All things aren't what they seem to appear. Or, objects in mirror may seem larger than they appear? Either way, there are things that happen in this world that defy a 'rational' explanation...but again, that is subjective, like our attempted 'Onion Rating' for each episode. But for todays episode we are exploring a specific area of Afghanistan that has had its fair share of strange happenings while various military's occupied a certain 'post'.....We hope you enjoy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
I went into the doctors once for a Depress Johnson.
But that might have been something.
I probably shouldn't have said that, but that was different.
Did that turn out okay, though?
No, but we'll talk about that another time, I guess.
Yeah, so Depress was slapped with 142 felony charges after the police found his Instagram account just packed full of incriminating photos of shit that he and his buddies had robbed from numerous retirement homes in Florida, of all places.
Well, of course, Florida.
Florida's awesome.
I mean, so much cool stuff happens there.
All the time.
I know, dude.
It's like the entire state is an amusement park and a circus combined.
I fucking love it.
Yeah. It's definitely dinner and a show.
For sure.
Florida is like a living television.
You know what I mean?
It's like television in real life.
In real time.
Constantly. And check this insane shit out.
As of July 1st of 2023.
Anyone. Whoa, dude, that's so extreme.
Just like, anyone at any time, anywhere.
That's so insane, dude.
I'm moving.
I'm putting in my application right now.
I'm moving.
Yes, indeed.
Governor Ron DeSantis has signed that into law this last Monday, so that is something.
And while we're on the topic of law...
I wanted to bring attention to this new bill introduced into the Senate by Senator Mark Warner last Friday.
That is the Restrict Act S.686.
And on its surface, it appears to focus solely on things such as TikTok or China or foreign apps in general.
But there are many knowledgeable and educated critics of this bill saying that this bill will further erode the average rights of the U.S. citizen.
They say that this bill will be far worse in terms of eroding our rights away than the disastrous Patriot Act signed by a good old toe-faced Bush back in 2001.
Bush whacker.
Yeah, that's pretty crazy.
I'm not really surprised by that, but it is troubling.
I mean, we just seem to lose things left and right.
You know what I mean?
Pretty soon, their thumbs are going to be so far up our asses, they'll be talking for us.
You know what I mean?
Yeah, I think they already are.
And I just wanted to throw that out there for people to check out because, you know, it's kind of a serious issue.
And again, that is the S.686 Restrict Act.
And the thing is, you know, these bills always come at a time when there's a lot going on around the world.
Like today, we have Russia at war with Ukraine.
China's making a show.
North Korea is being North Korea over there.
You know, the Trump thing going on.
You know, this old tactic works, unfortunately.
And, you know, I haven't seen this bill addressed in any mainstream news media yet.
Exactly. They just try to sneak it in under the radar, just under the table.
This deal, try to get it signed as soon as possible.
You know, oh, by the way, we got this bill.
Oh, anyways, a Florida man eats the face of another Florida man.
You know, that's just a smoke and mirrors.
People don't know.
People don't realize.
Then there was Matthew Pelich.
He was 45 years old.
He was charged with 40 felonies for robbing self-storage units.
And then another guy was William Todd, who went on a little crime spree, racking up 11 felonies in 9 hours.
Oh, Bill Todd.
Racking him up.
Boom, boom, boom.
Ching, ching, ching.
That's crazy.
11 felonies in 9 hours.
Like, you have to try.
You know what I mean?
You have to put an effort.
You have to put effort into getting that many felonies in that amount of time.
I guess I'd give him an A for effort.
So Bill Todd was taking a Greyhound bus on a trip, and we all know how fucking maddening and boring that can become very fast.
That's true.
I would probably be able to commit at least nine felonies being stuck on a Greyhound bus for more than, like, two hours.
Yeah. I mean, let's be real.
Probably about one hour, you're already...
Fucking four felonies deep, yeah.
But he had a layover, which must have been an overnighter because bored Bill Todd decided that he would go on a bit of a rampage to liven up the night.
Everyone else on the Greyhound were a bunch of duds, huh?
That's the worst.
Must have been.
So upon arriving in Nashville, Tennessee, back in April of 2012, he broke into a haunted house attraction where he stole some guns and then set the place on fire.
You know, starting the night off with some breaking and entering, robbing, and a little bit of arson.
That's how I like to do it, Coop.
Start off with a little B&E.
I'm not talking about bacon and eggs.
Robin, I like to grab some shit and some arson.
Because I get cold.
So I like to start fires.
You know, it's good for circulation.
It's probably all he was doing, really.
Probably. And I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that old Bill Todd was probably already a felon if he was prepared to pull a knight like this off.
Therefore, he's now a felon in possession of a firearm.
And potentially a specific charge for each round of ammunition.
That's right, Coop.
That's potentially automatic fed sentence.
And I'm just curious as to why there's an open-for-business Halloween haunted house in April.
Like, what the hell's up with that?
Let's talk about that for a second.
Tennessee, man.
Tennessee. From its birthing hips, came out in dew in tow trucks.
But after that, Bill Todd went to a random bar where there were four people standing outside minding their own business, probably smoking some cigs or something, and he walks up and he pulled out a gun that he had just stolen from the haunted house attraction.
And he pistol-whipped one of them while robbing all the rest of their cash and credit cards.
I hate when I'm standing outside of a bar.
I hate nothing more than when I'm standing outside of a bar.
Than when I'm standing outside of a bar and some motherfucker comes over and pistol-whips me.
It's the worst.
I hear ya.
Fucking worst, man.
But he wasn't done yet.
So he spotted a taxi cab, and he realized that, well, he needed a fucking ride, so he hailed it down.
So the taxi cab pulled over, and he proceeded to carjack the vehicle, which he then took to a Walmart, where he purchased about $200 worth of items rather than stealing them.
No shit.
But you know what this might be?
What's that?
This might be one of those cases where you don't shit where you eat, you know?
Yeah, yeah, that could be it.
Yeah, man, morals and ethics.
I mean, you can be an asshole in your private life all you want, but when you go to grandma's house, you know, you're a little angel.
Absolutely, dude.
Absolutely. And it's funny you should mention shitting because this story isn't over yet.
Oh, great.
I really don't like where this is going.
Bill Todd would then take the stolen taxi and make a quick stop at an attorney's office, which he broke into and ransacked.
It's unclear whether or not this guy knew who this attorney was or this area at all, but regardless, Bill Todd proceeded to take a shit on a desk and according to this article I read, some frame
Oh, wow.
Well, he obviously...
Didn't like the schools that those law degrees were accredited from.
Maybe he wanted to be a lawyer, but he couldn't pass the bar, you know?
So he just dropped the deuce instead.
That's what I always do.
So feeling satisfied and refreshed, he would then drive to a hotel where he would knock on several doors pretending to be the housekeeper, but nobody was letting him in.
And he was just knocking on one door and going down the hallway, but yeah, nobody was opening the door for him.
Uh, hey.
Knock, knock, knock.
Uh, hello?
H-housekeeping?
Knock, knock, knock?
Wait, did I actually knock?
Or am I just saying that out loud?
Huh. Knock, knock, knock.
But interestingly, after many failed attempts, there'd be one couple who had to answer the door.
Must have really needed some more towels.
They were like, yes, finally, housekeeping!
Yeah, man, it's funny you should say that because there are never enough towels, and what towels they do give you in those hotel rooms, they're like...
Hand towels more than anything else.
They're more like skinning towels, honestly, because a lot of times, I don't know, it's like a thread count of three or something, but when I use those towels, I swear to God, dude, I have like a gnarly rash afterwards.
For sure.
Because of the abrasive, just the sheer abrasive power of said towels.
Yeah, it's just like the burlap sacks that you put coffee and shit like that in.
Yeah, right, right.
It's like one step above burlap, pretty much.
So this couple opened the door to Bill Todd, and he burst in with a gun, and he robbed them of $600.
This fucking guy, dude.
He then ran back to the taxi he had stolen, but people saw him, so he's driving erratically to get away, and he swerves, and he ducks, and he crashes.
So what does Bill Todd do?
Well, he does what he knows he has to do, and so he hails down another taxi cab, which happily pulled over for him.
Bill Todd got inside and then he pulled out a knife which he used to hold up this second taxi cab, switching it up.
This guy is something else.
I am disgusted and impressed simultaneously.
