SC EP:1220 The Fort Benning Incident

It looked like somebody was bent over and had their head in the window of the deer blind and it either heard me or smelled me and he pulled his head out of the tent and stood straight up and that shocked me. They don't make people that big. The way it moved, almost as if it was gliding across the beach. I've never seen anything moves like that in my life. They were screaming at each other in gibberish. It sounded like a language and they were chuntering away back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. I know what a bear looks like and there is no way on this planet but what I saw was. The sunny southern US and you are listening to the best show in the world. That's watch, chronicles. Welcome to the show. Tonight we will be speaking with Tex and about a year ago he was training on Fort Benning out there in Georgia and had a run in with this creature. And again this was during a military training exercise and I will let Tex go into it. It's fascinating how the base reacted to their encounter. If you've had an encounter and you'd like to be on the show, chew me an email. My email address is west at saskwatchcronacles.com and if you get a chance check out saskwatchcronacles.com. You can become a member and get additional shows. Let's jump into it tonight. I want to welcome Tex to the show. Tex thanks for coming on. Thanks for having me, Wes. Yeah and before we get into your encounter, thank you so much for your service to our country. I really wish one of my biggest regrets. I wish I could go back in time. I'd been right there with you guys. But thank you so much for your service. Yes sir, well I appreciate it. It's a family airling for me. It runs in the family. I have military all throughout my family. When I turned 18 I heard my call and I said, you know, I got to go do this and I'm glad to do it so that, you know, those that I love and that I, I hope truly don't have to. Absolutely. If you would Tex just kind of start from the beginning. You're out there in Fort Benning, Georgia. We're going back about a year ago. What were you doing and what happened? Yes sir. I joined and do Fort Benning in the autumn fall of 2024 during this time. It's kind of the winter season and we were taking a field event. I think we rocked about 16 miles or so and we rocked out down on the, we're on the outer parcel, outer edge of the base. So heavily wooded hills, you know, country. It's out away from civilization. So when we got in there and our, all our teams, we had, we had five different companies and every company, their one is set up in a different spot. That way if we were to get blown out by the end, which would be the drill sergeants at the time, that way if one team gets blown out, they can't find, they can't find our spot. So most of the other platoons they put their patrol bases or PBs and close proximity to the main area. We took about a mile, Rook farther back off into, back into the woods. There was a little bit farther for us. If we had to go get child, or if we had to go up to the ammo point or control point for any reason, but it was a well worth it. And because two reasons one, I don't think this would happen to us if, if we hadn't been that deep and to our, our, our position was not known until almost the last day there. So it was, it was definitely very good to get back in there. So taking into what happened, it was roughly 12 o'clock in our patrol base, which is the shape of a triangle that way on each point. We have our high casually producing weapons, which are our solid 249 shooting 556 millimeter and our 240s shooting at 762. All the ammo we had was blank. It was no, no live. But it's still, it's still substantial. Still has a substantial kind of noise if you would. The 240, it's loud. You can hear it for quite a ways when it, when it goes off. And so we had those at each of the corners. We had six quads in our patrol base and we had roughly six to eight troops in each quad in our platoon. I think it added up to close to about 60 people. We're in full security. We, when we do security, we don't do, um, you know, one person here, we take sleep schedules so that some people can sleep. We do a rotation so that equal amount of people are pulling security. And at this time on our line, we were, uh, my line was, um, so let me tell you where we're stationed. We were, there was a draw, kind of a draw on these two hills. And at the bottom of the draw was a creek. It wasn't super deep. Um, it was, it was kind of muggy and stuff. But we were on this hillside and my line was facing parallel with the creek going along, uh, along the mountainside. And so we had, uh, we had every other man on security at that point. And so, um, I buddy to my right, he was, he was out, buddy to my left. He was sleeping, but the guy on the opposite side or right after him, he was awake. And this situation actually, what had happened was, uh, my buddy, how was the first one to, uh, have seen, um, this, this, this movement at first. So we were sitting there, uh, woke up at a roughly 12 o'clock. That was a start of my fire guard shift, uh, security shift. And I, when we were sitting there, we, you know, you're trying to stay awake. You're just, you're looking out in the tree line. You're looking for movement. We're all thinking the same thing. Like, you know, no one's going to come in. We're way back here. You know, this is, this is, um, why, you know, why am I here? Why are we doing this? Um, and so we have, we use, uh, we use night vision. We call it nods. It's, uh, night optical devices. They, uh, mount on our helmets. And so they flip down. They flip up. And so I could see better without them. Uh, some trouble seem with them because looking in them, yeah, it lights up a little bit. And there's a little bit of moon like that night. It was also partially cloudy too. So the, the moon light, um, wasn't coming through bright, you know, as, as it would be, um, but you could still see probably even for about to 10 to 15 yards, uh, in the tree line. And so at first, I want to say it was color on 1245. Um, we had, there were some kinds of, um, movement out in our 12 o'clock and our, uh, 10 o'clock from where I was sitting. Uh, where we're sitting at, we had to dig these up. We had a big fox holes, which those people that don't know that. It's just a hole that we dig out. Uh, that way you can lay your body in it, but you can still lean up over the burn. That way, if you're getting shot at, you can get down on the hole, but still shoot. Um, and so on the burn in front of me, it's just, it's just dirt that I dug up. And then it's a little open. It's leaves. And then it goes to the tree line about 10, 10 yards away. I had heard movement, uh, sound like someone walking, but it wasn't like walking, like a person walking. Usually if you have a guy walking, it'll take two steps to stop or the walk through, you know, I'm making noise. You know, you know, I'm here. And so it was more of like, like slow one step, kind of slow deliberate. And um, and I looked over in my buddy, how and I'm like, hey, are you hearing this? And he's like, yeah, I'm hearing it. And he's like, I'm like, do you see anything? He was, no, I can't see anything. We're looking out. We hit his, it is nods down. I had my nods down up. We were looking out. We couldn't see a thing. It was, I tell you, I tell you what, it was, it was pretty bright that night. Honestly, it was, uh, like the moonlight was coming down partly cloudy, but you could still see, you know, you could see really good without the, the nods and with the nods, maybe a little bit better. Um, and so as we're sitting there, I started hearing like thuds in front of me. And I was, I wasn't really sure of it. So I laid up out of my fox hole and there's these pebbles about, probably about the size of my thumb and they're laying in front of me on top of the dirt. And I'm, I'm thinking myself, I was like, did I dig these up? Like I, I don't remember digging these up. And I look over at how to tell them about it. And another one lands right there again. And I watched it roll as it hit the first hit and then rolled up on the berm. And I'm looking out in the woods and I'm like, who's, who's out here throwing rocks at us? And so I live over to howl and I tell them, hey, man, someone's throwing rocks at me and he goes, dude, I have a freaking stick laying in my fox hole. And I'm like, what do you time that he goes, I'm telling you to do a stick, just hit the top of my berm and rolled in my fox hole. And I'm like, all right, I said, just, just calling security to tell me if you see anything. And so we're sitting there. And then, um, how says, hey, I got some contact. And I'm like, what do you, what do you see? What do you see? And we have to call it the, um, the three Ls, which are a three Ds distance direction and um, description. And so he calls out, it's basically right at his 12 o'clock, just about maybe, maybe 10 yards, maybe 15 yards. And there's a big pine tree. And of course, in the woods, you know, you have small pine trees, big pine trees. So there's this one big pine tree, probably about a three to four foot diameter. And on his angle, he's looking straight at it. But for me, I'm looking, I'm over the right of it. So whatever is behind it or next to it, I can only see partial, you know, I can't really see what the angle is. He's looking dead on it. And he goes, dude, I'm looking at a boulder. And I said, a boulder. So there's no boulders out here on the edge of a hillside. There's no rocks anywhere out here. He goes, dude, I'm telling you. There is about an eight foot tall boulder sitting here right in front of me. I'm like, was it there earlier? He goes, no, there wasn't anything here. And I'm like, okay, just watch it. And then he calls out to it. So basically, we have a winner in a patrol base. If anybody in the patrol base wants to leave, go to the bathroom stuff, they'll tell somebody. But