Any Stories Of Special Forces / Sniper Training Having Encounters ?

[Guest]

Always wondered about this and never heard any stories, you would think with their concealment and long term surveillance they would have encounters.Maybe their just not talking about them. If anyone herd of any stories, please post them.

Thanks

[Rockape]

There's the one where a group of SF training in Alaska saw they saw and followed a BF. I'm sure someone has a link to it. Then there are stories of the Rockapes during the Vietnam war, which has it's own thread here.

[Guest]

One of the blogtalk bigfoot shows had an interview about a platoon on a training exercise that spotted one. can't remember which show. some one here might know though

[Guest MJ151]

There are a number of reports from Ft. Lewis, WA about regular army and Rangers having encounters. If they are, I'm sure 1st group has had them as well. Bobbie Shorts page has a number of encounters listed and a couple other pages have them as well.

[VAfooter]

There's the one where a group of SF training in Alaska saw they saw and followed a BF.

The link is to the BFRO, so currently a no go.

However, I give you BFRO report # 6486 (formating a bit lost, but readable anyway):

In March of 1988, I was the Team Commander (Captain in rank) of a Special Forces "A" Team, conducting a Strategic Reconnaisance training mission in Alaska. There were 11 soldiers on the Team with a lot of Special Forces experience between them. We were wearing rucksacks and walking through the deep snow in a wooded area with cross-country skis. As we approached an area where the woods were too thick to go through on the skis, I decided to walk ahead on snow shoes with two other soldiers to check out the way ahead. After walking about 200 meters into the thicker woods, we came across a set of tracks that immediately drew our attention. The tracks were obviously of a two-legged creature walking through the woods on a course perpendicular to our own. Human tracks of any kind are extremely rare in that part of Alaska but these were particulary unique due to the length of the stride and the fact that there was no crushed snow on either the entry or the exit side of the holes.

We stopped to investigate. When each of us took off our snow shoes we sank into the snow to a depth of about 2 feet (above the knee). When we attempted to take a step in the deep snow, we left an area of crushed snow on the entry side of the hole and then crushed the snow again upon taking our foot out of the hole to take the next step. Our feet made a drag mark in the snow as well no matter how hard we tried to extract the foot without touching the surrounding snow. The best any of us could do was a stride between steps of about 1 1/2 feet. The tracks we were looking at had a stride of over 5 feet between steps and left the snow on both entry and exit from the hole totally untouched. After discussing the rational possibilities for a while, I sent one of my men back to bring up the rest of the Team. Between the 11 men on that Team, we had over 150 years of combined Special Forces experience in the woods all over the planet. They also had extensive experience in the tracking of everything with either two or four legs. We all studied the tracks and tried to come up with a reasonable explanation for what we were looking at. Only one explanation seemed to fit everything we saw but it was not a reasonable explanation. Based on our group experience in tracking humans, we made an approximate determination as to the height and weight of the person who had made the tracks based on the stride and depth of indentation in the snow. THe group consensus was a two-legged person about around 9 ft tall and weighing approximately 500 to 600 pounds. That was our best educated guess.

I then made a decision to set the training mission aside for a while and to follow the tracks through the woods. Wearing snow shoes, we followed those tracks for about an hour before we heard it. From somewhere ahead of us (and quite a distance from what we could tell) we heard the most horrific sound any of us has ever heard. Every other sound in the woods went instantly silent and we could almost hear our hearts beating. The only other time any of us has heard that kind of silence in the woods or jungle was in the last seconds before initiating an ambush. It is as though every creature and insect in the woods knows that something is about to die and they go silent out of fear or self-preservation. After hearing the sound (it was a cross between a howl and a roar), my Team Sergeant (the most senior and experienced member of my Team) stopped me and said, "Sir, speaking for both myself and the rest of the Team, we really do not want to know what is at the end of these tracks (expletives deleted)". This was surprising to me in that, through all of their years in Special Forces, these men had never expressed a fear of anything on two or four legs. I understood their consternation and agreed to resume the original mission. There was also a general consensus not to discuss the incident with anyone upon our return. Mind you that we were on a training misson and did not have live ammunition so any eventual confrontation with whoever or whatever made those tracks would not have been without a great deal of danger. Our curiosity to know what it was that made the tracks was overcome by the reality that we would be no match for it and, more importantly, that we really did not want to know what was at the end of those tracks. Tracks in the snow are much easier to deny and ignore than actually seeing what made them. My soldiers, and I, were afraid of what we heard and saw and the soldiers just didn't want to know.

