1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:07,640 This is a story that's not a horror, but a real story. 2 00:00:07,640 --> 00:00:10,360 An Air Force officer on a top secret mission 3 00:00:10,360 --> 00:00:12,680 sees unusual lights in the sky. 4 00:00:12,680 --> 00:00:16,960 When I looked up, I saw something I will never forget. 5 00:00:16,960 --> 00:00:19,000 None of the training that I had ever gone through 6 00:00:19,000 --> 00:00:21,040 prepared me for this. 7 00:00:21,040 --> 00:00:25,100 An infantrymen encounters an otherworldly presence. 8 00:00:25,100 --> 00:00:28,400 I've seen a decent bit over my time in the military, 9 00:00:28,400 --> 00:00:31,280 but I've never heard anything like it before, 10 00:00:31,280 --> 00:00:33,720 and I haven't heard anything like it since. 11 00:00:33,720 --> 00:00:37,100 A marine is haunted by the sins of the past. 12 00:00:37,100 --> 00:00:39,680 I can still hear the scream even 16 years later. 13 00:00:39,680 --> 00:00:41,120 Still this day I have no idea what 14 00:00:41,120 --> 00:00:42,200 may or may not have happened. 15 00:00:59,400 --> 00:01:03,160 I see this shadow figure. 16 00:01:03,160 --> 00:01:09,400 It hit me and lifted me up and threw me back into the trench. 17 00:01:14,720 --> 00:01:18,400 Fort Polk in Louisiana is the foremost infantry training 18 00:01:18,400 --> 00:01:21,400 center for the United States Army. 19 00:01:21,400 --> 00:01:25,040 Fort Polk provides some of the toughest, most realistic, 20 00:01:25,040 --> 00:01:27,560 simulated combat training for US soldiers. 21 00:01:27,600 --> 00:01:28,520 It's huge. 22 00:01:28,520 --> 00:01:32,120 It's well over 100,000 acres of various terrain for training. 23 00:01:34,920 --> 00:01:38,440 In 1941, the government evicted hundreds of families 24 00:01:38,440 --> 00:01:41,400 from their homes to build the fort. 25 00:01:41,400 --> 00:01:43,280 I will die before I leave my home. 26 00:01:43,280 --> 00:01:46,120 You have to get out. 27 00:01:46,120 --> 00:01:48,440 But not all homeowners left willingly. 28 00:01:53,320 --> 00:01:56,400 When I saw this shadowy female figure, 29 00:01:56,400 --> 00:01:58,400 I was definitely scared. 30 00:01:58,400 --> 00:02:01,720 There's nothing I can think of in my mind 31 00:02:01,720 --> 00:02:03,000 that can justify that. 32 00:02:08,000 --> 00:02:12,240 I think my gauge of traumatic might be a little bit different 33 00:02:12,240 --> 00:02:13,680 than other peoples. 34 00:02:13,680 --> 00:02:15,240 I'm a staff sergeant and a squad leader 35 00:02:15,240 --> 00:02:18,000 in the United States Army. 36 00:02:18,000 --> 00:02:20,200 As an active member of the US Army, 37 00:02:20,200 --> 00:02:24,000 Tom risks a censure or demotion for sharing his story, 38 00:02:24,360 --> 00:02:27,440 so we cannot reveal his true identity. 39 00:02:27,440 --> 00:02:29,720 It is a risk coming forward, especially when you're 40 00:02:29,720 --> 00:02:31,160 in a leadership role. 41 00:02:31,160 --> 00:02:34,120 I love my job a lot. 42 00:02:34,120 --> 00:02:38,680 Tom has been an infantry paratrooper for eight years. 43 00:02:38,680 --> 00:02:43,000 Serving my country to me means actually doing what you know 44 00:02:43,000 --> 00:02:44,000 you have to do. 45 00:02:44,000 --> 00:02:45,920 The pride in defending my country 46 00:02:45,920 --> 00:02:49,000 played into the decision to enlist. 47 00:02:49,000 --> 00:02:51,360 After two years deployed overseas, 48 00:02:51,360 --> 00:02:53,800 Tom is stationed at Fort Polk. 49 00:02:53,800 --> 00:02:56,520 More than a million soldiers have trained at Fort Polk's 50 00:02:56,520 --> 00:03:02,040 Joint Readiness Training Center, known as the JRTC. 51 00:03:02,040 --> 00:03:03,920 The Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk 52 00:03:03,920 --> 00:03:07,720 is the closest thing to an actual combat environment. 53 00:03:10,240 --> 00:03:12,360 In the military, there are what are called training periods 54 00:03:12,360 --> 00:03:15,360 where active soldiers will be constantly trained, 55 00:03:15,360 --> 00:03:16,840 usually for combat scenarios. 56 00:03:16,840 --> 00:03:18,840 It's referred to as a rotation. 57 00:03:18,840 --> 00:03:22,560 Rotational units fight against the JRTC's elite infantry 58 00:03:22,560 --> 00:03:25,760 training team, which plays the role of the enemy. 59 00:03:25,760 --> 00:03:27,520 Tom leads one of those teams. 60 00:03:30,800 --> 00:03:34,680 Being assigned to the opposing forces unit at Fort Polk, 61 00:03:34,680 --> 00:03:37,000 we represent the bad guys. 62 00:03:39,520 --> 00:03:43,640 In May 2021, Tom's unit starts a new training assignment 63 00:03:43,640 --> 00:03:48,240 in a section of the JRTC called the box. 64 00:03:48,240 --> 00:03:52,360 The box is what we call the training area, kind of a nickname. 65 00:03:52,360 --> 00:03:56,640 It's a very, very large area where the rotational unit 66 00:03:56,640 --> 00:03:59,240 conducts simulated combat operations. 67 00:03:59,240 --> 00:04:02,880 There are parts of the box that are pretty creepy. 68 00:04:02,880 --> 00:04:06,000 It can be a pretty unsettling place. 69 00:04:06,000 --> 00:04:08,840 It was a multi-day training exercise. 70 00:04:08,840 --> 00:04:12,720 The first night, we're moving through really dense, 71 00:04:12,720 --> 00:04:20,640 thick vegetation and one of our squad automatic weapon gunners. 72 00:04:20,720 --> 00:04:23,800 Caught a root, fell to the ground, 73 00:04:23,800 --> 00:04:29,720 and gets his ammunition box pulled off of his weapon. 74 00:04:29,720 --> 00:04:31,400 He reaches down and picks it up, and we all 75 00:04:31,400 --> 00:04:35,120 start making jokes, poking fun at him. 76 00:04:35,120 --> 00:04:36,400 You got to lead that. 77 00:04:36,400 --> 00:04:40,480 I can't believe you just picked that up. 78 00:04:40,480 --> 00:04:42,880 You want to deal with the box, witch? 79 00:04:42,880 --> 00:04:45,720 One of the oldest legends at Fort Polk 80 00:04:45,720 --> 00:04:50,240 is that if you drop something that you don't absolutely 81 00:04:50,320 --> 00:04:54,000 have to pick up in the box after dark, 82 00:04:54,000 --> 00:04:57,760 you leave it sort of as a tribute to the box, witch. 83 00:04:57,760 --> 00:05:01,760 The legend of the box, witch, has been at Fort Polk 84 00:05:01,760 --> 00:05:05,720 for probably as long as anybody can remember. 85 00:05:05,720 --> 00:05:09,440 The story of the box, witch, is that when the army was 86 00:05:09,440 --> 00:05:12,160 establishing Fort Polk, the US government 87 00:05:12,160 --> 00:05:13,920 enacted the right of imminent domain 88 00:05:13,920 --> 00:05:16,120 so that they could build the fort. 89 00:05:16,120 --> 00:05:20,920 And there was a young woman there who refused to leave 90 00:05:20,920 --> 00:05:23,240 because that was her family land, 91 00:05:23,240 --> 00:05:25,240 and she didn't know anything else. 92 00:05:25,240 --> 00:05:29,920 She cursed the land and hanged herself, 93 00:05:29,920 --> 00:05:34,560 and she became the box, witch. 