DISCLOSURE / FILE
This 02 June 2026 AARO memorandum preserves Witness 4's first-hand narrative of orange, white, and red lights observed in the western United States in October 2023 and later sightings in the same region.
DOW-UAP-D082, Narrative Statement 4, Western United States Event, 2023
This 02 June 2026 AARO memorandum preserves Witness 4's first-hand narrative of orange, white, and red lights observed in the western United States in October 2023 and later sightings in the same region.
Witness 4, described as one of several U.S. federal law enforcement special agents, reported seeing UAP over two days in October 2023 in the western United States. The narrative describes bright orange lights, line formations, smaller lights appearing from larger lights, NVG-visible objects, and later lights forming shapes such as diamonds and hexagons. One later observation describes a darker object with a faint red light hovering between mountain ridges, with no sound or emissions noted.
Witness 4 was one of several United States (U.S.) federal law enforcement special agents who reported observing unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) over a period of two days in October 2023 in the western United States.p.1
Sometime in October 2023, just after sunset (7PM), I saw a bright ball of light like a shooting stai· beam across and over a hillside.p.1
Using my night vision goggles (NVGs) I saw the saine lights in addition to multiple other lights.p.1
Soon thereafter I saw nine lights fo1med a horizontal line just above a ridgeline.p.1
The light moved from the top of the mountain to the bottom of the mountain and at first looked like a vehicle traveling down the mountain; however, the light darted between the top and bottom of the mountain within seconds, which would not be feasible for a standard vehicle to do.p.2
I continued to see three or more lights group together, moved in a horizontal line, evenly spaced together or move towards another cluster to form a shape, I remember seeing diamonds or hexagons.p.2
This looked like an actual object and from my vantage point it seemed to be using the terrain to stay hidden.p.3
No sounds, emissions observed and no movements despite heavy winds at that altitude on that evening.p.3
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UNCLASSIFIED OFFICE OF THE UNDER SECRETARY OF WAR 5000 DEFENSE PENTAGON WASH INGTON , DC 20301-5000 INTELLIGENCE AND SECURITY 02 June 2026 MEMORANDUM FOR RECORD SUBJECT: Nairntive from Witness 4 - Western U.S . Event References: (a) https://www.war.gov/ufo/#Western-US-Event,VIRIN : 260508-D-D0360-1052, 08-MAY 2026. 1. Executive Sumrna1y. This memorandum presents the first-hand naiTative from Witness 4 provided to the All domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO). Witness 4 was one of several United States (U.S.) federal law enforcement special agents who reported observing unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) over a period of two days in October 2023 in the western United States. 2. Witness Na1rntive. fu response to AARO 's request to provide a free-fo1m naiTative of the sequence of events exactly as they remember them, Witness 4 submitted the following text: "Sometime in October 2023, just after sunset (7PM), I saw a bright ball of light like a shooting stai· beam across and over a hillside. The light was approximately 1-2k above ground level, was orange/yellow and white in color and appeai·ed for about a second or two. I was approximately less than a quaiter of a mile from the hillside, and the ball of light seem ve1 y close to me as if it was a shooting star coming towai·ds the hillside, towai·d and not away from me. The colors of the light went from amber to orange, slightly yellow and white in that order. No other lights were seen, nor did I hear any mechanical buzzing or anything like an aircraft at this time and kept driving. After about 10 minutes I saw with my naked eye multiple singulai· bright orange lights/orbs of vai·ious brightness, size and distance. Using my night vision goggles (NVGs) I saw the saine lights in addition to multiple other lights. Some of the lights seen with NVG's were organized in a line of three, evenly spaced and at various altitudes, horizontally just above the skyline. Most of the lights were only visible for approx. 1-2 seconds before disappeai·ing. Later, I observed multiple singulai· ve1y bright orange lights that appeai·ed to shoot out smaller orange lights as if being hatched from the lai·ger ve1y bright orange light. The hatching occmTed multiple times, I lost track after five occmTences. The smaller lights seemed to travel downwards like a falling flai·e. Soon thereafter I saw nine lights fo1med a horizontal line just above a ridgeline. The lights were static, not moving, evenly spaced apait and were visible for 30+ seconds. Smaller lights then appeai·ed below and to the left and right of the line of nine lights. These smaller lights seemed to cluster (almost touching) in a combination of three. The lights soon disappeared only to appeai· again directly behind me. All these observations occmTed within a 2-3 hom span, nonstop. 1 UNCLASSIFIED