Bill Todd decided that he would make a vacation out of it and took the second stolen taxi to none other than Opryland, which I guess is a resort center or something.
But it is there that the authorities were able to catch up with him.
So he did what he knew he needed to do, and he ran quickly up the stairwells toward the rooftop.
And once he made it up there, he had to find somewhere else to go.
He couldn't jump because he was too smart to know that he couldn't survive the fall and keep on running.
So he attempted to hide from the approaching authorities in a water-cooling vat atop the beach.
So, did he manage to evade capture?
Or... No, Bill Todd was arrested and charged with 11 felonies in 9 hours.
Oh, yeah, that's right.
Yeah, yeah.
So, who knows what was going through old Bill Todd's head during all of that?
Like, from the moment that everyone got word from the driver of the Greyhound that they were having a 9-hour layover in fucking Nashville, Tennessee.
Hey, you guys, like, you know, wanna, like, party and stuff?
Disgusting, man!
Ew! Ew!
Yeah, gross!
Like, what the fuck?
Yeah, like all the girls didn't want to have any part to do with him, and all the guys are alpha and wanted to hang out with each other, so Bill Todd's like, well, what is me going to do tonight?
Well, alright, let's take a gander at Johnny Unchondo, 33 years old back in November of 2022, which is when he took authorities for a little car chase.
Always ends very well for a person.
I mean, they almost always get away, right?
I've seen the statistical footage.
That's right, Scott.
On November 9th, Johnny was pulled over for a traffic violation, but he didn't have the intention of pulling over.
He sped away and would enter into a condominium complex where he fled on foot, and as he was running around the parking lot area, he spotted a van which apparently had someone in it because he ran over to that van and proceeded to steal it.
As he was trying to escape...
A police car would attempt to block him in, but Johnny wasn't having any of that shit, and so he threw it in reverse and rammed the police car enough times to move it enough for him to get past and make his getaway, which he did flawlessly.
Oh yeah, flawlessly.
Johnny briskly made his way to the bustling freeway where he would reach speeds of 100 miles per hour, but at some point, he would go into a residential neighborhood where he would apparently meet the van's nemesis.
Maybe a pole of some kind.
I'm not sure.
All we know is that he crashed the van.
At which point, he ran into a home and threatened the resident with a pair of the most frightening children's scissors you could ever imagine.
Until they finally gave him the keys to a truck.
Oh, man.
Yeah, he was probably one step away from pulling out the magic markers.
Smell them!
I'm gonna make you smell them!
While Johnny was getting ready in the truck, the owner ran down the driveway where there was a metal gate that he was trying to lock before Johnny could make his move.
But he wasn't able to lock it before Johnny rammed through the gate and rejoined the police chase that was waiting for him.
And this chase would last another 40 minutes.
And during that 40 minutes, Johnny would hit several other motorist vehicles in the process.
And according to police, he almost ran over two deputies who were trying to block him in a cul-de-sac.
But again, Johnny would elude the officers.
And the helicopter above would even lose sight of him for a minute or so.
But after relentless scanning, they would spot him again when he hit another car and collided with a police cruiser.
Still, he was able to drive the damaged truck through a gas station parking lot, where he would ultimately hit a gas pump.
Before he had a chance to run, smoke and flame started billowing and the deputies would open fire on poor old Johnny.
But somehow, he was not hit, and he would be apprehended without further issue.
And in that process, Johnny would rack up 18 felony charges.
And some random misdemeanors.
That is insane, dude.
This guy had nine lives through that whole process.
So many opportunities to have died, and somehow he lived.
Like, that's pretty crazy.
But, and you might be familiar with this one, Scott.
There was recently a guy that was charged with 34 felonies.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, I think I heard about this guy.
He looks like a carrot, right?
Like, kind of like a walking carrot.
34 felonies, yeah.
Yes, you're a Brago from Mar-a-Lago.
Yeah! Now that the indictment has been unsealed, we know that at least one felony that was reported last week has turned into 34 felonies and at least one misdemeanor.
Yeah, they had to throw that misdemeanor.
They always throw that last misdemeanor in there.
Like, maybe it's like a last-ditch thing where they're like, oh, well, if nothing else sticks, maybe this misdemeanor will get them in the end, they're a criminal.
No, that's not it.
Stuffy manholes.
No, that's definitely not it.
I feel like it has something to do with rain gutters, though.
And, like, sewer drains.
So you're really close.
Storm gutters.
Stormy sewers.
Stormy. Stormy something.
Right, right.
Stormy channels?
So close.
Daniels. Daniels?
Ah, yes.
Stormy Daniels.
Nobody's favorite porn star.
That's right.
Apparently the Trumps' favorite for a minute, though.
Oh, yeah, that's true.
I feel like with a name like Stormy, you should probably steer clear from them.
Well, yeah, probably more so when it's a name that they came up with themselves, you know?
It's like an extension of who they are, how their personality is, rather than being given your name at birth and growing into it.
Yeah, I'm not really sure what the appeal is, you know, Stormy.
I'm gonna storm on your day, you know?
Yeah. You can't really make that sexy.
Yeah, how do you make that sexy?
Stormy. Ooh, sexy.
Yeah. I don't know.
It doesn't work for me, man.
I can tell you that.
Anyway, this whole show trial, because that's what this whole thing is, a show trial, is related to those hush money payments that he made to that lady, Stormy Manholes.
But the trial is not about that issue, which is a whole issue in itself, which we'll see here in a minute.
First, Scott, look at this picture of him in the courtroom.
He looks like a hungry but constipated turtle without a shell, under strict orders not to eat for 48 hours.
In this photograph of him in the courtroom on April 4th, 2023,
as he sits and listens to each of the charges being read.
He probably like literally retreated mentally into a place where he couldn't be reached and just tuned the whole thing out.
The next hearing in the Trump case is set for December 4th and the trial could very well begin next year while the Donald is balls deep, that's right, three inches deep, in his next bid for president.
Yes, sir.
Yes, sir.
It's going to be the only thing that matches the showiness of this trial is the showiness of this presidential run.
And this is something else, man.
An ex-president being charged with 34 felonies and some presumably wild in office who is now a certified accused criminal and he's going to be running for a second term as president while all of this is going on.
And that's just crazy, but I'm sure all of this will help him more than it will hurt him.
You know, for that man, nothing but bad publicity is good publicity somehow.
Yeah, the old Teflon Don.
I mean, he just can't be taken down.
All the bad publicity he's had, and people are still like...
People love him.
Just, yeah.
But a little side note on Trump and the defamation suit brought by Stephanie Clifford.
Who we now know as Stormy Manholes.
Yes, exactly.
Well, she lost her defamation suit and was ordered to pay the Trump $293,000 for legal fees, but she appealed, arguing that the fees were too high.
Oh, wow, yeah.
That's a lot of money, and I'm sure the courts will totally side with her on that.
She lost that appeal and then was ordered to pay another $245,000.
Oh, shit.
I spoke too soon.
Yeah. And while Trump was being read his charges in the courtroom looking like a turtle, Clifford was ordered to pay Trump $121,972.
And Trump's team says that they have collected over $600,000 in attorney's fees by Stephanie Clifford or Stormy Manholes.
That's so crazy.
So any hush money that he gave her?
It's just all coming back to...
He's probably just...
Right back in his pocket.
Right back in his pocket, bro.
What is this I hear?
What is this I hear?
This must be...
Oh, incredible!
Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to another edition of...
TREPETRE! Or 3 for 3. Uh...
So, yeah, Coop!
Yo! Thanks for coming back to my 3 for 3. I think you might like this segment, actually.
I only come to the show for this section.
Wow! That is so nice.
Well, I'm not going to keep you waiting anymore, buddy.
So these three stories that I have all come from GrimHappenings.com.
This first one from April 6th, 2023.
A man reportedly murdered his pregnant wife.
By pushing her off a cliff at a tourist site in Edinburgh.
Dude, what is up with people pushing their significant others off of cliffs?
I do not like it.
It's becoming a fad, and I don't...
Like, are they going to get away with it?
Who has gotten away with it?
And why do they think they're going to get away with it?
I feel like nobody gets away with it.
That's what I'm saying.
Yeah, I mean, so many people are connected to these people.
Like, what do you think?
You push them off a cliff, and they suddenly...
None of their friends or their family exist anymore.