when they come back, we have something called a challenge code and a challenge password. And it's basically consists of two words, one or two words that whoever's in on the security line, they shout out to the person coming in and the person coming in will know it. They'll answer with that code and we'll know, hey, that's a friendly bring them in. If not, if they don't answer with it, it'll be an enemy. And that's when we take fire on them. And so he caught, he thought the challenge password and there was nothing. No movement, no words, nothing. And he threw it out again. And after the set, we don't have to do it two times, but usually we do it two times just to make sure. After that second time, I put my gun on fire because I knew, I knew we were about to light up. And there was no response. And then he started up popping off rounds. I started popping off rounds. About that time when you hear one or two M4s going off, whoever's on the, on the corner of the triangle, the 240s or the 249s, it's a belt. They're both belt fed. They're like machine guns. And so they start firing off bait. They're just firing out in the direction. They're not firing in our direction. They're just firing out. So we're all shooting as in our line of our line of fire, where we're at. And at that point, everyone starts waking up. There's a bunch of sound, a bunch of this. No, everyone's shooting. Everyone's contact contact 12 o'clock. And everyone's kind of stressed and stuff. And how, how stop shooting? And he's not out of ammo. He shot, I think he shot it on semi-auto, but it was repeatedly. He shot maybe 10, 15 rounds out of his mag and he stopped shooting. And I'm like, how, pick your gun up. And he goes, it's running. And I'm shooting, I'm shooting and they're like, all right, stop shooting. He's firing, he's firing, he's firing. So we all yell, he's firing. We do the motion for ceasefire. And it sounds like a locomotive barreling down this valley, down into the ridge, down into the draw, moving up towards the ridge. I mean, it was, it was breaking branches. It was thuds. And when it hit that water, we thought, we thought a tree had fallen over and landed in the creek of how, how big the splash sounded. It was, it was ridiculous how big this thing was. And so at that point, we're still sitting there. I asked, how that's mean, did you see that? Did you see that? I'm like, no, man, I didn't see anything. I'm sitting on this tree and I can only see so much. And he goes, dude, it was like an eight-foot-hole boulder and it was just sitting there. And he said, when I started firing, it got up. It didn't like, it didn't like, it just turned and took off. And I'm like, I'm like, that's not possible. You're seeing stuff now. You're sleeping, probably. And he goes, dude, I'm telling you that boulder got up and took four steps and it was gone. And I said, I don't know what's going on here. And so our PG, which is our platoon guy, he come over and he asked us, hey, what happened all this? So we told him, hey, we had some contact. We don't know what it was. It was a boulder. And my PG is like, are you guys high right now? Like, what are you talking about? There's no boulders out here. And how is telling them like, dude, I'm telling you it was an eight-foot-hole boulder and it turned a ran. And my PG goes, oh, you must have saw a big foot and everyone starts laughing and stuff. And yeah, I kind of get what about it too and stuff. But it was just ironic because that's how it's going to, in that situation, a lot of people would understand. But for military guys, when we want to get through a situation where there's stressful or sad or something, we'll joke about it. And then, you know, because laughter brings up the spirits and stuff. And so he said that and we all kind of started giggling stuff. And then our senior drill sergeant comes bearing down the draw. And we yelled out the challenge password. And he didn't know it either. But he told us he's like, hey, hey, you know, shut the hell up. Subtle hell up is me. It's me. And he's like, I'll start smoking all of you. You start shooting at me. And we didn't want to get smoked. So, all right, let's not shoot. And then we're good. PG said don't shoot. Don't shoot. So, he comes in and asks us where our PG goes and tells him, you know, talking about what it, what happened, how it told him what happened. I told him, you know, hey, you know, I saw, I didn't really see anything, but I heard it. And how was the only one that really, you know, had the situation, you know, he was actually able to see it. And he was, he was shook up. He was like, when we were all laughing, he did not think it was, it was funny. He was sitting there. He was, he didn't know what to think. He just, he was sitting there, staring at the dirt pretty much. I'm just not, not like as he saw it goes, but like, I think he was just contemplating his life decisions at that point. It was, it was kind of like, he just, he didn't know, he didn't know what had happened. He was in the state of shock. And, and so I, I jumped out of my hole because we're all up. We're making a round, you know, our position's been so, we know, they know where we are now. So, I jumped out of my hole. I go over him. I tap him and he kind of jumps and jolt sent me. I'm like, dude, like calm down, calm down, just breathe. It's me, you know, bring some water to calm down, calm down. I took his in for away from them because even though it's blank, I don't want to him piring off around and then all this all getting smoke and stuff. So, took his, his weapon off him. And that's when I pulled his mag out because I thought he ran out of ammo. That's why it stopped shooting. And I look in there and they're still around in it. And I'm like, dude, like you have rounds in here and he goes, dude, I had to stop shooting this thing. I mean, he goes, it's not real bullets, but it's still like, I had to stop shooting. Like I couldn't shoot. My body would not let me shoot anymore. My buddy, how? He's a Texas boy. He's a good old strong boy. I mean, he come up hunting, you know, he's out there, he ain't afraid of just about damn, you know, damn near nothing. And I could tell this really, like really shook him up and he was not about it. And so we ended up, everyone was up for the next two hours pulling security. And then we went back into rotation and stuff. I ended up going to sleep. I think I wasn't on any more security detail that night or that morning. And then I don't know when I went to bed. I looked over at, I looked over at how and he had wrapped himself in his blanket, but he was still sitting up. And I'm like, how? Just lay down and go to sleep, dude. And he's like, I'm not, I'm not close of my eyes. I'm, there's something out there. I'm not doing that. And I'm like, all right, dude, you snooze, you lose. And I kind of joke with him, I'm going to sleep. And then we woke up, we went to the town and all that day when we did training and stuff. That day, he kind of got better, you know, his daylight, he felt good. You could tell when we were on movements. So when we move, we move in different formations. We have the wedge where it's kind of like a triangle. And then we have a file where it's just a line of us, we're all spaced out. And then we have staggered where it's two lines on the, on either side of the road, if we're on a road. But it'll be every like, it'll be offset. So we're not, so that way of, you know, someone gets shot or there's an explosion from a grenade or 320, not everyone is injured. Some more so just that guy whoever's there, that way the other guys can have more, more space for run or take cover. And so we were moving in a file because we were moving through the woods. There wasn't a lot of trail. We're moving on this game trail and how, how's about two guys behind me? Because, you know, we're on the line. We, as we walk up, when we walk up to a patrol base, when we set our, our position, where we set our position, that's where we're at to lay down. So that's where our fox hole is going to be at. And so when we pulled up, you know, we cover a hole back in and we all moved out and said, we don't meet up at one point and then just take off. We pick up, grab our gear, we all take one step back. We kick some leaves and stuff over our holes. And then as a line, we move out the same as we came in, we just move out. And so we moved out and so he was about two guys behind me. And I look behind me and ask the guy, I was like, Hey man, hey, check on how, you know, is he all right? And he goes, dude, he's not talking to nobody. He hasn't said a word all morning. And so I talked to him and let, look, dude, hey, we got training today. Okay, you had a clear head because you know, there's guys here. We had a guy, we called him Charlie and he was, he wasn't bad guy. He just, he wasn't really, he wasn't all there in the head. He wasn't mentally strong. And I was like, you know, what happened, Charlie? And he's like, yeah, I'm having Charlie. All right, don't be like Charlie. The day is going to be a good day. Last night's over. We're going to get this done. We're going to train. Now we're going to go home. And so when we get home, you're going to love how good that hot shower feels. You're going to have some good food. We're going to be hanging out. You're going to love it. And he's like, all right, you know, and he got to stick it off. Anyway, so my second, second part of that is it was probably about a day. I think it was about two days later. Me, it was me and Hal again. We were on patrol. We were doing a nighttime patrol. But it was a, it was a security patrol. It was a two man security patrol. And so we had, we moved out from our main patrol base, which we actually had to move patrol base because after we fired all the shots, we fired out that spot was burned out. So we have to end up moving. And so we ended up moving. We moved probably about, I think it was, I think we moved closer