Knocking in Nottoway County, Virginia

While on a training exercise in Ft. Pickett, VA., I was positioned in an observation point overlooking a camp. I was lying low in our hide providing over watch while my team member attempted to move in to within approximately 75 yards of this camp. It was at this point when three distinct knocking sounds spread no more than 1 second apart, were heard from our 6 o’clock position. The distance appeared to be within 100 yards. After a very short pause of about three, maybe five seconds, there was the sound of a large branch or small tree breaking in half. The noise was so loud that everyone in the camp grabbed their flashlights and searched the tree line towards the direction of the sound. We were almost compromised by this noise, but as quickly as the sounds were heard, the forest fell silent. Unfortunately, no one was able to further investigate those sounds due to our focus being the exercise and not the wild life. Approximately two, maybe three hours later, one of the cadre was listening to a range radio and overheard a conversation between an adjacent range and range control. The conversation spanned only a few minutes, but in summary it went like this: “Range Control, this is range #... umm, there is a Bigfoot walking across the range!” This range was only a few kilometers from our location. Early the next morning, maybe 5am, one of the members of our team had to depart the training environment so he was given a coordinate to meet for ex-filtration. He arrived early and waited until the extraction team arrived. During his time alone, he commented that he heard loud foot steps behind him. He was not sure if it was a large deer coming to investigate or what, but he said it came very close to him. So close that he was hearing this animal breathing behind him only a little ways off. He said he felt uneasy and didn’t dare turn around because his initial thought was that it might just be a buck that would become startled and attack him. A few moments later, the animal departed and shortly after he was extracted. He didn’t want to think of this animal as anything but perhaps a deer. After the exercise, we spoke with the role players about that night. They all heard the sound and thought one of us was trying to play a game with them or that one of us had fallen down the side of an embankment causing the loud noise. Once we advised them that it was not us, they just went silent and didn’t speak of it any further. The strange thing is that earlier that night I had this eerie feeling, like something was watching me from behind. My reaction at the time was to grasp my knife and prepare for whatever may come next. It never reached that point, but my senses were heightened and I found myself scanning my surroundings more often with my night vision. Due to the nature of my work, I cannot go into great detail as to the exact month or day, but I can mention that it was in the early months leading up to spring. But I cannot deny that there is something other than normal wild life in the woods surrounding Ft. Pickett, VA.