Here in Bramley End, we celebrate Halloween in the traditional Wiltshire way. We hood the local goats, do the Broom Dance on the village green, then retire to the pub to sup ale and recount spooky experiences. Over the years I’ve heard some pretty bizarre tales in the snug of the Crooked Oak, but nothing quite as strange as the hair-raising real-life narrative you’re about to read.

Although only one reader responded to last week’s appeal for potentially paranormal personal anecdotes, the story that solitary reader supplied is so memorable and thought-provoking, there’s a good chance this won’t be the last time Tally-Ho Corner goes a little Uncanny.

The words that follow were provided by Jim (not his real name), an ex-soldier from Alabama. The images that accompany them are my amateurish Arma-powered attempts at illustration, and shouldn’t be taken as accurate representations of the events Jim describes.

Jim’s story

“In 2004, I once experienced what I could only call a ‘paranormal experience’ in Iraq. For background, I was a squad leader and our platoon consisted of two squads who would alternate each week between two roles: the mechanized section and the dismount section. The mechanized section, usually led by the platoon sergeant, would crew four Humvees and the dismount section, usually led by the LT, would conduct dismounted patrols and security. The dismount section usually consisted of eight to ten soldiers at any given time. Our area of operations was in a rural part of eastern Iraq.

One dark night, our platoon was tasked with a routine patrol. This particular week, my squad was the dismount section. Early in the patrol, the LT decided to take a look in an area that had rocky hills and outcroppings that could be used to overlook our forward operating base from a distance. Once we arrived at the base of the hills, the mechanized section dropped off our dismount patrol and would pull security on the path leading up to the hills. The dismount patrol consisted of the LT leading the patrol, seven soldiers, and me at the rear of the patrol. All of us were equipped with Night Vision Goggles (NVGs).

The path/road leading up into the hills was extremely rocky. As such, our patrol was fairly noisy, even though we tried to be a silent as possible. The path followed an S-curve shape so our initial approach had limited line of sight along the path due to the curvature of the path. As the LT approached the first curve, he hand-signaled for the patrol to halt. I then heard him report over the radio to the platoon sergeant that he was observing “one male individual ahead of us, we are going to approach”. As the last man, I had yet to see the person upon initial contact.

The LT then signaled for the patrol to move forward and we understood that we were going to question this man who was out at night. Slowly, each man ahead of me walked out of my sight as the patrol rounded the curve. Finally, I rounded the curve and saw the man squatting with his back to us on the edge of an outcropping, the rest of the patrol was standing in a semi-circle around the man about six to eight feet away from him with weapons pointed at him.

My first thought was ‘What the hell is going on?’ because it was strange that he was just squatting with his back to us as we approached making noise upon the rocky path. I was now about six to eight feet from him and directly behind him while the LT was off to my two o’clock and the man’s four o’clock. At this point, I heard the LT say something to him in Arabic to get his attention.

As I have mentioned, we all had NVGs and it was a dark night, so illumination was not as bright as it would have been if there was a full moon. However, there was enough visibility to make out that the shape in front of us was man-sized and appeared to be a typical Iraqi squatting down and wearing a typical ‘man-dress’ as was very common in our rural area.

The man remained silent and still, again the LT announced his command in Arabic for the man to stand up and face us. At that point, the man turned to look at the LT, but from where I was standing, there were no facial features; I could not make out a chin or facial profile. All of a sudden, enormous wings spread out and the shape flew off!

Everyone was dumbfounded and silent! The platoon sergeant was on the radio inquiring “What is going on… report”. The LT answered “Never mind… it was nothing… we are returning to the trucks”. Our patrol turned around and walked back silently to the trucks and never spoke of the incident again. That night, we stayed on the trucks and only conducted mounted patrols; we did not dismount again that night.

The fact that no one ever spoke of it again also reinforces that it was a strange occurrence because someone would have joked on the LT about mistaking a bird for a guy. It also did not appear to be just a ‘large bird’. The wings did not seem to have feathers, they looked smooth. I have seen pelicans, vultures, owls, herons, storks, eagles, and various other large birds in my life, this did not appear to be a bird; and it definitely was not human.”