back towards camp. Just just farther up on like the ridge line, and where we were. And we did the same thing. We're on the other side of a draw, but a little bit higher up on elevation. That way if something happened, we could get more elevation on a, where we are. Me and Hal had to take security. We took patrol and how our patrol worked at the time is we can want to do it one, two ways. We could do cleverly for we kind of do a circle, come back in and then again, and then just make a big clover leaf. But you know, how's the hey man? I want to clear my head. You know, let's just, let's get some space, get some air. So we just kind of did a big circle, kind of land our perimeter. Well, I've been, I've been in the woods almost all my life. I know about hunting, I know about trekking. You put me on a trail or you dropped me in the middle of the woods and middle of the nowhere. And I'll find my way to civilization and wear another. And there was a time when we were walking in the woods and like, I do not know where we are. And how, how the good old country boy, he's good old Texas boy, but he's not, you know, he's not really inclined when it comes to navigation wise in the woods. And not just that it's nighttime. You know, you can tell he's jeeried, he's nervous. And I have, keep him, I'm like, yeah, keep him to grab him, kind of shake him out of the like, hey man, you know, I'm here. We're walking, we're fine. We're good. And he's just, he's on edge. And I can see why, and after, after he had been counted at that shock, I would not blame him at all. And, and so we, we were walking out. And I can't remember how far from base, from the patrol base we were, but we were, we were off a good, you know, we were off at least at least a couple meters, maybe a little bit more. And we were, we were walking off. And so we're head down this game trail. And we're at the top of this ridge. I said, hey, let's take this valley. Let's go down the mountain into this draw. And then we'll walk the creek back up. We'll go up to the, up to where the patrol base is and then we're done. So we'll call it there. He was, all right. So we got off the ridge line and start walking down. And as soon as we drop down, probably about, I don't know, 10 yards off the ridge line, the air turn colder and everything was dead quiet. I kind of noticed that first, I, I noticed when, when the sound of my boots hit the leaves were a lot louder. And I put my hand back to tell him the stop. He stopped and he's like, what, what do you see? I might be quiet. I'm like, you hear that? And he goes, no, I said, exactly. There was, there was not a, not a word. There was not a bird. Usually at that, you know, at that area, you'll have birds and a couple of birds or an owl find them out. You'll hear the, you'll hear the bugs and such. And the water was just down to the bottom. And there was, there was no wind. There was nothing. And it was just dead quiet. And I like to have my said, dude, this, this is eerie. This, this isn't right. And he goes, he goes, we need to get out of here. I'm like, I just calm down and said, we're almost there. Let's go down here and then we'll take a laugh. We'll, we'll go ahead, back up the creek and, um, and sure enough. So we're walking and I stopped. He stopped and something else did one step and stopped. And we both snapped our heads to the right and it was right at our three o'clock. And I said, dude, there's something over there and he goes, yeah, I've been hearing it, but I didn't want to say anything. I'm like, why didn't you say something? He goes, dude, I'm just, I don't want to say anything about it. I didn't want to think you're, you know, you think I'm hallucinating and I'm like, all right. And, um, and about that time we heard a tree snap at our six o'clock. So totally behind us, probably about 10 yards back, about where that red line was. So it was up on the red line. So whatever it was, there was something on the red line behind us and there was something on our three clock, um, probably about 10 yards off and 10, 15 yard right in the tree line. But at the time we couldn't use white lights, we couldn't use flashlights. We had red lights so we could use that way. It's a very low visibility, not only for us, but more so for the enemy. It's a lot harder for your eyes to adjust to them. And so I'm trying to my red light out, but I can only see like maybe a foot in front of me. And that's just woods by here. I'm like, okay, I can't see anything. I said, I just follow me and watch my hands. I'll throw up a hand signal, you know, for for haul and then for free use. And so, um, so we're moving. I took three, four steps and I can hear it off to my right side. It's about, I mean, it's, it's, it's substantially large, um, whatever it was at, at, at, at that point, I was not sure. But I was, I, you know, and, and this entire time I'm thinking in my head, I'm like, what's going quiet, air change? I'm like, this, this sounds like a bad story, you know, I've, I've listened to your show for, for, for, ever since it started coming out, I've always been super intrigued with Bigfoot with Sasquatch. Um, I've always watched the, you know, history channels on and all. And I'm like, you know, I've heard about this stuff where I, you know, this, this doesn't seem like coincidence. And we're headed down, we get down to halfway down this draw and I stop and he, and he's, he starts coughing. And I'm like, do you smell that? And he goes, dude, there's something dead on us. I'm like, yeah. And then we kind of start, we, we, we, we do a little circle. So we trying to see if it's like a dead, a dead deer, you know, something dead or whatever. And there's nothing, not a trace or nothing. And he goes, dude, it's really, really strong. I get stronger than when they were up there, you know, coming down. And I'm like, well, here's the thing though. If it was a dead animal and it's down in this draw, the wind's going to move down this draw and up over this mountain. So we would have smelled it on the ridge, but we're not smelling it until we're getting just down here. And he goes, yeah, I don't know, dude. And I'm like, all right. So I'm like, you still hearing that? He goes, whatever it is, it's parallel in us and there's something behind us. They just do, we need to get out of here. And I said, all right, let's get out of here. Well, we got down, we kept going down. As we're getting down, the smell was getting stronger. And whatever was behind us and to all right was closing in close. I mean, it was getting real close. We couldn't see anything. You look behind you that night. It was a lot darker. It was really, really cloudy. There was almost no moon. It was almost pitch black. And whatever it was is sounded like I could have reached out and touched it with how, how closely stepped sounded, but we turned around and there's nothing there. It's just, there's just a trail. And so, well, let's keep moving on. I told how I said, hey, you get in front of me. That way I can keep an eye on you. So you don't run off or do anything stupid. And how gets in front of me? And I said, don't take big strides. And I said, whatever you do, do not run. And I'm like, you know about how praise are, how pray and predator. And you run whatever that predator is, it thinks you're pray running. And it has a natural instinct that takes over and it's going to chase you and then mall you and then you're, you know, you're screwed. I said, whatever you do, do not run. I said, not just that, but if you leave me here, I'm going to kill you and I get back to base and he goes, yeah, yeah, you know, you know, I'm not doing that. And not just that, but when we move out, we are in, and basic, you have to do a battle buddy system. So wherever you go, you have to have at least one person with you. And this is a precautionary thing. That makes sure, you know, something that something doesn't happen to one of the other guys. And so if he would have showed up without me, he would have really been, you know, screwed up. We both would have got screwed over. And I'm like, hey, you know, just don't run. Don't leave him here. You know, don't take off whatever you do. Don't run. I said, if it's a bear, you know, whatever this is, if you take our front and one, it's going to catch you because we're going up the hill and two, you know, it's, it's not going to turn out great for us. And he's, all right, I won't run. That's to just stay close with me. And so we start to move it up. And whatever was at our three o'clock and then whatever it was at behind us, when we turn left, that would put the R six o'clock at our nine o'clock. And our three o'clock at our six o'clock. So it kind of moved, it kind of moved, you know, location when we took a left. And we started walking and whatever it was now, was at our nine o'clock at our six o'clock and out of the three o'clock. So we had three of something stalking us. And I'm like, dude, this, this is not good. And I said, all right, here's what you're going to do. I'm going to stand right here and I'm going to be day quiet lights out, turn your light on. And I want you to take about 10 to 15 steps up there, up the trail. You know, not not too too far. Just keep your light on. And I'm going to sit here and listen and see if it follows and he goes, all right. And I said, all right, go ahead. So he walks off and I'm standing there. Nothing, not a movement. No, there's no sound. There's, there's just nothing. And that sense now is, is about the same as when we get to the bottom of the, the, the draw where it's still really, really strong. It's, it's more of a smell of a, it's like wet dog, musky rot odor. And it kind of if you take roadkill and you just let it, you let it bake out in the sun on the hot pavement all day. And then you poke it with a stick and it bursts open. It's just, it, it smells absolutely putrid. But at that point, I smelled pretty bad too. So I, you know, I couldn't