Speaker 1: Daud watched nervously as the choppers descended from out of
Speaker 1: the dawn sky, their giant blades thrumming ominously as they
Speaker 1: dropped closer to the ground, kicking up dust and beating
Speaker 1: back the green shoots of wheat now oscillating wildly before him.
Speaker 1: He turned sharply and made a quick retreat back into
Speaker 1: his house, bolting the door behind him. Then, peering out
Speaker 1: from the corner of a window, he watched as the
Speaker 1: first pair of camel colored combat boots hit the floor,
Speaker 1: soon followed by numerous others, and prayed to Allah that
Speaker 1: he would be left alone. Moments later, there came a loud,
Speaker 1: insistent knock at the door. The men, he assumed were
Speaker 1: Americans strangers, the people he'd been warned not to co
Speaker 1: operate with. They were joined at the door by a
Speaker 1: more familiar face, who put the stranger's short, insistent words
Speaker 1: into Pashtu so that he could understand their demands. But
Speaker 1: Daoud was finding it hard to concentrate, too distracted by
Speaker 1: the service rifles in their hands. Just a few weeks ago,
Speaker 1: men not unlike these killed a ten year old boy
Speaker 1: in Daoud's village. Just another of the tens of thousands
Speaker 1: of Afghan civilians that would fall victim to a war
Speaker 1: of which they had no control. Caught in the cross
Speaker 1: fire between Taliban insurgents and the invading US and British forces,
Speaker 1: while Daoud in his own home did his best not
Speaker 1: to seem guilty of anything. The interpreter explained that the
Speaker 1: soldiers wanted to use his home for the next few weeks,
Speaker 1: adding that they would pay good money for it, but
Speaker 1: Daoud couldn't possibly agree. If word got out to the
Speaker 1: Taliban that he'd taken money from Americans, the consequences would
Speaker 1: not be worth thinking about. Captain john Way's son sighed
Speaker 1: and looked about at his men, who were growing evermore skittish,
Speaker 1: stood out in the open, each passing second bringing them
Speaker 1: closer to the possibility of death. He and his men
Speaker 1: were Marines, members of the second Battalion, eighth Regiment, newly
Speaker 1: arrived in the region after spending two months acclimatizing at
Speaker 1: Camp leather Neck, the Marines primary base in Helmand Province
Speaker 1: in South Afghanistan. The unit formed a handful of the
Speaker 1: four thousand new troops sent into Helmand as part of
Speaker 1: Operation Kanjar. The latest roll of the Dice in the
Speaker 1: US government's efforts to neutralize the Taliban's grip on the region.
Speaker 1: It was July twenty oh nine, and with all things
Speaker 1: going to plan, the war would be all but over soon.
Speaker 1: Daoud's village, Shades, was one of many similar sized rural
Speaker 1: communities clustered around the Helmand River in the Gamsa district
Speaker 1: of Helmand. Although surrounded on all sides by endless miles
Speaker 1: of desert, here the land was rich and green, quite
Speaker 1: different to how many of the Marines had imagined Afghanistan
Speaker 1: to look. To some, it reminded them of the verdant
Speaker 1: countryside that surrounded their training base in North Carolina, though
Speaker 1: they were under no illusions of just how far from
Speaker 1: home they really were. Out of the twenty most dangerous
Speaker 1: districts of Afghanistan, according to the US military, nine were
Speaker 1: located in Helmand Province, being as it was a vital
Speaker 1: asset for the Taliban on account of the vast, sprawling
Speaker 1: poppy fields that also mind the banks of the Helmond River.
Speaker 1: The fields, which they cultivated for opium to help fund
Speaker 1: their operations, had flourished thanks to an extensive canal and
Speaker 1: irrigation system that had been constructed back in the nineteen
Speaker 1: fifties and sixties, largely with the help of significant US
Speaker 1: government investment. The system had even been partially designed by
Speaker 1: the company Morrison Knudson, perhaps better known for building the
Speaker 1: Hoover Dam and the San Francisco Bay Bridge, just one
Speaker 1: of the many ironies that characterized this most messy of wars.
