Haunted Outpost Freaks Out US Marines

(The Times of London) - Observation Point Rock in Afghanistan sits a few hundred meters south east of Patrol Base Hassan Abad, where a company from 2/8 U.S. Marines has been stationed for the past seven months.

It is a lonely and exposed outpost 20 meters (65ft) above the surrounding landscape, which has been in Nato hands since it was captured from the Taleban in 2008.

Groups of U.S. Marines are posted to guard it, usually for a couple of months at a time, and “the Rock” has acquired a peculiar reputation. American troops widely refer to it as “the haunted Observation Point”, The Times of London reported.

It is hard to say how much the 100F heat, round-the-clock guard shifts and months spent living in trenches and peering out of sandbagged firing points have gilded the legend of OP Rock.

But as Sergeant Josh Brown, 22, briefed his successor when a detachment of men from Golf Company was swapped for an incoming contingent from Fox Company, he warned of the strange atmosphere and inexplicable phenomena that plagued OP Rock.

“The local people say this is a cursed place,” he said. “You will definitely see weird-ass lights up here at night.”

There is talk of members of the Taleban entombed in caves below; the bodies buried on the summit are identified confidently as dead Russian soldiers from the ill-fated Soviet invasion.

Corporal Jacob Lima’s story is the latest addition. One night he was woken by the sound of screaming. It was Corporal Zolik, a Marine who has since been moved to a unit farther south.

“When I got there he said that he was sitting there when he heard a voice whisper something in his ear. He said it sounded like Russian. He begged me to stay in there with him till he was relieved from guard duty. After that he really didn’t like standing post up there,” Corporal Lima, 22, told the men taking over from him.

The Marines’ predecessors, a unit of Welsh Guards, also produced tales of the unexpected. “The Brits claimed to see weird things, hear noises,” Corporal Lima said. “Lots of them said it’s creepy at night, especially from midnight till 4 a.m. You see a lot of unexplained lights through night-vision goggles.”

“This place really sucks,” said Lance Corporal Austin Hoyt, 20, putting his pack on to return to the main base.

“The Afghans say it’s haunted. Stick a shovel in anywhere and you’ll find bones and bits of pottery. This place should be in National Geographic — in the front there are weird-looking windows for shooting arrows. You know, they say the Russians up here were executed by the Mujahidin.”

Read more: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/Afghanistan/article6969122.ece