really, I couldn't really blame, blame smelling on it. So I, we're moving up and, or he, how took off and he stopped up there and he gave me a whistle and it was just like a, and right then and there, before I whistle back, whatever was behind me at my six, let out a whistle. And it was the exact whistle that he just did to me, but it was not me. And so when that whistle went out, I just, I froze and I'm looking, I'm looking towards how, whatever this whistle has came from directly behind me, I freeze my tracks. I don't want to turn around. I'm, I'm standing here and I'm just, just frozen in fear. I don't know whatever's behind me. I'm like, it's going to grab me. You know, I'm dead. This is it. It's going to come up behind me, snap my neck and, you know, I'm never seen my family again. And, and so, oh, man, it's just bringing, bringing back, bringing back memories is, it's hard, it's harder to relive. So when it, that without whistle came along, I didn't know, I can't remember what I told him. I don't know if I told him to stay there where I'm coming up. I think I was going to do a leapfrog thing where he'd walk up and then he'd whistle at me. I'd move up and then I'd walk up. But he didn't understand what I was doing. So, you know, when it really worked the way I wanted. So I slowly started walking kind of to where he was. And, and whatever was behind me started walking up to it was, it was just steady, just kind of thud, thud, thud, thud. And it was, I mean, it was, you could hear the leaves crunching, you could hear it was, it was substantially large. You could tell whatever it was, had some size. We had a, we had a senior drill start in and he was, he was a super jack. Dude, he was big, he was bulky. I think he wears about a size 12 shoe boot. And I mean, compared to this thing, he walks like, he walks like on feathers. It's it, this thing is, is covering a lot of ground in one foot step. And I, I move up, I get to him and he goes, he goes, what? I said, dude, you hear that whistle, right? I said, do that whistle at me. And I said, don't do it loud. Just do it right here until he goes, he's like, and I said, I didn't do that. And he goes, no, he goes, I did. And I said, I know that respond, that wasn't me. And he goes, what are you talking about? I said, I'm not the one that responded to your whistle. It was at my six o'clock. I said, whatever that thing is that's behind us is intelligent enough that it knows to do a respond whistle to your whistle. And he's, he goes, he goes, that's, that's, that's not right. He's like, you're scaring me now. I might listen. I'm not going to freak you out right now because I already thought, you know, I thought, all right, there's, there's some big put out here. You know, this, this is, this is exactly, you know, I'm putting all the key pieces together in my head. I'm like, you know, I've heard about this, the smell, the, the, the ambush, you know, paralleling you just to push you out of an area, the whistle. And so he starts freaking out. I'm like, look, dude, I'm not going to tell you I said, wait till we get back to, you know, patrol base. And I'll let you know. So we're, we're, I'm like, let's head out. We're moving up this draw. I said, just keep an eye, you know, all around you. So he's, we're looking around and whatever it is, it's still moving. And it sounds like it's getting closer, but every time you stop and turn, like, I'll stop and, and do a quick swivel and there's nothing there. There's, I mean, it's absolutely nothing there. And so we ended up, we were, we moved up. And I think we walked probably like, it felt that night, felt like we were like three miles. But when we, when we, from the bomb in that draw, I'm moving up in, it was probably about 0.5 miles, ended up that draw. And I'm like, dude, we must have passed the patrol base. They must have all their lights off or something. I'm like, I don't hear anybody. I don't see anything. And he goes, he goes, I'm like, dude, I don't know where we are. He goes, no, man, I'm telling you whatever that thing is that's on our left. It our nine o'clock must have been between us and, or, yeah, it was between the patrol base and us. And I said, so for us to go to patrol base, we'd have to go through whatever that thing is. And I said, dude, I mean, that's not only option right now. Let's just let's circle around. And so we're, we're halfway up this, this ravine. And it was, you know, the hills and, and Fort Benning, they're, they're substantially large. They're, they're the valleys. They go on for a little bit. And so we're walking up and, you know, I'm telling you, hey, let's, let's go. Let's just turn around and let's head up, let's head up halfway up this mountain to where we know we put the patrol base. We'll take a nine degree turn to the left and we're walking a straight line. And if we do that, we know we're bound to hit the patrol base. And he's like, yeah, it's good idea. Let's do that. So we did that. We went up, took a nine degree turn and we started walking back straight down. So we basically just did like a giant like, like, like a rectangle from, from where we started. Almost, almost through that table. And so we're moving down and I'm not hearing any stomping. There's nothing behind me. I'm not really sure anything. And we're walking and then I hear him up and then I hear him. And it's more of it. It was like a knocking sound and I, I, I reached my hand out and I yanked him and I, I said, don't effing move. And I'm like, he's like, did you hear that? I'm like, yes. Did you hear that? And he was dude, he said, someone's playing games with us. I'm like, no, they're not playing games with us. And he goes, well, what is it? I said, we need to get out of here right now. And, and so I'm like, hey, we're going to, we're going to pick it up, but we're not going to run. I said, whatever you do, don't run. We are going to airborne shuffle, which airborne shuffle is, it's, you know, it's common for, for those that are in the airborne, any airborne division. It's, it's, it's a mix from a, like a speed walk to a run. You're not doing a full run, but it's more like you're running, but you're dragging your feet. It's just, it's a, it's a slower run because when you have all your gear on with you, your parachute and stuff, you're carrying a lot of weight and you don't want to run with all that gear. And it's going to tire you out real soon. So if you do a shuffle, we call it the airborne shuffle or the airborne run. And so I'm like, hey, let's just airborne run out of here. Okay, we're going to keep going down. We'll hit the PB eventually. We'll throw out them, you know, we'll throw out the challenge code. And we'll be back home. And he's like, all right, and I said, I'm, I'm following you. I said, I'm going to have my hand here on your tap system, which it's, it's like a, it's like a chest rig that we had that we were wearing has our canteen on it, has mag pouches, has our compass, has our map on it. And on the back, it has a clip where you clip it on the back of your back. I said, I'm going to hold your, your, your strap right here. That way we don't get separated. And we started running. We kind of suffered. We were suffering, but it was hard to suffer because we're still on this kind of incline. And we're not on a trail. We're just kind of running through the leaves, slip in, just kind of, kind of just trying to make it stay level with this, this side of the mountain, where we think the patrol base is. And we're, we're just kind of running along or we keep on suffering. Whatever's behind us, I can hear whatever's behind us now. It's back behind us. It starts shuffling up with not really shuffling. It's just like, I mean, it sounded like someone not beating the ground, but I don't know if you ever seen like a kid like when they run, they kind of like, they look kind of like hit the, hit the ground really hard with their foot. Like if they're running and they try to stop or whatever, it was like that, but over and over. It's just like, it was a big thud, thud, thud right after another. And it wasn't running, but it was substantial enough that it, it was, it was moving about, it was matching our speed. And I said, just keep going, keep going. Don't worry about it. Keep going. And so we were, we were moving and he stops. And I'm like, what are you stopping for? And he goes, look, and we looked to the right. And there's a trail. We looked to the left and there's a trail. And I said, so wait a minute. This is a trail we were just on like 10 minutes ago. He goes, yeah, this is the trail we took down from the ridge. And I'm like, this, this can't be right. I know I, because I had a, I had a, a pace counter on my, on my rig. And I said, I took a pace counter when we hit the draw and we said the patrol base. And I, I measured it out enough. And even, even if that, I mean, this draw, you know, this, this mountainside, it's not really that big. So if we would have been moving, someone would have yelled out, you know, contact and we would have heard them. He goes, dude, this something's not right. I'm like, I'm like, all right, we, we got to find out where we are. We need some, some major, you know, land features. So let's get back on this ridge. And we started headed up this ridge. And we're not, we're not, we're half way on the mountainside down. We're moving up towards the ridge. And we're probably about 10 to 15, about 10 yards from the ridge and, and he stops. He's in front of me. And I'm like, where are you stopping at? Not a word. Not saying a word. He's just looking dead ahead. And I'm like, I know, what, what are you looking at? And I shake him. I start shaking him and he grabs me by my shirt collar. And he said, don't move. He goes, there's a boulder right there. I said, the boulder and, and he was the boulder. And we're looking at the trail. And because of where the ridge line is, there's almost no trees on it. So there's a lot, there's a