The tracks stayed on the military crest of ridgelines and in low areas as much as possible. The only times the tracks crossed a ridgeline was in a saddle where it would not be seen. The thing which struck us all as odd was that, while the tracks depicted someone far too large to be human, whatever was making the tracks was moving through the woods exactly as one of us would have if we were conducting an escape and evasion. Whatever it was knew the land (as it maneuvered to bypass clearings well before they came into view) and was making a concentrated effort to remain unseen. I still think that the sound we heard was intended to warn us to back off and not follow.

I have thought back on that incident hundreds of times and wondered how it would have turned out if we had proceeded to follow the tracks. There are pros and cons to both sides of the issue. As for me, there are just some things that cannot be denied. Since then, I have had a VERY healthy respect for Sasquatch.

NOTE: I originally put the entire report here, but edited it in case there was a copyright issue or something like that. But this is the body of it.

Edited July 3, 2012 by VAfooter

[Guest BFSleuth]

If you broaden your search to not just look for sniper team training sighting reports, and look more generally for any military training sighting reports, then you will find a number of them. In particular would be reports from night training exercises. Many military bases have sighting reports in the BFRO database and other databases. Once the BFRO gets their database back online (and I wish the all the best with recovering their server) then we can start listing a number of the reports.

Thank you to VAFooter for posting that report. It is one of the farthest north sighting reports that I know of, well above the Arctic Circle.

[Guest JiggyPotamus]

There are a handful that I have read. And if those reporting these incidents are in fact telling the truth, the information they give is going to be extremely accurate considering they are trained observers. Snipers especially, as observation composes a large part of their training, as well as picking motionless objects out in the treeline. They would make great bigfoot hunters, lol. But they hunt men. A whole different ball game. Or maybe not...?

[VAfooter]

Here is something I never understood about that report. The location is described as follows:

"The team was flown by helicopter out of Wainwright A.F. Base in a south-easterly direction for about an hour before being dropped off in the wilderness for an orienteering excercise lasting several days. The location is north of the Brooks Range and south of the region of the National Petroleum Reserve. Technically, the area is in the North Slope Borough of Alaska."

He says that they flew SE from Fairbanks for an hour (estimate of approximately 100 miles?). That would not put them north of the Brooks Range or in that region. I have always tried to figure out what part of the description is in error, but have yet to do so.

Inconsistancies:

1) If they did indeed chopper SE for an hour, it was not out of Wainwright (location describe is correct).

2) If they flew out of Wainwright either SE or for an hour or both, the location is not correct.

3) If they flew out of Wainwright NW for an hour, the mode of transportation is incorrect (location describe is correct and they rode a C-141, but para-dropped in).

4) Did he deliberately change some of the details due to security issues?

5) Or is it just a poor recollection of what happened?098[

OK, so I know this is not a big deal, but it has always bugged me. To me, it casts doubt on the credibility of the witness if small details like this are incorrect (I do tend to believe this one and am willing to give any witness the benefit of the doubt in most cases...). Just figured a SF trooper would have all the details down pat.

By the way, I recall incidents at these bases:

Ft. Stewart, GA

Ft. Pickett, VA

Ft. Lewis, WA

Ft. Bragg, NC

Camp LeJeune, NC

Ft. Rucker, AL

Ft. Sill, OK

Twentynine Palms, CA

Edwards AFB, CA

Camp Robinson, AR (ARNG)

Little Rock AFB, AR

Ft. Benning, GA

Ft. Carson, CO

Shaw AFB, SC

Cherry Point, SC

Minot AFB, ND (iffy on this one)

Quantico, VA

Eglin AFB, FL

[Guest BFSleuth]

I wish the BFRO database was up right now. I think the airport they flew out of was Wainwright, AK, which is on the northwest coast of Alaska and makes sense in regards to the direction and time they flew.