94 00:05:34,560 --> 00:05:36,400 You hear stories about the box, witch, 95 00:05:36,400 --> 00:05:39,600 but you don't ever really put any stock into it. 96 00:05:39,600 --> 00:05:42,920 But being assigned to the opposing forces unit at Fort 97 00:05:42,920 --> 00:05:46,160 Polk, we kind of use the legend of the box, 98 00:05:46,160 --> 00:05:48,400 which to mess with the rotational units 99 00:05:48,400 --> 00:05:52,600 sort of is like a fear thing, sort of a psychological weapon. 100 00:05:52,600 --> 00:05:55,560 Our job is to put them under the stress 101 00:05:55,560 --> 00:05:57,720 that they're going to be facing in combat. 102 00:06:00,200 --> 00:06:03,840 Fear sets off our fighter flight system, 103 00:06:03,840 --> 00:06:06,960 and our whole nervous system is triggered in a different way. 104 00:06:06,960 --> 00:06:09,000 One of the most important things for soldiers 105 00:06:09,000 --> 00:06:11,720 is to train themselves emotionally 106 00:06:11,720 --> 00:06:15,360 to not panic when they become frightened. 107 00:06:18,560 --> 00:06:22,160 The second night in the box, our mission 108 00:06:22,160 --> 00:06:27,000 was to cut off an armed convoy of the rotational force 109 00:06:27,000 --> 00:06:28,520 coming towards us. 110 00:06:28,520 --> 00:06:31,400 We had set up an ambush at this choke point 111 00:06:31,400 --> 00:06:34,160 in the road waiting. 112 00:06:34,160 --> 00:06:36,160 It's about 2.30 in the morning at this point, 113 00:06:36,160 --> 00:06:40,360 almost pitch black, and I am scanning with my night vision 114 00:06:40,360 --> 00:06:47,200 equipment, and I start hearing some rustling in the foliage. 115 00:06:47,200 --> 00:06:49,840 So I immediately turn around and start 116 00:06:49,840 --> 00:06:52,600 looking for the source of the noise. 117 00:06:52,600 --> 00:06:57,720 I can see this small series of bushes moving. 118 00:06:57,720 --> 00:07:03,080 It looked like someone was grabbing the bases of these bushes 119 00:07:03,080 --> 00:07:07,280 and shaking them back and forth. 120 00:07:07,280 --> 00:07:10,600 There is no wind to shake bushes like this. 121 00:07:10,600 --> 00:07:13,840 I was worried that the noise could have maybe 122 00:07:13,840 --> 00:07:16,320 been the soldier from the rotational unit, 123 00:07:16,320 --> 00:07:19,200 and somehow they had worked their way around us. 124 00:07:19,200 --> 00:07:21,840 I can't really tell what it is in my night vision, 125 00:07:21,840 --> 00:07:25,920 so I grab a handheld thermal imager, 126 00:07:25,920 --> 00:07:30,920 and I notice something extremely strange, which 127 00:07:30,920 --> 00:07:34,400 is whatever is moving these bushes 128 00:07:34,400 --> 00:07:35,840 doesn't have a thermal signature. 129 00:07:37,400 --> 00:07:41,920 Thermal imagers work by capturing infrared light that 130 00:07:41,920 --> 00:07:43,880 is invisible to the human eye. 131 00:07:43,880 --> 00:07:45,600 The thing about a thermal imager is 132 00:07:45,600 --> 00:07:48,200 that it captures temperature differences. 133 00:07:48,200 --> 00:07:51,600 So if you have an animal or a human being, 134 00:07:51,600 --> 00:07:55,480 a warm object among a plant, that object 135 00:07:55,480 --> 00:07:58,280 will glow like a spotlight in there, 136 00:07:58,280 --> 00:08:00,840 and you should definitely be able to see it. 137 00:08:00,840 --> 00:08:02,760 Just to make sure I'm not crazy, I 138 00:08:02,760 --> 00:08:06,520 give my partner the thermal device just like me. 139 00:08:06,520 --> 00:08:10,360 He can't see any sort of thermal signature 140 00:08:10,360 --> 00:08:12,040 behind this series of bushes at all. 141 00:08:16,840 --> 00:08:18,880 We're trying to figure out what we should do. 142 00:08:18,880 --> 00:08:21,680 We're starting to formulate a plan. 143 00:08:21,680 --> 00:08:26,240 We heard the most horrifying blood curdling scream 144 00:08:26,240 --> 00:08:31,080 I have ever heard in my entire life. 145 00:08:31,080 --> 00:08:34,600 I've heard men screaming while they were dying that didn't 146 00:08:34,600 --> 00:08:36,000 scream like that. 147 00:08:36,000 --> 00:08:37,040 I was terrified. 148 00:08:37,040 --> 00:08:38,840 I've never heard anything like that. 149 00:08:43,320 --> 00:08:45,680 During a combat training exercise, 150 00:08:45,680 --> 00:08:49,600 Staff Sergeant Tom Anderson hears a startling sound. 151 00:08:49,600 --> 00:08:53,360 The scream, it comes from exactly where those bushes were 152 00:08:53,360 --> 00:08:54,720 being rustled. 153 00:08:54,720 --> 00:08:58,400 It was loud enough and close enough that it hurt my ears, 154 00:08:58,400 --> 00:09:02,400 and then everything stopped and was perfectly quiet. 155 00:09:03,400 --> 00:09:05,520 There were no sounds of wildlife. 156 00:09:05,520 --> 00:09:06,800 There was no wind. 157 00:09:06,800 --> 00:09:10,320 There were no more leaves rustling. 158 00:09:10,320 --> 00:09:11,480 There was nothing. 159 00:09:11,480 --> 00:09:14,080 Everything just went dead quiet. 160 00:09:14,080 --> 00:09:17,480 Everyone in my unit heard that scream. 161 00:09:17,480 --> 00:09:20,600 We didn't really know what to think. 162 00:09:20,600 --> 00:09:25,480 We combat locked all the doors so that nothing could get in. 163 00:09:28,000 --> 00:09:31,000 At that point, I didn't want to know what it was. 164 00:09:31,000 --> 00:09:35,200 I didn't want to know what it was anymore, because whatever it 165 00:09:35,200 --> 00:09:38,080 was that made that sound was not human. 166 00:09:38,080 --> 00:09:43,360 We still had about three and a half hours left until sunrise, 167 00:09:43,360 --> 00:09:48,280 and we stayed in the vehicle the rest of the night. 168 00:09:48,280 --> 00:09:52,280 About three or three and a half hours later, the sun comes up. 169 00:09:52,280 --> 00:09:55,080 We exited our vehicle and walk over 170 00:09:55,080 --> 00:10:00,440 to the bushes that were shaking the night before. 171 00:10:00,440 --> 00:10:04,000 And there's nothing there. 172 00:10:04,000 --> 00:10:05,920 There's no boot prints. 173 00:10:05,920 --> 00:10:10,120 There's no signs of anything having been there. 174 00:10:10,120 --> 00:10:12,560 There was no disturbed earth. 175 00:10:12,560 --> 00:10:17,280 There was nothing, which is weird. 176 00:10:17,280 --> 00:10:19,800 I wasn't sure exactly what it was, 177 00:10:19,800 --> 00:10:25,240 but I knew whatever happened was definitely not natural. 178 00:10:25,240 --> 00:10:29,760 If that scream had been something that a human could make, 179 00:10:29,760 --> 00:10:31,040 it would have been different. 