As the Pentagon releases more unidentified flying object (UFO) case files, one of the more striking reports stems from U.S. Army officials working 170 miles south of Cheyenne in 2022.
Now the government calls them unidentified anomalous phenomenon (UAP) as the modern term for UFO.
Five U.S. Army service members observed a translucent, milky, shimmering, airborne object over the Cheyenne Mountains in February 2022, says the report.
The sky was clear. The object was potato-shaped with distinct edges and appeared creamy-whitish and opalescent in color, the report says.
Translucent, shimmering slightly, “The object was made up of what can best be described as articulating fish scales or panels that were non-symmetrical, non-overlapping, and irregular shaped,” the report says. “The object itself was perfectly still but each panel on the object shifted in slow waves starting at different points of origin but at the same time.”
After about two minutes, whatever it was vanished.
One witness reportedly said it “cloaked” as quickly as a person can turn his head, and that it cast no shadow.
The Department of Defense issued another report on a February 2022 sighting indicating the sun over the mountain “would allow for backscattering of sunlight” to account for such a sighting.
No Answers Then, No Answers Now
A Wyoming attorney who still lacks answers for a massive noiseless device he and his dad, who was a federal appeals court judge, spotted from a car 35 years ago called the report “interesting.”
“It really bears no resemblance to what I saw, to what my father and I experienced,” Rich Barrett told Cowboy State Daily in a Tuesday phone interview. “But it’s interesting.”
Barrett said he doesn’t expect answers for the massive, bright device he recalls seeing with his dad, 10th Circuit Court Judge James Barrett, on state Highway 59 between Wright and Gillette in 1991.
And he doesn’t expect clear answers for whatever the five U.S. Army soldiers saw on Cheyenne Mountain in 2022.
“I’m not in the know, to understand the how and why, the release of information, or the timing of it, etc., within the Department of War,” he said.
But the apparent increase in transparency from President Donald Trump’s administration on the UAP topic leaves Barrett hopeful.
“I’d just focus on the fact that there’s more transparency now than there’s ever been, under the Trump administration,” Barrett said. “Transparency is good. Knowledge is power. The more we know, the more helpful that is.”
Not The Guy Who Needs To Know
New Jersey Army National Guard Col. David Melendez, who also operates a drone response team for the fire department in New York City, told Cowboy State Daily he’s leaning toward calling the strange object an “experimental vehicle,” but, “I would never rule out an outer-world device because of so many sightings from a myriad of people.”
Even if the object was an experimental U.S. craft coming from the nearby F.E. Warren Base of Cheyenne, said Melendez, the Department of War might not feel the need to disclose that, he said.
“They say (information is released on) a need-to-know basis,” Melendez said. “You might have the highest, top-secret, TSI clearance but (it’s not enough) if you don’t have a need-to-know.”
Anything is possible, but Melendez said he takes the sightings “with, like, a grain of salt.”
He said it’s funny that the UAP videos tend to be grainy.
“We have these wonderful sensors that can catch someone picking their nose from three miles away, but the unidentified vehicle in front of us, it’s always a grainy picture,” Melendez said.
Some UAP sightings have found explanations years after their initial reporting, when the government unveiled experimental aircraft, he noted.
As for what the administration’s new UAP information dump could mean, Melendez said with a laugh, “I’m not the guy who needs to know.”
Melendez wasn’t as optimistic as Barrett about the government’s capacity for transparency.
“At least they’re, like, not being dismissive of it. They’re trying to have the conversation,” he said.
But, Melendez added, “Being an information operations guy, there is that marketing … campaign where they try to make it look like there’s transparency and, you know, they’re kind of placating you. They’re giving you, kind of, the answers you want to hear: ‘We’re investigating it, we’ll let you know.’”
A Wyoming lawmaker, Riverton-based Republican Sen. Tim Salazar, questioned the state military department’s Adjutant Gen. Greg Porter on the UFO topic in December.
“I’m asking if you’ve had any incidents of UAPs over your airspace?” Salazar asked at the time.
“For our air space, no. I’m aware of some other ones — near some other federal facilities — that I don’t think in open testimony here I could probably say much about that,” Porter answered.
Eight Sheriffs Said …
Salazar’s question came during Porter’s presentation about a bill passed last year giving Gov. Mark Gordon the authority to activate the National Guard if drones encroach upon critical infrastructure.
That followed weeks of mystery drone or flying-object sightings in New Jersey — and in Wyoming.
Eight Wyoming sheriffs confirmed receiving reports of strange drone-like sightings, or seeing the objects themselves, in a series of January 2025 interviews with Cowboy State Daily.
Citing concerns about conflicts with federal agencies and laws, Gordon vetoed the bill when it reached his desk in March.
The Legislature overrode that veto to enact the law.
By December 2025, the Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office had gotten so accustomed to sightings of large mystery drones over the Jim Bridger power plant and other areas, the office spokesman called it “the new normal.”
The objects haven’t done any harm to date, he added.
“It’s like this phenomenon that continues to happen, but it’s not causing any, you know, issues that we have to deal with — other than the presence of them,” Mower said in December.
If the objects pose an imminent harm at some point, “rest assured … we’ll certainly act accordingly,” he said.
Mower did not immediately respond to a Wednesday voicemail request for an update on the drones.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
