Marines and Soldiers Stalked by Creatures in the Woods

[Laughter]

[Music]

when I enlisted in the Marine Corps it

took me a while to get used to being in

the military because some of the most

mundane things that we did as part of

the job well initially they seemed very

strange to me one of those things was

the idea of going to the field my first

thought was that we were literally going

to an actual field just setting up tents

in an open grassy area and living

outside for a few days but since there

would be work involved it would be like

camping with extra

steps I guess that's not exactly wrong

but we never had tents being Recon we

spent the entire time doing patrols and

just roughing it out in the jungle like

mowgly and even if we did sleep in tents

at times most people would pick nice

safe dry spots to set up their tents

when they go camping right the military

doesn't do that well maybe the air force

uh does because well they go camping at

the Hilton but when I reached my first

Duty station in Hawaii going to the

field meant packing up a week's worth of

food water fuel batteries our rifles all

of our personal gear radios and so on

and then we would drive in military

vehicles in Convoy Fashion on the

highway or hop on a helicopter and go

from our base to one of several military

training installations on the island

most of which were covered in thick

jungle

going to the field therefore means

something different depending on where

any given unit is located in the world

for instance Hawaii was often windy

rainy and miserable at night but besides

the centipedes there wasn't much animal

life out there in the jungle that would

bother you and and they do bite and

they're very painful but other than that

there wasn't really much out there going

to the field on Camp Pendleton in

California meant you might run into a

rattlesnake or two uh and probably stick

yourself with a few cacti when you're

walking around out in the desert at

night but the following two stories one

from a marine conducting training in the

mountains of Northern California and the

other from a national Guardsman training

in the Wisconsin Mountains east of the

Mississippi

River well I'm not sure I have any idea

what they

encountered especially as they

indicate if it wasn't

human

this is the smoke pit and these are true

stories submitted by fellow service

members stories about encounters that

they had with something that is

collectively known as a pale

crawler a

[Music]