180 00:10:31,040 --> 00:10:34,280 There's no way that a human could have made that noise. 181 00:10:34,280 --> 00:10:37,880 I told everybody not to tell anybody about what happened, 182 00:10:37,880 --> 00:10:42,000 because I didn't want anybody thinking my soldiers were crazy, 183 00:10:42,000 --> 00:10:43,960 you're making things up, or anything like that. 184 00:10:47,680 --> 00:10:53,640 Couple of nights later, we are going into the last big fight 185 00:10:53,640 --> 00:10:56,880 before the end of the exercise. 186 00:10:56,880 --> 00:11:00,680 Inside the box, there are a number of mock villages 187 00:11:00,680 --> 00:11:05,160 built to replicate villages in the Middle East. 188 00:11:05,160 --> 00:11:10,040 Our objective at this point is to push into the mock village 189 00:11:10,040 --> 00:11:15,040 of Genon and clear the rotational unit. 190 00:11:15,040 --> 00:11:17,480 I don't really like going around Genon. 191 00:11:17,480 --> 00:11:20,960 It is actually close to where the box switch 192 00:11:20,960 --> 00:11:23,080 allegedly hanged herself. 193 00:11:23,080 --> 00:11:25,120 Genon is very well known for the fact 194 00:11:25,120 --> 00:11:27,360 that animals don't make sounds in Genon. 195 00:11:27,360 --> 00:11:29,600 Birds don't chirp, dogs don't come near it. 196 00:11:29,600 --> 00:11:31,160 Even the wild pigs avoid it. 197 00:11:31,160 --> 00:11:34,400 The animals don't like Genon. 198 00:11:34,400 --> 00:11:39,520 Sometimes animals can sense danger or impending disaster 199 00:11:39,520 --> 00:11:42,080 coming, and they become silent. 200 00:11:42,080 --> 00:11:46,560 Certain animals' senses actually can be up to 1,000 times 201 00:11:46,560 --> 00:11:48,320 more sensitive than humans. 202 00:11:48,320 --> 00:11:49,680 So it's very instinctual. 203 00:11:49,680 --> 00:11:54,000 And you can even see sometimes before an earthquake or a tsunami, 204 00:11:54,000 --> 00:11:56,440 like all the animals flee. 205 00:11:56,440 --> 00:11:58,040 They sense something is happening. 206 00:12:03,160 --> 00:12:05,720 We make it to the bottom of the hill 207 00:12:05,720 --> 00:12:10,320 where the rotational unit is supposed to be dug in at. 208 00:12:10,320 --> 00:12:14,320 And we are moving forward into a trench line, 209 00:12:14,320 --> 00:12:19,800 and they start firing at us. 210 00:12:19,800 --> 00:12:23,240 I take my squad and maneuver around outside 211 00:12:23,240 --> 00:12:25,840 of their line of fire. 212 00:12:25,840 --> 00:12:30,880 I come out of a trench and get engaged 213 00:12:30,880 --> 00:12:35,360 by a group of rotational unit soldiers. 214 00:12:35,360 --> 00:12:40,240 I turn and start engaging them from my peripheral vision. 215 00:12:40,240 --> 00:12:46,400 I see this shadow figure approach me 216 00:12:46,400 --> 00:12:50,200 at a ridiculous speed from nowhere. 217 00:12:50,200 --> 00:12:57,920 It hit me and lifted me up and threw me back into the trench. 218 00:12:57,920 --> 00:13:00,160 And I landed in the bottom of the trench 219 00:13:00,160 --> 00:13:02,680 and laid there for a second. 220 00:13:02,680 --> 00:13:07,760 At that point, the only thing I could think of was, what was that? 221 00:13:07,760 --> 00:13:09,760 One thing to be clear about scientifically, 222 00:13:09,760 --> 00:13:12,800 our minds were created as a processor 223 00:13:12,800 --> 00:13:15,160 to keep us alive and help us reproduce. 224 00:13:15,160 --> 00:13:19,560 So our peripheral vision is tuned to catch motion. 225 00:13:19,560 --> 00:13:22,000 So if you see something through your peripheral vision, 226 00:13:22,000 --> 00:13:25,680 that signal is not being sent to the part of your brain 227 00:13:25,680 --> 00:13:29,160 for creating a clear image. 228 00:13:29,160 --> 00:13:34,640 I looked up, and there was this shadowy female figure 229 00:13:34,640 --> 00:13:37,680 with dark hair standing at the edge of the trench. 230 00:13:37,680 --> 00:13:42,000 And she looked at me for maybe a second or two 231 00:13:42,000 --> 00:13:43,160 and then disappeared. 232 00:13:46,280 --> 00:13:49,400 There was no way it was a soldier. 233 00:13:49,400 --> 00:13:53,640 I've never seen anything move quite that fast. 234 00:13:53,640 --> 00:13:57,120 It looked like it was 50 feet from me one instant 235 00:13:57,120 --> 00:14:01,120 and then right on top of me the next. 236 00:14:01,120 --> 00:14:05,080 I don't know of any single person that 237 00:14:05,080 --> 00:14:08,320 would have been able to pick me up and throw me backwards 238 00:14:08,320 --> 00:14:08,920 like that. 239 00:14:08,920 --> 00:14:15,000 I probably tipped the scales over 300 pounds with all of my kit. 240 00:14:15,000 --> 00:14:18,600 It lifted me probably a good 18 inches into the air 241 00:14:18,600 --> 00:14:23,200 and threw me backwards, 3 and 1 half or 4 feet. 242 00:14:23,200 --> 00:14:24,920 I was scared after it happened. 243 00:14:24,920 --> 00:14:26,600 I just really want to get out of here. 244 00:14:26,600 --> 00:14:29,760 So I climbed out of the trench. 245 00:14:29,760 --> 00:14:34,080 And my boot prints were the only boot prints in the dirt 246 00:14:34,080 --> 00:14:37,040 around that trench. 247 00:14:37,040 --> 00:14:40,000 Later in the night as we're wrapping things up, 248 00:14:40,000 --> 00:14:45,280 I happen to look up at the tops of the trees. 249 00:14:45,280 --> 00:14:49,120 This same sort of dark shadowy female figure 250 00:14:49,120 --> 00:14:52,000 was there just kind of looking down at what we were doing. 251 00:14:52,000 --> 00:14:54,400 I couldn't really see her face. 252 00:14:54,400 --> 00:14:59,240 I could see wisps of long, dark hair. 253 00:14:59,240 --> 00:15:02,760 That was about the most features that I could make out. 254 00:15:02,760 --> 00:15:05,320 I was definitely scared and unsettled. 255 00:15:05,320 --> 00:15:11,320 And it just wasn't something that I could explain 256 00:15:11,320 --> 00:15:14,200 with any sort of normal logic. 257 00:15:16,160 --> 00:15:18,120 Seeing is believing. 258 00:15:18,120 --> 00:15:20,480 The only answer that I could come up with 259 00:15:20,480 --> 00:15:24,720 was this had to have been the box switch. 260 00:15:24,720 --> 00:15:28,720 I've seen a decent bit over my time in the military. 261 00:15:28,720 --> 00:15:32,680 Experiencing something that you can't explain like this 262 00:15:32,680 --> 00:15:34,920 is a whole different level. 263 00:15:40,800 --> 00:15:43,720 Since that last night, I haven't had any more encounters 264 00:15:43,760 --> 00:15:45,760 with the box switch. 265 00:15:45,760 --> 00:15:48,280 I do think about it every time I still go in the box. 266 00:15:48,280 --> 00:15:49,840 You always kind of have that feeling 267 00:15:49,840 --> 00:15:52,560 like you want to look over your shoulder 268 00:15:52,560 --> 00:15:53,840 just to see if something's there. 