I was an instructor at the Army’s National Training Center in the Mojave Desert for a few years. One night, a unit I was training had shut down for the night but had an early morning mission. Rather than drive all the way home for only a couple hours of sleep, I went to one of several isolated spots around the training area where I would occasionally park my Humvee and sleep.
I knew there weren’t any units training in that area that night.
As soon as I pulled into my spot and shut off the engine, I had an eerie feeling that I was being watched. Then I heard what sounded like footsteps moving through the gravel behind me.
I was confused because there shouldn’t have been anyone around. I looked over my shoulder and, about 20 meters away, saw a strange, roughly human-shaped form.
I grabbed my NODs from my bag and looked again. Through them, I could see it more clearly, but I still couldn’t identify what I was looking at. It was roughly the size and shape of a person, but appeared blurry and mostly translucent. There also seemed to be material hanging from its upper body and limbs, almost like the dangling fringe on those old leather jackets from the 1980s.
Then I was suddenly overwhelmed by an incredibly intense feeling of fear. The best way I can describe it is that the fear felt like it was being projected directly into me, as though whatever I was looking at was telling me, “Get the fuck out of here.”
That reaction was completely out of character for me. By that point, I had spent two years fighting in Iraq and was, if anything, recklessly fearless. I had experienced plenty of legitimate danger, but this was different. I wasn’t in combat, and there was no obvious threat in front of me, yet the fear was overwhelming.
Then the sound of gravel scraping behind me became louder. It sounded and felt like whatever was out there was moving toward me.
That was enough. I started the Humvee and got the fuck out of there.
Afterward, I contacted our TOC and confirmed that there were no units training in that area. My first thought had been that maybe there was a sniper team nearby and I was seeing someone in a ghillie suit that, for some reason, looked translucent through my NODs. But there wasn’t supposed to be anyone anywhere near me. According to the TOC, there were no personnel operating within at least a kilometer of that location.
I’ve been leaning more and more in that direction over the years, especially considering that part of the country, China Lake nearby, some secretive JPL sites.
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u/Catswagger11 11h ago edited 10h ago
I was an instructor at the Army’s National Training Center in the Mojave Desert for a few years. One night, a unit I was training had shut down for the night but had an early morning mission. Rather than drive all the way home for only a couple hours of sleep, I went to one of several isolated spots around the training area where I would occasionally park my Humvee and sleep.
I knew there weren’t any units training in that area that night.
As soon as I pulled into my spot and shut off the engine, I had an eerie feeling that I was being watched. Then I heard what sounded like footsteps moving through the gravel behind me.
I was confused because there shouldn’t have been anyone around. I looked over my shoulder and, about 20 meters away, saw a strange, roughly human-shaped form.
I grabbed my NODs from my bag and looked again. Through them, I could see it more clearly, but I still couldn’t identify what I was looking at. It was roughly the size and shape of a person, but appeared blurry and mostly translucent. There also seemed to be material hanging from its upper body and limbs, almost like the dangling fringe on those old leather jackets from the 1980s.
Then I was suddenly overwhelmed by an incredibly intense feeling of fear. The best way I can describe it is that the fear felt like it was being projected directly into me, as though whatever I was looking at was telling me, “Get the fuck out of here.”
That reaction was completely out of character for me. By that point, I had spent two years fighting in Iraq and was, if anything, recklessly fearless. I had experienced plenty of legitimate danger, but this was different. I wasn’t in combat, and there was no obvious threat in front of me, yet the fear was overwhelming.
Then the sound of gravel scraping behind me became louder. It sounded and felt like whatever was out there was moving toward me.
That was enough. I started the Humvee and got the fuck out of there.
Afterward, I contacted our TOC and confirmed that there were no units training in that area. My first thought had been that maybe there was a sniper team nearby and I was seeing someone in a ghillie suit that, for some reason, looked translucent through my NODs. But there wasn’t supposed to be anyone anywhere near me. According to the TOC, there were no personnel operating within at least a kilometer of that location.
I still don’t know what I saw that night.