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UNCLASSIFIED The next day between 7-9pm I saw the same light phenomenon; however, I also saw what appeared to be chemtrails approx. 10 finger lengths from the highest ridge point. I observed for more than 10 minutes, the chemtrails were white and moved up toward the atmosphere. I did not see any aircraft or lights at or near the chemtrails; I was observing from about 3k above ground level. After 10 minutes, I saw 1 chemtrail disappear and the chemtrail below it made a U turn and headed toward/falling towards the ground very quickly. At this time, I saw a plane in the same direction (southeast) as the chemtrails. In tandem I saw a string of lights that resembled a Starlink deployment. Shortly thereafter, I saw what appeared to be one light source just above the Southeast ridgeline. The lights seemed to produce four smaller lights which traveled downward as the main light source disappeared. Three of the smaller lights seemed to form a horizontal line while the fourth traveled westward and away from the line of three. The four lights were observed for approx. 10 minutes; no other lights were observed thereafter. Later in the night while stationary in a vehicle on ground level, I watched at least one light source appear and disappear along a mountain (approx. 4 miles away). The light moved from the top of the mountain to the bottom of the mountain and at first looked like a vehicle traveling down the mountain; however, the light darted between the top and bottom of the mountain within seconds, which would not be feasible for a standard vehicle to do. Moreover, this was desert terrain and very rough dirt roads; the light produced no dust cloud and moved steadily. I watched this light traverse between mountain to mountain for approx. 30 minutes and saw a light appear from the bottom of the mountain disappear and then another light would be seen at the top of the mountain; unsure if it was the same light. At some point I saw a very bright, white light appear just below a ridgeline. It was steady and did not pulse or hatch smaller lights. At first, it looked like a star; however, it was big, very bright and looked like it was in front of and just below a ridgeline from my eyelevel. The ridgeline was approx. 10 mins of a drive at 60 mph if I were to guess. I drove towards the light and the closer I got the higher my gaze to look at it. As I was getting close the light source disappeared from my field of view (right) and an equally bright light appeared on my left at eye level. Again, I thought it might have been a vehicle but continued to observe my left field of view while still traveling to get closer to the ridgeline where I initially saw the first light. By the time I got onto a paved road both lights had disappeared. The one near the ridgeline never appeared again and the one near the ground also never reappeared. Later in the night between 1-3am I continued to see same distant lights appear and disappear within the night sky. Fixed at a specific spot in the sky these lights movements were different than the stars beyond it. I continued to see three or more lights group together, moved in a horizontal line, evenly spaced together or move towards another cluster to form a shape, I remember seeing diamonds or hexagons. It happened for a while that I got bored looking at them. A few days later at around the same time (after dusk) I saw lights moving horizontally just above a ridgeline. Most appeared suddenly and traveled Northbound. Other lights were seen directly overhead that were either very small or very far away. The lights seemed to cluster and create patterns such as diamonds, triangles and/or moved in unison together. The next day I saw at least four lights hovering and moving at approx. 6k above ground level. The lights seemed to appear out of nowhere and moved horizontally northbound hovering periodically. At approx. 400 meters away I saw an object that was slightly darker than the sky at dusk and lighter than the color of the terrain. There was a faint red light on the object which was 2 UNCLASSIFIED
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) / rJ V UNCLASSIFIED static and hovering in between two mountain ridges. This looked like an actual object and from my vantage point it seemed to be using the terrain to stay hidden. Based on its orientation, it would have come from the South. No sounds, emissions observed and no movements despite heavy winds at that altitude on that evening. Prior to that lights were seen skirting above the ridgeline from south to north twice in a span of 15 minutes. Some months thereafter at around midnight I saw a yellow light appear at my eyeline; I was about 2k above ground. This light did not move and was below the ridgeline of a hillside. There are buildings on that hill, so I wasn’t sure if it was manmade or not until I saw the light get brighter and quickly move North to South. I watched it for approximately 10 minutes until it moved behind another hillside that obstructed my view. To approximate, the light was probably 12 minutes away from me if I was going 80 mph, so maybe 16 miles away.” Sketch provided by Witness 4 Jon T. Kosloski Director, AARO 3 UNCLASSIFIED
Concatenated page-by-page transcript. Born-digital pages came through pdf.js; scanned pages were transcribed by Claude vision OCR. Pages marked unreadable failed multiple OCR retries (heavy redaction, microfilm artifacts, or blank separators) and are kept in place for audit.