Wainwright, AK - 70º 38'09.35"N 160º00'37.44"W

Sighting location - 69º56'40.66"N 156º40'29.99"W

[VAfooter]

That would make a lot more sense and does fit in with the overall incident much better. The thing was, he said Wainwright AFB, which I took to mean either Ft. Wainwright in Fairbanks (Ladd Army Airfield) or Eielson AFB located about 15 miles SE of Ft. Wainwright. Technically, there is no such thing as Wainwright AFB.

Thanks for the clarification. I have to agree that it is the best solution to this apparent discrepancy.

[Guest]

Taken from an Australian site about the yowie

Report as follows:

1430

10th October 2003 - Area of Operations (AO) Ormeau Area

Weather Conditions - 5/8ths cloud cover, strong to very strong southerly

Area - Steeply sloping bushland developing into semi-dense bush with some

selectively cleared areas, closest dwelling approx 1.5km.

After drop off by my second, (name witheld - dubbed N) conducted a good

recce of the area. After speaking to Jason (Witness) I was sure this was the area which he described as there was evidence of tree felling and clearing still apparent. N had a good 3km to run back after securing vehicle. We both then hid our gear etc. and conducted an extensive 2hr recce down and about in a quartering search encompassing 150 degrees. No evidence of any recent human activity although bush was extremely quiet except for the wind (which may have been a factor). No evidence of anything other than a few roo and fox tracks barely discernible.

1750 - Arrived back at gear and set up sniping/listening position in dense

lantana 15m down slope slightly right. From outside assessed camouflage and found it to be good with just cams on, with Ghillie suit (yowie suit lol)

excellent. GenIII headmount monocular nvg, 10x Unertl high lightsource scope gave good-very good view of target area after dark. Weapon was zeroed and grouped at 200m one day prior, shooting less than minute of arc at 200.

Loaded with match class 7.62x51mm boatail Nato rounds. Personal weapons

carried in quick draw thigh holsters (Sig Sauer P226 .45 standard issue,

commercially available)

1830 - N left for scout down road in shorts and tshirt in case he ran into

anybody and to also give me a chance to settle in and listen/look etc.

1850 - N arrives back, nothing to report, as previously decided he dresses

just in cams and proceeds to set up a small camp with fire (enclosed due to

wind) and began to cook a few snags and mushrooms. Communications was via UHF taccoms throat mics and earpiece (standard issue).

1930 - Nothing to report (NTR)

2030 - NTR - Wind dropped off to negligible

2130 - Sweep with nvg's picked up movement at my 10, N reported that he

could hear twigs breaking etc. Closer look with scope at 4x revealed a fox,

probably coming in due to smell of cooking meat.

2230 - NTR

0113 11th Oct - Heavy movement heard through undergrowth at exactly my 12 by both N and I. Becoming very overcast and nv less effective. Sounded close and very heavy, no other sounds, surrounding area very quiet, no bird or other noise. N went to ground directly below my position in good cover.

Waited, nothing further. Believe that whatever it was, was quite close to

edge of bush and may have either seen or smelt N's campsite and either

watched or quietly went away.

Nothing to report until 0423 - N asleep in position below me, loud crash

like large sapling falling and loud thump followed by extremely loud

scream/growl. May have been target or may have been koalas. N awake and at ready position, nothing seen in direction through n/v no further sounds, decided to stay locked and cocked regardless.

0600 - N proceeded on 360 degree patrol sweep around AO, found largish dead tree freshly broken on ground in approximate area of sound last night, no footprints but some scuffing around base and fresh tears in wood about 7ft up length. Pulled out of position and had breakfast, couple of hours sleep

etc.

1123 - Bush surrounding AO suddenly very still, acknowledged by N and

myself, kept still (not in position). 5 mins, nothing heard or seen, noises

returned (may have been fox again).

1300 - Having seen no-one we decided to set up a defensive perimeter with 4 rattle traps, 3 illumination flares and 3 tripped flashbangs at varying

distances across open face of area and one each over crest of hill behind as

we felt exposed from behind throughout night before. Completed perimeter at 1500, returned to site for drink etc.

1700 - Final patrol sweep, assessed trips as functioning, returned and got

into position. N took two IR fireflies to set off if need be. These are like

a flashing high powered strobe but emit in Infrared spectrum and can only be

seen by those with IR or NV gear.