It's just you go on living your life like, oh, that problem's solved.
Yeah. Well, Kashif Anwar evidently thought he was going to get away with it, but he was found guilty by a jury at the High Court in Edinburgh of killing his 31-year-old wife, who was 17 weeks pregnant, during a holiday trip in September of 2021.
Anwar claimed that he had slipped and bumped into her.
But the jury straight up rejected his entire defense.
You don't say.
Yeah, exactly.
Huh. Apparently, the judge noted that Anwar showed no remorse during the whole trial proceedings, and on top of that, he made no attempt to save his wife after she was pushed.
Well, it's not going to help you if you have no remorse in the court.
You're just sitting there, stone-faced, just stoic up there in the stand.
Yeah, I mean, anybody who really had an accident would be grieving and would have been grieving the whole time.
And plus, of course, as usually happens, her family reported that they felt that she was in a controlling relationship and that he was coercive and manipulative.
So, I mean, he just looks guilty as shit.
So, he got sentenced to life.
Speaking of cold meat, this next story comes from Australia.
Apparently... An Australian startup created meatballs using...
Can you guess what?
Um... Meat from fish.
Well, you got the meat part right.
But it's actually mammoth meat.
Mammoth meat.
Believe it or not.
Yes! So supposedly...
We just have a stockpile of mammoths somewhere.
I wish.
I wish.
But... No, apparently in Amsterdam they've developed a lab-grown meatball using the genetic sequence of a mammoth.
So the process, it kind of involves, like according to the article, sort of involves using animal cells, known as cultivated, cultured, or cell-based meats, and avoids harming livestock at all, which they feel is a more ethical and sustainable alternative to what we're currently doing.
I don't know.
I don't want one.
But I just picture a fucking meatball in a Petri dish with all these instruments sticking in it, and it's like a heartbeat in it.
And it's like Dexter's Laboratory going on.
Gross. That's what I'm picturing, man.
It's a warehouse full of Petri dishes with a single meatball in each Petri dish.
Just pumping and growing.
You went a lot deeper with it than I did because all I pictured was a meatball with those big round tusks.
You know those tusks that stick out?
I'm picturing this little meatball with these curved tusks sticking out of it.
Yeah, that's when you know they're done.
They're like, these ones are done!
You just rip the crust out.
Yeah, right?
Just break them off.
And you can eat them with these.
They're like little fucking toothpicks.
Yeah, yeah!
So apparently the startup is hoping to revolutionize the meat industry because it will avoid using any of the traditional farming techniques that we use today, like cultivating acres and acres and acres of land for beef.
I mean, what would you rather use the land for than building things on?
Good question.
Yeah, right.
That's a good point.
Paving roads?
I mean, what else?
It seems like anybody, and I mean, I unfortunately have heard, even through the grapevine of people in my sort of outer circle, people love to buy up these huge tracts of land, and then they just subdivide them, man, and they turn them into concrete jungles,
and it's absolutely terrible.
So yeah, I bet any of the land that's saved will probably just be used for...
Some developer somewhere anyways.
I don't know.
Well, I guess cows actually contribute to the most, what, CO2 gas?
Or methane.
Methane, that's what it is.
I've heard this.
I've heard methane.
Yeah, methane released.
Yeah, cow farts.
Cow farts, dude.
Yeah, I believe it.
I believe it!
Yep. Speaking of farts, some eye drops have led to death and eyeball removal in the USA.
And this is from an article...
From Grim Happenings, again, March 17, 2023, the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention, affectionately known as the CDC, identified recently a rare strain of Pseudomonas aeruginosa.
Yikes. Which is bacteria, which can cause an infection in the eye, resulting in blindness and apparently death, according to this statistic, and the removal of eyeballs.
Do not use eye drops, people.
Yeah, pretty scary, right?
So apparently the CDC found that at least 68 patients across 16 different states contracted this bacterial infection from simply using these eye drops.
Scary. I don't use eye drops, ever.
You know what I do when I have a little dry eye going on?
I just go get one of my homies that has wet eyes, and I'm...
We just rub eyes.
You just butterfly it?
We butterfly.
We rub eyes, and his wetness gets onto my dry eyes.
I just open mine really wide, and I let my dog lick my eye.
Yeah, that works too.
Yeah, I feel like that's the best way.
But if you're worried about this bacterial infection, all you have to do is avoid using EzraCare Artificial Tears and Delsim Pharma's Artificial Tears.
Good to know.
The corporation that owns those brands is Global Pharma, and they issued a voluntary recall the following month.
And that's the end of our Très Pour Très, or 3 for 3. Well, thanks, Scott.
Always fucking a pleasure to have you here to read those off.
Thanks, man.
Glad to do it.
Sounds so excited.
Glad to do it.
Well, Scott, so I know you've had at least one paranormal experience that you've told us about in a previous episode, but if you don't mind, buddy, could you tell our audience that experience one more time, just for the posterity of today's show?
And for any new listeners, of course?
Sure, yeah.
This is a very personal story, and I know how it sounds, but that's how all of these paranormal experience stories start out.
When I was young, and I had a bunk bed with my brother.
And it was late at night in my room.
I was getting ready to go to sleep.
And I swear I saw four dots.
Just not like tiny dots.
Good-sized dots.
How do I describe the size?
I can't even describe the size, really.
But they were very much visible enough to see, and they were kind of moving in this concert of circles.
And I noticed them on the wall, and at first, you know, like any kid probably would think, I thought they were bugs.
I thought it was some kind of, I thought they were like spiders or something, and it freaked me out, so I started looking a little bit closer.
And this is a dim room, mind you.
And then what happened was...
These circling dots moved away from the wall, and they started coming right towards me.
And it literally freaked me out.
I sat up in bed.
I started backing away.
They kept coming towards me.
And I even vocalized.
I was like, Mom!
Mom! I started calling for my mom, even though I was, I don't know, I was probably like 10. You little pussy.
Shut the fuck up.
I fucking hate you, man.
So these dots just went right through me.
And it's the only time I've ever seen anything like that.
I've never seen anything like that since.
But I just remember being so, like, shocked and, like, scared by it.
Anyways, yeah, that's the only, yeah, pretty freaky.
Well, now I know that some people would say, oh, he's just suffering from floaters.
But, Scott, what defense do you have for those relentless, unwarranted attacks?
All I can say is that it wasn't something that stayed in just, like, My vision close to my eye, when you see those little things floating around in your eyeball, it was something that was farther away from me, and then came closer and closer and closer.
And, I mean, that's not what floaters do.
And for those unaware, floaters are small deposits in the vituous, gooey, gel-like stuff between the retina and the lens of the eye.
And these floaters cause one to see little black things, such as little black holes that move, according to survivors.
And one such survivor says, Wow, that sounds really oddly close to what I saw.
Do you think that what you saw were maybe floaters?
Or maybe...
Or maybe you took some horribly mundane hallucinogenic drug.
Maybe I'm just full of shit.
Well, my mom did used to make us take NyQuil so that we would sleep on time.
I'm just kidding, Ma.
Everybody believed that.
Wow, no, I'm just kidding, guys.
Yeah, you could hear a pin drop there.
No, I'm sure...
I'm sure they weren't floaters.
I'm sure this is something that was not that...
Even though it fits the description exactly as that guy was talking about, this was something different.
That's all I can say.
You had to be there if you weren't too bad.
Moving along then, smoothly as we do here.
Let me tell you a creepy-ass story, a true story, from the picturesque deserts of Afghanistan, deep in an area that has been battled over since time immemorial.
In June of 2009, A group of eight U.S. Marines were stationed at an isolated observation post in the province of Helmand in Afghanistan.
These observation posts are typically located on high ground for a strategic position.
And these posts are obviously targets for any enemy of whoever is holding these posts.
And the enemy of those in the posts easily lurk in the mountains and the hills that sprawl in the distance all around these posts, usually.
But the post we will be stationed at for today's episode was a particular post named Observation Post-Rock, or just Post-Rock.
I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that that sounds like my next album cover for my band.
Just Post-Rock?
Observation Post-Rock, I think.
I like it.
It's either that or it would be like the name of my next lecture about the history of rock and roll in a really stuffy music history class.
But, you know.
We'll go with the album first.
Yeah, yeah.
See if that hits.
So post-rock wasn't like the other observation posts, meaning that it wasn't necessarily built on higher ground, considering that there were large mountains all around the post.