Speaker 1: The attempt to commandeer Daoud's home was part of a
Speaker 1: new tactic to go from village to village, setting up
Speaker 1: out posts and establishing a visible presence throughout the region
Speaker 1: to try and root out any Taliban strongholds while simultaneously
Speaker 1: engaging with the local population in the hope of winning
Speaker 1: their support. For those like Daou, it is a fraught existence,
Speaker 1: struck between the harsh authority of the Taliban and the
Speaker 1: ambiguous motives of the invading forces. For those like Captain's
Speaker 1: Son and his men, it is just the beginning of
Speaker 1: what must seem an impossible task, the first of many
Speaker 1: they will face together in the next seven months of
Speaker 1: their deployment. On this occasion, it ends with Daoud being
Speaker 1: forced to give up his home for at least the
Speaker 1: next two weeks. After local elders convince him to hand
Speaker 1: over his property. Daoud has barely finished loading the last
Speaker 1: of his possessions onto a cart when the Marines move in.
Speaker 1: He doesn't take the money, telling them instead to make
Speaker 1: it known that he had no choice in the matter,
Speaker 1: and in many ways he didn't. Not far from Shades,
Speaker 1: another unit from the second and eighth are undertaking their
Speaker 1: first patrol outside the wire. Among them is twenty year
Speaker 1: old Lance Corporal Charles Seth Sharp, Hailing from the town
Speaker 1: of Adairsville in northwestern Georgia, Sharp had been motivated to
Speaker 1: join the Marines, partly in an effort to bring structure
Speaker 1: and focus to his life and to make his family proud,
Speaker 1: but mostly by a desire to fight for those who
Speaker 1: couldn't fight for themselves. While stationed in a rack the
Speaker 1: year before, Sharp made a strange request to his family,
Speaker 1: asking them to send him coloring books and crayons for Christmas.
Speaker 1: As he explained to his bemused parents, he wanted to
Speaker 1: give them to all the kids he'd met throughout his
Speaker 1: time there. Only a few days before heading out on patrol,
Speaker 1: Sharp had written a letter to his grandmother telling her
Speaker 1: that he was about to take part in a mission
Speaker 1: that his grand children would learn about in history class,
Speaker 1: but Sharp would never live to have grandchildren. That morning,
Speaker 1: on his first patrol, his unit came under attack, and
Speaker 1: he was shot in the neck by an unseen shooter
Speaker 1: and died soon after, becoming the first US casualty of
Speaker 1: Operation Khanjar. For many in the second Battalion and eighth Regiment,
Speaker 1: the time spent in Camp leather Neck had been a
Speaker 1: frustrating one. All cooped up together under one giant tent
Speaker 1: nicknamed the Circus Tent. Having trained for months building themselves
Speaker 1: up for action, the last thing they wanted was to
Speaker 1: be sitting around kicking their heels in the desert. Sharp's
Speaker 1: death was a harsh wake up call to the reality
Speaker 1: of combat and a brutal reminder of the true nature
Speaker 1: of the battle they were engaged in. The Taliban were
Speaker 1: not a simple enemy to be routed and crushed through
Speaker 1: sheer might and will. There were no military compounds to
Speaker 1: storm or governments to overthrow. Theirs was a much longer game,
Speaker 1: characterized by stealth than surprise. Their presence felt not by
Speaker 1: what you did see, but what you didn't. A movement
Speaker 1: in the tree line up ahead, or the improvised explosive
Speaker 1: device buried six inches under the ground and primed to kill,
Speaker 1: And even when they did finally make their presence known,
Speaker 1: they could just as quickly disappear, like phantoms, back into
Speaker 1: the landscape, each member often indistinguishable to the Marines from
Speaker 1: the many other people whose land they now stalked. As
Speaker 1: one Taliban commander was often fond of saying, the Americans
Speaker 1: might have the watches, but they had the time. Of
Speaker 1: all the conflicts in recent years, it is little wonder
Speaker 1: that from out of this one tales of ghosts would emerge.