269 00:16:00,040 --> 00:16:03,080 That night in the desert absolutely changed my life. 270 00:16:06,200 --> 00:16:10,120 Since 1980, the United States has had a permanent military 271 00:16:10,120 --> 00:16:12,520 presence in the Middle East to safeguard 272 00:16:12,520 --> 00:16:16,680 against aggression and regional instability. 273 00:16:16,680 --> 00:16:20,360 And when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, 274 00:16:20,360 --> 00:16:23,240 fear grew in the West that the arms race would 275 00:16:23,240 --> 00:16:26,960 turn into a fire sale, with nuclear weapons and secrets 276 00:16:26,960 --> 00:16:30,000 from the former Soviet Union potentially finding 277 00:16:30,000 --> 00:16:32,440 their way to the Middle East. 278 00:16:32,440 --> 00:16:35,640 I thought that the biggest threat was what was left 279 00:16:35,640 --> 00:16:38,400 after the fall of the Soviet Empire. 280 00:16:38,400 --> 00:16:42,280 But then I saw something very strange 281 00:16:42,320 --> 00:16:46,240 and there is nothing in military training 282 00:16:46,240 --> 00:16:48,400 that prepares you for this. 283 00:16:51,960 --> 00:16:53,960 My name is Jeremy McGowan. 284 00:16:53,960 --> 00:16:56,080 I was a member of the United States Air Force Security 285 00:16:56,080 --> 00:16:58,520 Police for 12 years. 286 00:16:58,520 --> 00:17:01,840 Everything was duty, honor, country. 287 00:17:01,840 --> 00:17:04,760 I grew up very patriotic. 288 00:17:04,760 --> 00:17:07,760 Coming from a military family, I would bleed red, white, 289 00:17:07,760 --> 00:17:08,960 and blue. 290 00:17:08,960 --> 00:17:11,880 The Air Force fulfilled all the check boxes 291 00:17:11,880 --> 00:17:12,880 that I was looking for. 292 00:17:15,800 --> 00:17:19,800 In 1995, after two and a half years in the Middle East, 293 00:17:19,800 --> 00:17:22,200 I had gone into the Air Force Reserves. 294 00:17:22,200 --> 00:17:24,400 My first deployment with the reserves, 295 00:17:24,400 --> 00:17:26,240 I was told that we were being deployed back 296 00:17:26,240 --> 00:17:27,360 to the Middle East again. 297 00:17:27,360 --> 00:17:29,000 But nobody is telling us where we're going. 298 00:17:32,320 --> 00:17:36,840 We get on the plane and we were airborne eight, nine, 10 hours 299 00:17:36,840 --> 00:17:37,600 worth of flight time. 300 00:17:38,200 --> 00:17:44,960 When the plane landed, we get out of the airplane 301 00:17:44,960 --> 00:17:49,720 and I look around and we are definitively in the Middle 302 00:17:49,720 --> 00:17:54,400 East, but I still don't know where. 303 00:17:54,400 --> 00:17:59,560 We're greeted by this guy and I don't know who he is. 304 00:17:59,560 --> 00:18:01,840 He's wearing a sterilized uniform, 305 00:18:01,840 --> 00:18:06,320 desert camouflage, no patches, no insignia. 306 00:18:06,360 --> 00:18:09,400 First words out of his mouth are welcome to Jordan. 307 00:18:09,400 --> 00:18:11,760 Jordan had been a longstanding American ally 308 00:18:11,760 --> 00:18:14,920 in the mid 1990s and it had been a friendly and stable 309 00:18:14,920 --> 00:18:18,000 nation in an area which was not very friendly and not very 310 00:18:18,000 --> 00:18:20,920 stable and also as a country next door to Iraq. 311 00:18:20,920 --> 00:18:25,520 It's very strategic, so very key ally for the US. 312 00:18:25,520 --> 00:18:26,880 We finally know where we are. 313 00:18:26,880 --> 00:18:28,920 We still don't know why we're there. 314 00:18:28,920 --> 00:18:32,520 Normally, we get two binders when we're deployed. 315 00:18:32,520 --> 00:18:35,000 One is your special operating procedures 316 00:18:35,000 --> 00:18:37,200 and the other one is your rules of engagement. 317 00:18:37,200 --> 00:18:38,560 That was all missing. 318 00:18:38,560 --> 00:18:40,400 I still don't know what's happening 319 00:18:40,400 --> 00:18:45,000 and then they do something that's never done. 320 00:18:45,000 --> 00:18:47,640 They separate our team. 321 00:18:47,640 --> 00:18:50,480 Nothing about this is normal. 322 00:18:50,480 --> 00:18:52,520 After we get separated, I'm driven out 323 00:18:52,520 --> 00:18:54,880 into the middle of the desert. 324 00:18:54,880 --> 00:18:56,080 It's dark. 325 00:18:56,080 --> 00:18:59,360 We're driving for quite a long time. 326 00:18:59,360 --> 00:19:00,320 There's nothing around. 327 00:19:00,320 --> 00:19:01,360 There's no infrastructure. 328 00:19:01,360 --> 00:19:02,320 There's no roads. 329 00:19:02,320 --> 00:19:05,840 It's just sand. 330 00:19:05,840 --> 00:19:08,720 Pulling up and I have no idea where we were. 331 00:19:08,720 --> 00:19:12,720 I get out of the Hummer and the only thing that I see 332 00:19:12,720 --> 00:19:14,640 is this big tent. 333 00:19:14,640 --> 00:19:16,880 There's a few cables running out of it. 334 00:19:16,880 --> 00:19:19,240 There's a generator off to the side of it 335 00:19:19,240 --> 00:19:21,520 and some satellite equipment antennas. 336 00:19:24,200 --> 00:19:27,760 I'm introduced to another security forces officer, 337 00:19:27,760 --> 00:19:29,400 but I have no idea who this person is. 338 00:19:29,400 --> 00:19:30,600 I've never met this person. 339 00:19:30,600 --> 00:19:34,520 I don't know what base they're from. 340 00:19:34,520 --> 00:19:38,080 And he takes us around the backside of the tent 341 00:19:38,080 --> 00:19:42,560 and he shows us just this wooden crate. 342 00:19:42,560 --> 00:19:44,560 No markings, no stickers, no placards, 343 00:19:44,560 --> 00:19:47,000 no indication of what's in it. 344 00:19:47,000 --> 00:19:48,440 And he says, that's your priority. 345 00:19:48,440 --> 00:19:50,280 That's what you're guarding. 346 00:19:50,280 --> 00:19:53,640 I ask him, well, what happens if somebody gets near the crate? 347 00:19:53,640 --> 00:19:56,720 He replies, shoot them. 348 00:20:01,560 --> 00:20:03,760 As an Air Force Security Forces Officer, 349 00:20:03,760 --> 00:20:07,840 we are tasked with guarding everything from personnel, 350 00:20:07,840 --> 00:20:12,640 to nuclear weapons, to other types of priority resources. 351 00:20:12,640 --> 00:20:16,200 And this was just this wooden crate sitting 352 00:20:16,200 --> 00:20:18,800 in the middle of the desert. 353 00:20:18,800 --> 00:20:23,000 It was definitely something that I had not encountered before. 354 00:20:23,000 --> 00:20:26,240 And it did certainly suggest this was classified. 355 00:20:27,240 --> 00:20:29,640 Our first night on post, my partner and I 356 00:20:29,640 --> 00:20:32,240 are just walking around this crate. 357 00:20:32,240 --> 00:20:34,240 We don't speak much to each other 358 00:20:34,240 --> 00:20:38,240 because it's hard to earn people's trust in the military. 