And this made it all the more dangerous for the Marines or whoever that were stationed there, as it made them a pretty easy target for snipers and even RPG fire.
And the area has been a defensive position for millennia, and the locals say that it dates back to Alexander the Great.
So you can only imagine how much bloodshed is on these grounds.
Absolutely. There's just eons.
Well, maybe not eons, but neon is so long.
That was not the correct unit to use of time.
Yeah. Let me start that over.
That is a long time, Coop.
There's definitely been some bloodshed on that ground.
The modern post was actually fairly small, and whoever was sent there would have to sleep on the ground with his sleeping mat.
And it was made of a couple military-grade canvas tents and had HESCO barriers all around its walls to hopefully prevent Bolas from entering.
But they say it wasn't just a horribly strategically placed position of the post that threatened the unfortunate Marines and such who were sent there.
No, it wasn't really that at all.
You see, there was also a certain vibe that the soldiers would get almost immediately upon their arrival on location.
And it wasn't a pleasant or comfortable vibe either, but more along the lines of having an intense feeling that there was something else.
Oh, like Peg Bundy's excessively overweight mother voiced by Kathleen Freeman, who just hated Al?
The analogy holds.
You know, you never actually see Peg Bundy's mother in that show.
And it started on April 5th, 1987, and ended on June 9th, 1997.
We actually grew up with them as we watched them in the show.
That's crazy to think about, isn't it?
It kind of is, actually.
It's 10 years and 11 seasons.
You know, did you ever watch Home Improvement?
Did you like that show?
I did not.
I was actually very displeased with that show.
Same with Power Rangers.
Absolutely hated that shit.
Well... Sometimes, Coop, I wonder if we should have been mortal enemies instead of close friends because I loved Power Rangers.
I know you did.
I used to wait to see it.
Go, go, Power Rangers!
I mean, it was just like, dude, I would sing that song at school.
My teachers would tell me to shut the fuck up.
And then I also liked Home Improvement.
We actually sat down and watched that as a family.
So that was like one of our family shows.
Cool. You know, my dad would always say like, you know, stuff like that.
It was, yeah, it was great.
Our whole family was like a sitcom.
I ask because, well, one, it only lasted eight seasons and not 11 like Married with Children, which I enjoyed a lot.
Two, there was also a character, their neighbor named Wilson, who was always behind the fence in the backyard, so you could only ever just see his eyes and up.
Remember that?
And three, Tim Allen, whose real name is Timothy Dick.
But he changed it when he was getting picked on in school.
But he used to be a drug dealer before his rise to fame.
And he even served two years and four months in a federal prison after being busted for a half a kilo of cocaine, or about 1.4 pounds, back in 1978 at the Kalamazoo Battle Creek International Airport, I believe in Minnesota.
Thing is, he was facing life in prison.
So how did he only end up doing two years and four months, you ask?
Yeah, how did he only end up doing two years and four months?
Well, Timothy Dick agreed to spill the beans on everything and everyone he knew, and helped authorities indict at least 20 other people who were larger targets than himself.
Oh, he became a rat.
Tim Allen, America's favorite dad.
Well, shit, man.
You know, these are just the situations you find yourself in, I guess.
Well, moving on.
The eight Marines being sent there were scheduled to stay for 60 days, which was the standard stay at this post, in which another crew may come to replace you or someone else comes to pick you up as your team moves somewhere else.
And this wasn't a camping trip where these guys could go run around in the woods and do some fun frolicking and exploring.
That wasn't this kind of trip.
This is in the middle of a barren desert landscape with surrounding mountains in the distance with pockets of people who want to just kill you.
And these guys, they can't just run around trying to kill time, you know?
They had to literally go there with the barest minimum of supplies.
You know, they had their rations and water, ammunition, weaponry and gear, their cherished bed mats and the camos that they were wearing.
60 days in this post.
MREs and water.
You know, those are actually pretty good these days, those MREs.
Dude, they are.
Back in the day, they were pretty fucking gross.
I forgot which one it was, but we had a bunch.
My dad was in the army, but I think it was like spaghetti.
Or maybe it was a goulash one.
I don't know.
It was so gross.
But yeah, now they're pretty good.
Yeah, I've definitely heard that.
That they've improved quite a bit.
I love the consomme devilish MRE.
It's a clear soup made from meat.
I usually go with bay eel.
And I go with tomate cerise.
Those ruby red cherry tomatoes.
And I get the one with the ostrich egg whites.
Then you toss in your celery, your onion, your carrot.
Strain that shit, pour it over, that nicely seared A5 Japanese Kobe beefsteak in there.
Nothing better than that, dude.
That's the best MRE, hands down.
Yeah, that sounds delicious, man.
Wow. An MRE, huh?
I mean, I think so.
Doesn't that sound like one?
Well, if not, it should be one.
And I would go down to the Army-Navy surplus and get my hands on some of those.
So let's introduce some of the Marines.
The leader was Sergeant Green, and his second-in-command was Corporal Lena.
The other Marines were Hoyk, Gibbs, Parker, Smith, Wilson, and Zolich.
This group of U.S. Marines were going to Post Rock to relieve another group of soldiers who were British Marines.
And these British Marines couldn't be more than happy to see their relief finally arrive.
The British soldiers were noticeably on edge, visibly anxious, and clearly couldn't wait a minute longer to get out of there.
They also did a 60-day jaunt at Post Rock, but looked as if they had done a much longer stint while engaged in constant combat.
They looked as if they hadn't slept in weeks, just completely drained.
And they kept silent and just kind of looked down for the most part.
Their experience was so bad that they just skipped over, giving the new arrivals a sort of tour around the land just to show them where to look out for possible enemy action or whatever there may be.
Because it's always good to have a good idea of your landscape.
But the British Marines were only interested in one thing, leaving as soon as possible.
But before they left, one British Marine would tell them that If they were to go around looking at shit and digging shit up, that they better put whatever they dug up right back where they found it.
And he made it clear to them not to try to keep anything that they may find.
And the U.S. soldiers were just like, Y'all a bunch of Barbie dolls.
Yeah, whatever, dude.
You fucking weirdo.
And the British guys would say, Oi!
With respect, if you dig something up, make sure you put that shit back where you found it.
Mark my words, you fucking soddy tossers.
Don't be barmy and prove yourselves to be gommeless Muppets.
And listen to me when I tells you what it is I say to you.
As I tell it to you, as I tell it now I do say.
You fucking body chaffers.
Listen to the man when he shouts your solid warning, will you?
Don't be a fool of schnobs and find yourselves daft as a bush, you twits.
Listen, because if you don't, you're not batting on a full wicket, and you're nothing more than lazy swords.
Now piss off, you plonkers.
Yeah, piss off, you plonkers.
So later that night, after they got all set up and established their grounds, they decided who would be on first watch while the others got rest.
And this would happen to be second-in-command Corporal Lena.
Now, if you've ever been out camping in the woods far away from any city lights or out in the desert also away from city lights at night with no moonlight, then you know just how dark it can really be out there and how eerie and unsettling it can become.
Especially with all the strange noises you hear around you with your hyper alert senses analyzing everything and you can feel your eyes being as wide open as you can possibly make them just trying to absorb what light you can.
Yeah, we've all kind of had that.
Anybody who's been camping.
I've had that experience where you just, you know, you don't know what's out there.
And you accept that, and you're just like, I'm gonna go back in this tent where I can see at least the tent walls and know that they're there.
I'm just gonna pretend like there's nothing out there.
I'm in here alone.
Well, imagine that.
But add in the fact that you are out in the desolate, desert landscape of Afghanistan, literally in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by mountains with people who either want to kill you and are actively looking for you, Or people who would be completely indifferent to your torture and murder should you be attacked and captured.
Now, these Marines had their weapons, of course, and their night vision goggles and their military-grade radios should they need to contact their main base, which was many miles away.
And if they were to be attacked and were to have to call in for backup, it could take upwards of an hour, if not longer, for help to arrive.
And the attacks on these posts are often very technical, very well planned, and quickly executed.
For example...
The observation post Bari Alai in Afghanistan was attacked in 2009 by around 150 Taliban.
They killed all three American soldiers, two of the Latvian soldiers, three of the Afghan soldiers, and captured between 12 and 14 remaining Latvian and Afghan soldiers.