UNCLASSIFIED OFFICE OF THE UNDER SECRETARY OF WAR 5000 DEFENSE PENTAGON WASH INGTON , DC 20301-5000 INTELLIGENCE AND SECURITY 02 June 2026 MEMORANDUM FOR RECORD SUBJECT: Nairntive from Witness 4 - Western U.S . Event References: (a) https://www.war.gov/ufo/#Western-US-Event,VIRIN : 260508-D-D0360-1052, 08-MAY 2026. 1. Executive Sumrna1y. This memorandum presents the first-hand naiTative from Witness 4 provided to the All domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO). Witness 4 was one of several United States (U.S.) federal law enforcement special agents who reported observing unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) over a period of two days in October 2023 in the western United States. 2. Witness Na1rntive. fu response to AARO 's request to provide a free-fo1m naiTative of the sequence of events exactly as they remember them, Witness 4 submitted the following text: "Sometime in October 2023, just after sunset (7PM), I saw a bright ball of light like a shooting stai· beam across and over a hillside. The light was approximately 1-2k above ground level, was orange/yellow and white in color and appeai·ed for about a second or two. I was approximately less than a quaiter of a mile from the hillside, and the ball of light seem ve1 y close to me as if it was a shooting star coming towai·ds the hillside, towai·d and not away from me. The colors of the light went from amber to orange, slightly yellow and white in that order. No other lights were seen, nor did I hear any mechanical buzzing or anything like an aircraft at this time and kept driving. After about 10 minutes I saw with my naked eye multiple singulai· bright orange lights/orbs of vai·ious brightness, size and distance. Using my night vision goggles (NVGs) I saw the saine lights in addition to multiple other lights. Some of the lights seen with NVG's were organized in a line of three, evenly spaced and at various altitudes, horizontally just above the skyline. Most of the lights were only visible for approx. 1-2 seconds before disappeai·ing. Later, I observed multiple singulai· ve1y bright orange lights that appeai·ed to shoot out smaller orange lights as if being hatched from the lai·ger ve1y bright orange light. The hatching occmTed multiple times, I lost track after five occmTences. The smaller lights seemed to travel downwards like a falling flai·e. Soon thereafter I saw nine lights fo1med a horizontal line just above a ridgeline. The lights were static, not moving, evenly spaced apait and were visible for 30+ seconds. Smaller lights then appeai·ed below and to the left and right of the line of nine lights. These smaller lights seemed to cluster (almost touching) in a combination of three. The lights soon disappeared only to appeai· again directly behind me. All these observations occmTed within a 2-3 hom span, nonstop. 1 UNCLASSIFIED
UNCLASSIFIED The next day between 7-9pm I saw the same light phenomenon; however, I also saw what appeared to be chemtrails approx. 10 finger lengths from the highest ridge point. I observed for more than 10 minutes, the chemtrails were white and moved up toward the atmosphere. I did not see any aircraft or lights at or near the chemtrails; I was observing from about 3k above ground level. After 10 minutes, I saw 1 chemtrail disappear and the chemtrail below it made a U turn and headed toward/falling towards the ground very quickly. At this time, I saw a plane in the same direction (southeast) as the chemtrails. In tandem I saw a string of lights that resembled a Starlink deployment. Shortly thereafter, I saw what appeared to be one light source just above the Southeast ridgeline. The lights seemed to produce four smaller lights which traveled downward as the main light source disappeared. Three of the smaller lights seemed to form a horizontal line while the fourth traveled westward and away from the line of three. The four lights were observed for approx. 