Djinn Encounters
US Army in Iraq, djinn/ghost encounters
I was asked to share this, so here you go!! Post your djinn stories, veterans!
I was an Infantryman during the invasion of Iraq in 2003, my unit was 1/22 IN 4th ID. We pushed into Baghdad, and then took an airfield just north of the city. Then we headed north, up highway one. The majority of my unit stayed in Tikrit (Saddam’s hometown), my Company kept going north with 3/66 Armor to a huge enemy ammo depot near Baiji. We began operating around that area, and then shortly moved to nearby K2 airfield, and set up a more permanent FOB.
K2 airfield had a residential area that had been abandoned, near the end of the runway. It was on-post housing for the Iraqi air force personnel that ran the base, but they had left way before our arrival. What was strange is that it seems it was abandoned before the invasion. There were pots and pans in the sink, there were clothes on the line, but there was lots of dust all over everything. Looters had been there (they were everywhere during that time), but they left mostly everything. My unit moved into the end of the airfield, into some bombed out warehouses, and an MP company moved into the biggest houses in the abandoned housing area, we started to call the “ghost town.” The MP’s that took up residence in the ghost town moved out after about a week. I asked one of the very tired looking MP’s why, as everyone was jealous that they lived in actual homes (albeit abandoned, shabby ones), instead of bombed out warehouses, and I was curious about their speedy move. He said that they couldn’t sleep; doors would open and shut all night, they heard footsteps RUNNING up and down the halls at night, and then finally they began to see children’s faces looking in at them through the windows. The US Army does not function with consideration to ghosts, and for them to get their chain of command to move their whole company out of the ghost town, there must have been some tangible events that effected their operational readiness.
Their move meant that now our residence was the new perimeter of our FOB closest to the ghost town, so we took up nighttime security every night around our warehouse. We would each do an hour shift, and we had a watch going all night long. We had thermal sights, and night vision, and we would sit out there scanning the desert for enemy activity. During our watch, we could all hear children laughing and playing, all night long. It sounded like a playground was active in the ghost town, but we verified with our thermal sights, it was empty. We often had pebbles thrown at us. We would sit out there, alone or in pairs, and listen to the laughter while getting hit by rocks. Nothing big, but they would bounce off your face, your helmet, your vest. The whole time scanning with thermals and night vision, nobody there, listening to the laughter. This happened night after night; we all talked about it with each other, nobody was happy about it, but we sucked it up.
In 2004, we had a change of command, and upon hearing about the situation, our new commanding officer said “There is no supernatural activity in this “ghost town”, only enemy activity.” This was partially true because we had been attacked with sniper fire and rpg’s from that direction multiple times. His decision was to set up a nightly patrol and set up ambushes in the ghost town, every night. We were already busy, looking for WMD’s during the day, raiding Saddam’s Baathists during the night. We had been doing 18-36 hour patrols, QRF, convoy security, more patrols, show of force, ambushes; the works! And now this.
So it began. My squad had done the new patrol a few times, and it always seemed extra dark when walking though the ghost town. There was an old British fort left over from their colonial days, with firing ports and towers. Streets with sidewalks, and pretty decent houses, all empty. While on patrol, we could still hear the kids playing, but it seemed just as faint as when we were on perimeter guard. We would get on a roof, lay there on ambush and just listen. To the wind, the kids, and that’s it. One night, we were patrolling through the ghost town, in a modified wedge formation. One of our soldiers said “What the fuck!”, then screamed “what the fuck is that!!!” He pointed his weapon to the middle of our formation, then dropped his weapon, and ran. He ran alone in the dark, unarmed in the middle of a combat zone, away from everyone. Those of us that looked where he pointed, saw it. Those of us that looked at the fleeing soldier, heard it.
Walking with us was a solid shadow, with roughly the shape of a person. Tall, with really long arms, skinny legs, and a very narrow torso. It turned it’s head back and forth as if surprised to be discovered. It bent down, and then it leaped. It landed in a crouch on top of a nearby chainlink fence still facing us, and moving it’s head to look at us. It’s eyes then quickly flashed red, and then it jumped backwards off the fence and disappeared into the night. We caught up with the soldier, our squad leader was super pissed. He got roughed up a bit, as he had absolutely lost it, screaming and crying.
This soldier was solid. I’ve personally seen him shoot an enemy, at close range. We’d all been through a lot, and we were both confident and competent. What we saw that night was not the scariest thing we had been through that deployment, engaging the enemy on the regular was. But the enemy made sense, this creature didn’t.It was by far the most disturbing thing I’ve ever witnessed , as it seemed to have a purpose keeping pace with us. From that point on, whenever it was our turn to patrol ghost town, our squad leader would lead us to just the edge and we would wait in ambush. I’m sure we all still appreciate that to this day.
#Unexplained/Paranormal #Person/Job/Military #Creature/Djinn