little bit more light coming through. You know, it's dark right there. And sure enough, this boulder that was not there before is standing directly in our trail, in our path, right at the turn for us to take a right to go on the ridge or take a left. It's standing right there. And it's just standing there. And we're, we're, we're probably looking at it. We don't know what to do. We're frozen. We can't move. We're, we're in shock. We're just, we're petrified out of fear. And, and at that time, a, that same whistle that how sent to me that, that whistle came from my left. And this boulder, which was not a boulder, the boulder from, from the ground to the top of it was probably about about five, five feet tall. It was probably about, I'd say about four feet in diameter. And the big thing is there's no, there's no like, you couldn't tell the reason it looked like a boulder is because you know, a boulder is locked as you, as you go up the side of it, it rounds up to the top. On a human, the soldiers go up and then it rounds to the neck and then to the head. This thing had like no neck. It was, it was just the shoulders straight to the head and it was like a dome pretty much. And so that's why we thought it was, it was a boulder. And when that whistle came across, this boulder stood up, slowly stood up. And I can see it's on two legs because the light of the, of the trail behind it is going between its legs. You can see the light. And you know, you know, if you look at a background and you can see, you know, through someone's legs, even if it's dark, you can see behind them. And, and so it's, it's, it's the same, same mode of like deer hunters. When they're, if they're in a ground blind, a lot of deer hunters, they have a black canvas or the backing. It's really black. And then they'll wear black gear and they'll cover their body and black. That way if a deer's looking in and even if you're wearing like camera, whatever, if you have light coming through the other side, they'll see your silhouette because your silhouette will, will show on that over that canvas of where that light is. If it's all black and you're wearing black, there's no light coming through. They can't see through it. So it was kind of that situation where there was light on the other side. And we could see that this thing was in the way of the light. And it was, I couldn't tell, I couldn't really tell, you know, features of how it looked. I know for a fact that it was shaggy, you could see, you know, ripples of the, the hair was kind of like a shaggy, like an old, like, like an old 80s carpet pretty much. I'm just kind of like that shaggy dog for, but you can kind of see it. There's enough, there's enough light behind it that you could see that, the shape and outline and the soldiers, I mean, West, the soldiers were massive on, I mean, like this thing looked like it could tear me in half, no problem. Like like tearing down trees, the, there's, so in Alaska, there's these, they're called upside down trees. And there are a lot of people believe they're a symbol that the Nentenook or the big foot of Alaska had taken them, pulled them out of the ground and stuck them back in the ground because there's no signs of, of, of, of, of machinery. There's no chain saws. And it's just, it's all natural. There's moss going on there that been there forever. And when I looked at this thing, like I'm telling you, this thing looked like it could do that with one arm. It was, it was crazy how big this thing was. And, and it was a fat either. You can tell like when you look at someone's physique, even if it's dark out, you know, you can tell like, you know, they'll have like a big torso and then their arms will be kind of, kind of, kind of fatty, but not skinned. This thing looked like it was all muscle. Like it was just too toned, all muscle fully sucked out. And, and so we're looking at this thing and this whistle that, how did earlier comes from our left side. And that whistle comes through and that thing stands up. It just turns to the right quarters. So it's, it's pretty much quarter to us. It turns around and goes right and takes a left on that ridge line and it walks, it just walks that way. And me and him were just standing there. And next thing I know someone grabbed us behind, guys behind me, I turn around and I, I start fighting because I think, I think the things behind me and I need to fight for, you know, fight or fight and I can't run anyway. My body can't move and I pull, I feel something grabbed me and turned me around. And when it turns around, I throw my arm out and I just start punching and slugging and come to find out it was actually my drill sergeant, turned me around and I didn't know who's him. And I saw I just punched the crap out of my drill sergeant. And, and then I realized it was him and I was, oh, I'm dead. So I just kind of like laid on the ground on what to do. And I was like, I was like, I'm sorry. I can't do, I can't do, I can't do. And then how, how was this stand there? And, and so he got, he got us up. We were both in shock. You didn't get anything out of us. I just remember him saying like, we've been looking for you guys for like hours. Where you guys been? And, and we're like, we're, we're, you know, we're pulling security. We thought the patrol base was here and he goes, you boys are a mile from the radius of the patrol base. I'm like, I'm thinking myself a mile. Like there's no way we walked a mile. Like there's, I know for a fact, I know we, we wouldn't have walked a mile. Cause we saw, we scored this trail in the daytime. And, and so, and now we're both in shock. We're both freaked out. And they're, you know, just so he's yelling, trying to move us and stuff. And how's this, he's out of it. He's wide as a ghost. I don't remember what I, I really don't remember how I looked. I don't really a lot and remember a lot of that initial, that initial reaction. Other than I know that that girls aren't smoked the, the dawn's out of me for, for punching them. And, and, and he goes, you know, why'd you do it? You know, why'd you do it now? I just, I, I don't want to come up and say, you know, I saw big foot and it scared me. And I was in shock. You know, I don't want to, I don't want to sound like crazy. Cause then you'd be like, you know, when you're talking more, you know, you want to, you want to make jokes. I was like, you know, let's, let's go, you know, let's make some jokes. And then, you know, end up getting smoked more, but come to find out a little bit later. As, you know, apparently they did know. And if I would have said something, I think it, I could have got it a little bit, a little bit nicer, you know, a little, a little bit like, hey, you know, don't shock just, you know, y'all come talk with us, you know, you're with the boys now. It's kind of calm down. So, so yeah, that's, that's, that's how that happened. And I hope I never have to go back. Yeah, I hear you. And for bending, you know, out there in Georgia is just as notorious, I would say is for Lewis, when it comes to encounters. And it's scary. I mean, this thing standing right in your path or sitting in your path. I realize you guys thought it was a boulder. Would you kind of describe what you guys saw? Yes, sir. So we're headed up and we're headed up this draw. There was, there was the way it's here. And then the woods get bigger and then it just opens up. At first, we thought it was, you know, there's this boulder that is just, it was, it was bulky. I want to say, it looked like a boulder would look at night. You know, it's dark. It's just, it's sitting there at this time. It was probably about five, six feet tall sitting down and about, probably about four feet wide. And when it stood up, it was just, it was massive. It looked, it looked eight, nine feet tall. I'm six foot five. And even at my, my high, I was, I was looking up, even at our angle from how far away, about 10, 15 yards, we were looking, I was looking up at this thing. I mean, the muscle mass on this is just, it was, I don't know if you ever seen the images of those, like, Olympic horses or the, I don't know the species, but it's a, it's a, it's a species of equine. It's the ones they use for farming equipment. It's the big stirbreds. And they're just like, you look at their chest and their legs and it's just like giant muscle. You just see them, the veins, the muscles, but you know, I couldn't see veins. I couldn't see a lot of, a lot of features on this. But I could tell this thing was massive. And it looked like it, you know, it could literally take me and let me in half, like, no problem. The arms hung down past the hips though, like, almost to the knees. It's like the arms were longer than the torso, which doesn't, you know, on a person, usually they're, if they're standing, they're, they're, they're handled stop about their side. But this thing that the arms went down the torso and almost not, not to the knees, but about to the mid, mid-air really calf. And I realized that it's dark, but were you able to see the face? No, the, the face, I mean, it was, whatever it was was looking right at us. I do, I do know that I was so keened in on, on looking because, I mean, it's, it's huge. It's right there. I noticed that when it turned, you know, if someone turns, and there's a light behind them, you can then, you know, it's darker. Maybe if you ever look at like a, you're watching like King Kong. And you know, when he turns away, you can tell like on his quarter, if you look at his face, his lips kind of come out a little bit and then his, his nose, you know, dips down, or someone turns, you can tell that they have a nose. When this thing turned, whatever the light was behind it, it, it, the lips, there were, the lips weren't like templates. Like they don't bubble out anything. They were just, it was, it was flat. There was no, the nose didn't pop out like human nose. And the, the hair, it's like, I couldn't really