1830 - NTR

1930 - Light rain began to fall, no wind, no problem.

2030 - NTR

2100 - Rain stopped, N started fire and began to cook snags, bacon and

mushrooms for his feast tonight. (*******, I'm starving).

2122 - Silence suddenly, heavy movement to our 10 oclock moving through 11.

N reports that he can see a large shape at his 12, my 2. Swept area with n/v

and scope at 5x, id'd shape and confirmed contact with N.

Contact Report Follows -

At approx 2125 a large (over 7ft) tall figure was identified at a distance

of approx 45m standing left side on to my position facing N's position more

or less straight on to him. I went to instant (safety off, round loaded,

target identified). N remained still although he later said that he lost

sight of target and also went to instant. I tracked figure moving through nv

and scope across front of position, looked like it deliberately missed the

rattle traps. Kept N updated on position of target as he began a tactical

withdrawl to my position. Unfortunately we were upwind of target giving a

good indication of our positions although we had both not showered for 4

days and the ghillie suit is covered in hessian/cow s#@t/dirt/leaves i.e.

never washed.

At no time did I or we believe that what we saw was a human.

After approx 30mins of walking back and forth across the SW arc of site,

target seemed to withdraw.

2213 - No_2 flashbang was tripped closely followed by No_1. Trips were 10m

apart. Came alert and went to instant. N in position with nv sight, my nv

blacked by flash and eyes taking a long time to come back.

N reports heavymovement at 12 oclock, No_3 flashbang tripped, large bang, loud screaminggrunting noise heard thrashing etc. nv came back online, eyes adjusted, Ntracked target and gave me the dope, id'd target at approx 50m, large (male) hominid proceeding quickly across our front, at instant, decided to take shot as target entered my line of sight. Target switched direction, N tracking via nv, took hurried shot now to scare it off. 1st shot close by left shoulder, remaining five shots put down in area last seen at tree, later all confirmed hits, no exit marks, safe shoot. Went tactical, dumped long arm, switched to personal weapons and began to track target via noise.

Still loud crashing, grunting and occasional scream approx 100m ahead

closing.

Moving at fast patrol pace, stopped at edge of medium sized

clearing, target now stopped, no noise, swept area for a good 3mins, no

sighting. N threw three flashbangs across our front and one to our rear.

Noise began again, more aggressive this time, smaller trees at our 9 oclock

shaking. N put 11 shots into a stump at 20m range, crashing began again.

Pursuit had been ongoing now for approx 2hrs in a NW/NNW direction. We were slowly falling behind to a distance of about 200m.

Came to large clearing, cleared and target id'd via sound at our 11 oclock. Both N and I tossed last 2 flashbangs in area of target, loud enraged screaming retreated, N and myself emptied magazines into a tree rapidly and began a backtrack to our site. Nothing more heard or seen. Gathered up spent shells, pulled out.

0120 approx - Pulled in laying up position and packed up, dismantled trips.

We were worried that police may have been alerted by noise we made etc.

Sanitised area as best we could and left paralelling Barrenjoey to vehicle

hide.

0155 - Successfully egressed area.

Dean,

Checks were done by both of us the following day and last weekend

(18th-19th) we staged the same trap although it was pissing down rain.

Nothing seen, a large sweep out to our last contact point (verified by

bullet holes in tree) gave absolutely no indication of activity. Many prints

were seen left by foxes, roos, birds, cats etc. nothing even vaguely human.

I believe we did what we set out to do, a clean operation with no reason to

tap anything. I am of the opinion that the target was scared away, and

although territorial, has now been scared off for good. I will continue to

check area. Some photos were taken through the kitesite but are almost

black, standby (when I get them from N) for recce photos during the day of

tree, etc.

[Dean] - Well done guys, it sounds like this one WAS a real danger. God knows what it would have done to me if I didn't make it to open ground in time. You agreed that its a threat, but I wonder just how much of a threat? If, again, you were alone at night and un-armed and you were deeply obligated well into the forest at night - what, in your opinion would be the outcome for you? If its not a good prognosis, then would you agree that others may not have been so fortunate in the past?