rake Marine Corps Mountain Warfare

training center Bridgeport California

this story was emailed to me earlier

this year by a young Marine whose name I

have chosen to keep Anonymous mostly

because he is still active duty and I

don't want his command or anyone else to

catch wind of this and berate him for

sharing this bizarre story and

associating his command with it or to

otherwise draw any unwanted attention on

him publicly he

writes my name is corporal Oscar with

the United States Marine Corps and I

have a story I'd like to share with you

from our platoon time in Bridgeport for

Mountain training

exercise a couple years ago from

September to October our platoon Alpha 2

of first CB combat Engineer Battalion

went to Bridgeport for a joint exercise

with our Victor unit

21 before we got there we were briefed

back on Camp Pendleton about things like

high altitude pulmonary anemia and how

the oxygen difference with the altitude

could cause

hallucinations we also heard other

strange stories about the training area

such as people sometimes waking up right

as marine animal Packers Marines

patrolling with horses and donkeys would

unexpectedly walk through the middle of

the patrol bases at night uh because the

animal Packers course used the same

training area anyway when we got to

bridgeport's lower base camp we were

given 2 days to acclimatize our bodies

to the altitude in that time we explore

the surrounding mountains and we may or

may not have climbed up mountains we

weren't supposed to and taken some cool

pictures the strange activities though

started around 2 weeks into

Bridgeport we'd always make jokes about

Skin Walkers coming by and grabbing Us

in the middle of the

night but something did actually show

up yo Rambo you put your damn knife away

going get these tarps up all right but

one it's a bayonet and two you got to

admit this thing is pretty damn cool

look at this thing how much you pay for

that thing anyway uh 250 damn bro

seriously did they come with a Camaro

and 29%

financing whatever man this thing is

awesome I mean it's a classic just help

me get the damn tarps up will you all

right all

right

one night during an operation we called

the Cool

C I'm not sure what it stands for

probably combat operations something

something we were at bridgeport's

highest Landing Zone LZ owl we'd set up

shelter with our tarps for the night I

should mention this tree we hooked our

tarps on was growing up against a large

rock face I was a lance corpal at the

time I had with me one other lance

corporal engineer and Lance corpal Water

Dog a water specialist and we used large

rocks like small Boulders and wooden

staks to anchor down our tarps to make a

pyramid shape uh against the tree so one

one end of the tarps was attached to the

tree and it was like a lean to kind of

built around the entire perimeter of

this tree so any water would roll off

and keep our gear and US dry underneath

another thing of note the the water dog

we had with us would often be messing

around with his rifle because he had a

bayonet with him and you know he'd stick

it on the end of his rifle he liked

playing with it he liked showing it off

so once night came and the freezing snow

started falling we went under our tarps

and into our sleeping bags this was

around 9:00

p.m. I woke up around 10: p.m. to the

sound of

someone racking the charging handle of

their weapon back

it's dead quiet up there and we're

supposed to be in a tactical environment

so making unnecessary noises like that

is going to piss somebody

off so I look around and me and my other

Engineers m4s were on the ground next to

us and only the water dog's rifle was

around the backside of the tree where

only he could see Ito youw it was dark

yeah and so I figure what's up it's this

guy he must be screwing around with his

bayonet again is that you so I asked him

if that was him messing with his

rifle me he gets up out of his sleeping

bag and tells me that it wasn't

him so now I'm thinking that someone

maybe one of the Infantry guys that

we're training with has snuck up to our

patrol base and is messing with us so I

pull out my Kar and I crawl out from

under the tarps I'm I'm going to go

threaten some poor guy who thinks he's

going to scare us right but there was

nobody else

nearby what the hell hey Oscar yes

Sergeant what the hell are you doing uh

I I heard a noise did you hear like a

rifle or something yeah is that you guys

no Sergeant what's with the knife I came

out cuz I thought it might be one of the

Infantry guys or

something yeah okay let me go ask the

firewatch see if they're screwing

around

God so when I came out my sergeant he

sees me coming up out of Arlene to and

he walks up to me and asks me what the

hell I'm doing you know standing there

holding a knife and all and I asked if

he had heard the noise that we did and

he said that he did thinking it was one

of us racking our rifles which I told

him it wasn't so then he walks over to

the nearby infantrymen on firewatch and

he asks if he or his guys were screwing

around with their rifles but that guy

also knew nothing about it so our

Sergeant comes back up and tells us that

and says to just go back to sleep so I

went back in my sleeping bag and I

forget all about

it next time I woke up was 6:00 a.m.