tell because it moved so fast when it turned around it. It, it, quartered stopped and then it, and then it quartered again. So it did a full like 180, um, with a, with a small pause in the middle. And so, um, I could tell that the hair though, growing down, like, not really from the beard, it, it, it, it looked like everything was connected. It looked like all the hair on it was, was connected on it. Um, and when it moved out, when it stepped out into the, into the light, which is a little bit lighter because the moonlight was coming down, it was like, it was like a reddish brown. And it was, it was a, it was shaggy kind of rich brown. Uh, I didn't tell, I didn't get a lot of look at it. It, it went around the corner right there. And I'm like, I, you know, I don't, I don't want to go after it. You know, that thing, that thing's gonna rip me in half. Like no problem. It could just, it could flick me with a finger and I'm dead. You know, I don't, I don't want to mess with that thing. I don't want to follow it. And like, to this day, I wish, I really wish I would have was I'm telling you with all the accounts that I hear that people tell all the stories. Like, you know, I, I wanted to get out of there. I didn't want anything to do. I wish I would have followed it or, or got, you know, maybe, you know, waved at it or something. But then again, I'm thinking like, now I think, I think it's better, better that I didn't, uh, because if I had done that, I don't know if I'd be standing here today. Yeah, I'm not so sure. It would have, uh, it was looking to hurt you guys. But if you push your luck, you can definitely get hurt by these things and I think it's best that you didn't follow it. And I feel for guys on military bases, because you're basically unarmed. I mean, I realize you guys have guns, but they're full of blanks and about the best you can do is make a lot of noise. Tell me about what your drill surgeon told you, you guys go back to base and what happens. So basically when we got back from the, uh, the field event, we were, everyone's tired. We just did the 12 for, I think it was a maybe a 14 mile run. We did it back to the, our, our, our sea area, our sea quaver, we sleep at. And so downstairs, we have all the potouins and then they just go upstairs, uh, on different levels. And so we're downstairs. We did, uh, our counts for SI made sure we have everybody. And then we're like, hey, you guys did it. You know, pat yourself on the back and said, I, you know, come on, I was a rest day when the stretch and do all this stuff. And we're like, okay, he goes, all right, the PG send them out. And then I remember the drill started with standing next to our PG. And he's, our PG didn't say anything. Um, so everyone else went upstairs and my platoon just stood there. And he said, he called out, he said, um, the texts. And then, um, which, that, that, we all had nicknames and basing stuff. So he called texts and then haul and, uh, went up, we went to PG and said, drill started on the office. So we followed drill started in there. Everyone else went upstairs. They said, you know, go upstairs, we rest or anything. And at that point, everyone, the, no one's thinking like, oh, they're in trouble. Or, you know, oh, they did something. They're all like, hey, we're upstairs. We're, I'm taking a shower. I'm going to sleep. You know, I'm, I'm resting. This is, this is nice. And so we, um, me and, me and how got into the office and we walked in. We walked to the front. We went to, we went to, um, uh, parade, best drill. So, and, uh, and he got up from the desk. He said, follow us in, in the office. And when we, we got to the office every now and then, um, through the hallway, but we've never been in the office and like in, in the office. And so we went to the commentary in the back, closed the door, sat us down. And I was like, I like to have him. Like, dude, we're, we're screwed. Like, we screwed the pitch on this one. Like, I don't know what we did, but we are fried. And guard drill started and said, look, he, he looks as he takes his hat off. First of all, which is, uh, you know, inside, that's what they do. But when they're around us as trainees, you know, they don't want to like, you know, they don't want you to think, you know, your pros and that way you can disrespect them or anything. Takes his hat off. He sits down next to us. And he goes, I, I know you guys have been through a wild, a wild week. And I'm like, yes, yes, real, so aren't here. And don't talk. He was just listening. And I'm like, all right. And so he goes, whatever happened, I don't want to hear about it. I don't want you telling your buddies about it. And it's not to leave this ring ever. And I, I said, uh, I was like, yes, real sorry, but I kind of leaked over it. And I'm like, I'm like, like, what are you talking about? And he goes, you know exactly what I'm talking about. And he said, don't ever speak of it. He said, there's things out here that we can't explain. So if you end up saying some stuff about it, there's going to be some problems. And that was, that was enough. That was enough to bring you something up. Um, but the weird thing is about it was is usually if someone does something, you know, in basic training, we do, we break a rule, we do something that's, you know, we're not supposed to. There's a piece of paper. Uh, it's called a council and it's documentation. It says exactly what happened. Who did it, you know, who said what? We'll write a statement on it. And then we sign it and date it at the bottom. That way there's documentation on it. Uh, so if it happens again, we can look back and be like, oh, yeah, this happened or we corrected it. This and this and that. There was no council. There was no documentation whatsoever. It was just a conversation of a Joe started on versus two, you know, hey, this is, you know, don't even talk about this again. And we left, we left and before you end up stairs, I, that's what me and, that's what me and how I made a promise. So listen, I know you're, you're going to want to tell people that it's you know, I'm never saying anything about it again. He goes, I don't want to think about it. I don't even want to talk about it. That's a look. If you do, it's only people you trust. And I said, don't ever say it to anybody else on that. But other than people that you trust as a make sure you're careful with it. Don't be stupid about it either. Don't be bragging. No, don't go nagging about anything. And he goes, he goes, he was weird. And I said, what? He goes, why didn't we sign a council? And I'm like, I'm thinking the same thing. And that's a, that's what we're contemplating. He goes, if we did something wrong or he doesn't want us talking about it, we would sign a council saying, Hey, this is what we said. This is what they're not going to do. This is the correct evaction signed it and they did it and give a statement. We didn't do any of that. I said, dude, I don't know. And he goes, dude, they know something and then we went upstairs and and that was that we didn't tell anybody ever again. And we talked about it. And actually just the other day, you call me a little while ago and he goes, Hey, you remember that, you know that incident and basic. And like, yeah, he goes, well, I'm finally out in the woods because it scared him so much. He didn't want to go out in the woods. And my, oh, hey, Cam, man, I'm going to go see you're in the woods and stuff. He goes, yeah, I won't go alone. I won't go out of gun. But I got out here in the daytime, you know, we're here doing some walking around hiking stuff. And I was like, awesome, dude. And then he's like, I have a human. How are you doing? I'm like, Hey, you're going to take me out of the woods or you can't take the woods out of me. And he goes, yeah, well, I'm, I'm going to feel the same way if, you know, I ever saw one of those things again. And then he mentioned, he mentioned your show and I like to do it. I've been listening to his show for a while. You know, this is what's going on. It's you got to get on that on Spotify. And, and he's like, yeah, he goes, he was joking. He's like, pretty, pretty cool from this bottle of song. I was like, yeah, you know, pretty, pretty cool. And I was like, you know, get a hear from a man and holler to him later and stuff. But, but yeah, that was, that was all, that was just the weird thing is, is the two things is one. They told us don't talk about it. Like they know, but there was no counseling. There's no paperwork, which is unheard of in the army. Army is almost all paperwork. Everything you do, there's a piece of paper for everything. You have to date, you have to sign it. You have to go through a catalog and then you have to sign a piece of paper that says you sign that piece of paper or sign the other piece of paper. And there was no paper, whatsoever. It was, it was, it was just, it was just something like, hey, sweeping out on the rug. We're never going to talk about this again. And, and of course, we said, you know, yes, Joe started because, you know, the respect thing they tell us what to do. We have to do it. We sign the contract, you know, we can't, we can't go against what they say. And we don't want to just like them, you know, we don't want to get in trouble for it. We were tired. We were exhausted. We did, we didn't want to be doing burpees and push ups and running around the track for the water cans, you know, and we're just like, you know, we just submitted, you know, just to start and understand. And, and then that was that, you know, and then we graduated and went to, went to airborne school together. And then I came to brag and he went to Italy. So that's where we're right now. Well, I'm honored you would share the account here. And you know, I've interviewed many veterans and current military that have had encounters on these bases. And unlike I was saying earlier, for Benning is very much like for Lewis. And I could probably