Short Note / Jun 13, 2026
The Cheyenne Mountain UFO looked like an angular potato
Five U.S. Army service members reported seeing an unidentified object near Colorado Springs in 2022. PURSUE Release 03 gives the case a rare three-file package: FBI sketch interview, official rendering, and a low-confidence IC sunlight explanation.
Five U.S. Army service members reported seeing an unidentified object near Colorado Springs in 2022. The files describe it in words that are hard to forget: creamy, opalescent, angular — and, in the government analysis, potato-like.
That phrase comes from a newly released FBI sketch interview and Intelligence Community analysis included in PURSUE Release 03, published June 12, 2026, by the Department of War. The case arrives as a three-file cluster: a witness interview, an official digital rendering, and an IC analysis. That makes it one of the more complete public UAP packages in the release.
What five service members reported
FBI-UAP-D002 is an FBI FD-1057 from a forensic sketch interview. The lead witness is identified as a former U.S. Army intelligence officer who, along with four unit members, observed a UAP over the Cheyenne Mountains as they exited an office building.
The description is specific in unusual ways. The object was creamy, whitish, and opalescent: somewhat translucent and slightly shimmering. Panels or scales appeared to shift slowly across its surface. The FBI record describes those panels as non-symmetrical, non-overlapping, and irregularly shaped. After roughly two minutes, the object vanished.
FBI-UAP-D003, the official rendering built from that sketch process, shows a pale, rounded, uneven shape above a mountain ridge. It looks less like a classic saucer than something between a cloud, a rock, and an irregular piece of geometry.
The government's explanation — and its limits
ICA-UAP-D001 is the Intelligence Community's attempt at an answer: the object over Cheyenne Mountain was possibly backscattering of sunlight.
The theory is straightforward. Sunlight could have reflected off snow-covered ground, struck low clouds near the mountain, and produced a bright shape in the sky. A shift in sun angle or cloud position could explain the quick disappearance.
The confidence level is low. The analysis cites uncertainty about each witness's field of view, snow cover, elevation, and cloud conditions at the time. It also states no anomalous data or characteristics were recorded or assessed, and that the event did not represent an unknown adversarial capability.
A low-confidence natural explanation is still an explanation. But it is a long way from settled.
Why this file stands out
Most UAP files arrive as a clip, a title, and little context. This cluster gives readers something to actually work with: a detailed witness description, a government-produced rendering, and an official analysis, all in the same release.
The tension is already on the page. Five service members in Colorado Springs, with Cheyenne Mountain in the frame. A strange, specific object description. An official image made from that description. And a sunlight theory the analysts themselves rate as low confidence.
The file does not need a spaceship to be interesting. It already has enough.
Related UAP Logbook notes
- PURSUE Release 03: CIA files, FBI orbs, and a 1949 flying saucer study
- The FBI orb files are taking over PURSUE Release 03
- CIA-UAP-017: the Harare airport UFO file
- AARO and PURSUE UAP files topic hub