And after a response by hundreds of U.S. and Afghanistan forces, dozens of Taliban were killed and all the prisoners were rescued.
That was probably the most famous attack on an observation post.
It was a pretty big deal.
So Corporal Lena is on his shift for night watch while the other guys try to sleep or entertain themselves with leftover scratch and sniff stickers.
You remember those?
Yeah, I do.
I think my favorite was probably used band-aid.
Ooh, that was a good one.
Or I meant root beer.
That was also okay, but the first one was better.
So Lena is all alone and off away from the other guys up in the little watchtower, which was more of a shack than any form of a tower.
But he's just looking around off into the darkness, getting lost in his thoughts and, you know, looking at his watch.
Fuck, it's only been three minutes?
So, you know.
Then something comes over his radio, which breaks the silence.
At first it sounds like a typical static coming in and out at random intervals, and he just basically ignores it.
So he goes about looking out into the darkness for a few short moments when the radio comes back on and Corporal Lena thinks that he can hear a faint voice saying something, but he can't make it out.
There was just too much static, making it impossible to understand the words.
But he can tell that it's definitely someone talking.
It's a man.
So Lena decides to take the battery out and sort of clean off any dust that may have collected anywhere.
And he put the battery back on and turned the radio back on.
And it seemed to be fine.
Nothing was happening, so he set it down next to him and he went back to his observations.
Then the radio came back on.
And this time, he could definitely hear a voice coming through.
And to him, it sounded Russian.
He couldn't wrap his head around why someone that he doesn't recognize...
Someone who's speaking Russian.
Right, he's speaking Russian on their frequency.
And so he decides that he should check in with the main base because the only people who should have a connection with that radio channel should be someone on his team.
And his seven team members are all behind him, laying and presumably sleeping in the sleeping quarters.
And they're all passed the fuck out from smelling all those scratch and sniffs, I'm sure.
Oh, exactly.
And so he calls to main base and asks if, you know, they're sending out any signals with their radios, and they respond almost immediately, saying, no, there's no radio traffic going on at all.
So Lena is like, alright, that's kind of weird.
So he ends the transmission and puts the radio back down.
And he goes back to his observations, and the radio continues to put out the same almost unintelligible speech.
It sounds Russian, but not at the same time.
This goes on all throughout the night up until it was the next guy's shift for observation.
So when the next guy got up to trade off, Corporal Lena told the guy that the radio was doing something weird and that he should probably just go grab a new one and replace it.
You know, so the guy went and did that.
Throughout the rest of the night and early morning until the sun came up, nothing else strange would happen on the radio.
The group would get up for the start of their first day at Post Rock and didn't have much to do other than survey their location a little bit and get a better general understanding of their surroundings.
But they first noticed that there was a trench dug down below the post and went in all different directions, but it wasn't even close to being finished yet.
It was about maybe a few feet deep, and the purpose of the trench was to be able to run around in the trench and not be shot by enemy fire from above if, you know, a firefight was to take place.
So the U.S. Marines were left wondering why the British Marines apparently didn't work on this trench at all.
You know, they were like, what the fuck are these guys doing here?
And so, since they were going to be doing 60 Days, they decided, well, fuck it, let's do some work on this trench and improve the post, you know?
It's all about the land value.
You've seen those Property Brothers on TV.
Alright, so picture this.
Property Brothers.
Afghan edition, right?
They specialize in deserted observation posts smack dab in the middle of war zones.
I mean, you could just picture the Afghan version of the brothers running through a war zone.
Missiles are flying.
There's gunshots everywhere.
Jets and helicopters cruising around overhead with soldiers yelling.
All of a sudden, boom!
ID goes off as a tank rolls over it right next to the brothers.
And they're discussing this patio, right?
that extends into the infinity pool, surrounded by an aesthetic rock garden with the most beautiful color variation of many types of succulents.
So the brothers, they bid their farewells, and the injured one was taken off by a stretcher, ran through miles of rubble caused by years of battle,
Well, I mean, he'd have to.
Someone has to.
Might as well be him.
He's there.
So yeah, finalize that shit.
The eight-man team goes to work in the blistering summer Afghan desert heat, which can reach upwards of 120 degrees Fahrenheit, or about 50 degrees Celsius, on any given day.
But like all deserts, it can get extremely cold at night, too.
And during the winter months, it can get colder than negative 13 degrees Fahrenheit, or negative 25 degrees Celsius.
So as they're digging, Corporal Lena hits his shovel on something hard, and it sounds like metal.
So he bent down and started digging around with his hands and pulled out this weird rod.
And it was like a larger version of one of those thicker plastic tent stakes.
But this was metal.
And he holds it in his hands and he's brushing off whatever dirt stuck to it.
He notices that there's definitely some writing on it and it's not English.
And he surmised that it appeared to be Russian writing, but he wasn't sure.
So he goes around, shows the guys and they're all looking at it like, well, you know what?
This could possibly be from when the Russians were here occupying back in the 1980s.
Ugh. Those are some ugly times.
But yeah, like right at the beginning of 1980, the Soviet Union, or the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, or the USSR, as it was known, before it was known as Russia, for those of you out there who aren't aware, they sent thousands of troops into the area and pretty much took full political and military control of Kabul and many other areas of Afghanistan to quote-unquote subdue the long and brutal Afghan civil war that had been ravishing.
And now, after decades of violent shit, it is controlled by the Taliban.
So history is so interesting that way.
Well, it was pretty much kindly handed over to them.
And as you know, the Taliban started as a fairly small, ultra-conservative political and religious faction that were very brutal in their fight for power in the 1990s.
And the U.S. gave them millions of dollars and a shit ton of weapons.
And some say that they were created by the U.S. as a political and military subterfuge, if you will.
And that's not the first time the U.S. has given violent regimes a black discovery card and stockpiles of weapons.
And it will probably continue to happen.
So Corporal Lena finds this weird stake in the ground.
The guys look at it and talk about it for a minute and take a break from the work and conclude that it's just a piece of Russian equipment.
So they go back to digging the trench.
And only two or three yards away from Lena, another man, Wilson, he was digging at the bone-dry ground.
When he hits what was kind of a pocket in the ground, and he finds a bunch of what looked like fragments of ceramics or pottery.
So he keeps digging away, and he finds some intact plates and pots.
But what he finds next stuns him for a moment.
It was a human bone.
What looks like a femur.
So not wanting to really disrupt a possible grave site, he puts it back and moves away from that area to start digging somewhere else.
But as the men continued to dig, they one by one started to find other human bones.
And that was pretty much all they were finding.
So they stopped digging altogether and regrouped.
And at that point, they started to talk about what the British soldiers said when they were leaving.
Right. If you dig anything up, you gourmet muppets, just make sure to put it back.
You soddy tossers.
Now piss off.
creepy to dig up what appears to be a massive burial of bodies right in that area of observation post rock.
So the Marines decided that they should follow suit with the British Marines and leave the shovels alone.
All the better for them now that they have a pretty good excuse to not engage in any physical exertion in the heat and a whole lot more time with their scrapbook.
Oh yeah, they're going to get scratched and sniffed into the next generation.
For sure.
And about two weeks go by, and all of the guys are a little creeped out by the fact that they are stuck right on this chunk of land where at least dozens of bodies have been buried.
As we know, this spot was battled for by the Russians who came in and killed all the Mujahideen who occupied it.
They buried all those bodies there.
Then the Taliban came in, killed all the Russians, and buried them there.
And then the Americans came in and killed the Taliban and buried all their bodies there too.
So, suffice to say, Lots of bodies in the area.
Lots of bodies.
And one night, it was 20-year-old Hoyt's turn for his night watch shift up in the watching station, alone, and a little unnerved.
So he's chilling there in a chair and looking out in the vast darkness with his night vision goggles, and he has his back turned to the little camp where the guys are sleeping, because the tower, or watching station, wasn't directly next to the main area, it was a little bit away from it.
So he's looking out in the darkness, and he couldn't help but get this overwhelming feeling that something or someone was watching him.
He could just sense it.
You know when you get that feeling like someone or something is watching you?
You ever get that?
Oh yeah, and you turn to look and there's just some decrepit old man named Lever.
Wild-eyed.
Glasses are broken.
One lens is missing but he's still wearing them.
Drooling just a little bit.
He stares at you from about four inches away and he says, Why?