Speaker 1: You're listening to Unexplained and I'm Richard McClean smith. If
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Speaker 1: small group of marines stamped their feet to keep warm
Speaker 1: as a hazy, pale sun crept up over the makeshift
Speaker 1: walls of Patrol Base Hassanabad, a rudimentary settlement on the
Speaker 1: outskirts of Hassanabad Village that was comprised of little more
Speaker 1: than giant reinforced sacks of gravel and a few canvas tents.
Speaker 1: On the orders of their sergeant, the eight men, comprising
Speaker 1: a unit from Golf Company, second Battalion, eighth regiment jumped
Speaker 1: into the waiting armored trucks and sat anxiously as the
Speaker 1: gate was opened. Moments later, they were out beyond the
Speaker 1: perimeter wall, huddled together with the nervous energy of the
Speaker 1: recently deployed, the prospect of hitting an ied and ever
Speaker 1: constant in their minds. For some, this was little more
Speaker 1: than routine. For others, like twenty two year old Lance
Speaker 1: Corporal Adam Wilson, this was their first assignment beyond the wire.
Speaker 1: Wilson looked out through the truck's dusty window at the
Speaker 1: alien landscape beyond, a mix of scrub and wheat fields,
Speaker 1: a far cry from his home city of Xenia, Ohio,
Speaker 1: while up above, a compatriot tended the truck's single machine gun,
Speaker 1: surveying the horizon for any signs of a threat. Thank fleet,
Speaker 1: with only a few hundred meters to travel, it wasn't
Speaker 1: long before they arrived at their destination, the trucks skidding
Speaker 1: to a stop beside what looked like little more than
Speaker 1: a huge pile of mud. After quickly vacating the vehicle,
Speaker 1: the men took a moment to survey the place they
Speaker 1: would be calling home for the next sixty days, a
Speaker 1: small outpost set up about twenty meters high on the
Speaker 1: top of a strange dirt hill designated Observation Point Rock,
Speaker 1: or simply the Rock. Being the highest point for some
Speaker 1: considerable distance, the rock was an obvious place to put
Speaker 1: an observation post from which any incoming enemies could be
Speaker 1: spotted long before they had time to reach the patrol base.
Speaker 1: Despite its relative closeness to the base, the facilities were
Speaker 1: basic at best, with no electricity, running water, or even
Speaker 1: beds to sleep in. As such, it was necessary to
Speaker 1: maintain a steady rotation of personnel to occupy the post.
Speaker 1: Feeling thoroughly exposed and with the heat already beginning to rise,
Speaker 1: the Marines quickly made their way to the shelter of
Speaker 1: the compound above, where they were greeted by its outgoing occupiers,
Speaker 1: a group of Welsh guards from the British Army. Lance
Speaker 1: Corporal Wilson couldn't help contrasting the fresh faces of his
Speaker 1: fellow Marines with this tired, despondent group of men hastily
Speaker 1: packing their bags, evidently in a hurry to vacate the place. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: Corporal Jacob Lna, the units second in command, made his
Speaker 1: way along one of the few shallow trenches that had
Speaker 1: been carved out of the mound and surveyed the scene.
