MSM writes “A former U.S. Marine has come forward with an account of a strange encounter during a training exercise at Marine Corps Base Quantico in the summer of 2005.
Andrew Bird said the incident occurred while he and two fellow Marines were conducting nighttime field exercises at a mock urban training facility located in a restricted area.The experience was later documented in a report submitted to the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization, a group that collects and archives eyewitness accounts of alleged Sasquatch sightings.
According to Bird, what began as a routine navigation exercise quickly became something he says he has never been able to explain. For nearly two decades, the memory has lingered vivid, unsettling, and unresolved.
Bird recalled that he and two others were instructed to leave the training area and travel through the forest to a pickup point roughly 500 to 700 meters away. The assignment was straightforward, the kind of nighttime maneuver Marines routinely perform.
As they moved through the woods, they heard a loud cracking noise. Assuming it could be wildlife or possibly another unit they directed their flashlights toward the sound.
What they saw, Bird said, was unexpected: two adjacent trees bending toward one another. Shining their lights higher, they allegedly observed a large, hairy figure with its back turned, appearing to pull the trees together.
Bird described the figure as approximately eight feet tall, broad and muscular, covered in brown or reddish-brown hair. He emphasized that its proportions and movement did not resemble a human’s.
The strength required to manipulate the trees struck him immediately. Before they could process what they were seeing, fear took over.
The three Marines reportedly ran toward their pickup location. As they fled, Bird said they heard a heavy thud and the sound of something large moving behind them through the forest, suggesting to them that they were being pursued.
The group made it safely to their extraction point, but the experience left a lasting mark. Bird later reflected that in the 20 years since, he has never encountered anything that could adequately explain what they witnessed that night.
One additional detail has drawn interest from cryptid enthusiasts: earlier in the evening, the group reportedly noticed unusual compass readings shortly before the alleged sighting. While such anomalies can have mundane explanations, they have long been cited in folklore surrounding paranormal encounters.
No physical evidence was recovered, and there has been no official confirmation of unusual activity at the base. Yet for Bird, the event remains deeply personal — a memory anchored in a training mission that, for a brief moment, veered far beyond anything found in a field manual.”
Source: MSM