Happens to me all the...
Time, bro.
Same guy?
Same scenario?
Oh, same and same.
At least four or five times a day.
Four or five times a day.
Holy shit, bro, how do you sleep?
I've just come to terms with it.
Well, what happens after you see him?
Does he just disappear?
Pretty much.
He just turns and walks away.
And usually he'll walk around a corner, and then when I go over to look, he's gone.
Holy smokes.
One time, alright, so, my mom made these super fire seafood kebabs, right?
And I took them home, and I put them in the fridge.
Yeah, dude, they were so bomb.
This guy pops out, surprises me by doing his regular shtick where he just stands there and says, Why?
Then turned and walked through the kitchen, but stopped at the refrigerator and grabbed three of the kebabs, dude, that I was saving for myself until, yeah.
And then he just kept walking around the corner down to the basement.
Did you give chase?
Of course I did, but nothing.
He was gone.
Goodness gracious.
God almighty.
So Hoyt looks around him as he tries to break from the feeling, but it persists.
He just can't shake the feeling that someone is intensely watching him.
Then he senses that it's coming from behind him, back past where the guys are sleeping.
So he turns around to look behind him and toward the main area.
And as he does that, there is a loud, blood-curdling scream that comes from where he was just looking before he turned around.
So he immediately spins back around and pulls up his night-vision scope on his rifle and peers out into the darkness.
And as he's scanning the area, he spots what looks like someone running about 100 meters away or so, running from one bush to another, where they just remained hidden.
Now, the only thing that the Marines need to worry about is being attacked.
So upon hearing the scream themselves, the men sat up and prepared to defend their post.
They looked up to Hoyt to get some sort of idea of what's happening, and he tells them that he spotted a guy about 100 meters or so away hiding behind some bushes.
And where there is one...
There are usually many more.
Oh, yeah.
You're never going to get lucky enough to have just, like, one guy bust out and be like, I got you!
It's never, never going to be the case.
Unless you got Charles Bronson, you know, leaping out of a helicopter or something.
Guess I was wrong.
I shouldn't have said that.
Corporal Lena grabbed his own rifle and ran over to Hoyt and began to scan the area looking for any enemy movement using his thermal scope.
But he doesn't pick up any heat signature.
Nothing at all.
Not even an animal.
There was nothing but cold darkness.
And Hoyt says, No, I saw him.
He was right there.
He ran from that bush over to that bush.
I saw him.
But Lena continues to scan, and he tells him that he's not picking anything up on his thermal scope.
You know, why don't they have, like, guard dogs or something?
Because they'd easily pick up a scent and alert when the enemies are coming in.
Well, actually, thank you for reminding me.
They did have a dog, and her name was Ugly Betty.
And she was a beloved watchdog.
Oh, well.
I believe she was a German shepherd that the British Marines had left there for them, and she must have just been passed down from one group to another for however long.
But it was said that she was really good at alerting the men whenever anyone was approaching the post.
Oh, okay.
So Ugly Betty had actually started to bark basically right when the scream was heard, and she was staring off in the direction that Hoyt said he saw the man running behind a bush.
So all the men are scanning the entire area with their thermal scopes.
And they still didn't see anything.
No heat signature anywhere.
But ugly Betty continued to aggressively bark and keep her sights fixed in the same direction.
And for the next several hours, the team would consistently keep watch all around the post with the anticipation that they were about to be attacked, since they had no idea where this man that Hoyt had seen had run off to.
They would continue to be attentive until the sun would rise, and there would be no other screams or abnormal sounds, no other sightings of men running around the post.
In fact, there would be nothing odd for another couple of weeks, until day 26 to be exact.
And on that night, day 26, another of the Marines, Zolich was his name, would be on his shift for the nightly watch.
He noted that it was so hot that he had to take his helmet off, which can be a deadly decision.
But he said that as he was sitting there in the watch station, it suddenly became very cold.
Zolich said the change in temperature was so dramatic and happened so fast...
That he was actually cold in the blink of an eye, despite there not even being a slight breeze.
He obviously thought that it was pretty odd, but trying to make sense of things and keeping a level head, he just assumed that some crazy storm was about to roll in.
And as all these thoughts are going through his mind, he then suddenly sensed that someone was right behind him.
So he turned around really fast to see, but there was no one there.
And so what he did is he kind of re-situated himself so he could better see his immediate surroundings.
So now his nerves are on end, and as he's sitting there thinking a million and one things, he starts to hear what sounds like soft whispers.
He settles himself and tries to listen better and quickly determines that it's not coming from his radio.
It seems to be coming from within the shack with him.
So Zolich is now questioning his mental stability.
He's thinking he's going crazy and he's hearing things.
Well, yeah.
I mean, I would have been scared shitless if I heard whisperings coming out of the darkness and no one's around.
It'd be freaky.
But as he's sitting there, trying to gather himself, he starts to hear footsteps on the roof of the shack.
Oh, man!
Ay-yi-yi.
I just don't even know.
I couldn't do it.
Zolich, like anyone trying to make themselves calm in such a situation, starts to think that maybe the guys are just playing some stupid trick on them.
Maybe they're outside the shack whispering to each other and now one of them is on the roof.
You know, it's simple and logical reasoning.
Yep. The Occam's Razor approach.
100% success rate calming people down.
Exactly. So Zolich hops up real quick and runs outside to look up on the roof, but there's nobody there.
What? And there's nobody standing around either.
So he's a little freaked out, but he goes back inside and looks over to where the guys are sleeping and they're all still there.
Exactly where they were expected to be.
So he sits back down and raises his rifle with a thermoscope and starts to scan the terrain just to see if there's any living creature anywhere out there that is large enough to see.
And then he's thinking to himself that maybe it's the guy that Hoyt saw a couple weeks ago.
He might be back.
So Zolich is scanning the area, and then he sees a man about 150 meters away.
And this man is just standing there with his arms up like he's in just a cuff stance, ready to fight.
The man in Zolich's sights, he was well lit up from the bright moon that was out that night, and so Zolich lowered his rifle to see if he could look at the man with natural light, but he couldn't see him anymore, and so he raised his rifle again, but then the guy was gone.
So Zolich was taken aback by it all, and he seriously thought that he was losing his mind.
Before his team was to go to post-rock, he was already having some issues with fatigue.
And so he was already stressed out from lack of sleep.
He's always on edge, always on high alert.
That shit will drain you on so many levels.
Oh, I mean, you're going into these watch situations where you're supposed to stay up and make sure everybody's fine and there's no approaching anything, and you're already tired, you're already stressed.
Good luck, bro.
So to him, he was just losing his mind, having to deal with all the shit he's having to deal with.
But he still had to do his shit for night watch, and so he sat in the shack and continually heard the same weird whispering that had to be coming from inside the shack with him.
And the footsteps on the roof would happen as well, and every time he'd get up to look, there was no one there.
So he would just sit back down in the shack and believe that he was losing his mind.
When morning came, Zolich legitimately thought a few screws were loose to the mechanism inside of his head, and so he went to Sergeant Green and Corporal Lena and told them what he thought was going on with him.
Look! And after that,
he requested he transferred out of Post Rock, and two superiors would grant it.
This, of course, pissed off all the other guys because they thought that Zolich was just using the crazy car to get out of there because nobody wanted to be there.
I could see that, especially if they hadn't heard the things that he heard.
They were probably like, oh, this pansy, he's just trying to get out of here because it sucks.
But those kinds of things have a way of working themselves out in the end.
So, a couple of days after Zolich would leave the team, Corporal Lena is doing his shift for Nightwatch and Guard Duty.
He has Ugly Betty with him in the shack, and she starts to bark in the direction that Corporal Lena is scanning for heat signatures with his goggles.
So as he shifts to get a better look, he suddenly sees what he thinks is someone from the Taliban.
His first impression was that this person was coming as a scout to gather information and bring it back to their people so that they could plan an assault on the observation post.
Corporal Alina sees this person as standing maybe 300 yards away.
Pretty good distance.
So he raises his rifle with a thermal scope.
But the man was gone in only a matter of a couple seconds.
Completely gone from the area.
No heat signature anywhere at all.
But ugly Betty continues to bark incessantly.
Corporal Lena is wondering what the hell is going on, so he puts his night vision goggles on again, and he gets a frightening shock.