[Reply] - Dean, Hard for me to say exactly, although as stated previously it scared 2 SASR snipers who have both been in the Gulf, Somalia, Timor and Afghanistan enough to want to retreat. I think that if you were alone and unarmed well deep into the bush and this thing decided it didn't like you, well, that's all she wrote. I certainly believe that people may have been taken or attacked by it as it was certainly aggressive enough. Imagine anything else having two armed blokes in pursuit, with loud bangs and gunfire. Anything or anybody else would have been long gone, but this thing seemed like we had to really force it every step.

I don't like to think if it had actually been able to flank us or if we were unarmed. I reckon the flashbangs were the big factor in scaring it off. So in short after that ramble, yes I think it is possible that had any people met this creature alone, in it's territory they would be very lucky to get out unscathed if at all. As I stated, it was probably one of the scariest few hours I have experienced.

By the way I neglected to mention that at only one time did we detect any

sulphorous like smell and that was during the initial contact when it set

off the trips. The smell seemed to linger in the area when we went through

there after it.

Edited July 4, 2012 by Ghuda

[VAfooter]

Great report Ghuda!

Flashbangs and BF, that is a new one for me. I am guessing that it has indeed "been scared off for good."

[See-Te-Cah NC]

I wish the BFRO database was up right now. I think the airport they flew out of was Wainwright, AK, which is on the northwest coast of Alaska and makes sense in regards to the direction and time they flew.

Wainwright, AK - 70º 38'09.35"N 160º00'37.44"W

Sighting location - 69º56'40.66"N 156º40'29.99"W

http://www.bfro.net/GDB/show_report.asp?id=6486

I got the report by entering the "Sightings by Region" section. I can view the reports from each state there.

Did they fix it, perhaps? Maybe I'm behind and haven't heard the news.

[bipedalist]

Yes it's fixed, at Ft. Wainwright, Fairbanks, also known as Ladd Army Air Field/Air Force Base and it's satellite Eielson Air Force base, official names, are both in that zone. Eielson 26 miles southwest of Fairbanks is apparently now a training/exercise base more than anything. Apparently the bases had separate missions at one time but I have seen one referred as a satellite to the other now.

From wiki:

Until 2007, Eielson was a front line base, deploying fighter and bomber units around the world as well as providing for the defense of Alaska.

Taken off deployment status in 2007 as a result of BRAC 2005, today the primary mission of the base is to support Red Flag-Alaska, a series of Pacific Air Forces commander-directed field training exercises for U.S. Forces, provides joint offensive counter-air, interdiction, close-air support, and large force employment training in a simulated combat environment. These exercises are conducted on the Joint Pacific Alaskan Range complex with air operations flown out of the two bases. Alaska's size enables the military to have the largest air-ground training complex in America.

Edited July 6, 2012 by bipedalist

[Guest]

Here is something I never understood about that report. The location is described as follows:

"The team was flown by helicopter out of Wainwright A.F. Base in a south-easterly direction for about an hour before being dropped off in the wilderness for an orienteering excercise lasting several days. The location is north of the Brooks Range and south of the region of the National Petroleum Reserve. Technically, the area is in the North Slope Borough of Alaska."

He says that they flew SE from Fairbanks for an hour (estimate of approximately 100 miles?). That would not put them north of the Brooks Range or in that region. I have always tried to figure out what part of the description is in error, but have yet to do so.

Inconsistancies:

1) If they did indeed chopper SE for an hour, it was not out of Wainwright (location describe is correct).

2) If they flew out of Wainwright either SE or for an hour or both, the location is not correct.

3) If they flew out of Wainwright NW for an hour, the mode of transportation is incorrect (location describe is correct and they rode a C-141, but para-dropped in).

4) Did he deliberately change some of the details due to security issues?

5) Or is it just a poor recollection of what happened?098[

I'd be willing to be #4 is the best explanation on that...my question is (and maybe any military/ex-military might chime in) whether or not it is typical for soldiers on training maneuvers to go into the field w/o ammo in such a setting. Wouldn't they at least carry SOME ammo in case they needed to deal with a bear or a snake or something like that?

By the way, I recall incidents at these bases:

*list snipped for space*

You can add Ft Leonard Wood, MO to that list.