Narrative Statement 1, Western United States Event, 2023

This is the first of five first-hand statements AARO collected from the federal special agents behind the 2023 western United States case. Asked to write down events exactly as remembered, Witness 1 describes two nights; on the first night other teams reported lights that this agent could not see.

The second night

Driving through a valley at dusk, the agent and a teammate saw a large glowing ball off to the right, close to a hill face — a well-defined circle that looked like a “swirly pattern of bright lava,” with no visible structure; through binoculars it may have had a spindle beneath it. The agent first judged it 500 to 600 meters away, then later used a rangefinder to put the hillside at about 1,100 meters. It was gone after a minute or two, with no sound.

Later, an orange light flared over a hilltop and appeared to throw out three red lights, with a flash over the horizon to the left; about twenty minutes later it happened again with the red lights leaving in a different pattern.

The ‘car’ and the drifting shape

Hours later, on the road, the agents caught up with what looked like a car with one red round and one white square taillight. As traffic approached, it moved off the road and seemed to hover without raising dust, then a dark shape flew away. Later still, among dust and web-like strands, the agent saw a similar object floating about 15 to 20 feet up, partly see-through, “like looking at something through water.” Witness 5 describes the same pair of lights; AARO’s analysis is DOW-UAP-D077.