name five others where accounts like this happen over and over and over again and over the years. And I've always wondered why when, when guys have these experiences, what you described there with your drill sergeant is very similar to what I've heard in the past, when leadership gets involved. It's kind of like, don't talk about this. If you want any sort of career in the military, check your mouth. It didn't happen. And that's the end of that. Why do you think it's like that on these bases where it seems like there's no interest? In these accounts, especially coming from the government, you think the government would be very interested in these accounts. Um, I don't know. I honestly, I'll tell you how I'd say I asked for most things around here. That's above my pay grade. But honestly, I just think that I think that the people that if you're working there, you're working on that base for long enough for your working in an installation, you spend enough time in the woods. You've heard some stuff. You've seen some stuff and you can have your own beliefs and stuff. But when it comes down to you have a job to do and you can't have anything that, you know, makes you, I perform your job. And not just that, you're training, you know, if you're a drill sergeant or your teacher, you're training students, you're trading people. And you, you know, you have this, this title that, you know, I'm big kill to the badass, you know, don't, you know, don't mess with me. And then you're like, hey, you know, I'm scared of the woods, you know, don't go out there and stuff. I think more so it's more of the situation of it's a, it's a, it's a hiding more so I want to say, you know, a lot of people say, you know, you know, what do you think big foot is or US, a lot of people, what do you think big foot is? I can't say I know what it is, but I think it's definitely wrapped around the government. I think the government knows about it. And, you know, the government likes to keep it a secret. I think the government knows that there are big foot out there on fort bending. And there's people that know it out there. And I think there's people that have their higher ups and they've, they've talked to them like, hey, we don't talk about it. Don't say nothing about it. If you hear anybody, you know, shut it down. I don't want to hear about this, you know, in my unit or in my installation. And of course, you know, higher up, say you do something like, okay, I understand. I mean, that's just, that's what comes up from it, honestly. And so usually I just think, you know, everyone's just falling orders. You know, you got to follow orders up from your higher ups if they're telling you, you know, don't speak of this. Don't speak of it. You know, don't talk about it. You know, if it's, if it's, if it's been talked about, shut it down before I hear about it. But there's going to be, you know, there's going to be problems, really consequences. But I think, I think it's just like, it's something to be hid. They don't want the rest of the world from, I know a lot of, a lot of things that the government, the government controls the world. Not, not really controls the world, but the world runs around. There's a control kind of situation where as long as the government has leverage, like taxes or inflation, they can control how people are, how people react. And I think that if this news got out or, you know, this secret was, you know, unleashed about, you know, there's these things out there and they're dangerous and all that. Then, you know, a lot of things, a lot of things will change. The skepticism science would change, you know, the whole, the way that we look at everything might just be completely gone out the window. I just think we're so far down in the rabbit hole that, you know, there's no getting back out of it. And if, if, if something like this comes up, then, you know, I'm not saying it's going to be a, a World War three. But, you know, there's just, there's so much that we don't know about. And I think we don't know about it for a reason. And the government knows about it, but they don't want us to know about it. Because, you know, people will overtake and there'll be political arguments and fights and wars. And I think it's just one of those things where it's like, Hey, you know, this is one of the things that we have to make sure we control where those things are going to get out of hand. And I think I think it's just that situation where like, you know, they know about it. They know it's there, but you keep these guys quiet about it and we won't have any problems, you know. Yeah, I think you're right. It probably is control. And I do think the government knows about it because of so many encounters on these bases. When these guys like yourself are out there doing training, I've heard it so many times. And I know if I've heard it, they've heard it and they know what's going on. And it makes me wonder too if the government even thinks that they're dangerous. The fact that they would send our young men and women out on these bases to do these training, knowing they're unarmed that all they really have is blanks. It really makes me wonder. And I really appreciate you guys listening. I didn't realize how much of the military was actually listening to the show. And one day I was looking at the stats and I was like, there's all these Middle East countries. And I'm like, who's listening in all these Middle East countries? And that kind of hit me that it's the military they're listening on the bases. So thank you guys, those out there who are listening. Thank you for your service and thanks so much for your support. They're like, you're so man. It helps so many people that may feel lost or like, you know, they don't have anywhere to go. It makes a safe haven for a lot of people. You'll have a lot of people come on the show like, you know, I don't want to talk about it. Because I want people to think I'm crazy. People will criticize me for it or people will cast me and I just don't want to want any problems. But this, this, you know, this that you have creates a safe place that no matter what happened, you know, no matter how crazy or whatever, you know, whatever it was that, you know, you had this situation. And you can talk and tell somebody about it because a lot of times when someone goes through a hardship, if you talk about it or you talk about what you saw, you talk about your experience, it helps bring the burdens out and, you know, it helps bring it out in the air. And then that person can feel more easy about it. I know a guy, he's in our unit and he ended up trying to take his life and his buddy was sitting there and watched him do it. And he didn't stop him. He just watched it and do it. And my buddy ended up, he survived. He's fine now. But my other buddy that watched him, he was scarred for a while and he wouldn't work. He wouldn't, he couldn't, he couldn't function properly. And he ended up seeing a therapist and he ended up talking about it and sure enough, it just, he just kind of slipped away. He just kind of just forgot about it. But I think it's just one of the things like, you know, if you have an impacting experience and you hold that down the inside, it's just, it's like putting a snake in a, in a box. You just hold it down in there and you keep shaking it, shaking it, shaking the more you shake it, the more it gets wild up. You let it out, you know, let it air out, let it calm down. You know, snake will be fine and you'll want about doing snake business, you know. It's more of the, not just not just it helps people, but it's also, you know, you have. I think soon enough, there's going to be a day when people are going to be like, well, yeah, science says it's not real and people say it's not real or the government says it's not real. But this, this, this, this, this happened here. This guy, this guy, this guy, this one, this guy, they all said this and everything matches up. So the biggest thing about me and the one of the greatest things that I argue with people is, you know, they're like, oh, big, big, big, it's not real. I might, let me tell you something. I said Indians all in almost, almost all tribes of Indians have words for animals. And it's in their own language. And I said, they have a word for every animal on the earth that we know of. I said, why do you think or why would they have a word for an animal that doesn't exist? I mean, you know, they don't have a word for the unicorn. They're not making, they're not making words up for, you know, that some, some, you know, but not, you know, mammoth or, or, or saber to tiger. I mean, like this is like, this is like a real time thing that they're having words for. And, and it's on hieroglyphics, you know, it's on paintings on the walls. And, and there's, there's the Aztec fields that show, this Aztec signs or what it is. It's only, it's only, you can only see it from, from, from aerial surveillance, aerial vision. But when you look down, it has all these hieroglyphics that have been carved into the earth. And it's, it's, it's shapes and fixtures and, and images. And I think that, you know, if Indians, you know, everyone, everyone believes in Indians, everyone does, you know, Indians were on the earth at one point or another as, as, you know, riding as tribal. And they're, they have a word for this thing that doesn't exist. Well, why do they have a word for everything that does exist? You know, it doesn't, you can't, you can't have it. You know, why, why could you argue that point? And, you know, it's in books, it's in, it's in catalogues, it's in news reports. I mean, people are seeing stuff. And, you know, at the end of the day, it's just like, you know, I can't tell you what is or isn't. I can tell you what I know and you can believe me or you don't have to. You know, I'm, I'm like, and I can't force anyone to believe anything. But I can tell them what I know, what I've seen, you