BFRO #17089: Night sighting through thermal viewer by soldier on Fort Stewart

📍 Location

📝 Description

Let me set up the story with some information that is pertinent to the situation. I was in the Army stationed at Fort Stewart, Georgia. My job at the time was as a gunner on a Bradley Fighting Vehicle. My unit was in the field conducting a training exercise which was to last a few days. The Bradley fighting vehicle is an armored tracked vehicle that normally has a crew of three; (Vehicle Commander, Gunner and Driver). One night around 2AM my vehicle was moving solo along a dirt road (we called them tank trails) in the northeast part of Fort Stewart. We were driving blacked out with no lights on. I was acting as gunner and had my head buried in the thermal sight system which is used to engage targets at night. The thermal sight distinguishes differences in heat signatures and formulates a picture in either white hot or black hot (depending on what you have selected) against a red background. The driver had the hatch closed and was using a night vision device to view the road. The vehicle commander was standing up out of the hatch looking through night vision monoculars. While moving along, if we encountered an intersection I would slew the turret either left or right (90 degrees) over the side of the vehicle to look down the road and clear it of any simulated enemy. At one particular intersection I did this maneuver, slewed the turret over the right side of the vehicle and looked down the trail. It was clear and the vehicle made a right turn. After turning we drove approximately one hundred yards. The vegetation was extremely thick in this area due to being a swamp and about 10-12 feet high. As I was looking through the sight I observed something come out of the vegetation, approximately fifty yards in front of us, from the right side of the road and walk across the road to the left and re-enter the vegetation. The dirt road is approximately 15-20 feet wide. This creature cleared the road in three steps at a normal stride. It didn't seemed bothered by us or in a rush. I don't recall it looking in our direction. Its head and torso were straight and it just walked on. Typically while looking through the thermal sight at a person you can distinguish clothing, hair, equipment they may be wearing, etc and be able to judge their height with the surroundings they are standing in. This creature appeared through the thermal sight to be one constant color from head to foot, have no clothes on and to be fairly tall, approximately 7-9 feet. The first thought that came to my head was a bigfoot. At the time it all just seemed to make sense. From watching documentaries and reading books as a kid it all seemed to fit. Everything happened very quickly. I was shocked when I saw it and said nothing till after it went back into the woods. I announced to the vehicle commander over the internal comm system that something just walked across the road and it wasn't a man or an animal. He got spooked and told the driver to punch it. I wanted to stop and investigate but no one else was having that. We were never able to go back and now I could only vaguely point out a general area we were in.

🔍 Circumstances

I was the only person out of three to observe the creature.

🌤️ Weather Conditions

Approximately 2AM. Totally dark with maybe a little bit of lunar illumination. Can't remember about clouds.

ℹ️ Additional Details

Approximately 2AM. Totally dark with maybe a little bit of lunar illumination. Can't remember about clouds.

🔗 Sources (1)

👥 Community Contributions

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