Speaker 1: The post was centered around a single machine gun that
Speaker 1: poked out of a small hutch on the west side
Speaker 1: of the hill. Some old magazines were littered about the place,
Speaker 1: while the remnants of a small homemade jim could just
Speaker 1: be glimpsed from underneath some camouflage netting. Just then, Lina
Speaker 1: was startled by the bark of a dog, which revealed
Speaker 1: itself moments later, eager to meet the new arrivals. As
Speaker 1: one of the British soldiers explained, it was a local
Speaker 1: stray that adopted. Calling it ugly Betty, Lina promised to
Speaker 1: look after it for them. Ordinarily, this would be the
Speaker 1: point at which the previous group took a moment to
Speaker 1: go over a few details about the local landscape, sniper
Speaker 1: spots to look out for, or any individuals they might
Speaker 1: want to be suspicious of, but the Welsh guards offered
Speaker 1: no such courtesy, preferring simply to clear out as quickly
Speaker 1: as possible. There was one piece of advice, however, that
Speaker 1: they were willing to impart should the men dig any
Speaker 1: it might be best to put it back where they
Speaker 1: found it. The Marines soon made themselves busy settling into
Speaker 1: their new home as they quickly got down to the
Speaker 1: business of determining sentry shifts and figuring out the most
Speaker 1: comfortable places to get some sleep. With temperatures routinely hitting
Speaker 1: close to forty degrees celsius, finding ways to stay in
Speaker 1: the shade would also be vital. As the last of
Speaker 1: that first day's light ebbed away and the hazy, pink
Speaker 1: and bluish hues of dusk descend it, the men could
Speaker 1: be thankful to have made it through the day without incident.
Speaker 1: That evening, Corporal Lena took first watch at the machine gun,
Speaker 1: gazing out at the complicated mix of homes, fields and
Speaker 1: fir trees dotted before him, the shadows growing longer and
Speaker 1: longer before dissolving momentarily, only to later re emerge under
Speaker 1: the gentle light of the moon. Not far to the south,
Speaker 1: Lina could just make out the old, rusted shells of
Speaker 1: two Soviet era tanks half buried in the earth, remnants
Speaker 1: of a past both distant yet inextricably linked to Lena's
Speaker 1: own presence. Thirty years later and only a few hundred
Speaker 1: meters away. The tanks were as alien to this landscape
Speaker 1: as Lina was, each of them brought here by the
Speaker 1: same winds that had left so many unwitting people sprawling
Speaker 1: in its wake. Lina scanned back across the fields, almost
Speaker 1: willing for something to happen, doing his best to stop
Speaker 1: his mind from wandering. It was always difficult being on
Speaker 1: watch in such places of isolation, trying to tow the
Speaker 1: line between staying alert to any possible threat while simultaneously
Speaker 1: trying your hardest not to allow the ability of such
Speaker 1: a threat to overwhelm you. Lena was just eyeing the
Speaker 1: lip of a nearby ditch when a burst of static
Speaker 1: blared out of the outpost's radio, causing him to jump,
Speaker 1: catching himself. Lena turned to face it, anticipating an imminent
Speaker 1: communication from the patrol base. Then the radio crackled again,
Speaker 1: a muffled voice just about audible swimming around in the
Speaker 1: thick of it. Lena grabbed the device and fiddled with
Speaker 1: the controls, switching it back to the required frequency. He
Speaker 1: called up the bass and asked them to repeat the message,
Speaker 1: but the voice at the other end was confused. They
Speaker 1: hadn't sent a message. Lena looked again at the radio,
Speaker 1: then apologized for wasting the bass operator's time and turned
Speaker 1: back to the gun. Moments later, the radio crackled into
Speaker 1: life again, and once again Lena heard that strange muffled voice.
Speaker 1: Listening closer, he soon realized it wasn't speaking in English,
Speaker 1: it was speaking Russian. Perhaps the radio was picking up
Speaker 1: someone else's transmissions, he thought, giving the radio a thump.
Speaker 1: Or perhaps he was simply imagining things. It took me
Speaker 1: a long time to realize that it isn't the bed
Speaker 1: or even the mattress necessarily that makes for the perfect
Speaker 1: sleeping experience. It's the sheets. I might not be sure
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Speaker 1: your parent's house or a night at a fancy hotel.
