The 'Fearsome' Alpine Ghost - U.S. Army 1968 (True Story)

Once as a wide-eyed, young military recruit for the U.S. Army, I was assigned to a small Missile Detachment working with allied forces in a remote, mountainous, location overseas...

This particular detachment was situated in a designated 'Secret' location of which we were instructed 'not' to write home about...??? Well...we could write home, but not divulge exactly where we were at the time. I had a Secret level Security Clearance which if violated...I'd be up shit's creek.

So, rather than risk ten years in prison, and/or a $10,000. penalty, I just told my family that "The Hills are Alive With the Sound of Music" and that I can sometimes hear yodeling echoing down the mountains from Tyrolean sheep herders...

That was enough of a hint I figured to keep them from repeatedly asking where I was, from out of fear I might be in a foxhole somewhere in the wet, teeming jungle of Nam with giant, red, biting ants crawling up my butt...

Our compound was adjacent to a Nato Forces installation, which I believe was supposed to fool the locals into believing us guys in US uniforms, were not who they thought we were? I guess it worked somewhat because we couldn't venture into a nearby village in uniform...and, we didn't have any US Military vehicles either; only allied forces trucks and stuff.

Though we performed a multitude of duties, one of our functions was to safeguard and secure certain weaponry, twenty four hours a day, every day, even come Sunday...

Four of us would be dropped in shifts in the middle of a small, allied, perimeter guard. We had some 'stuff' stored there that probably shouldn't have been there (can't say what...shuuush..!) It was a shoot first, ask questions later type, secured area.

The system we had was to send one man in periodically, to do a quick check with the rest of us standing by. It would usually just take a few minutes.

One guy started to hear a ghost out there at night... This guy really began to fear going out there alone; he swore he heard ghosts... I asked him what the ghost was saying, and he said... "Ooooo, Ooooo"...we all just laughed; till he didn't return one night, and we lost radio contact with him.

I reported in to command about it, then the three of us went out locked and loaded to do a search. We found him lying on the ground...'out cold'...This time, he had "seen" the ghost; it attacked him, and he fainted...They sent the poor guy to see a shrink.

From then on, we'd go in with our adopted mascot; a young, frisky medium sized mutt for added support. Not that we big, strong fighting men were scared...you know...just in case...

One night, while it was my turn to perform the check points out there, guess what 'I' heard...? Yup...the ghost; then I saw it too. This 'huge' white thing swooped down at me from a berm about fifteen feet high...disappearing over my head to another berm behind me...

My heart jumped and fluttered like a scared little boy about to get a booster shot at the Doctors office. Our brave, canine mascot high tailed it out of there leaving me with my trembling, thumping ticker on my own; to face certain doom...

Well...it turned out to be a huge white 'Mountain Snow Owl'....The wing span must have been about four to five feet across...I didn't faint like the other guy, but my heart did take quite a leap, and I almost got a reckless shot off at the monster; I'm glad I solved the mystery though, without killing the beautiful creature.