Tales

It was during the winter months of 91, There was no snow but it was extremely cold, but I can’t remember what month it was. I was a soldier at Ft. Bliss Texas. Ft. Bliss is a huge base that also covers part of New Mexico. We were called to be posted on a guard duty on the New Mexico side in an area where Special Forces were conducting a live fire exercise. This was also hunting season which was the reason we were to be posted in pairs at certain coordinates. Our role was to keep the drunk hunters out of the area where Special Forces were conducting this exercise. There were about 20 soldiers which included MP’s. Each soldier was matched with one MP. The MP was considered armed because they had 9 mils. That is a stupid round to carry in the mountains and was the reason I and the other non-MP soldiers were foolishly unarmed. Dave whose last name I will not give, and I were the last soldiers to be placed and we had dropped all the others off at their guard points. There were no guard posts, so we had to make camp. Unfortunately, about a mile down the mountain from our location we blew a tire. It turned out we had no spare.  Now we were going have to hump all that gear up the mountain. Unfortunately, our tent was covered with kerosene and couldn’t be used. There was no reason to haul all that up the mountain as everything, but the sleeping bags had kerosene all over them. So, we hauled our MREs, sleeping bags and a sledgehammer up the mountain where we found our spot and made camp. I was lucky to have been raised by a man who knew mountain survival well, so I set us up and got fire going. I dug out trenches in the ground to lay hot rocks down which I was going to cover with dirt so we could sleep on top of them after the dirt warmed. The night was getting colder, but the fire was great. Dave then tells me that he’s got to run down to the truck because he forgot the radio. He took the only flashlight, and he was carrying a 9 mil and down the mountain he started in the dark toward the truck. He was gone about 20 minutes when all this started. I began hearing something large moving around me and I could not only hear it’s breathing but whatever it was, was throwing logs and big boulders around back in the trees. It didn’t throw the big ones at me like some people tell but the boulders were being picked up and slammed to the ground with such force I could feel the impact tremors coming up my legs. I could also hear branches and small trees being snapped. Rocks that weighed around 12lbs to 15lbs began flying through the trees about 5 or 6. It was dark so there could have been more… They didn’t hit me. What was crazy was that the rocks were flying through the trees from below. I don’t know if what was throwing the rocks was not accurate or just the pine limbs were messing up the aim. Either way I wasn’t hit. Keep in mind I couldn’t see what this was. It smelled like a musky wet dog blanket. Some say they smell skunky but that wasn’t my experience. It was more like wet dog. I also could not see any eye shine like people talk about, but I can tell you I knew exactly where it was. It was staying out of my fire light, and I was holding the sledgehammer with the fire between this thing. I pivoted around the fire waiting for whatever this was to come charging out of the dark. At this time, I still hadn’t figured out what it could be. I thought maybe an elk but what throws logs and boulders around and breaks things? It kept creating impacts on the ground which was why I thought it might be an elk stomping but elk don’t throw big objects around and they don’t circle you. This thing circled me slowly about 3 times always staying out of the light. Finally, it moved off and was heading in the direction where Dave had gone. After about 45 minutes of the thing leaving Dave shows up sweating and freaking out telling me something had followed him for about a half mile as he climbed back up the mountain toward our camp. We were pretty awake the rest of the night. Early in the AM we went out to the areas where this thing had been. The ground was a thick blanket of pine needles so there were no hard tracks, but we could see something had left undefinable prints. What was the big shock was the boulders that have been moved and thrown. There were the depressions where the boulders were lifted from and there were only few pine needles that had fallen in overnight but exposed dirt as the rocks had been lifted out. The boulders were between 80lbs to as much as 350lbs as they varied in size. So, whatever this was lifted the boulders and slammed them to the ground with incredible force. It was also smart enough to stay out of the Dave’s flashlight when it followed him. I hadn’t told but few about this in the past. This creature lifted those boulders out of the ground and threw them, so it had to have fingers to have been able to do that. Bears don’t throw rocks and boulders a distance from where they unearth them. Plus, they were no digging marks where the boulders had previously rested for a million years. At the time I had never heard many stories of these encounters. I had heard of Bigfoot but never heard about smell or rock throwing or any of them till years later. I am a very powerful man in any athletic circle. I can tell you what this thing picked up and threw around was beyond my ability or even two of me if someone else my size was helping. Dave was in nowhere close to my physical stature and could not have done any of these things, so I know it wasn’t him. It was very large, heavy and clearly had hands to lift out large boulders and throw them some distance. Well, there it is. All true! (BIG time!)