Army Training Encounter

[Dean Harrison]

Received an email regarding a report we have on the Site pertaining to an encounter that a group of Army personel had during a Military Op. We knew (mostly third hand), people involved and the story below is what we were told, however the email is from someone that was actually there.

Read the report first - his response is posted after.

DMH



Date: 1992.



Location: (With held by AYR). Army Training Land.



Terrain: Rolling hills and Valleys.



It was reported and independently confirmed to the AYR that a unit
of 6 Military personnel were evacuated from a training mission after
their mobile base camp was attacked at night during an operation.



It was a 4-week mission for the 6 men who were roll playing as "the
bad guys". Their camp was a couple of Km from the main Military base
and their location was secret to the rest of the participants of the
drill.



When they returned each night at dusk after a full day, one man was
relegated the task of the perimeter search of 300m of their mobile
base. It was into the 3rd week of the operation when the soldier who
was performing this, returned with concerns that he was being
followed and had feelings of being watched. In the coming days they
all became concerned at their camp and decided to put two people out
performing the check each night. Both came back with the same news.



At the beginning of the 4th week they received a much welcome food
drop of meat to their camp. After the perimeter search of the night
they had dinner, climbed in their tent and went to sleep.



At 2am they were all shockingly woken to loud screaming and running
through the bush. Their tent dropped on the men as they lay frozen
in their sleeping bags listening to a frenzy of destruction around
their camp. Frightened and frozen, their was little that the
soldiers could do but lye there in a state of total shock.



After the large creature left the camp, they crawled out from the
tent to face the total destruction of everything around them.
Interestingly, the only item missing was the ration drop of the
remaining meat.


Clearly spooked, the men radioed for an immediate e-vac. The next
day a separate unit was deployed to the area to attempt to find the
creature responsible. An inquiry was held and it was clear that it
was no joke or prank.

This was confirmed by a former SAS instructor 7 months after our own enquiries. This particular Army Base has a long and detailed history with the Yowie stretching over 30 years to our knowledge

..............................................

Response -

Dean

On reading an article on the web-site re - military 1992 incident involving 6 military personnel i may be able to fill in some details.

1. It sounds like the incident at Wide Bay military training area if it is the same incident there were only 4 members involved with a cast of many through out the night.

2. The incident occurred pretty well the same however the camp was first visited about 2230 h after the team of 2 at the camp called for help by radio an additional 2 members were sent by vehicle to re-inforce the camp. I was one of these members that returned to my camp after conducting tasks away that night.

3. It was only after the support vehicle had left the area , that the animal in question commenced to harass the camp to such a point that evacuation was the only suitable courses of action.

4. Blank rounds were initially used to attempt to scare the animal including the use of night flares in an attempt to kill it. The the animal in question had even attempted to chase the evacuation vehicle while it was driving away.

5. Due to the training activity it was necessary to return to the location next morning after a simulated attack by the good guys a second encounter occurred the animal was spotted coming back in towards the camp at 0700 h that morning then flead the area.

6. All team members involved were send to Camp Kerr WIDE BAY ay approx 0830 hours. There was soup and bread waiting and our issued weapons were taken from us and cleaned by other staff .

7. Other new members who were act as Enemy were waiting we were told to get our kit together and a vehicle returned us to Brisbane.

8. The approx Grid reference of the incident can be supplied.[/color]

I have asked him for more details

DMH

[mikka]

Good to see some more information about this incident.

One thing ive often pondered to myself, is how many time have the army guys run into these things on training ops in the bush. I guess we will never know

[Lasso]

Thanks dean, interesting read.

[Natty]

Hi guy's, I found this post very interesting as my father used to own a 1000 ac's next door to Shoalwater Bay training area in central QLD and hubby n I have walked a lot of miles in search of pigs (we hunt a lot) and now after reading up on signs and markings I've realised this area must have been quite active (lots of branch twists,broken trees high up,very deep strange claw markings 20 feet up trees etc). I would love to know if anyone saw or experienced anything in this area or if anyone on here has any knowledge of sightings/reports in this area.

[Marius]

Any time you hear of the army (or anyone, for that matter) encountering Yowies, consider the following.



Look familiar?

[Shazzoir]

Funny you should say that, Marius....However, the army Ghillie suit (or Yowie as the Brissie boys sometimes call it) does have the appearance of a long-haired creature, but it's green not brown, and the person inside it still looks to be their normal height. Also, one would probably notice if the 'yowie' was toting a Steyr!

Still, I can see your point with regard to seeing something odd, especially if it is as if the forest came to life right in front of you!

Good post, keep 'em coming!

Kind regards,
Shazz

[stickyfingers]

...hmmmmm... it had to happen I suppose... Yowies have tried grunts / growls / charging at us / throwing rocks at us ... and we STILL won't leave them alone!!!! ... now they are resorting to using rifles to scare us off eh???? ... um... I suggest that we just plain leave them the hell alone eh???... **Sticky apologises to Marius for being an idiot... but I couldn't resist it my friend** ... cheers... Stickyfingers.

[Shazzoir]

Nice pic Marius, and welcome to the forum!

Shazz I am not sure that is a Steyr... Or Stay where you are! Looks more like an M16 to me......

That it is, Seeker, but then I believe the webpage is from somewhere other than Australia where the M16 has been the weapon of choice for many years (since Vietnam in the USA and by the UK special force teams, to name a very few). Aussie forces adopted the almost indestructible high-density polymer Steyr which replaced the M16 in 1988, I believe. They did some pretty outrageous things to the test rifles, and they still worked perfectly, so they got the gig for Aussie Infantry weapons.

Sorry for being pedantic, but good on you for noticing!

Shazz

[Marius]

The weapon in the top picture is suggest may be an SLR

The bottom one is certainly an M16 or variation thereof.