2 U.S. Army soldiers were stationed at Fort Hood, Texas when they encountered unexplained activity while guarding artillery late one night. What do you think it was?
Recently came across this strange account:
"This event took place about 1992. I was just a young man and in the military. I was stationed at Fort Hood, Texas at the time. Those of you that are familiar with Fort Hood will know what I am talking about when I say North Fort Hood. For those of you that are not let me try to explain so you will better understand why we were where we were when this happened. Fort Hood is a very large military base. It is probably one of the largest military bases by land in the United States. The main base where you would find all of the buildings and motor pools full of vehicles and so forth is just called "Fort Hood." It is on the south end of the overall land that comprises Fort Hood and just outside it's gates is the town of Killeen. Most of Fort Hood is wilderness. That wilderness is training area for soldiers to go and train in and there is also a large impact area for the artillery units that have to train with their cannons. At the far northern end of the base there is a small complex called "North Fort Hood." It takes about 30 or 40 minutes to drive from the main base up to North Fort Hood. In the early 1990s there was not much in the way of buildings or infrastructure at North Fort Hood.
The unit I was assigned to had to calibrate a piece of equipment and that meant that it had to be set up and left in place for about a week while the calibration took place. I'm not going to get into the details about this equipment and it's not vital to the story anyway. What is important to note is that we had to set this equipment up at North Fort Hood during the process. During the day we had some soldiers who were there working on calibrations but at night we obviously were not just going to leave this expensive equipment unguarded. So every night we would leave two soldiers with the equipment to keep an eye on things and make sure nothing happened to it. It was very easy duty by every measure. There was a tent to stay in and plenty of food. Soldiers who stayed the night to guard the equipment got the next day off. Basically we would just sit in the tent, play cards or some other game and just keep an eye on things. It was basically camping.
I volunteered to take a Thursday night as my turn at guard duty. This was because I had vacation (leave time) starting the following Monday. My rationale was simple. Take guard duty on Thursday night, get Friday off and start my leave time early. It was myself and another young soldier who was a friend of mine. Both of us were just kids. I had just turned 21 and I believe he was just 19 or so. Keep in mind that this is 1992 so, while cell phones did exist, they were by no means as prolific as they are now. It was actually pretty rare to see a person with a cell phone and when you did they were in these big leather carrying bags. They were huge and we called them bag phones and they were very expensive. Needless to say, neither of us had a cell phone. Why is that important? Because we were dropped off for guard duty around 5 PM and everyone else left. We had no vehicle and no way to communicate with anyone. We were entirely alone if anything happened and of course we were not expecting anything to happen. It was, after all, very easy duty. Watch the equipment, play some cards, eat some chow, no problem.
We were sitting in the tent when the first winds started to kick up and I noticed some storm clouds moving in from the west. Now whoever they had set that hex tent up apparently had no interest in doing it properly because as the winds got worse the tent was really leaning as though it might fold at any moment. Clearly we were about to get hit with a pretty severe thunderstorm and anyone who has ever lived in central Texas can tell you that the storms there can blow up quick and be pretty violent. Fortunately for us there was a deuce and a half truck there with a shelter on the back. For those that don't know a deuce and a half is a large 6 wheel drive truck and if you want to get an idea what they look like you can Google M35A2 truck. This particular truck had a shelter on the back and that is where we retreated to in order to get out of the path of the approaching storm. Before anyone asks I should note that we could not drive the truck away from the camp site because it was needed for the calibration and we would not abandon our post anyway. This falls under the first general order and anyone who has ever been in the Army knows what I mean.
So we secured ourselves in the shelter while the storm passes and it was a typical Texas frog strangler to be sure. Miraculously the tent did not blow over and I was surprised by that. Still, we decided to stay in the back of the truck until dawn as we had already moved one of our cots inside. We finally laid down about 10 PM and it was very quiet. This is a very remote area and while we were in a clearing next to a runway, there were no buildings present and all around this airstrip was just woods. Today there are buildings there as I have recently looked at the location on Google maps. At any rate, we had left the door on the shelter just slightly open for two reasons.
Because the shelter had no power running to it so there was no airflow going through it. Shutting the door would have left us susceptible to the effects of carbon monoxide. We needed fresh air.
