Fireside Chat: Young sergeant and his team spooked by the most blood curdling scream they ever heard

A random conversation...

[snippet]

My true story: 

Back in '82 I, as a young sergeant, was stationed at Ft. Lewis, Washington with an infantry company. The army LOVES the night, so most of our field training was done during that time. On one particular mission, things got a bit wierd. 

Mount Rainier from Fort Lewis

After placing my teams into position, I took up the far left spot on the squirmish line and we started to advance. After we took only a few steps, the most blood curdling scream I had ever heard (before or since) came from a very large depression on our left. It was high pitched and slightly warbling, and gave us all the heebee jeebees. I gathered everyone together, calmed them all down, and got on with the task at hand. 

After the evaluator called an end to hostilities we all got together, friends and foes, and all anyone could talk about was that scream. A small grass fire was burning a hundreds yards away from a wayward flare, and I had to send half a dozen guys to stamp it out because they would not go out into the woods with a lesser force. They were really scared and, to be honest, I was a bit freaked myself. The evaluating officer attempted to offer up reasonable explanations, but it fell on deaf ears. 

Night time training exercise

I went against orders and took the road up to the bivouac site, and halfway there heard heavy footsteps closing in behind. One poor sap hollars at the top of his lungs "Who the f - - - is it?". Turns out it was the officer who was supposed to take the road back the other way, past the depression, but opted instead for an alternate route. I never heard a word from him about us being on the road. 

Needless to say, once word got out we were the butt of many a joke. 

Advance a couple years, I'm in college and watching one of those Bigfoot, Loch Ness monster specials. Being interviewed is an American Indian sheriff's deputy from an area very close to the Fort (I forget exactly where). He says that one day, while on patrol, he hears this gawf awful scream and decides to key his microphone since all radio traffic is recorded at the station. When he had his grandfather listen to the scream, the elder said that it was bigfoot, although he had used the name from his native language. 

Know what? It was the same exact scream we had all heard in the woods that night. Actually gave me goosebumps. 

All that said, I do NOT believe in bigfoot, sasquatch, or the abominable snowman. I really don't know what we heard that night, but am sure it was probably some animal's final scream, or another reasonable explanation. At the time it happened, however, in the middle of the night, it really set me on edge. 

Chuck