When he put the goggles back on, he saw the same guy, but he was now about 100 yards closer to where he was before, an impossible distance to cover in just a matter of a few seconds.
And when he actually saw the guy again, but closer this time, it scared him so much that he actually stumbled backward.
Where he quickly grabbed his rifle and took aim again.
But the guy was not there.
So while all of this is happening really fast, all of this in only a matter of seconds, he looks through his goggles again to see the guy.
But he doesn't see him anymore.
And in all the chaos, as he's staring out into the darkness, he feels a tap on his shoulder.
And he immediately thinks it's just one of his men.
So he pulls off the goggles and he quickly turns around to see one of his men.
But there's no one standing there.
Lean looks down where the guys are.
He notices that they're all there, still in the sleeping quarters.
Corporalina starts feeling like a bit of a piecer for being a dick to Zolich by not believing his story because now Corporalina buys it completely.
And over the next ten days, each of the seven men would have their own strange experiences while on duty keeping watch.
It's always like that.
It's one by one.
Everybody has their own separate encounter.
Yeah, exactly.
They would share their experiences with each other.
And they would begin to all feel like total piecers for being highly critical of Zolich bouncing out while thinking he was losing his mind, meaning that all the men were experiencing some very real paranormal activity at Observation Post Rock.
And to make the creepy factor all the worse, they knew that there were dozens upon dozens of dead bodies buried all throughout that area, all being murdered.
Well, yeah, you know.
It's said that the world's largest cemetery is called Wadi al-Salam, and it's in Najaf, Iraq.
It's about 3.54 square miles, or 9.17 square kilometers, and it contains millions of sets of human remains.
And you know that there are other massive cemeteries all over the entire region.
Some varied under millennia of shifting sands, and others are just completely ignored and built over.
Oh yeah, bro.
In fact, Afghanistan is called the Graveyard of Empires due to how many different emperors and rulers battled all over that place, killing everyone who was against them.
David, you bar me chuffer.
If you would, please.
Go. Now.
It originates from the numerous historical examples of foreign powers, such as the Achaemenid Empire, Macedonia, Umayyad Caliphate, Mongol Empire,
the Timurid Empire, Mughal Empire, Sheikh Empire, British Empire, the Soviet Union, And the United States being unable to achieve military victory in Afghanistan.
Thank you, David.
And I thought it paints the picture pretty well.
Yeah, I didn't know we were getting David Attenborough live on the set.
It must be very important.
That probably costs a lot of money, Coop.
We really need to talk about these budgetary decisions before you make them.
Talk to Wayne Dale about that.
Ah, Wayne frickin' Dale, of course.
Deep pockets over there.
Deep fucking pockets.
This is not pleasant at all.
Shut up.
Yeah, right, right?
And now fast forward to day 59. One more day to go.
They just have to get through this last night, and then they can all get out of there and head to their next location.
And, as only seems fitting for such an occasion, all of the men's radios would go completely dead.
Corporal Lena would go to Gibbs, who was their communications guy, and Gibbs tells him that, look, I haven't done anything differently to any of these radios.
They've all worked fine this entire time we were here, so leave me alone, you asshole.
And everyone knew that.
And so the men were resolved to simply wait out the night without radio contact and just hope to God that nothing shitty would happen, such as an attack on the last night they are there.
And that wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility, so...
I guess that's all you can do is just sort of wait and hope for the best.
So night comes and the men take their shifts as usual.
Wilson is at watch at this particular time and he's doing the usual scan with the night vision goggles and switching to the thermoscope on his rifle and going back and forth.
So Wilson is just sitting there, and all of a sudden, the sound of gunfire is heard, and it sounds like it's coming from every direction, from all around the post.
All of the men are immediately at their feet and scrambling around, trying to find where the enemies are hiding, the whole time, automatic gunfire popping off all around them.
Corporal Lena runs over and up to where Wilson is at the watch station, and once there, is desperately looking around and asking Wilson where the gunfire is coming from, but Wilson has no idea either.
And the two men are huddled there, just trying to figure out what the hell is happening.
I mean, could you even imagine?
I mean, how could you not believe that it was a legitimate military attack from the other side, you know?
Right. Then they hear the distinctive sound of two rocket-propelled grenades being launched at them, accompanied with the dreaded whistle.
The men would get down as low as they can and cover their heads, preparing for the impact, and then, boom, they hear the explosions of the RPGs.
Meanwhile, back where the other guys are in the sleeping area.
A couple of them make the split-second decision to go and make sure that the enemy is not crawling through the trenches.
Because they knew that the trenches were deep enough to crawl through, so they would get down in their chests and start to crawl their way through the trench work caked full of human bones.
And nearing the end, not encountering anyone and deciding what to do, the sound of this crazy gun battle just faded out exactly as it all began.
That is so spooky, dude.
So spooky.
All seven men stayed as still and as silent as they could as they quietly listened for any sign that the enemy was approaching the post, such as footsteps or talking.
They would wait for any sound of a human for hours until the sun would finally come up and they felt it safe enough to finally look around.
Oh absolutely, I would too.
You just don't know at that point.
So they slowly got up and peered around before they made any sudden move.
Then they finally realized it was safe, and they went around to check the post to see what sort of damage that they had taken from enemy fire, especially when those RPGs hit.
No shit, no matter where those hit, there would be some kind of significant damage or sign that, you know, a crater, smoke, something.
You would think, but they saw no damage whatsoever.
None of them could offer any reasonable explanation for what all of them experienced together.
And they all experienced the very same experience from the sound of gunfire to the RPGs being fired to their distinct whistle to their explosions.
They all heard the exact same sounds.
So then they started to think about how the British guys were weirdly silent and very eager to get out of there.
The strange warning they gave them.
And then the guy they saw out in the distance at night and the blood-curdling scream, the footsteps, the whispers.
Now they themselves couldn't wait to get out of there.
and like the British before them, anxiously waited for the ride to arrive.
And when that ride came, they just packed their shit up and bounced out
Absolutely, dude.
There's just no dilly-dallying.
Get me the hell out of here.
And not long after that 60-day nightmare at Observation Post Rock, soldiers Diggs, Parker, and Smith, three of those seven men, they would all be killed in different attacks.
And Sergeant Green would be badly wounded in an IED attack.
And it is Corporal Lina's belief that when they started digging all that shit up and found a lot of human bones, that they basically unleashed something that toyed with them.
And to me, it sounds like they didn't really have to dig anything up to experience something there because it seemed that that area is just full of, like, a residual haunting.
So there's a ton of, like, pain and suffering and anguish from all the death that's happened in that area.
You know, you also see this kind of thing at, like, Gettysburg and other Civil War areas in the United States, you know, where horrific battles took place, where there seems to be this residual energy and what's commonly referred to as a residual haunting.
And that is basically where there are what we call ghosts that are stuck in these areas, you know, where they died or places that had a big impact on their lives.
And they sort of replay the acts that they did while alive in those moments of battle or whatever.
And actually, a lot of people have reported hearing cannon fire as well in those Civil War locations.
And there are some pretty compelling videos on the Gettysburg Ghosts on YouTube if you want to check that out.
But yeah, that is what post-rock seems like to me.
It's one of these areas with just a ton of residual energy.
It shares a lot of similarities with, you know, you mentioned Gettysburg earlier.
Just areas where horrific bloodshed, human emotion, sacrifice, murder, all of that has occurred.
And, I mean, who's to say?
You know, we have all these people from different walks of life, different nationalities, different backgrounds, all reporting the same thing, that they're seeing these, you know, specters or hearing these spectral noises.
Then they come to find out that nothing was ever there.
I don't know.
I feel like we can't just dismiss it as people being crazy.
Yeah, I mean, I'm a believer.
I've seen my fair share of things.
But you know, just because a place is said to be haunted doesn't mean you should just expect to show up at one of these places one day and just be there for a couple of hours and experience something paranormal.
It just does not happen that way.
And that is partly what keeps the subject alluring and mysterious.
Because if everyone saw ghosts and all this paranormal shit and then science explains it away, it's just no longer fun.
Yeah, and it's no longer interesting.
It'd be like turning on the TV.
Yeah, exactly.
So I said earlier, this one little area where Post Rock is, is where the Russians invaded Afghanistan, killed all the Mujahideen, and they took up the post, and the Taliban came, killed all the Russians, and the Americans killed all the Taliban, and all those bodies are just buried right there.