know, what I've heard. And they can take the information how they want to. But if I tell them that and they're like, no, no, I still don't believe. And then someone else tells them that and then another person's like, you know, I, you know, I'm hearing so much things about this. There's got to be something out there. And then they start digging in, they start looking into it and they're like, you know, there might be something out there and then they go out there and they see something. And like, dude, there's something out there. And then there's another person that's like, hey, you know, big, what's real? No, he's out there. And it's just, it's matter of time. A lot of people are like, oh, you know, it's a matter of, no, no. They use the argument like, you know, well, why haven't we found a body? You know, why aren't there bones? Why aren't there scone? You know, we're digging up like old fossils of fish and dinosaurs and the, the giant, gigantic pit, the gigantic pit of this or whatever the word is. Big words. And so people are digging them up and like, oh, yeah, this was like 30 million years ago, you know, live on this earth. Why are there no bones of bigfoot? And I'm like, well, have you ever, you know, I'm like, you know, how we bury our dead in the cemetery? You know, we don't dig them up. You know, you bury in the cemetery and we have that place for cemetery. And I'm like, there are places found out in the woods in case in nature where there are bones of mammals, of monkeys that have been buried. And I'm like, maybe, maybe they don't want to be found. Maybe they bury them. Maybe there's a certain place for them. And they bury them or they put them in a cave or they put them in a ravine. And no one will ever find them that way. There's, you know, they don't want to be found. You know, they say that bigfoot's the hiding of seek champions because he doesn't want to be found. He doesn't, he doesn't want, you know, like, yeah, they're, they are curious. I hear that they're curious to follow people, they'll watch you in the woods. And people have, you know, some people have, you know, situation of situational encounters that are scary. But at the end of the day, I think it's that they don't want to be seen. They don't want to be found. They want to be seclusive. They want to be deep, deep, deep when no one else is going to be, you know, you're, you're not there kind. Then they don't want anything to do with you. Because that, you know, man, man is different than ape. They're similar as in two, but man thinks differently, acts differently, ape thinks differently, acts differently. We eat different. We socialize different. You know, we, we live our lives differently than those of, you know, the mammal world or the animal kingdom. And I think it's just that thing where like they recognize like, hey, you know, that, that man, you know, that guy, you know, he's not me. I guess we look alike, but he's not me. He's not one of me. And this is my domain. This is my territory. He's a my territory. He needs to leave. And then there's, there's situations where people talk about, like, they'll have a gun and they'll raise the gun up to look at it. And it knows what a gun is. Like it's seen enough hunters. It's seen its own kind die. And then that's when they get all angry and such. I listened to your, your story or a story just the other day on your podcast of a gentleman. He's on, he said he was a law enforcement officer or excellent enforcement. And he was going down the stairs, going fishing. And there was what he believes is juvenile bigfoot at the bottom of the stairs. And he dropped his, he dropped his fish and pole. And when he went down to pick it up, you know, he looked down for two seconds, look back and all he saw was the back of the thing going into the bank. And he said when he had that fish and pole and he dropped it, this thing looked at the fish and pole. And when he went down and picked it up, this thing kind of flared its lips up and showed his teeth at him. And you know, I think that maybe it thought that maybe it was he was going to hit him with it or maybe it was a gun or, you know, maybe they will be used as a weapon. You know, these, these, these creatures, they're, they're intelligent enough that they know to elude people. Yeah, there are situations where people see him and like, you know, in this situation, but my situation is we're in the middle of the woods, we're in a military base. Very few people getting a military insulation. It's not just that the location of where we were was so much deeper, so much farther than the main area of where all the companies or whatever you go to. I actually, I mapped it out and I'm looking up just on the other side of that rid sign. There is a like super classified access center. It has like a prison prison way wire gates around it. And it's just, it's just like a small couple of buildings and all around it. If you look on the maps, it says close to all classifications, meaning no one can go in there. No military, non-military contractors like you have to have very, very special clearance to get in there. It's kind of like an area 51 thing. And I looked and I was like, why is this here? And then I mapped it out. I said, this happened right next to that. I said, I don't believe in, you know, I believe in coincidence, but this was not a coincidence. This is something, you know, this, this has a time with this. There's something around, you know, this ridge line. There's something around this area. And, you know, there's, there's something with this. This is, it has a tie in some way. And it's just one of those things where I'm like, you know, they know that they need to allude or they, they need to not be around people. So here, let's go, let's go deep, deep in the mountains where we, you know, we can be left alone where we can hunt and fish and live alone. You know, raise our young and just not have to worry about people because people just won't understand. You know what I mean? Yeah, I definitely understand what you're saying, tax. Do you think Sasquatch is more of an animal? Do you think it's more of a man? I think, I think it's more of a man. Honestly, I think a lot of people say it's like the missing link. You know, you have, you have apes and then you have man. Where's the guy in the middle? You know, I think it's, I think, I mean, I think it's an animal. I think, you know, it's been living, you know, living in the woods, but the thing is is man, we won't, you know, to survive manhunts and men fish. We, you know, we make fire and stuff. We build these, these huts. So we build roofs to cover us. Deer don't build that. Beard laid, deer don't care. Like they'll go in a cave or none. They'll lay down, it's raining. They'll lay down on the snow. You see out there on the snow all the time. There are these big foot nests and there's these covers. There's a frames and there's, there's these markings. It takes two hands to do it. It takes muscle and it takes intelligence. You know, you have to know how things are put together to put this together and it's put together that way. And then there's, there's, you know, it's mad at down. It's a giant area where you look up in a tree and there's like, it's mad at down. You look there. It looks like a bed's laying up there. Like these things know, you know, not just like animal. You know, animals don't do that. Like that birds make those birds nest. So it's kind of like a bird's nest. But a bird's nest does that for security for comfort. So it can raise its young safely. It can lay on top of them and keep them safe. The same thing I think goes for you know, big foot. They put it up there. They put it to get off the ground or that way they have a security point. They can look out of this point. They can see their whole 360 surroundings and they can see something coming before it. It's you know, basically it coming and I think it's just, it's that thing where like yes, it's still I think it's an animal. But I think it's a lot more man. It's you know, it's it's muscle mass and it's it's all this this the same anatomy of a man. And it's it's I can't explain face, you know, I can't explain the shoulder and all that. I think it's just the evolution over evolution over time things change and I think over the many many you know, hundred years. That I can tell when the land bridge was that there was a land bridge. I think everything crossed over. I think these things crossed over on the land bridge and now they're all over and you know, they're they're they're in certain places. They're all over the place, but they're all they're all similar in a way is where some are more animal like some are more man like. But I honestly I honestly think it's more manly of a of a creature than you know, than an animal. Yeah, I could definitely understand the way Phil text I've often said even their you know, appearance is aside. Their behavior alone a lot of times makes me think more human than animal. It's definitely a mystery and I really appreciate you taking the time to come on and share it I'm honored you come on and. Share this account and thank you again for your service. Yes, I appreciate I mean I really appreciate having me on I I don't I don't think my stories is great as other people's but you know, when has didn't count. And it's it's such an honor to be here. I'm I'm happy you know be fighting for the country. I appreciate you know your support and as I everyone. You know, we can't do what we can't what we do without you know the love from the country and for everyone else that they have for us. So I really appreciate you. I thanks for having me on. Absolutely. Thanks again, Tex. And that's it for tonight everyone. Remember if you've had an encounter, shoot me an email. My email address is west at sasquatchcronacles.com. And if you get a chance, check out sasquatchcronacles.com. You can become a member and get additional shows until next time everyone.