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Speaker 1: from Ball and Branch, and if it wasn't for the
Speaker 1: fact that I have to wash them from time to time,
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Speaker 1: Branch dot com. Promo code unexplained. Over the next few days,
Speaker 1: with little else to do with their time, the marines
Speaker 1: attention soon turned to fortifying their position. Most pressing of
Speaker 1: all was the fact that, with the exception of a
Speaker 1: few well placed sandbags, nowhere offered significant safety from most
Speaker 1: potential lines of enemy fire. Though some trenches had been
Speaker 1: dug in and around to compound, none were deep enough
Speaker 1: to bring you lower than the parapet without crouching, And
Speaker 1: so it was one morning that Corporal Lena and Lance
Speaker 1: Corporal Wilson along with one other compatriot, began the arduous
Speaker 1: task of rectifying the situation. The clatter of shovels scraping
Speaker 1: dirt rang out through the camp as the men battled
Speaker 1: against the rock hard ground and the ever rising temperatures.
Speaker 1: As Wilson paused for some water, Lena dug his shovel
Speaker 1: in once more, only for it to clang against something
Speaker 1: buried a few inches under the surface. Lena threw down
Speaker 1: his shovel and pulled a thin, tangled strip of metal
Speaker 1: from the ground. Then he blew off the dirt and
Speaker 1: held it up to the light. It was hard to
Speaker 1: tell what it was exactly, an old piece of shrapnel,
Speaker 1: most likely, suggested Wilson. Lena nodded in agreement as he
Speaker 1: tried to read some strange markings that had been etched
Speaker 1: onto the side of it. It looked like syrillic. He
Speaker 1: thought back to that strange radio transmission from the night before,
Speaker 1: but thought better of telling Wilson about it lest he
Speaker 1: sound like he was going crazy. Half an hour later,
Speaker 1: with the men having hardly made a dent in the trench,
Speaker 1: Wilson slammed his shovel into the ground, unearthing a small
Speaker 1: sunken space about two feet wide beyond it. Spotting something
Speaker 1: within it, Wilson reached inside and pulled it out, then
Speaker 1: recoiled in horror. It was unmistakably the leg bone of
Speaker 1: a human. Wilson's colleague grabbed it from him and goofed
Speaker 1: around with it, but neither Wilson or Lena saw the
Speaker 1: funny side. Remembering suddenly those final words the British had
Speaker 1: said to them, if you dig anything up, you should
Speaker 1: probably make sure to bury it, Lena grabbed the bone
Speaker 1: and put it back where Wilson had found it, having
Speaker 1: got back to the task at hand. Moments later, Wilson
Speaker 1: found another fragment of bone. Then Lena did too. In fact,
Speaker 1: the more they digged, the more bones they uncovered. It
Speaker 1: soon became clear why the previous occupants had preferred not
Speaker 1: to dig any deeper. They were camped on a graveyard.
Speaker 1: As news of the gruesome discovery made its way through
Speaker 1: the group, it was hard not to be a little
Speaker 1: unsettled by it. Even in the height of war, such
Speaker 1: things rarely fail to make the skin crawl. Perhaps it
Speaker 1: was all the talk of the bones, or perhaps it
Speaker 1: was the strange remoteness of the location and the unending
Speaker 1: cycle of boredom that comes with occupying such a post.
Speaker 1: Either way, something of the place was beginning to seep
Speaker 1: into the men. Two weeks later, Corporal Austin Hoyte celebrated
Speaker 1: his twentieth birthday. That night, it was his turn to
Speaker 1: take machine gun duty. Growing up on a farm back
Speaker 1: in the States, he was used to the quiet and
Speaker 1: had thought nothing of being stationed out at the rock
Speaker 1: for sixty days. But back home the quiet was something
Speaker 1: to be cherished and revered. Here it was only ever
Speaker 1: a vacuum for the worst thoughts to infiltrate. It was
Speaker 1: a quiet that spoke not of wistful hopes and dreams,
Speaker 1: but only of things lying in wait. When suddenly the
Speaker 1: quiet was broken by horrifics, Hoyt scrambled for his night
Speaker 1: vision binoculars and scoured the perimeter fencing below, assuming someone
Speaker 1: had been caught in the razor wire, But the fencing
Speaker 1: was completely empty and untouched. Luring the binoculars to the ground,
Speaker 1: Hoyt gasped at the sight of a large humanoid shadow
Speaker 1: darting out across a nearby field. Moments later, it was gone.
