A Pale Tall Jogger At Fort Riley

A recent story in the media reminded me of another experience I had at the range at night in Fort Riley. I never saw a thing but others did and I am glad I didn't.

This happened at my last duty post in the Army in Fort Riley, Kansas in summer of 1985.

This is probably a story about a jogger who accidentally ran onto the poorly secured field artillery practice range and ran around for a while until nearly midnight, trying to find his way out of the strange miles of winding roads past fields that looked oddly alike.

They saw something out there on the range. Never entirely sure what that was.

That’s probably what this story is about. The other things are as usual a product of my wild twisted imagination and accidental associations with things that had nothing to do with it at all.

I already related a prior story on the range at the ghost barracks in an earlier stack here … which no doubt was also the product of an overactive imagination …

I saw nothing, only heard radio traffic and other soldiers talking over the radio. It was so creepy I avoided any future duty that might lead to going out onto the training ranges for any reason ever again. After the night this story relates, I did not want to go out on the range until I was discharged, period.

This was on a night I had made “The Man” for guard duty. It meant I had turned out in the duty formation and looked so good and was so well informed on a test of my general orders and other questions related to guard duty and the watch I was given the day off. This standard practice for guard duty means 99% of soldiers turn out their very best and one of them gets the privilege of a day off. I got it every time in my last year.

Officially it’s a day off to do whatever you want. Unofficially, a smart soldier will remain available in the barracks to “eat some cheese” for the senior Sergeant assigned to the guard and run some errands for him. Some of these weird offbeat duties give the privileged soldier an opportunity to do things like drive the guard jeep, visit normally off-limits regions on post and even make calls over the radio to guard shifts. I found it pretty exhilarating. Years earlier after making “The Man” I used to switch to civilian clothes and immediately vanish for the day, usually to the PX to play arcade games like XEVIOUS, ROBOTRON and POPEYE with $20 worth of quarters.

Knowing I would be discharged in only a few months and that I might regret it in coming years if I didn’t make the most of it, I took advantage of my much-reduced anxiety and worry about military life and just enjoyed things like the “extra-legal guard duty assistant” and relished driving the jeep around at night without a proper license.

It was normal to see and hear weird things at night.

One night, which was my second-to-last on guard duty, it got really weird. I was spooked even after I came out of the long darkness and empty roads of the training ranges and returned to the well-lit barracks.

I was scared I might look out my window over the prairie and see a tall, pale creature with flowing wisps of hair running slowly somewhere, perhaps towards the barracks. I did not want it to ever get close enough to me to make it possible to see its face.