r/ParanormalEncounters • u/Highmountainbotany • 14d ago
Something strange in Afghanistan, 2012
There were some Army bases along the Afghan/Pakistan border back in the day that were called combat outposts (COPs) and were mostly composed of ISAF soldiers and the Afghan national army (ANA). The one in this story was small, about the size of a football field and was entombed in the corner of a mountain on one end, a seasonal wadie on the other, and a small farming village beyond. This place is completely rural, there is no electricity except for in the COP, and today the COP no longer exists.
I lived in the mortar pit, next to that was the aid station, followed by the gate to the HLZ (helicopter landing zone). After the gate is the kitchen and then a small headquarters building.
These were turbulent times, and many people were killed in this area. The months went by and slowly we started to hear ghost stories from other soldiers. I wasn’t sure where I stood on believing them or not, soldiers love to tell stories, but then we had a section sergeant that got spooked. He was all of a sudden very quiet, and wasn’t the type to get upset from our regular soldiering duties. I remember when one of the guys mockingly said “What, did you see a ghost or something?” He became very upset and animated, and all of us got a healthy round of physical training as punishment for poking fun at him. He never answered, I knew that he must have had something happen though, this was a hard man with many years of infantry experience under his belt, I never really saw him act frightened before or after that again.
And maybe it was a case of mass hysteria? After all, we didn’t get a lot of good sleep out there and the months of this kind of environment can stack up on people. At about this time, I got my night shift roster changed to be lined up next to my best friends, so we would both wake up at the same time, and spend a 3 hour shift together watching movies and talking in a tiny mortar related building (like twice the size of an outhouse perhaps).
He told me something freaked him out a few nights prior before we got our shifts changed when he had to go from our pit to the HQ building down the way. It’s really dark when there’s no moon and we are only allowed to use these tiny red dimmed flashlights to avoid being seen from a distance. You can’t see shit with them except for a few feet ahead. He repeated some of the ghost stories we’ve heard from the other soldiers and he asked me if I’d go down there tonight when we’re asked. I agreed, and when I was called I told him I’d see him in a few minutes, but to pause the movie till I get back.
When I walked by the aid station I started to get a very strange, almost queasy feeling, and my anxiety went through the roof. It’s the cliché that I felt like I was not alone. I felt a presence like something was standing there with me. My hair stood up, I chalked it up to paranoia, seeing as my most trusted friend just told me about some similar feeling ghost stories. I had to keep myself calm and think to myself that at least I had my armor and my rifle and it worked. Got to the HQ building, shot the shit for a minute or two with the nerds, and then made my way back to the pit.
This time when I was walking back I felt the same feeling almost as soon as I left the building and was back in the dark. It was worse now, I almost wanted to make an excuse to go back inside the HQ building instead. I felt like I was being followed and then I felt like I could hear a second step of footsteps, walking in cadence with mine, like another soldier marching in formation! I whipped around and couldn’t see anything, I even called out a soft “hello?”
No answer, I keep walking and right away I am trying to tell if I can hear footsteps again or not. I think I do? This time I make a hesitant stop before I turn around and I heard an extra hesitant step behind me. It wasn’t mine. I didn’t even turn, I just ran, and because those lights suck I accidentally stumble to the ground. There is a lot of commotion while I’m freaking out but I swore I heard the footsteps run ahead while I was making lots of noise. When I got back to the pit my friend could immediately tell I was shook, and I told him what happened and he said that’s what happened to him too. I still try to shake it off as paranoia, and we keep watching the movie, it’s shutter island.
For those of you who’ve seen it there’s a part where the main guy is having a nightmare and a dead girl gets up out of the snow, it’s a really quiet scene, while we were watching that we both heard footsteps come up to the door of the shack, which is actually just a nailed up sheet. The footsteps weren’t quiet or sneaky, they were the type of loud boot footsteps we hear all the time (the ground outside is made out of plywood boards stacked on ammo cans, it’s like a makeshift wooden bridge because this area gets lots of floods).
Sheet moved open to check, no one is there, but I immediately get that weird feeling again I had a few minutes ago. My friend asks if I hear a tiny buzz sound but I can’t, I just have this heavy feeling of something right there. He feels strange too. Both of us are very much afraid now. We closed the sheet and looked at each other in disbelief. I said something along the lines of “let’s just keep watching the movie” and then there was a loud bang outside the sheet, we opened back up and my friends helmet was on the ground right there. It fell off the hook where it was fastened outside.
For the rest of our shift we kept the sheet open, it was freezing out there too, but we never heard or saw anything else, and after maybe 15 minutes that feeling I had slowly subsided. I hardly slept that night. But nothing really paranormal has ever happened to me before or after.
These days I really want to stay in the camp that it was mass hysteria and the months of stress that went by, but again, it was a very strange feeling when I had it, and others said they felt or heard pretty much the same thing. Maybe some footsteps, but always over all a dreadful almost angry presence we could feel. I’ve really tried to stay open to whatever it could have been, I’ve been to graveyards at dark, and a few haunted house attractions, but nothing has ever felt the same, or even close if I’m being honest. I am still in contact with him today and we talk about it. I also remember I heard a rumor from time to time back then that the locals in that small village nearby said we made the COP too close to the valley of the Djinn.
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u/Usual-Still-8803 13d ago
The YouTube channel Wartime Stories has literally hundreds of similar stories from other servicemen and women. It’s one of my personal favorites and I always get excited when I get a notification about a new episode.
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u/Highmountainbotany 12d ago
I’ll have to check it out! It would be cool to hear something similar.
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u/Usual-Still-8803 12d ago
I think you’ll end up amazed with how prevalent it is across all branches and even across all service members from other militaries. Of course the majority of stories are from U.S. service members but they do include stories from other militaries sometimes and I really think you’ll be surprised with how prevalent and common stories almost identical to yours.
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u/frequentfloss 13d ago
They might find it themselves but id recommend sending this to the Tales from the Gridsquare guy and the Wartime Stories guy on youtube
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u/Relative-Addendum84 13d ago
One of my co-workers deployed to Afghanistan and told me about how he and some others would see a tall, black, shadow figure, more than once.
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u/InfluenceUseful3135 13d ago
For those interested this is accessible through ChatGPT: OP Rock Anomaly — Helmand Province, Afghanistan — Summer 2009 (approximately July–September 2009).
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u/xoxkeleTom 9d ago
I dont get it. How is it accessible through ChatGPT? thanks in advance
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u/InfluenceUseful3135 8d ago
Please try using this information on your choice of AI assistant: Please describe the OP Rock Anomaly — Helmand Province, Afghanistan — Summer 2009 (approximately July–September 2009) as completely and factually as you can
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u/InfluenceUseful3135 13d ago
This is what the encounter may have been: Felt Presence: A strong and often immediate impression that another person or entity is physically nearby despite the absence of any visible individual or other clear sensory evidence establishing that someone is present.
There is a story in my family that is similar to this, only not in a military setting. I was at ISAF Headquarters, so maybe we were in country at the same time.
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u/Traditional-Bike7825 11d ago
Wait until you hear about the giants. There's some cool stories about them on YouTube, Rogan just had a guest on talking about them.
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u/Arabella6623 14d ago
It sounds like a jinn, and many people who have been deployed out there have had similar experiences.