Speaker 1: Just then, Wilson and Lena burst into the machine gun post,
Speaker 1: clutching their M four rifles. They'd heard the scream two.
Speaker 1: With no choice but to head out and investigate, the
Speaker 1: three of them cautiously made their way to the perimeter
Speaker 1: fencing and stepped out beyond the wire. But after a
Speaker 1: thorough scout of the surrounding area, the men found nothing.
Speaker 1: After only four weeks. Lance Corporal Zolnick can't quite put
Speaker 1: his finger on it, but it's clear that something in
Speaker 1: the mood of the men has shifted. Taking machine gun
Speaker 1: watch that night, as all the stars of the desert
Speaker 1: emerged one by one from out of the sky, he
Speaker 1: soon finds his mind wandering to thoughts of family and
Speaker 1: loved ones back home. Phoning home is a rare event
Speaker 1: at the best of times for military personnel, but being
Speaker 1: stationed out here, it will be months before he is
Speaker 1: able to speak to any of them again. For many
Speaker 1: service personnel posted all over the world far from home,
Speaker 1: especially with so many being barely out of their teens
Speaker 1: and in young relationships and marriages, it can be all
Speaker 1: too easy to let the separation eat you up, and
Speaker 1: equally so for those left back at home, whether in
Speaker 1: loving relationships or deteriorating ones. Not knowing if they might
Speaker 1: ever speak to their parts or relatives again, many preferred
Speaker 1: not to call home at all to avoid the pain
Speaker 1: of hearing their loved one's voices. Others are reluctant to
Speaker 1: make any promises of future calls, just in case they
Speaker 1: are unable to fulfill it. Zolnick took a swig of
Speaker 1: water to perk himself up, and slapped away at another
Speaker 1: giant moth that was buzzing about his head, when suddenly
Speaker 1: he felt the unmistakable sensation of a cold breeze across
Speaker 1: his face, followed by what sounded like a voice whispering
Speaker 1: to him from out of the darkness. Zolnick spun round,
Speaker 1: looking about. Who's there, he said, but there was no reply.
Speaker 1: It was only then that he noticed just how cold
Speaker 1: the air had suddenly become, and then the whispering voice
Speaker 1: came again. Zolnick jumped, God, damn it, that isn't funny,
Speaker 1: he said, still looking about. Then the sound of footsteps approached,
Speaker 1: crunching in the dirt outside. Zolnick froze at the sound
Speaker 1: of them as they drew near, then moved up to
Speaker 1: the top of the mound above the machine gun post.
Speaker 1: Assuming with relief that one of his colleagues had finally
Speaker 1: come to join him, Zolnick grabbed his m fore and
Speaker 1: ran out of the hutch. Hoyt, is that you, he said,
Speaker 1: as he looked up to the top of the mound,
Speaker 1: but no one was there. Doing his best to suppress
Speaker 1: the rising fear, Zolnik ran back inside and pointed his
Speaker 1: gun toward the stretch of land at the base of
Speaker 1: the mound and hurriedly scanned it back and forth through
Speaker 1: his thermal scope, when suddenly he spotted the white thermal
Speaker 1: outline of a figure standing about a hundred yards from
Speaker 1: the outpost. Moments later, Lance Corporal Hoyt arrived to relieve
Speaker 1: Zolnik of his duty, finding him clearly rattled by something.