And who knows how many others were murdered and buried over there in the centuries for all that, maybe even millennia.
Yeah, it seems like battlefields keep drawing battles, like even thousands of years later.
Right. And so other soldiers who spent time at Post Rock, you know, they reported seeing unexplained lights, their night vision goggles, all around Post Rock.
And sometimes they would appear to be far out near the mountains.
Other times they appeared to just be a stone's throw away.
I mean, others would say that they would smell this horrific smell, like something was rotting, and it would get really bad at night.
That's disgusting, dude.
That'd be one of the worst, just, like, dead body smell coming through the tent at night.
All the time, like you're there for 60 days, and it's just constant.
So gross.
So what's pretty intriguing about the site is that for many years, all these things were being reported by different teams of soldiers, like you were saying, from different countries who had no connection or who had ever even met.
All the whispers from inside the shack, footsteps, lights, sounds of gunshots, explosions, smell of death, seeing a specter or an apparition of a man, the blood-curdling scream, taps on the shoulders.
All these things were being experienced by many different groups of soldiers.
Yeah, so you have everything going on at this site, right?
Short of reports of tasting things, but basically four of the five senses definitely seem active there.
You're seeing stuff, you're hearing stuff, you're being touched, so you're feeling shit, you're smelling shit.
I mean, not literally, but you know, you're smelling rotting bodies, you're smelling death, like you said.
Most haunted places, it seems, you only get reports of one or two of these things.
You know, you might see.
Or you might hear a whisper or a footstep or a creak.
You might feel a tap on the shoulder or a touch on the hand or a tug on the clothes.
Or you might even smell the scent of, say, a perfume from another time, something that smells really old.
Or maybe even smoke from a cigar, even though nobody's smoking.
And it's typically a singular experience.
And what I mean by that is it's usually only experienced by one person of a group of people rather than a shared experience of a group where they all report the same
But here at Post Rock, it seems that whenever anyone experienced something
Yeah, and so there's speculation that at least part of what is happening there is due to activity by what are called the djinn.
Or genies, as some may liken them.
And the jinn are a creature most commonly found in Arabic or Islamic nations and cultures.
They are said to be human-like and are neither evil or good.
And they can choose to do as they please, much like we humans.
And there appear to be some pagan beliefs tied to the Islamic concept of the jinn.
You know, the djinn sound a lot like the skinwalkers of Utah in the United States.
Yeah, there does seem to be a lot of parallels, and I was wondering because, like, we touched on the tribal breaking off from the early Dene in Canada in our Headless Valley episodes, who would later become, you know, the Apache and the Navajo nations, and it's primarily the Navajo who are the keepers, if you will,
of the skinwalker, but other tribes certainly have their own versions of the skinwalker.
You know, the Utes have theirs, the Hopi have theirs, but yeah, the skinwalker and the djinn...
Very much alike, and they come from two entirely unrelated groups of people, thousands of miles apart.
So it's pretty interesting that these things exist in totally separate cultures.
You know, it's kind of like the Bigfoot, or Skookum of the Pacific Northwest, or Sasquatch, as most of Canada refers to call it, or Skunk Ape, as those in Florida call it, or as those in Arkansas call it, the Folk Monster.
And those in Missouri may call it Momo, which is short for the Missouri Monster.
People in Arizona may call it the Moggolan monster, while those in Ohio might call it Grassman, which is who every high schooler is asking around for.
You know what I'm saying?
Where's the Grassman?
But those in Bangladesh call the ape-like man-beast the Ban Manoush.
Baba Ganoush?
And here's Rob Tussin.
He was very impressive in the warm-ups.
And, you know, then the guy Rob Tussin, he, like, tries to do a backflip and lands on his head.
Oh, my...
God, he's still going!
He just fell into the sinkers and floaters pond!
Wow, he must be really feeling stupid, Vic.
I don't think he's feeling anything from the neck down, Ken.
You know, I wasn't aware that Baba Ghanoush is the large family of contestants from the Middle East who are in nearly every episode of that show, The Most Extreme Elimination Challenge.
Oh, yeah, that's right.
When I think Baba Ghanoush, I just think of the food, which is fucking amazing.
And, back to Sasquatch, the Australians call it the Yaoi, of course, and up in Siberia, Russia over there, they call it the Yeti, or the Abominable Snowman.
In South America, it is known as the Mapinguari, and the Malaysians.
Ooh, oily man monster.
That sounds more like a Florida creature.
Always bringing it back around, Coop.
But yeah, the djinn, they are said to be able to do whatever they want.
If they want to help you, they can.
If they want to harm you somehow, they can.
You know, some are nice, and some are mean, just like people.
In the United States, other than the Skinwalker, the closest thing to the djinn would be what we know as a demon or a poltergeist, maybe, maybe even a ghost.
Yeah, those seem to be the main things that people report.
Just like maybe a malicious presence that people sense in their home and then cans get flung out of the cupboards and pots get thrown around and banged around and stuff like that.
That'd be so spooky.
I've seen a lot of interviews where people are talking about these kinds of things and they're so casual about it.
They're like, yeah.
And then I came in the next day and like...
All of the cupboard doors were open and all my cans were stacked up in towers all throughout the kitchen.
It was really weird.
I would have been like 300 miles away by then.
Just out of there, dude.
Yeah. I mean, it's hard, dude, because there are financial things that get in the way.
They can't just get up and move.
A lot of the people just learn to live with it.
Like, well, looks like we have to live with this noisy ghost.
Poltergeist is noisy ghost.
Right, right.
But, yeah.
Well, Scott, on the lighter side of things, I just want to bring this up.
The most hideous man in porn, nicknamed the Hedgehog.
A real greaser.
Literally, talk about oily man monster.
Well, 69-year-old Ronald S. Harris, a.k.a.
Ron Jeremy.
has been found mentally incompetent and unfit to stand trial to face dozens of sexual assault and rape charges stemming from the early 1990s.
34 felonies.
The same as your bro-chacho from Mar-a-Lago.
The bro-chach from Mar-a-Lach.
Yeah, well, that's not surprising because Ron Jeremy looked not all there from the very beginning when he was at his peak back in the 90s.
Yeah, he was disgusting.
Mr. Jeremy was arrested in 2020 and has been held in a jail of some kind up until about a month ago.
And both the prosecutors and his defense have reported that he has been in incurable neurocognitive decline and is unlikely to ever recover.
And it appears that he is suffering from Lewy body dementia.
And from that jail, he was transferred to a state hospital where he could be held for up to two years, at which point I'm assuming further proceedings would take place to determine what should happen next.
Ugh, well, he is not going to be living his best life for the next foreseeable future, I can tell you that much.
Definitely not making any more porns, that's for sure.
God, I hope not.
Oh, it'd be horrible to see that man in another porn.
And I feel like his defense team is really playing this out well.
But the 5 foot 6 inch bag of russet potatoes has appeared in at least 2,000 adult films beginning in 1979 and is still listed as having the most appearances in adult films.
And most websites say that his net worth is an estimated...
Actually, Scott, why don't you take a guess?
I'm gonna guess...
You know, I'm gonna guess something.
I'm gonna lowball it.
I'm gonna say 1.2 million at this point.
That's fucking on point.
So most websites are saying that Jeremy's net worth is about $1 million.
There are other websites who are saying that it's anywhere from $3 to $7.5 million, but who knows?
I do know that his sister, Susan Bayotte, has filed a petition with the courts asking them to appoint a conservator to the man made of putty and sprayed with canola oil.
She has asked for attorney Ellen Finkelberg to be placed in charge.
Yikes. Well, we saw what happened to Britney Spears, so I can only imagine what conservatorship would do to this guy.
Well, you see, that would be entertainment.
People would love to see that happen.
And the latest picture of him is from a couple months ago, and he's got this really long white hair and a really long white beard.
Right, so once he gets this conservator, he's most likely going to cut half of his hair off, start making weird Instagram videos of himself, doing weird and...
What are supposed to be kind of erotic dance moves, but are just sort of embarrassing and sad.
While he's in a belly shirt with ripped yoga pants.
And for some reason, he'll always have an umbrella with him.
Exactly, Coop.
Well, let's close this out.
What do you say, pal?
Well, let's close this out.
What do you say, pal?
Thanks again, ladies and gentlemen.
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