Tonight I will be speaking to John. John writes “In 2017 we took our cadets out to an FTX (Field Training Exercise) near Tenino, WA. On the 1st night we heard what I now know to be tree knocks, which was curious but nothing unnerving, so we really paid no attention to it.

But the 2nd night… around 0130 (1:30 am) we heard a LOUD, chilling, otherworldly yell, that got all the staff out of our tents at lightning speed and on immediate high alert.

The length… of the howl / screaming growl; NOTHING I know of has a lung capacity that large. I’m a hunter & fisherman, so I spend a fair amount of time in nature (or at least, I used to) and I’ve never heard anything like that, ever, in my life.

A sustained vocalization of approx 25-30 seconds in one breath. It was chilling. Almost paralyzing. What truly stood my hair on end, was some kind of infrasound reverb passing through my vital organs that accompanied the yell. Like a lion’s huff. I Felt the sound waves ripple through my body, vibrating my guts.

The voice was strange too. As if multiple sets of vocal cords were overlaid, activating all at once. Like 2 or 3 voices of different octaves and pitch, but altogether, wrapped up in a singular voice. I know that sounds insane, but it’s difficult to describe.

The 2nd vocalization had us back in our tents drawing our firearms… but for the first time, I had no confidence in my weapon against whatever made that sound. It was so intimidating. I felt thoroughly vulnerable, despite being armed. I mean Utterly helpless.

We heard tree knocks again shortly after, and then another vocalization from the other side of the field in the opposite tree line and then tree knocks from that location as well. I don’t know if there were two of them communicating across the field, or if it was the same one circling and repositioning around our perimeter. Whichever it was, it sounded aggressive. It certainly wasn’t happy we were there.

Like I said previously, we never saw it, because it was in the darkness beyond the glow of our bonfire in the center of camp. On the other hand, I hated being so exposed because we were at a tactical disadvantage. We were illuminated by the fire, so it could see us, but we couldn’t see it. I wish I had brought NVG’s. (I certainly will next time)

A rock was thrown at our campfire where we, the staff were in befuddled conversation, about just what the hell to do. A few more rocks were thrown at us periodically but eventually it got quite. Obviously, we couldn’t go back to sleep. We stayed up, and remained on watch until sunrise. We packed up and left the following morning.”