Speaker 1: That someone there, insisted Zolnick, but when he looked again,
Speaker 1: the figure was gone. Hoyt took a look through his
Speaker 1: own scope and then through the night vision binoculars, but
Speaker 1: saw nothing. I guess they're gone now, said Hoyt, before
Speaker 1: patting Zolnick on the shoulder and telling him to get
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Speaker 1: Over the next few days, Zolnick seemed unable to shift
Speaker 1: something from his mind. With his condition rapidly deteriorating, the
Speaker 1: sergeant made the decision to have him transferred out. As
Speaker 1: one day bled into the next, the men on the
Speaker 1: rock seemed to become more and more unten that from
Speaker 1: the stritches of life on Patrol Base Hassanabad. Beards were
Speaker 1: left unshaven as some of the men took to sitting
Speaker 1: about shirtless in the oppressive desert heat. It was sometime
Speaker 1: around thirty days into their posting that Corporal Lena was
Speaker 1: back on night watch at the machine gun, with ugly
Speaker 1: Betty sat by his side to keep him company. It
Speaker 1: had just passed one thirty am when Betty sat up
Speaker 1: suddenly and began barking furiously into the night. Lena grabbed
Speaker 1: the night vision binoculars and scanned the fields below. As
Speaker 1: Betty's barks grew louder and more insistent, Lena caught sight
Speaker 1: of a figure dressed in pera Hanno tumban about two
Speaker 1: hundred meters away, standing completely still, that appeared to be
Speaker 1: staring directly at him. Lena grabbed hurriedly for his thermal
Speaker 1: scope to pinpoint the figure's position, but when he looked again,
Speaker 1: the figure had gone, taking the night vision binoculars again,
Speaker 1: he gasped at the sight of the same person, now
Speaker 1: standing a hundred meters closer on the verge of firing
Speaker 1: a warning shot. Lina grabbed his m for and looked
Speaker 1: down the thermal scope to find the figure again, but
Speaker 1: once more they had completely vanished. In a panic, Lina
Speaker 1: was just about to alert the others when he felt
Speaker 1: the heavy tap of fingers on his shoulders. The sergeant's
Speaker 1: signaled to let him know that he is standing behind him.
Speaker 1: With a sigh of relief, Lina spun around, only to
Speaker 1: find that he was completely alone. In horror, he grabbed
Speaker 1: once more for the night vision binoculars and hurriedly scanned
Speaker 1: the surrounding area as Betty continued to bark, But once
Speaker 1: again Lena found nothing. Despite his fears that he'll be
Speaker 1: judged but best unfit for duty and at worst insane,
Speaker 1: After forty days of strange, inexplicable experiences, Corporal Lena finally
Speaker 1: decides to confide in his colleagues, telling Wilson and Hoyt
Speaker 1: about everything that had been going on. Having expected them
Speaker 1: to poke fun at him, it is with some surprise
Speaker 1: when both of them revealed that they too, had been
Speaker 1: experiencing ghostly, inexplicable events. Then Hoyt thought back to the
Speaker 1: night that Zolnick had seemed so spooked right before he
Speaker 1: decided to transfer out. Clearly it had been happening to
Speaker 1: him to the men agreed to keep it between themselves
Speaker 1: for the time being, eager to see out the remainder
Speaker 1: of their posting and get back to the main base.
Speaker 1: Through it all, they could be grateful for making it
Speaker 1: through scathed, with or without the mysterious goings on. On
Speaker 1: their last night at the post, it fell to Lance
Speaker 1: Corporal Wilson to tend the machine gun. Sat up there
Speaker 1: alone in the cool night air, Wilson repeat it over
Speaker 1: and over to himself that it was just one more night,
Speaker 1: and by tomorrow it would all be over. No more
Speaker 1: whispering voices, no more ghostly figures glimpsed out of the
Speaker 1: corner of his eyes. When suddenly all hell broke loose.