359 00:20:38,240 --> 00:20:40,240 I have no idea who this guy is. 360 00:20:40,240 --> 00:20:42,240 He has no idea who I am. 361 00:20:42,240 --> 00:20:43,240 He and I aren't from the same base. 362 00:20:43,240 --> 00:20:45,240 We're not from the same team. 363 00:20:45,240 --> 00:20:46,240 We haven't trained together. 364 00:20:46,240 --> 00:20:50,240 We're just kind of both thrust out there for unknown reasons 365 00:20:50,240 --> 00:20:53,240 and there's not really a whole lot to talk about. 366 00:20:53,240 --> 00:20:54,240 We don't see anybody. 367 00:20:54,240 --> 00:20:56,240 It's just nighttime in the desert. 368 00:20:56,240 --> 00:20:58,240 It's actually quite boring. 369 00:21:03,240 --> 00:21:05,240 That next morning, as the sun's coming up, 370 00:21:05,240 --> 00:21:07,240 we get picked up to get some sleep 371 00:21:07,240 --> 00:21:09,240 and ready for the next night. 372 00:21:09,240 --> 00:21:12,240 At the Chow Hall, I look around and I see 373 00:21:12,240 --> 00:21:15,240 there's the 75th Ranger Battalion. 374 00:21:15,240 --> 00:21:17,240 There's Naval Special Warfare. 375 00:21:17,240 --> 00:21:20,240 There's Air Force Combat Control, Parar Rescue. 376 00:21:20,240 --> 00:21:22,240 And there's people from the FBI. 377 00:21:22,240 --> 00:21:27,240 And for the first time in any deployment 378 00:21:27,240 --> 00:21:29,240 that I have ever done, 379 00:21:29,240 --> 00:21:34,240 there's obvious civilians wearing military uniforms. 380 00:21:34,240 --> 00:21:37,240 The only things that they had were a name tape 381 00:21:37,240 --> 00:21:40,240 that just said Department of Energy. 382 00:21:40,240 --> 00:21:42,240 It started to click. 383 00:21:42,240 --> 00:21:46,240 All of these units have very special 384 00:21:46,240 --> 00:21:48,240 and very specific missions. 385 00:21:48,240 --> 00:21:52,240 When it comes to the recovery of nuclear weapons. 386 00:21:52,240 --> 00:21:55,240 To me, duty is personal responsibility. 387 00:21:55,240 --> 00:21:59,240 And I've got questions because I don't know what's happening. 388 00:21:59,240 --> 00:22:00,240 I'm always told what to do 389 00:22:00,240 --> 00:22:02,240 and what the roles and responsibilities are. 390 00:22:02,240 --> 00:22:05,240 And this is very vague, very open, very... 391 00:22:05,240 --> 00:22:07,240 what's going on. 392 00:22:07,240 --> 00:22:09,240 The second night, boredom starts to set in. 393 00:22:09,240 --> 00:22:13,240 You tend to do things that you normally wouldn't do 394 00:22:13,240 --> 00:22:15,240 and I'm curious. 395 00:22:15,240 --> 00:22:18,240 So I walked up to the crate, 396 00:22:18,240 --> 00:22:21,240 kick it a few times, knock on it a few times, 397 00:22:21,240 --> 00:22:22,240 listen to what it sounds like, 398 00:22:22,240 --> 00:22:25,240 really trying to figure out what's in it. 399 00:22:27,240 --> 00:22:30,240 And then I climbed on the crate. 400 00:22:30,240 --> 00:22:33,240 I laid down on the crate. 401 00:22:33,240 --> 00:22:37,240 I've got no idea what's inside this crate 402 00:22:37,240 --> 00:22:40,240 and it's driving me nuts. 403 00:22:40,240 --> 00:22:44,240 So at that time, I started walking away from the crate 404 00:22:45,240 --> 00:22:48,240 and I remembered I had a pair of night vision goggles. 405 00:22:48,240 --> 00:22:50,240 So I put them on. 406 00:22:55,240 --> 00:23:01,240 And I noticed that the crate has an effect. 407 00:23:01,240 --> 00:23:06,240 Like there was this shimmer right over or around the crate 408 00:23:06,240 --> 00:23:10,240 that when you took the goggles off, it wasn't there. 409 00:23:10,240 --> 00:23:13,240 I'd never seen anything like that before. 410 00:23:13,240 --> 00:23:15,240 It was just weird. 411 00:23:15,240 --> 00:23:18,240 Could this mysterious crate hold a nuclear weapon? 412 00:23:18,240 --> 00:23:22,240 One the U.S. military has intercepted. 413 00:23:25,240 --> 00:23:28,240 While guarding a mysterious glowing crate 414 00:23:28,240 --> 00:23:31,240 in the middle of the desert, Air Force Security Officer 415 00:23:31,240 --> 00:23:34,240 Jeremy McGowan sees something in the sky 416 00:23:34,240 --> 00:23:36,240 that he can't explain. 417 00:23:36,240 --> 00:23:42,240 There was this shimmer right over or around the crate. 418 00:23:42,240 --> 00:23:44,240 I'm sitting there trying to figure out 419 00:23:44,240 --> 00:23:48,240 why I'm seeing what I'm seeing and I don't have a reason for it. 420 00:23:49,240 --> 00:23:51,240 What is shimmer? Shimmer is light. 421 00:23:51,240 --> 00:23:54,240 When you have different temperature air layers, 422 00:23:54,240 --> 00:23:57,240 light will change its path and do weird things. 423 00:23:57,240 --> 00:23:59,240 And sometimes we experience this driving down a road 424 00:23:59,240 --> 00:24:02,240 and we see a shimmer in the distance that looks like water 425 00:24:02,240 --> 00:24:06,240 when really it's just the temperature variations 426 00:24:06,240 --> 00:24:09,240 in air layers close to the road 427 00:24:09,240 --> 00:24:12,240 are causing light to change its path 428 00:24:12,240 --> 00:24:15,240 and we see that as the mirage. 429 00:24:17,240 --> 00:24:20,240 So I get taken to the same place the next night 430 00:24:20,240 --> 00:24:24,240 and I'm several hours into the shift. 431 00:24:24,240 --> 00:24:26,240 I've got my night vision goggles, 432 00:24:26,240 --> 00:24:32,240 so I put them on and the night sky in the desert is brilliant. 433 00:24:35,240 --> 00:24:37,240 And I'm looking up. 434 00:24:40,240 --> 00:24:47,240 And then I see something. 435 00:24:47,240 --> 00:24:50,240 There's this bright point of light. 436 00:24:50,240 --> 00:24:56,240 This ball of light was absolutely the brightest thing in the sky 437 00:24:56,240 --> 00:25:00,240 by magnitudes over any of the stars that I could see. 438 00:25:00,240 --> 00:25:05,240 This thing comes from my six o'clock position 439 00:25:05,240 --> 00:25:09,240 and it shoots straight up over top of me 440 00:25:09,240 --> 00:25:13,240 and it makes a 90 degree left hand turn to my nine o'clock 441 00:25:13,240 --> 00:25:19,240 and it went from horizon to horizon in under two seconds 442 00:25:19,240 --> 00:25:24,240 with a perfectly executed 90 degree turn 443 00:25:24,240 --> 00:25:28,240 just at top dead center right above my position 444 00:25:28,240 --> 00:25:33,240 and then it starts happening over and over and over again 445 00:25:33,240 --> 00:25:36,240 repeating the same pattern in the sky. 446 00:25:36,240 --> 00:25:40,240 I don't understand what it is I'm seeing. 447 00:25:40,240 --> 00:25:44,240 My gut tells me that the appearance of this object 448 00:25:44,240 --> 00:25:47,240 is related to the contents of the crate. 