Richard Russell — U.S. Senator (D-GA); chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee in 1955.
UAP relevance
In October 1955, while traveling on a train in the former Soviet Union, Russell — accompanied by Lt. Col. E. U. Hathaway (U.S. Army) and others — reported observing two “flying disc aircraft” through a train window. The U.S. Air Attaché called them “excellent sources.” The cable also contained Soviet jet-bomber descriptions and notes on a Russian/Czech railroad gauge-change switching system.
The 1955 Russell sighting was previously released by CIA in partially-redacted form. The PURSUE Release 01 version (surfaced by NPR May 8 2026 — see src-npr-pursue-release-2026-05) is the canonical text of the cable.