rily but now our tarps are all on the

ground like something had pulled them

down off the

tree and the small Boulders we use to

hold them down they are nowhere to be

found and the stakes same story

gone so as we're trying to figure out

what had happened with our tarps our

Sergeant comes back up and tells

us what he

saw earlier that

night he said he didn't mention it

because he thought he was seeing things

at the time but after he told us to go

back to sleep and I had crawled back

into my sleeping bag my sergeant said

something caught his eye up at the top

of the rock face behind

us and so he looks up and he sees this

bald naked human looking figure with

shining eyes looking over from On Top of

the Rock

face and as soon as he spotted it he

said he saw it duck away immediately

thought you heard it on the roof my

first thought was a video I'd seen uh of

a of a guy who was filming his house

because he thinks there's a skin walk or

rake around his house and when he sees

it on top of his roof as he's filming it

as soon as he saw it this thing also

ducks behind the house and

disappears so again my sergeant thought

he was just seeing things so he said he

just went back to bed as well but now

with the tarps being messed with I guess

he thought he should tell us about

it we don't know what it was maybe

somebody was messing with us but I think

we would have heard them moving around

if it was a

person whatever it was it was far more

disciplined in silence than any

infantryman or Marine that I've ever met

I have a few pictures here as proof of

our time in Bridgeport if

necessary

well brother I I don't know what your

sergeant saw either but at least all it

did was just mess with your gear at

least it didn't steal any of it I mean

imagine trying to explain that to cth uh

what happened to your

tarp um it was stolen by a rake uh-huh

yeah but as horrible as this is to

acknowledge and this is the reason that

there's an episode for this and there

will be at least at least another one or

maybe two in future because of the

amount of stories I have you are not the

only person training out in the field to

see something like this I've got several

more of these encounter stories from

here in the US and even a couple from

some active soldiers I think one was a a

British soldier and I think a German

soldier training in

Germany a hairless decrepit Bigfoot

maybe uh a curious

alien only God knows since it's not in

any of the science books I've read but

since you didn't mention having any

theories about the source of the noise

you heard which you and your sergeant

both seem to identify as the charging

handle on someone's M4 I did have one

theory about that these things when they

are cited are occasionally said to be

excellent tree

climbers and since the sound woke you up

rather than you it's not as if you were

sitting there listening and you heard it

it it was a sound that woke you up I

thought maybe what you took to be the

sound of a charging handle which sounds

like

this might have otherwise been this

[Music]

sound which is the sound of a branch

breaking the two noises seemed close

enough to me that if your Sergeant's

eyes weren't lying to him maybe this

thing was up in the tree above you and

it scrambled down when it's saw your

sergeant or another Marine walking

closer breaking a branch in its haste to

get out of the

tree whatever it was that's just one

good reason that we still keep fire

watch even when we're in

training stay frosty out there

[Music]

