What the sergeant viewed he saw through an infrared scope (thermal – military grade thermals are far more detailed at distances than commercial grade units). The subject was 500 – 600 meters away (.31 – .38 miles) and it was viewed for 10 – 15 minutes. It was enough of an event that he woke the 5 other soldiers in his troop to look through the scope. None of them could come up with a reasonable explanation for what they were seeing. Only explanation that didn’t sound completely crazy was that a “gorilla had escaped a zoo”.
What he saw was scrambling up a granite shale mountain at a far more agile rate then he could because of the tricky footing as result of the loose fitting rocks. “It looked like a big monkey or ape. It was big and beefy in the shoulders.”
There are Rhesus Macaque monkeys in the area, but their maximum (male) dimensions are a height of 25” and weight of 30 lbs, and they have tails. Characteristically, they are only active during the day and sleep at night and move in troops of 20 – 200.
Locals use blankets as coats and it was clear that whatever it was, was not wearing any clothing because of the heat signature it was giving off. Its body was all one shade of white.
If someone was wearing clothing, whatever part of the body that was covered with clothing would be darker then the exposed skin or hair.
Example above is of a clothed person being viewed through a thermal imager. Clothed parts of the person are darker than the exposed face. Hands & nose are darker than the face because the person’s hands & nose are colder relative to the face and neck.
The sergeant stated, if he thought in anyway that the unknown subject was human he would have engaged it and shot it with his M-14 EBR battle rifle.