Strange but true military stories
Military encounters with sub-humans like the “rock apes” in Vietnam, specially trained SS occult units and the Japanese Army’s ritualistic cannibalism tendencies. Those stories and more are all in “Haunted War Tales: True Military Encounters with the Bizarre, Paranormal and Unexplained.”
Army intelligence veteran R.C. Bramhall talks about his book, its strange but true stories, and more as the special guest on this week’s episode of The American Legion Tango Alpha Lima podcast,
Bramhall, a member of American Legion Post 361 in Ennis, Texas, says the two things he wanted to be in life were a soldier and a writer.
“When I joined the Army, part of it was to gain those experiences that I could draw back on,” he explains. “I just always liked mysteries, anything strange. I try not to believe in anything and keep an open mind about everything.”
His approach to writing the book is to collect all the evidence, present it to the reader and “then let you decide on what you want to think about it.”
The book also includes a story, “The Ghost Plane of Mindanao,” he found in a September 1993 issue of American Legion Magazine. “I use that story to illustrate how sometimes the truth is even more scary (than unexplained stories),” he says.
Highlights of what else is inside:
• Military combat encounters throughout history with sub-humans including the Almas in Asia, hairy hominins of the Pacific islands, rock apes in Vietnam, and mysterious modern giants of Afghanistan and Iraq.
• The history of Nazi SS occult units and their activities at places of paranormal mystery like Houska Castle, the Imperial Japanese Army’s cult of ritualistic cannibalism and America’s horror movie-like psychological warfare tactics.
• The incredible supernatural phenomenon happening at Forward Operating Base Salerno and Observation Point Rock in Afghanistan.
• Eyewitness accounts of Sasquatch and ghost sightings across the United States.
“My goal with this was to find stories that people hadn’t heard before and to collect stories from Iraq and Afghanistan, so I’m proud of the fact that this is the first collection of all of that new mythology and stories that are out there.”
Among them: the Abu Ghraib prison. “People who live near there say they hear knocks on their doors, their pets act strange, and their kids wake up and hear voices.”
Also in this episode, co-hosts Stacy Pearsall and Adam Marr discuss:
• A military Sasquatch research program.
• The latest on the quest for MDMA therapy approval.
• A Marine’s heroic life-saving move during a botched hand grenade training drill.
• The concept of wrapping up wars quickly.
Check out this week’s episode, which is among more than 250 Tango Alpha Lima podcasts available in both audio and video formats here. You can also download episodes on Apple Podcasts and other major podcast-hosting sites. The video version is available at the Legion’s YouTube channel.