guys Fort McCoy

Wisconsin

do this point all right ladies let's go

let's go let's go hurry up and plot your

points faster you get out there the

faster you're going to get done unless

you're not prior enlisted then there's

not really much hope for you officer is

notoriously bad at land this next story

was submitted by a national Guardsman to

the Phantoms and monsters website he

writes I want to share an experience I

had while training with my National

Guard unit at for McCoy

Wisconsin I moved from enlisted to

officer via Roc and was attached to a

unit in my perspective MOS while in the

program I don't really want to give

specifics on my service as the community

is small enough to identify me to my

peers in 2014 my platoon decided to

conduct nighttime Land Navigation at

Fort McCoy from 2030 to 0030 in the

morning while the Army is typically all

about Buddy pairs nightland navigation

is is one of the few cases we get to do

things solo because the whole point is

to check that the individual Soldier is

qualified to do it without help so I

step off on my plotted route with my

compass my map and headlamp in

hand for those who do not know land naav

involves finding these engineering

Stakes these markers on a course by

plotting their coordinates on a map and

then walking from point to point using

various map Reading techniques terrain

Association

and of course a

compass at night this is typically done

without light as much as possible when

light is used your flashlight it's it's

a red lens this minimizes the impact on

our night vision ostensibly these

methods also keep you concealed in a

tactical environment you know if you

were actually doing this in a in a real

Combat scenario along with practicing

noise discipline so it's all part of the

training so I was moving through the

woods while making a token effort to be

difficult to spot or hear the Woodland I

was in was part of a larger Forest

system but was frequently traveled that

night we had some 15 soldiers clomping

around in the woods my source of light

was a headlamp that toggled between a

red and white light I had it set up

initially so that the red light was the

first light to turn on so you turn it on

it's red you turn it off you turn it

back on after a couple seconds it's

still red because to cycle the white

light I would have to turn it off twice

so the if you've used a headlamp like

this I don't need to explain it to you

but for those that are not familiar when

you cycle this headlamp it starts on

solid white you turn it off you turn it

back on immediately it changes to

flashing white you turn it off

immediately right back on solid red off

again back on again flashing red and

then off and then if you turn it back on

it's back on solid white now I'm not

telling you all this for nothing nothing

but I'll explain shortly why that

matters during my initial planning I saw

that my sign points would take me to the

other side of the Corson back good hour

and a half distance at least as the crow

flies bit longer to actually walk

because the train goes up and down and

you're in the woods at night you're

Meandering around trees moving slowly

trying not to gouge your eyes out on low

hanging

branches but the points I had were more

or less in a straight line with one

another so I was just going to hit each

one as I walked out into the training

area so I estimated maybe 2 and 1/2

hours out and back I was just going to

walk out hit all my points and then just

walk back after I was done but I knew if

I came back too early I might be given

another set of points so I resolved to

just walk out take a break for an hour

once I was done if I had time and then

Mosey on

back the first half of this goes as

planned I get my points without much

trouble and and wind up sitting on a

hillside at around it's maybe now 10: at

night it's cloudy but the moon is full

but it's windy so the clouds are

intermittently blocking the illumination

from the moon so I can see pretty well

when the sky is clear but there is like

no Alum when the cloud cover is is too

heavy occasionally I see a red light

bobbing in the distance below me a pair

of my platoon members pass down uh on

the hill in front of me using a white

light to read their map and I startled

them when I asked if they needed help

cuz you know you're not supposed to be

using your white light out there but by

the end of my break I don't see any more

Motion in my area most people had likely

walked out and back they'd found all

their points or they were too lost and

ended up taking one of the roads to get

back so I'm feeling pretty at one with

my surroundings having sat in the same

spot eating stale Skittles for a good

long while there's owls hooting trees

are swaying it's it was

nice I Trot down this hill and I Ste

through some brush and I'm now in a

clearing where this Prairie Land

intersects with Forest there are some

dead trees in the area and one of them

is split it's still standing and it's

split halfway

up at the top of this broken tree about

15 ft up off the ground what I can make

out a distinct head and shoulder

silhouette against the clouds which were

backlit by the moon there's enough light

coming through that I can still make out

this this silhouette of this person so I

walk up to ask how the hell they got up

there and if they're stuck and they need

help when this

Shadow

twitches and I get the distinct

impression it it's now turned toward

me I stand there looking at it and maybe

it's looking at me the situation

definitely feels off but I I wasn't

about to let a battle buddy Punk me so I

asked if they needed a hand

hey but mid

sentence the Moonlight comes

back and it's immediately clear to me

that the thing on that tall stump was

not a

soldier this Moonlight Glimpse is the

best look I get at the thing it looked

like

a a stretched out bald

person its long arms are clutching the

stump I I can't make out the face but it