449 00:25:47,240 --> 00:25:50,240 Everything goes through my head 450 00:25:50,240 --> 00:25:55,240 that it could be in rational explanations. 451 00:25:55,240 --> 00:25:59,240 At first I think that's some sort of reflection. 452 00:25:59,240 --> 00:26:02,240 Somebody is messing with a laser pointer somewhere 453 00:26:02,240 --> 00:26:07,240 and then I start picking apart why it's not those things, 454 00:26:07,240 --> 00:26:09,240 why it's not a bird, why it's not an airplane, 455 00:26:09,240 --> 00:26:12,240 why it's not a satellite or a meteor or a drone. 456 00:26:14,240 --> 00:26:19,240 So after I eliminate all the possibilities of what it could be 457 00:26:19,240 --> 00:26:22,240 I'm left with two solutions 458 00:26:22,240 --> 00:26:25,240 and one is I'm hallucinating 459 00:26:25,240 --> 00:26:29,240 or the other is this is a legitimate UFO. 460 00:26:29,240 --> 00:26:32,240 This was a no fly zone. 461 00:26:32,240 --> 00:26:34,240 Pretty sure it's not our tech 462 00:26:34,240 --> 00:26:39,240 because I don't know of anything that can do this. 463 00:26:39,240 --> 00:26:43,240 I think maybe it's a problem with the imaging tube. 464 00:26:43,240 --> 00:26:47,240 In the night vision goggles it's sand rolling across the lens 465 00:26:47,240 --> 00:26:49,240 and I try to clean out the lens 466 00:26:49,240 --> 00:26:52,240 and I screw the imaging tube back in 467 00:26:52,240 --> 00:26:55,240 and I put it back on and I lean back 468 00:26:55,240 --> 00:26:59,240 and it repeated this flight pattern over and over again. 469 00:27:02,240 --> 00:27:06,240 It's my assumption that the fact that it executed that 90-degree turn 470 00:27:06,240 --> 00:27:08,240 directly at my top dead center 471 00:27:08,240 --> 00:27:11,240 is directly related to the content of the crate 472 00:27:11,240 --> 00:27:17,240 and that 90-degree angle to me eliminates terrestrial technology. 473 00:27:17,240 --> 00:27:22,240 I feel that the last thing left was alien technology. 474 00:27:22,240 --> 00:27:25,240 My partner comes up and I tell him to look. 475 00:27:25,240 --> 00:27:28,240 Just look and tell me what you see 476 00:27:28,240 --> 00:27:33,240 and maybe a minute goes by and I'm watching him. 477 00:27:35,240 --> 00:27:40,240 I know he saw the UFO because of the way that he moved his head. 478 00:27:40,240 --> 00:27:44,240 He saw the exact same pattern that I saw it do 479 00:27:44,240 --> 00:27:46,240 over and over again. 480 00:27:46,240 --> 00:27:48,240 And I was thinking, yep, he saw it. 481 00:27:48,240 --> 00:27:51,240 But it was weird. 482 00:27:51,240 --> 00:27:54,240 My partner just shuts down, doesn't say anything, 483 00:27:54,240 --> 00:27:56,240 doesn't acknowledge the event, 484 00:27:56,240 --> 00:27:58,240 never says anything about it. 485 00:27:58,240 --> 00:28:02,240 His reaction was cold. 486 00:28:03,240 --> 00:28:05,240 Very cold. 487 00:28:07,240 --> 00:28:09,240 I'm very confused. 488 00:28:09,240 --> 00:28:12,240 I don't know how to react to the situation. 489 00:28:14,240 --> 00:28:17,240 Everything is going through my head. 490 00:28:17,240 --> 00:28:19,240 We're in the Middle East. 491 00:28:19,240 --> 00:28:23,240 There's an obvious threat or we wouldn't be in that posture. 492 00:28:23,240 --> 00:28:25,240 I don't know what to do. 493 00:28:26,240 --> 00:28:29,240 I just gripped my weapon a little tighter, 494 00:28:29,240 --> 00:28:34,240 kept my finger a little closer to the trigger and just watched. 495 00:28:36,240 --> 00:28:40,240 The night truly seemed to last forever. 496 00:28:41,240 --> 00:28:46,240 When you're in the military and you see something that's outside of the norm, 497 00:28:46,240 --> 00:28:51,240 there's not really procedures or guidelines or even encouragement 498 00:28:51,240 --> 00:28:56,240 to step forward and talk about what you saw or what you experienced. 499 00:28:56,240 --> 00:28:59,240 They just don't expect you to say much. 500 00:29:02,240 --> 00:29:06,240 If you saw a UFO, you were immediately put into 501 00:29:06,240 --> 00:29:12,240 the contingent of folks that are mentally unstable, 502 00:29:12,240 --> 00:29:15,240 you don't want to be the UFO guy. 503 00:29:15,240 --> 00:29:19,240 If Jeremy had come out with his story in 1995, 504 00:29:19,240 --> 00:29:22,240 I really don't think anyone would have given him any credibility. 505 00:29:22,240 --> 00:29:26,240 But given the fact that there was so much declassified information 506 00:29:26,240 --> 00:29:31,240 in 2021 from the US government about unidentified flying objects, UFOs, 507 00:29:31,240 --> 00:29:33,240 this gives credence to what he says. 508 00:29:33,240 --> 00:29:36,240 The 2021 reports prove that Jeremy is not alone. 509 00:29:36,240 --> 00:29:39,240 There have been hundreds of these, and who knows how many other people 510 00:29:39,240 --> 00:29:42,240 like Jeremy didn't come forward. 511 00:29:42,240 --> 00:29:45,240 That night in the desert absolutely changed my life. 512 00:29:45,240 --> 00:29:51,240 19 years after everything is said and done and over with, 513 00:29:51,240 --> 00:29:56,240 I was diagnosed with a very specific type of skin cancer 514 00:29:56,240 --> 00:30:01,240 caused by an exposure to radiation. 515 00:30:01,240 --> 00:30:08,240 And it was on my right inner thigh, 516 00:30:08,240 --> 00:30:14,240 and there's nothing else other than me crawling on and sitting on 517 00:30:14,240 --> 00:30:21,240 and lying down on that crate 19 years before that could have caused this. 518 00:30:21,240 --> 00:30:29,240 And to me, whatever was in this crate was emitting a radioactive signature. 519 00:30:31,240 --> 00:30:38,240 Maybe what's in that crate was actually a recovered nuclear device 520 00:30:38,240 --> 00:30:41,240 that had been stolen. 521 00:30:41,240 --> 00:30:46,240 If the crate is some sort of fissile material with a nuclear signature, 522 00:30:46,240 --> 00:30:52,240 that object could have been there because of the contents of that crate. 523 00:30:52,240 --> 00:30:55,240 In what aspect, I have no idea. 524 00:30:55,240 --> 00:31:00,240 But to me, they're linked. 525 00:31:00,240 --> 00:31:05,240 I'm coming forward now because I want to know what I saw. 526 00:31:05,240 --> 00:31:10,240 It's natural in human nature to be interested in things that we can't explain 527 00:31:10,240 --> 00:31:15,240 because our brains sort of evolved in an ambiguous environment, 528 00:31:15,240 --> 00:31:20,240 and we've developed these mechanisms to make us curious to want answers to things. 529 00:31:20,240 --> 00:31:26,240 So it makes sense that we are attracted to phenomena that has an unknown origin. 530 00:31:26,240 --> 00:31:30,240 We can't quite explain it, and then we seek answers. 531 00:31:30,240 --> 00:31:32,240 Something is happening. 