10 minutes; no other lights were observed thereafter. Later in the night while stationary in a vehicle on ground level, I watched at least one light source appear and disappear along a mountain (approx. 4 miles away). The light moved from the top of the mountain to the bottom of the mountain and at first looked like a vehicle traveling down the mountain; however, the light darted between the top and bottom of the mountain within seconds, which would not be feasible for a standard vehicle to do. Moreover, this was desert terrain and very rough dirt roads; the light produced no dust cloud and moved steadily. I watched this light traverse between mountain to mountain for approx. 30 minutes and saw a light appear from the bottom of the mountain disappear and then another light would be seen at the top of the mountain; unsure if it was the same light. At some point I saw a very bright, white light appear just below a ridgeline. It was steady and did not pulse or hatch smaller lights. At first, it looked like a star; however, it was big, very bright and looked like it was in front of and just below a ridgeline from my eyelevel. The ridgeline was approx. 10 mins of a drive at 60 mph if I were to guess. I drove towards the light and the closer I got the higher my gaze to look at it. As I was getting close the light source disappeared from my field of view (right) and an equally bright light appeared on my left at eye level. Again, I thought it might have been a vehicle but continued to observe my left field of view while still traveling to get closer to the ridgeline where I initially saw the first light. By the time I got onto a paved road both lights had disappeared. The one near the ridgeline never appeared again and the one near the ground also never reappeared. Later in the night between 1-3am I continued to see same distant lights appear and disappear within the night sky. Fixed at a specific spot in the sky these lights movements were different than the stars beyond it. I continued to see three or more lights group together, moved in a horizontal line, evenly spaced together or move towards another cluster to form a shape, I remember seeing diamonds or hexagons. It happened for a while that I got bored looking at them. A few days later at around the same time (after dusk) I saw lights moving horizontally just above a ridgeline. Most appeared suddenly and traveled Northbound. Other lights were seen directly overhead that were either very small or very far away. The lights seemed to cluster and create patterns such as diamonds, triangles and/or moved in unison together. The next day I saw at least four lights hovering and moving at approx. 6k above ground level. The lights seemed to appear out of nowhere and moved horizontally northbound hovering periodically. At approx. 400 meters away I saw an object that was slightly darker than the sky at dusk and lighter than the color of the terrain. There was a faint red light on the object which was 2 UNCLASSIFIED
) / rJ V UNCLASSIFIED static and hovering in between two mountain ridges. This looked like an actual object and from my vantage point it seemed to be using the terrain to stay hidden. Based on its orientation, it would have come from the South. No sounds, emissions observed and no movements despite heavy winds at that altitude on that evening. Prior to that lights were seen skirting above the ridgeline from south to north twice in a span of 15 minutes. Some months thereafter at around midnight I saw a yellow light appear at my eyeline; I was about 2k above ground. This light did not move and was below the ridgeline of a hillside. There are buildings on that hill, so I wasn’t sure if it was manmade or not until I saw the light get brighter and quickly move North to South. I watched it for approximately 10 minutes until it moved behind another hillside that obstructed my view. To approximate, the light was probably 12 minutes away from me if I was going 80 mph, so maybe 16 miles away.” Sketch provided by Witness 4 Jon T. Kosloski Director, AARO 3 UNCLASSIFIED