looks pinched and by that I I mean I

couldn't see its eyes or

mouth like they were very small and in

the middle of the

head it's skinny like it hasn't eaten

but it's tall and obviously strong

enough enough to have made such a

vertical climb on his tree he was

definitely looking at

me probably was the whole time I was in

the clearing maybe even since I came

down the hill so I swear loudly and

then it rapidly scurries down the

trunk I flick my red light on and I

catch it on all fours moving toward the

brush line in the direction I'm heading

and automatically I keep talking Ling

the lamp to be in the white light that

means it goes off then to flashing red

then to back on then finally to White so

in the flash as I scramble to get my

damn headlamp working I see the thing at

the Woodline but I think it's flipped

itself around and is backing in to the

tree line probably to keep its eyes on

me and in the few seconds it takes for

me to get to the white light it's

gone

I scann the tree line which is now

silent when it moved there was a a

scraping

noise plus the Woodland brush was dense

if it was still running I would hear

it so I reason that it must have stopped

moving and it must still be watching

me so I I fumbled to get my knife out

and I keep looking around the woods in

front of

me and after what felt like ages I start

inching along a perpendicular path to my

initial route of travel an angle that

will link me up with the hard ball road

that runs up and down the side of the

training

course and once on the road I figure I

can just take that road back to where my

platoon is

parked my major problem is that the road

is 10 minutes of walking from my current

position and it's mostly

Woodland that can't be helped I have to

get out of this clearing first and my

progress on that front is painfully slow

because I'm just trying to keep my eyes

on where this where I think this thing

still is and the whole time I am

fighting this kind

of natural urge to just freeze in place

and not

move after Sid stepping about a good 10

m I hear a corresponding rustling and I

think I see

movement that was enough to get me to

just turn and bolt right into a down log

which trips me I scramble back up to my

feet and I look back to the Woodline

where there is an audible

commotion I Glimpse an emaciated leg and

an ass moving back into the

woods and at this point I am done with

the whole situation but I don't want to

run again and keep tripping so I start

power walking to the road trying to look

as much as I can over my left shoulder

to see what this thing is

doing and over the movement of my own

kit I can hear it moving alongside me

parallel and as I near the end of the

clearing I think I hear it picking up

pace as if to cut me off before I enter

the tree

line I made the decision to Sprint and

when I enter the woods my path is clear

but I'm pretty sure I can still hear it

moving along with me in my my periphery

I don't stop I'm just running hard until

I hit that paved Road and I and I ate it

pretty hard a few times tripping over

stuff in the woods but I just kept

frantically getting back up and running

and once I'm on the road I just

ran

until I I couldn't hear it I didn't I

didn't think I could hear it

anymore so now I'm winded from this dead

out run for I don't know however many

minutes and from the middle of the road

I I had pretty good visibility so I

decided to walk and try to catch my

breath it's quiet for a while and then I

hear a a branch move about had to be

about 30 ft in the air from the woods on

the side of the road that I had just run

out

of I snap my gaze up and I see this

pale oval-shaped face this ovular face

half in Shadow peeking at me from around

the trunk of a tree way up on the tree I

took off again and I did not stop and

after what felt like way too long I

finally make it back I see the

headlights of our LM TVs and I checked

my watch and it was

12:15 what happened Cadet you get lost

out

there why are you you're covered in mud

did you fall down why are you out of

breath oh yeah I got

lost on my way

back I got lost you uh you going to be

okay I'm

fine I knew

better than to to tell them that I

saw what I saw a monster

basically in the years since drilling at

FMC I have never experienced anything

like that

again

McCoy does not have a history of

disappearances as far as I know neither

do the two closest towns Sparta and

Toma I've done nightland navigation

alone a few times since without

issue but this is less from Courage and

more from me just deciding to think that

you know maybe I just misinterpreted the

situation and what I was

seeing but then

again maybe the world is

weirder than I previously

thought now a story where a lieutenant

claims to understand Land Navigation and

says that he found all of his grid

points before everyone else that is a

story I would find questionable most

officers would still be out there

wandering around right now but since

this guy was a former enlisted soldier

who then transitioned to become an

officer his proficiency at Land

Navigation checks

out in all seriousness this is one of

those stories that gives me the heebie

jeebies just reading it I cannot imagine

the anxiety of actually living through

this

experience everything you read online

typically says that the existence of

these creatures is entirely fictional

these rakes or pale

crawlers that it's all just some sort of

creepy pasta that was invented in the

last couple decades so either these two

guys and everybody else are just pulling

our legs for a

laugh or there is something

weird skullking around the mountains and

forests as I said these are not the only

stories I've received so

far and quite

possibly these two are not even the most

terrifying if I was somebody living near

the woods I would keep my doors and

windows locked at

night and if you're out training in the

field don't fall asleep on

firewatch

[Music]