We needed to be able to hear what was going on outside.
We decided to take turns getting some rest although we had been told we were allowed to sleep if we wanted to. We were still on base and there was absolutely no reason to expect that anything at all was going to happen. My friend was on the cot by the door of the shelter and I was on the floor at the other end. I felt like I had just dozed off when I was shaken violently awake. It was my friend and as I sat up he was pulling the door to the shelter closed and trying to put a lock on it by using the light from his wrist watch. He was obviously very upset and scared. It was the kind of fear that cannot be faked as if he was trying to prank me. This was primal fear. I kept asking him what was wrong and he finally managed to tell me that something had grabbed him by the foot and tried to pull him from the shelter. My first thought was that he had dozed off and had a nightmare. He was insistent that he had not and even stated that whatever had grabbed him had said to him "we'll be back for you" and let him go as he was shaking me awake. I wasn't sure if it was a prank or not but my gut instinct was that he was petrified and his hands were shaking as he tried to lock the shelter door so there must be some truth to it. I told him that we couldn't leave the door closed because of carbon monoxide. I was the higher ranking so technically I was in charge. He refused to stay by the door if it was going to be open even a little bit so I agreed to switch places with him.
I opened the door just a couple of inches and laid down on the cot, still believing he had just had a really bad nightmare. He was on the floor at the other end of the shelter. Within a few minutes some pretty strange things began to happen. There were scratching sounds on the shelter. Scratching on the sides, on the top and on the front where the cab of the truck was. A few times the door moved ever so slightly but never opened. Needless to say that by this time I was convinced that something or someone was definitely outside and both of us were pretty scared. I reached to the end of the cot I was on and pulled out the metal cross member that is used to give it tension. After that I felt around under the cot and found a wooden handle to a pick axe. In the Army we call these pioneering tools but most of you will know it as a pick axe handle without the pick axe part at the end. This I handed to my friend and I instructed him that if anyone opened the door to the shelter we were going to start beating them with our makeshift weapons and don't stop beating until whoever it is was was down on the ground and not moving.
The scratching on the exterior of the shelter continued intermittently throughout the night. We made no effort to call out to whomever or whatever it was. I think we were both just in fight mode. If anyone had pulled the door to the shelter fully open I had full intentions of fighting for all I was worth. I am certain my friend felt the same way. Eventually it began to get light outside and as the sky began to get light the scratching stopped. We stayed in the shelter for another 40 or 50 minutes until the sun was fully up. At that point I said that I was going to push the door all the way open, jump off the back of the truck and if he saw anyone just start swinging. So I counted to three, flung the door open and jumped off the truck. When you are 21 you can jump off of a deuce and a half and it doesn't hurt. Now I would be far more cautious lol. At any rate, there was nothing; not a soul. We looked all around the truck and the camp. Nothing. What I noticed immediately was that while we were leaving boot tracks in the still wet ground, there were no other tracks around the truck at all. I began to look for loose items on the shelter that might account for the scratching sound. Nothing. I didn't know whether to feel relieved or still be on edge.
We packed up our gear and about 30 minutes later the relief NCO arrived in a HMMWV (Humvee). He wasn't even fully out of the truck and we were putting our stuff in it to leave. He laughingly remarked that we seemed really ready to go. We never told him a thing. In fact we never said anything to anyone in our unit about what happened. We probably should have but I think we were afraid we would be laughed at. At any rate, I got behind the wheel of the HMMWV and my friend got in the back on the passenger side. I drove down the road a ways and came to a stop at the main highway that we would take to get back down to Fort Hood. At that moment there came a clear, loud and distinct clap of thunder. I leaned out the window and looked up and then I looked back at my friend who was in the back of the truck and he said something I'll never forget. "There ain't a fuckin cloud in the sky man." I believe I probably set a record for the fastest drive back to Fort Hood in a HMMWV that morning.
I'm not one to believe in this stuff. I think a lot of this paranormal stuff is just active imaginations or people making it up. But something happened to us that night and I will never forget it. It scared the hell out of me and I don't ever want to experience it again. That's my story and it is 100% true." B
NOTE: I don't know if this is relevant, but there have been several odd reports from Fort Hood in the past, including a upright canine encounter. Not sure what these guys witnessed. Lon
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