532 00:31:32,240 --> 00:31:35,240 Something is flying in our skies. 533 00:31:35,240 --> 00:31:40,240 I saw something that changes everything. 534 00:31:40,240 --> 00:31:42,240 I want to know what it is. 535 00:31:42,240 --> 00:31:47,240 It's about getting the information out there and lowering the stigma 536 00:31:47,240 --> 00:31:50,240 of speaking about these events. 537 00:31:56,240 --> 00:32:03,240 I can still hear the scream in my head even 16 years later. 538 00:32:03,240 --> 00:32:08,240 Still this day I have no idea what may or may not have happened. 539 00:32:08,240 --> 00:32:10,240 Baghdad, Iraq. 540 00:32:10,240 --> 00:32:16,240 For over 30 years, Saddam Hussein ruled over it with an iron fist. 541 00:32:16,240 --> 00:32:20,240 One of Saddam's biggest strongholds was Al Fah Palace, 542 00:32:20,240 --> 00:32:22,240 where he welcomed guests and supporters. 543 00:32:22,240 --> 00:32:26,240 But Saddam's henchmen also brought his enemies to the palace, 544 00:32:26,240 --> 00:32:29,240 torturing anyone who dared to oppose him. 545 00:32:29,240 --> 00:32:32,240 After Saddam Hussein's capture in 2003, 546 00:32:32,240 --> 00:32:36,240 the U.S. military took control of Al Fah Palace, 547 00:32:36,240 --> 00:32:42,240 but the memories from decades of terror are permanently etched into the walls. 548 00:32:42,240 --> 00:32:47,240 The U.S. military has been in the hands of the U.S. military 549 00:32:47,240 --> 00:32:49,240 for over 30 years. 550 00:32:49,240 --> 00:32:52,240 I'm not sure if anyone would even believe that it happened, 551 00:32:52,240 --> 00:32:57,240 but it's not something that I'll ever forget. 552 00:32:57,240 --> 00:33:01,240 My name is James Gelston. 553 00:33:01,240 --> 00:33:04,240 I was a Corporal of the United States Marine Corps. 554 00:33:04,240 --> 00:33:07,240 I served nearly 10 years. 555 00:33:07,240 --> 00:33:08,240 I came from a military family. 556 00:33:08,240 --> 00:33:10,240 My dad served in the Air Force. 557 00:33:10,240 --> 00:33:12,240 Both my grandfathers were in the Air Force, 558 00:33:12,240 --> 00:33:15,240 and I always grew up wanting to be in the military. 559 00:33:15,240 --> 00:33:18,240 The military absolutely runs up my blood. 560 00:33:18,240 --> 00:33:20,240 I joined right before 9-11 happened, 561 00:33:20,240 --> 00:33:24,240 and I was just even more ready to go in after that point. 562 00:33:24,240 --> 00:33:28,240 In 2005, James is deployed to Baghdad, 563 00:33:28,240 --> 00:33:30,240 where he is assigned to Camp Victory, 564 00:33:30,240 --> 00:33:35,240 formerly known as Saddam Hussein's Al Fah Palace. 565 00:33:35,240 --> 00:33:38,240 The U.S. government was using Al Fah Palace as a command center 566 00:33:38,240 --> 00:33:40,240 for all Iraqi operations. 567 00:33:40,240 --> 00:33:44,240 The office that I worked out of was the U.S. military. 568 00:33:44,240 --> 00:33:48,240 The office that I worked out of was the Iraqi Ground Forces Command 569 00:33:48,240 --> 00:33:50,240 military transition team, 570 00:33:50,240 --> 00:33:53,240 helping teach the Iraqi Army how the U.S. military operates. 571 00:33:53,240 --> 00:33:56,240 The relationship that we had between the local Iraqis 572 00:33:56,240 --> 00:33:58,240 was always fairly tense. 573 00:33:58,240 --> 00:34:02,240 There's just not a huge amount of trust between us. 574 00:34:02,240 --> 00:34:05,240 Inside of the art office, we had a secret computer, 575 00:34:05,240 --> 00:34:08,240 and we always kept the room guarded. 576 00:34:08,240 --> 00:34:11,240 The secret computer had access to what was called the SIPRnet. 577 00:34:11,240 --> 00:34:14,240 There's always, like, battle damage assessments, travel requests, 578 00:34:14,240 --> 00:34:18,240 and military route plans that you don't want the enemy to see. 579 00:34:18,240 --> 00:34:20,240 There's always one U.S. troop guarding the building at night 580 00:34:20,240 --> 00:34:24,240 to make sure that the secret computer isn't tampered with. 581 00:34:27,240 --> 00:34:29,240 During night shift, once the last person leaves, 582 00:34:29,240 --> 00:34:32,240 you close and lock the gate and then the front door behind them. 583 00:34:32,240 --> 00:34:35,240 You'll walk through the building to make sure there is nobody 584 00:34:35,240 --> 00:34:37,240 that's remaining in the building, 585 00:34:37,240 --> 00:34:40,240 making sure all the doors are locked and secured. 586 00:34:40,240 --> 00:34:45,240 You're set in for the night, and then you'll stay and guard the computer. 587 00:34:48,240 --> 00:34:51,240 Every time I did the night shift, I never felt comfortable in that building. 588 00:34:51,240 --> 00:34:54,240 When you're alone guarding the building at night, 589 00:34:54,240 --> 00:34:58,240 the building is completely silent except for the low hum of the computers being on. 590 00:35:00,240 --> 00:35:02,240 There's always kind of a creepy feeling in there. 591 00:35:02,240 --> 00:35:05,240 I would say it could feel like you were being watched. 592 00:35:06,240 --> 00:35:09,240 It was just a general feeling of unease. 593 00:35:10,240 --> 00:35:13,240 The Iraqi said that that building had been used to prepare feasts 594 00:35:13,240 --> 00:35:16,240 for Saddam Hussein and visiting dignitaries. 595 00:35:17,240 --> 00:35:21,240 The room that we worked in had drains in the floor. 596 00:35:21,240 --> 00:35:26,240 It looked like something that you would expect them to use for slaughtering animals. 597 00:35:31,240 --> 00:35:35,240 I heard from various sources that that room specifically was actually used 598 00:35:35,240 --> 00:35:38,240 to torture enemies of Saddam Hussein. 599 00:35:38,240 --> 00:35:41,240 I absolutely believe the room could have been used as a torture chamber. 600 00:35:44,240 --> 00:35:48,240 I think that knowing that people had been tortured in the room 601 00:35:48,240 --> 00:35:51,240 could be why you would feel eerie there. 602 00:35:52,240 --> 00:35:58,240 One night, five months into his tour, James encounters something bizarre. 603 00:36:00,240 --> 00:36:03,240 Around midnight, I would have been working 18 hours. 604 00:36:03,240 --> 00:36:06,240 I didn't feel tired because we were always drinking a lot of these little drinks. 605 00:36:06,240 --> 00:36:09,240 They're very high caffeine, so you get kind of wired. 606 00:36:10,240 --> 00:36:12,240 At one point, I was doing some work on the computer, 607 00:36:12,240 --> 00:36:15,240 and I felt a chill kind of pass over me. 608 00:36:15,240 --> 00:36:18,240 It mixed the hairs on your arm to stand a little bit. 609 00:36:19,240 --> 00:36:23,240 It did seem a bit odd because there was no AC or anything. 610 00:36:29,240 --> 00:36:33,240 Sometimes in high-stress environments, like for example, here, it's at night, 611 00:36:33,240 --> 00:36:36,240 he's in the palace of the former president Saddam Hussein. 