Don't Judge Me

January in Ft. Benning Georgia is freaking cold! It was 1992 and I was finishing up Infantry School. It was the last week of January, we were on FTX (Field Training Exercise) and it was just after chow(that's Army for dinner). I was standing around with three other buddies and we were sharing stories about whatever it was we did or would do if we were back home and not in the middle of a forest freezing our balls off. Sorry for that colorful language. I can't think of any other way to best describe how horribly cold it is out there.

So a fourth buddy comes running from the treeline, where he just went to pee. And he's frantic. He starts saying that there is a "monster or some shit out there... it was watching me. I could hear it". He didn't see anything but heard something he described as sounding very large and breathing heavy. It was heavy footed and didn't try to be stealthy. Being the good, caring friends that we had become to this guy, we laughed at him and called him an idiot. He swore up and down he wasn't kidding.

In the meantime, one of our buddies snuck off in to the treeline, started snorting and stomping around on all fours, sounding like a beast was out in the treeline. The buddy that claimed to encounter the beast while peeing began to freak out and was about to turn white as a ghost when our friend emerged and we all had a big laugh at his expense. But he didn't laugh.

That night our squad went out on a recon mission. We returned some time around midnight. We talked about the mission and then went to our hasty fighting positions where we would wait out the rest of the night. A hasty fighting position was two helmets wide by my body length by 6 inches deep. Then you build up a mound over it to look somewhat like natural terrain. The idea is that an approaching enemy wouldn't notice it at all. you build one along side your battle buddy. About an arms length away. Then you have this pairing of hasty fighting positions create a perimeter for your platoon or company or whatever.

So to get some rest, you take turns sleeping. I'm awake, staring out at a treeline and nothing else going on. The moon was out, casting some light on the earth. I had put out trip wires that were OD Green. It was made from 550 Chord. It was dark enough to where an approaching enemy wouldn't see it and trip on it, setting off flares and alerting us to the movement and allowing us to see where they were. This is important to mention. And here is why.

I begin to hear something making a lot of noise as it approaches us (I knew this because the noise was getting louder) I at first thought that maybe it was a deer or something of that nature. But I couldn't really see because it was still in the treeline. When it finally emerged from the treeline and slowly headed my way I really didn't know what I was looking at.

I first tried to imagine which person in our platoon or company was THAT large. Was it our Drill Sergeant? He was a large man. But he wasn't that tall. Was it some local Deliverance type indigenous hillbilly out looking for opossum? No way. This thing was as big In the chest as it was tall. It had long nappy looking hair, almost like Predator, and it had a face that jutted out. So was it someone in a Gas Mask? Nope. It breathed. More like snorted. You know how when it's cold outside you can see your breath? It exhaled so heavily that a plume of air shot out and then lingered before it dissipated. I began to realize that this might be the thing that scared our buddy earlier. I gripped my M-16 tight then realized I only had blanks. I nudged my battle buddy who I heard whisper the words "what the f**k is that?"

This creature approached our position, and stopped. It looked down at where our trip wire was set. Something I don't believe any human could see. It looked back up and stared right at us. All I can remember is dark orbs where the eyes were. It spun around, again, when it did this I could see how physically massive it was, and plodded back off into the treeline. Long lopey steps. Very heavy footed. Not human.

Had to be a Bigfoot.

Most people who have encountered Bigfoot talk about the smell. I don't remember a smell. Most likely because we had been out in the field for about a week with no shower and we stunk so bad we couldn't smell ourselves.

I'm not insane, I just saw what I saw. Some people believe. Others don't. I don't care about theories and whatever else people conger up. That thing was real, it was in Ft Benning, GA, which is also Columbus, GA which is the South and West area of the state. It is very remote and full of wild stuff. No, I haven't been abducted by aliens, too.