Speaker 1: Wilson barely had time to react as the cacophonous sound
Speaker 1: of machine gun fire rang out all around him. Stumbling
Speaker 1: back into the hutch, he was joined almost immediately by
Speaker 1: Corporal Lena, yelling for him to tell him where the
Speaker 1: fire was. Coming from, but Wilson didn't know it all
Speaker 1: happened so fast. Then an almighty woosh went up into
Speaker 1: the air, the sound of a rocket propelled grenade being
Speaker 1: launched close by. Lena shouted for Wilson to get down,
Speaker 1: and together they braced for impact, and then nothing, only
Speaker 1: the silence of the desert save for the melancholic ring
Speaker 1: of a distant cowbell. Wilson and Lena staggered to their feet,
Speaker 1: utterly confused, and stared out into the night. After sixty days,
Speaker 1: Corporal Jacob Lena, Lance Corporal Adam Wilson, and Lance Corporal
Speaker 1: Austin Hoyt returned to patrol Base as Sanabad and rejoined
Speaker 1: the rest of their compatriots from second Battalion, eighth Marine Regiment.
Speaker 1: All three of them returned home alive. Others, however, who'd
Speaker 1: spent time with them on the rock, were not so lucky,
Speaker 1: leaving Lena to wander that perhaps it was their uncovering
Speaker 1: of things in the earth there that had placed a
Speaker 1: curse on them In many ways. However, the men had
Speaker 1: been cursed a long time before they ever made it
Speaker 1: to Observation Point Rock, caught up in an unwinnable war,
Speaker 1: their valiant efforts forever fated to be beaten back against
Speaker 1: a complex tide of history and circumstance. By the time
Speaker 1: the reports of the strange goings on at the Rock
Speaker 1: were first published in a twenty oh nine Times article
Speaker 1: written by Tom Coglan, the rumors were old news among
Speaker 1: many of the troops that had the misfortune to come
Speaker 1: by it, and over time a picture began to emerge
Speaker 1: of oblique and haunting history. One local scholar suggested that
Speaker 1: the hill had once been an ancient fort built some
Speaker 1: time in the eighteenth century, under which a series of
Speaker 1: tunnels had been constructed, before later becoming a sacred shrine
Speaker 1: to many of the local communities. At some point in
Speaker 1: the nineteen eighties, it is thought to be occupied by
Speaker 1: soldiers from the Soviet Union, who fought a long and
Speaker 1: bitter battle alongside the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan, the
Speaker 1: ruling power at the time, against a number of militia
Speaker 1: groups intent on overthrowing them. Some claim that early in
Speaker 1: the conflict, Nasim A Kunzada, the fearsome commander of one
Speaker 1: such militia group, captured the rock along with the soldiers
Speaker 1: occupying it, and had them more beheaded on the spot
Speaker 1: than later buried where they fell. Others have suggested they
Speaker 1: were in fact members of the Afghan Police Force in time,
Speaker 1: helped with funding from the United States government, who, like
Speaker 1: the Soviet Union, were keen to be the dominant influence
Speaker 1: over the area. The Soviet Union and the PDPA were
Speaker 1: eventually defeated by the militia forces. By then, however, those
Speaker 1: forces had merged into a fragile coalition, often lumped together
Speaker 1: under the term Mujahadeen. It is from this group of people,
Speaker 1: in one way or another, that Osama Bin Laden Al Qaeda,
Speaker 1: and ultimately the Taliban would emerge, and well, you know
Speaker 1: the rest. In the Soviet Afghan War of nineteen seventy
Speaker 1: nine to nineteen eighty nine, it is estimated that around
Speaker 1: fifteen thousand Soviet soldiers were killed, with anywhere between half
Speaker 1: a million to two million Afghans also thought to have
Speaker 1: been killed. Since two thousand and one, war in Afghanistan
Speaker 1: has claimed the lives of roughly two hundred and fifty
Speaker 1: thousand people, among them four hundred and fifty seven UK
Speaker 1: Armed Forces personnel and two thousand, three hundred and seventy
Speaker 1: two US military personnel. An estimated seventy one thousand Afghan
Speaker 1: and Pakistani civilians are also thought to have lost their
Speaker 1: lives as a direct result of the war. If you
Speaker 1: enjoy Unexplained and would like to help supporters, you can
Speaker 1: now do so via Patreon. To receive access to add
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Speaker 1: All elements of Unexplained, including the show's music, are produced
Speaker 1: by me Richard McClain smith. Please subscribe and rate the
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