612 00:36:36,240 --> 00:36:39,240 You know, it's scary. That affects your nervous system. 613 00:36:40,240 --> 00:36:44,240 There could be a decrease in body temperature, you can get chills. 614 00:36:44,240 --> 00:36:48,240 It's a neurological process that's based on a fear response. 615 00:36:49,240 --> 00:36:54,240 There's been some reports that low frequency sound, like below 20 hertz, 616 00:36:54,240 --> 00:37:01,240 that can be emitted from computers, have given people the sensation of being watched. 617 00:37:03,240 --> 00:37:07,240 So around 1 a.m., I was watching a few videos on the computer with just subtitles. 618 00:37:07,240 --> 00:37:10,240 I would typically have the speaker off at nighttime, 619 00:37:10,240 --> 00:37:13,240 just so I could hear if anyone was walking around the building. 620 00:37:16,240 --> 00:37:19,240 Out of nowhere, I hear a very loud screaming. 621 00:37:20,240 --> 00:37:22,240 The scream sounded like a pained voice, 622 00:37:22,240 --> 00:37:25,240 and it sounded like someone was yelling in the room that I was in. 623 00:37:25,240 --> 00:37:28,240 It was as vivid as if I had someone in front of me screaming. 624 00:37:34,240 --> 00:37:40,240 What started as a routine night of guard duty in one of Saddam Hussein's former policies 625 00:37:40,240 --> 00:37:44,240 has taken a surprising turn for Corporal James Gelston. 626 00:37:45,240 --> 00:37:48,240 The scream was unsettling, it did cause my drill in the kick-in. 627 00:37:48,240 --> 00:37:51,240 It sounded like someone was in pain or possibly being tortured, 628 00:37:51,240 --> 00:37:53,240 but it lasted two, maybe three seconds. 629 00:37:53,240 --> 00:37:55,240 The scream was very loud. 630 00:37:55,240 --> 00:38:00,240 I jumped my feet and I was looking around because I thought someone was very close to where I was. 631 00:38:01,240 --> 00:38:03,240 I didn't see anyone. 632 00:38:07,240 --> 00:38:11,240 At this point, I just completely believed that someone had gotten into the building. 633 00:38:11,240 --> 00:38:15,240 I was expecting at any moment I would run into someone that I would have to shoot. 634 00:38:17,240 --> 00:38:21,240 Slowly and methodically, I go and I clear every room in the building to see if someone's in there, 635 00:38:21,240 --> 00:38:23,240 and I don't find anybody. 636 00:38:24,240 --> 00:38:26,240 Someone's there, make yourself known! 637 00:38:27,240 --> 00:38:30,240 But, uh, there's nobody there. 638 00:38:33,240 --> 00:38:36,240 I can't think of any way they could have come from anywhere else. 639 00:38:37,240 --> 00:38:39,240 The building was 100% soundproof. 640 00:38:39,240 --> 00:38:42,240 The noise could not have possibly have come from outside. 641 00:38:43,240 --> 00:38:46,240 I did check my computer to make sure the noise couldn't have come from there, 642 00:38:46,240 --> 00:38:48,240 but I had the speaker turned all the way off, 643 00:38:48,240 --> 00:38:51,240 and I double-checked to see if there were any of the computers were on. 644 00:38:51,240 --> 00:38:53,240 They were all turned off. 645 00:38:53,240 --> 00:38:55,240 I'm just kind of sitting there dumbfounded. 646 00:38:55,240 --> 00:38:58,240 It makes no sense at all to me. It was completely baffled at what was going on. 647 00:39:01,240 --> 00:39:06,240 Raddled by what he just experienced, James makes a difficult decision. 648 00:39:07,240 --> 00:39:12,240 After that, I don't call anyone because I'm not sure if anyone would even believe that it happened. 649 00:39:12,240 --> 00:39:15,240 They might just think that I'm going crazy. 650 00:39:17,240 --> 00:39:21,240 In the military, it's more what you can see, what you can prove is there. 651 00:39:21,240 --> 00:39:27,240 And at this point, I feel like every rational logical explanation for it was, uh, exhausted. 652 00:39:28,240 --> 00:39:30,240 For the rest of the night, I stay on alert. 653 00:39:30,240 --> 00:39:35,240 I didn't hear anything. It was just the, uh, same low hum of the computer. 654 00:39:36,240 --> 00:39:38,240 The first person to come in was a major. 655 00:39:39,240 --> 00:39:41,240 Probably around 530. 656 00:39:42,240 --> 00:39:44,240 I decided to tell the major about it. 657 00:39:44,240 --> 00:39:48,240 The major's reaction is that he, uh, seems to take it seriously. 658 00:39:48,240 --> 00:39:50,240 He goes by and he checks around as I had done earlier. 659 00:39:52,240 --> 00:39:55,240 And he comes up empty as well. 660 00:39:56,240 --> 00:40:00,240 The major agreed that he doesn't believe anyone was able to get into the building. 661 00:40:03,240 --> 00:40:09,240 After this point, I'm in Iraq for, uh, another three to four months, but, uh, I never hear the scream again. 662 00:40:10,240 --> 00:40:14,240 I served nearly 10 years and nothing like that has ever happened. 663 00:40:14,240 --> 00:40:17,240 And, uh, still this day, I have no idea how that could have happened. 664 00:40:18,240 --> 00:40:21,240 There is a known history of what we call directed energy weapons. 665 00:40:22,240 --> 00:40:25,240 We normally interpret pressure waves in the air as sound. 666 00:40:26,240 --> 00:40:38,240 So is it feasible that you could create a directed energy device that could create the equivalent sound of a scream some distance away? Perhaps. 667 00:40:39,240 --> 00:40:44,240 Maybe the scream James heard was part of a test of some classified weapon. 668 00:40:45,240 --> 00:40:51,240 Throughout history, people have used different technologies and different strategies to dishevel their enemies. 669 00:40:52,240 --> 00:40:55,240 The idea of acoustical weapons has proven historically. 670 00:40:56,240 --> 00:41:06,240 In today's world, we talk about, you know, uh, attacks where people in some of our western embassies abroad have complained of being sick, of, you know, having bad headaches. 671 00:41:07,240 --> 00:41:11,240 Supposedly from acoustical devices used by somebody against them. 672 00:41:15,240 --> 00:41:17,240 This is another means of warfare. 673 00:41:22,240 --> 00:41:31,240 My mother and my wife are convinced that I heard the spirit of one of Saddam's torture victims, but, uh, I'm not 100% into the belief that that's completely possible. 674 00:41:32,240 --> 00:41:37,240 My views on the paranormal, um, if I can't see it and touch it, it's not real. I can't explain what happened. 675 00:41:38,240 --> 00:41:44,240 I still feel there's a rational explanation out there that I was just unable to uncover. 676 00:41:45,240 --> 00:41:53,240 People can choose to believe my story. They can choose not to. I know what happened to me and there's no doubt in my mind what I heard. It's not something that I'll ever forget.