incident 1-1 - FBI-UAP-D015 — Incident 1-2 - FBI-UAP-D021 — Incident 1-3

FBI digital renderings of Incident 2: - FBI-UAP-D016 — Incident 2-1 - FBI-UAP-D017 — Incident 2-2 - FBI-UAP-D018 — Incident 2-3 - FBI-UAP-D019 — Incident 2-4 - FBI-UAP-D020 — Incident 2-5 - FBI-UAP-D022 — Incident 2-6 - FBI-UAP-D023 — Incident 2-7

FBI video reconstructions: - FBI-UAP-PR005 — Digital Recreation, Narrative Statement 3-1, Western United States Event, 2023 ([DVIDS 1010272](api.dvidshub.net/asset/video-1010272.json)) - FBI-UAP-PR006 — Digital Recreation, Narrative Statement 3-2, Western United States Event, 2023 ([DVIDS 1010276](api.dvidshub.net/asset/video-1010276.json))

What the DVIDS records say. Both FBI-UAP-PR005 and PR006 are described as:

> *"An artistic interpretation of a reported incident near a sensitive national security site in the western United States involving unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) over a period of two days in 2023…based upon a first-hand description provided by a federal…"*

(AARO truncates the description mid-sentence — the word after "federal" is presumably "employee" or "agent.")

What we can read between the lines:

1. Two incidents on two consecutive days in 2023, near a *sensitive national security site* in the western US. AARO is careful never to name the site — but the volume of documentation and the FBI's involvement implies federal jurisdiction. 2. At least five first-hand narrators (D079–D083 = Narrative 1 through Narrative 5). The FBI's PR005 and PR006 reconstructions reference "Narrative Statement 3-1" and "3-2" — so Narrator 3 alone gave at least two separate statements about two separate moments. 3. Incident 1 had three sub-moments (1-1, 1-2, 1-3 = three renderings). 4. Incident 2 had seven sub-moments (2-1 through 2-7). 5. The DOW provides analysis and a notional map; the FBI handles the witness interviews and reconstructions. The agencies divided labour the same way they did on Colorado Springs (see [colorado-springs-potato](/findings/colorado-springs-potato)) — except this case is *not* resolved.

The release-1 callback. Back in May 8, the DoW released western_us_event_slides_5.08.2026.pdf (in medialink/ufo/release_1/) — a slide deck that mentioned the Western US Event but didn't include the underlying source files. Five weeks later, release 3 delivers them. That makes this the only multi-release case in the entire PURSUE corpus.