Fireside Chat: Young sergeant and his team spooked by the most blood curdling scream they ever heard
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| A random conversation... |
[snippet]
My true story:
Back in '82 I, as a young sergeant, was stationed at Ft. Lewis, Washington with an infantry company. The army LOVES the night, so most of our field training was done during that time. On one particular mission, things got a bit wierd.
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| Mount Rainier from Fort Lewis |
After placing my teams into position, I took up the far left spot on the squirmish line and we started to advance. After we took only a few steps, the most blood curdling scream I had ever heard (before or since) came from a very large depression on our left. It was high pitched and slightly warbling, and gave us all the heebee jeebees. I gathered everyone together, calmed them all down, and got on with the task at hand.
After the evaluator called an end to hostilities we all got together, friends and foes, and all anyone could talk about was that scream. A small grass fire was burning a hundreds yards away from a wayward flare, and I had to send half a dozen guys to stamp it out because they would not go out into the woods with a lesser force. They were really scared and, to be honest, I was a bit freaked myself. The evaluating officer attempted to offer up reasonable explanations, but it fell on deaf ears.
| Night time training exercise |
I went against orders and took the road up to the bivouac site, and halfway there heard heavy footsteps closing in behind. One poor sap hollars at the top of his lungs "Who the f - - - is it?". Turns out it was the officer who was supposed to take the road back the other way, past the depression, but opted instead for an alternate route. I never heard a word from him about us being on the road.
Needless to say, once word got out we were the butt of many a joke.
Advance a couple years, I'm in college and watching one of those Bigfoot, Loch Ness monster specials. Being interviewed is an American Indian sheriff's deputy from an area very close to the Fort (I forget exactly where). He says that one day, while on patrol, he hears this gawf awful scream and decides to key his microphone since all radio traffic is recorded at the station. When he had his grandfather listen to the scream, the elder said that it was bigfoot, although he had used the name from his native language.
Know what? It was the same exact scream we had all heard in the woods that night. Actually gave me goosebumps.
All that said, I do NOT believe in bigfoot, sasquatch, or the abominable snowman. I really don't know what we heard that night, but am sure it was probably some animal's final scream, or another reasonable explanation. At the time it happened, however, in the middle of the night, it really set me on edge.
Chuck
I heard my scream in 1995. Just north of Sedro-Woolley, Washington. Bout 2am, can't remember the exact date. I was working late in a small metal shop. My dogs had the use of a dog/flap in the back wall. They rushed in, shaking very badly. Acting really hyper, breathing hard. When they came in the shop they nearly knocked me over, and by the way, they never came in while I had the machinery on....hated being around the noise.
ReplyDeleteI shut down my machinery, took off the ear protection & mask, cussed at the two Labs a bit & could see thier paniced state. I opened the door of the shop, went outside. It was pretty dark. Only the small porch light was on at the front of the trailer. My wife was asleep inside. I took a few steps, whipped out my lizard and halfway through releaving myself this "scream" hit me square in the face. Hit me about 3 to 4 times. My heart dropped through the bottom of my boots. It was probably a good thing that I already had my pants down becuase I would have probably pissed myself right there anyway.
I don't know where this came from but after I felt myself take a couple of breaths ( I could hear myself breath because there was absolutely no other noises going on...like increadibly silent...I said, "move on big fella, move on. I mean you know harm." I tried to sound as calm as I could but still have a fragment of a voice left. I then swallowed once or twice and it felt like I had a cantelope in the back of my throat. It hit me one more time with a vocalization, little less loud, still froze my spine though. Then I heard a breath, from the other side of the clearing, same diretion the screams came from. The breath reminded me a little of my dads bulls when I was growing up. They would shoot some air out thier noses sometimes, kinds of a blast of air. It was bigger than a bull though. Louder blast. I heard branches & twigs snap a bit, then nothing.
I was all I could do to go back in the shop, get the dogs...had to drag them out....& we all went in the trailer house. Stayed up for the rest of the night. Could not believe what had just happened.
Went over & over it in my head. I had never heard a bear before. I had never heard a mountain lyon either. Just cows & such. I knew what they sounded like...they can be quite loud but I was not any cattle. I considered that because there were cattle not far away. Could it have been a stray? Checked that out the next day but the neighbors were not missing any cattle.
Looked into the sounds of bears & lyon. All the recording that I have found to date and all of the Rangers I have talked to have pretty much ruled out that as a possibility.
This "scream" came from a throat that had some size to it. I have tried, in private, to recreate this sound as I do a bit of singing & voice coaching as a music teacher in public schools. I mean this thing had some size to it's throat and some powerful lungs, not to mentions the vocal cords themselves. All very substantial.
I know how this young Sergeant felt, I was a Sergeant myself at Ft lewis between 1979 and 1981, I had my squad of Cavalry Scouts out the last night we were to be in the field. I got a call on the radio we were not going to be agressing that night( scouts were used as agressors against regular units in simulated combat) and to just practice ambush techniques with my men. Scout units act independent from larger formations, at least we did in those days, so we were a long way from anyone. We were an air cav. unit so were to wait until helicopters picked us up in the morning. I told my two fire team leaders to position their men and I took my radio man with me and chose a position between the teams so I could control them. As I entered the tree line something very large took a step to its right about ten feet to my front, I couldn't make out its shape but it wasn't a bear or elk, and having encountered sasquatch's before I went into the Army I had a good idea what was there. I told my RTO to move quickly back out onto the road, he did so then I called for the squad to rally. I told them I had decided we would form into a defensive perimiter and sack out for the night. It wasn't long though before all of us heard something heavy walking around us...on two legs! I called out but there was no answer, one of my men said something about Bigfoot, and I told them I had seen them before entering the Army and that this could be one since it was not very far from the place I had seen two in 1974. we listened for quite a long time, it never got too close to us but obviously watched us for what seemed like a couple houre, then we never heard it again. I had heard of military police seeing them a couple years prior to my being stationed there but didn't think we would encounter one out there. We never spoke of the incident to anyone outside my squad, and I am sure to this day all of my men would swear to what we experienced that night.
ReplyDeleteWilliam Jevning