hey guys so don't have much to add as

far as additional comments on these

stories but because I poke so much fun

at the officers being bad at lnav I did

want to maybe justify that by by sharing

one of my own personal experiences with

this very common military Trope about

particularly lieutenants being bad at

Land Navigation so my six-man team my

Recon team we were in Guam we were

attached to the 31st Mew this was a

training mission that we were doing in

Guam we had been sent out into this

Godless jungle some of the nastiest

stuff I've ever walked through and our

whole objective was to get observation

and radio collection on an enemy a

location where there was enemy activity

it was like a weapons cach that were

building buildings they had role players

that were moving in and out and

ultimately it culminated with a high

value Target that was going to be on

site that we reported and then the raid

force was going to come in and kick the

doors in Kill Everybody snatch the bad

guy the whole thing so the 3 days go by

we send up all our reports The Raid

force is coming in our next objective is

to meet the raid Force at a rally point

cuz they're going to pick us up and

extract us that's our ride out so under

the cover of Darkness we moved to the

rally point and we're sitting in the

middle of this field dead tired waiting

for these guys to show up and several

hours go by and we don't know where they

are and after a while finally they do

show up and they drive right past us

just blow right past us and I knew they

were going in the wrong direction so

we're like what the hell's going on they

do have to turn around it was just the

most embarrassing thing to see because

these giant trucks are on this little

tiny dirt road with an embankment on

both sides so they have to do like this

350 point turn just to get all of these

I don't know maybe 10 trucks turned

around and then start moving in in the

other direction it was just really

clumsy so finally they come back to

where we are they stop to pick us up and

of course perfect timing as always here

comes this torrential wall of rain as

we're sprinting to the trucks to try to

stay we've been dry for 3 days we do not

want to get wet at the last second so we

clamber into the back of the 7even ton

throw our gear up we managed to stay dry

and now we're just chilling in the back

of this truck our mission is done but

the Convoy doesn't go anywhere and as

I'm sitting there dead tired I haven't

slept in two days I hear this kind of

fierce conversation going on outside the

tarp and it's it's a sergeant talking to

somebody else one of the other team

leaders or his ATL something like that

the lieutenant doesn't know where we are

was the gist of the conversation that I

was hearing and the next thing I heard

was a command being passed down the

whole line of trucks everybody out all

the Infantry guys were going to unload

get your kits on get your rifles ready

we're going to move to the raid site

from here here where we just stopped on

the road now I was the navigator for my

team I had studied this map very well I

was familiar with the training area we'

walked around it I knew where we were

and I knew where the enemy was and I

knew this was the worst possible place

to unload and move these guys cuz

there's like a kilometer of solid nasty

jungle when I say it was the worst

jungle I ever patrolled through it

wasn't the terrain everything was

covered in Thorns it was like an

acupuncture treatment just walking it

was horrible I was so worried about

getting my eyes poked out seriously and

the spiders I've never seen so many

spiders at night you can't see them but

the cobwebs like in my face the whole

time at the front of this Patrol and

then when daylight came it was like some

ungodly like the forest in Harry Potter

unbelievably terrifying amount of

spiders the Guam has like some really

bad problem with spiders apparently and

they're huge but anyway I knew that

these infantry guys there was a platoon

sized element plus going to move through

this jungle in any short amount of of

time no so I'm sitting there in the

truck kind of mulling this over as I

hear all these guys getting ready to

step off and this is one of the points

in my career where I can say something

save these guys a bunch of hassle or I

could just stay nice and comfortable in

the truck and warm well my conscience

got the better of me I hopped out of the

truck immediately got soaked walked up

to the front I'm asking guys up the line

like hey who can I talk to who's in

charge here who's the

Navigator I get pointed up to the very

front lead vehicle there's a lieutenant

and a sergeant looking over this map so

I go up to them and I just kind of

interject in their conversation excuse

me gentlemen and they're like oh yeah

who are you what do you want and I said

well I'm the navigator for the Recon

team my name is Sergeant lman um can I

are you guys planning on stepping off

from here and the Lieutenant's like yeah

so um I'm looking at this map here and

the enemy site is just North of us from

where we are so we're just going to

basically cut through this brush line

right here this wood line and and we'll

be on at the enemy in like 15 minutes

now he hasn't patrolled control through

this jungle I have it's going to take

like 3 hours so I tell them that and I

explain how horrible the jungle is and

the sergeant is now looking at me like

bro please help us tell us where to go

this man has no idea what he's doing so

I just say look if you guys just drive

straight down this road about half a

click and then take a left from there

and then another kilometer to the north

you are right on top of the enemy you do

not have to send your guys through this

ungodly

jungle Lieutenant looks at his Sergeant

his Sergeant seems to agree he looks at

me he's like okay yeah everybody load

back up they load everybody back up and

the sergeant asks me on offline he grabs

me he's like bro can you please sit in

the lead vehicle with the lieutenant and

tell the driver where to go so I go back

and I tell my team leader hey I'm going

to be sitting up in the lead truck for

the rest of this Mission I tell the

driver literally it was what I said it

just drive down the road there's a turn

coming up to the left and I say he just

take this left hand turn and the

driver's like cursing and muttering

under his breath he's like bro we passed

this thing three times and so we take

the left hand turn and sure enough they

stop just short of the enemy they unload

and never have to walk through any

jungle they just walk right up this nice

Road and hit the enemy guns blasting

people screaming end of story mission

accomplished so yeah I have more

experiences like that but that was one

of the funnier ones that came to mind

when I thought about uh lieutenants and

Land Navigation so thank you guys so

much for the support thank you for

watching uh thank you so much to my

patreon and YouTube channel members it

is the holiday season so God bless all

of you and your family stay safe if

you're traveling if you're having a

rough time this holiday season it's not

perfect for everyone so I just I do pray

that God will be with you no matter what

you are dealing with you will make it

through it and I will see you in the

next

episode