This is back in 2013. My TF, TFDragon, was in Afghanistan, Paktya and Paktika provinces on interdiction missions, with a platoon of 10th mountain as support, and a ranger QRF in the AO. Any and all decent intel about possible Taliban or Al Qaeda even haquanni network movement, we were there, sometimes waiting, sometimes not, but heavy ops the whole time.

In about June, we got a different mission, our birds are getting strange contact en route to a COB called Zerok, and got shot at a couple times, and reported movements, and air contact, possibly RPG or AA. We were close, and we had our support with us plus a couple more platoons from local units, and were given mission to secure the air route in the general vicinity of where the most contact was reported for the duration of their lift of troops and supplies out of Zerok for turnover.

No factor, simple op, there for a few days, seems like a good time for us either way. We infil around 0400 June 10, set up 4 Op's, Op Red, Op White, Op Blue, and Op Green, all on hilltops overlooking the valley and the air route, 2 on each side about 500 meters apart, and hunker down. Time of mission is est 5 days. We are green, set in, start clock.

1st day, normal lift ops going through, Chinooks going in and out every 4-6 hours, some people moving through our AO but nothing serious until that night at about 1900hrs. A squad from our support platoon on patrol, reports movement about 700m to the 6 or 8 of my Op (White) approx platoon sized element, moving about North to South. Not too worrisome but they are in somewhat of a blindspot in the mountain range we are in, so we call it, radio the squad to track progress of movement. An hour later they radio back they lost contact completely.

Strange, but not entirely unusual, so we call it in, radio the other Op's, and wait for the squad to get back as they tried to say more over comms but it was not getting through, due to interference or bad signal, so we waited. They get back about an hour later, and the SL reports to his PSG and PL, and I am there as well. He tried to explain that their platoon sized element? The one they called in earlier as lost contact? He said they "Vanished". Like "poof" his words.

Ok, again, strange way to report losing contact but not that unusual, if you ever had enemy break contact with you, you can lose them almost anywhere if you do not have CAS with eyes on, and it would be easy to think they "Vanished" as that is exactly what it seems like sometimes. I gave them some leeway, as it was a mostly green platoon, and did not have a lot of serious experience, so we just took it with a nod and advised to keep eyes for it, called it up as unconfirmed, and carried on the night.

2300hrs rolls in with a radio call from Op Red. My teammate asks me to confirm something for him on thermal and to check with my support to do the same, asks me to look for a large thermal signature that should be to our 3, approximately 1k out. I switch my nods to thermal, and he is right, there is a pretty big and distinct thermal sig about 1k, and did not immediately notice anything strange, it just seemed off and out of place. I confirmed with my platoon, and then radioed back a "Yup". Probably something on fire, and it was in the approximate area of an AUP COB, so first thought was it was probably LN doing something, probably a (Bonfire?) but called it up anyway and advised that air missions proceed with caution, and left it at that for a second.

Then I looked again and noticed something I thought I imagined, but later confirmed with the platoon and other Op's.

It looked like fire in thermal, but, it also looked like a fire that was not entirely in contact with the ground. And it was not flickering. It was not wavering, like you would see a regular fire waver. It was, well, consistent. Like, if you take fire you had seen in nods, then trapped it inside some kind of transparent container that was a sharp shape. And kept it like that. Just, sitting there burning but not really?

Now THAT. Is strange.

I go back and forth with my platoon, my teammates, and higher, trying to figure out what we are looking at. Higher determined it must be what my first assumption was and advised to keep eyes on. I am still trying to rationalize it though, could be perspective? LOS? Maybe, reflection of a fire even? It's about 0300 now.

Then, one of the platoon gunners calls up that he lost contact on thermal. Then, all call in from my platoon, and the other Op's, contact lost. No thermal. No sign of residual. Nothing at all.

My thought changes from "huh?" to immediately "Hmmm." And that is about it. I call it in, we confirm, then that is that for the moment. CM.

Nothing unusual from 0400-2000, just normal air ops, some random non-hostile contacts, and a soldier taking a soft tumble on patrol. Nothing weird, business as usual.

2030 rolls around, and we start hearing distant automatic weapons fire, and it sound hot enough to be concerning, as we have no idea who it is, and only a general area it is coming from, and that it sounds heavy enough to be at least a company sized fight or larger. I call it in, and request a check on friendlies in the area, and if air is en route that might want to re-route or RTB.

Higher gets back to me about 10 mins later. Nothing on our side, no air for the next 6, and they will update if there is Green units in contact in our AO. I am told to keep my ears open, and we will get something if there is something. Wilco.

2200 and we still hear constant automatic fire, and what sounds like explosives, and this goes on until 2300, and on 2300 on the second, it all stops completely. I am thinking fights over, someone won or someone decided to break contact, and call it in.

Higher then chose that time to tell me something I did not want to hear.

There is zero reports of ANY green or blue force in contact in our AO or even in our section of the AO. Nothing. Not even reports from the AUP COB that is about 3 K from us, their command called them up, and they reported nothing. Absolutely nothing.

This is VERY strange, and VERY concerning. Not only do WE not know who was in a Tic, but NOBODY knows who it was, and that is a serious problem, as that adds a third party, unaccounted for by anyone, and an unknown that could turn out to be anybody or anything. And that is the highest risk level possible on everyone's matrix, and is definitely a strategic dead zone.

In between all of us on this mission, we draft additions to the plans for defense, and exfil if needed to try and account for this unknown factor that just jumped into our collective lap. We agree on something, up security posture, and request update on assets in our AO for support.

Next 48 is completely calm. Routine reports to higher, Zerok, and between our Op's. Nice and smooth and boring. Perfect.

Then, 1800 hours, 15 June, weirdest cacophony of just strange, and "phenomenal" shit I ever experienced my entire service begins.

At around 1800 hours, we get notified that we have inbound air, for another lift, a few flights of Chinooks, and a few of Blackhawks to pick up what was left of Blue Forces on Zerok. It starts to get dark, everyone mounted nods and waited.

Then, we hear aircraft overhead. And it was not the aircraft we expected, and we could not see it. Sounded like a flight of hog's overhead, but we all looked. Nothing.

Nothing on thermal, nothing on NV, no visibility of whatever was above us. No visible contact. I radio in and ask if we have CAS in the AO on station. Higher says no. I call to the COB, nothing.

Now I am pretty freaked. Another unknown has popped up, and is above us playing who the hell knows what game over our heads. But, we do our best to keep it all calm, and not let anyone get too rattled, maybe its just comms disconnect or something, lucky us, we got possible CAS, did not even call it in. After about an hour, it just flat stops. No sound jets make when they take off, just stops.

That is most certainly weird.

Then it gets extra strange.

It is around 2000, and the first flight is coming through, and I almost shit bricks because before it's a hard visual, it looks like one of the birds has either a really hot shiny light behind it, or it is on fire.

Shit.

I call in to higher, and zerok to get a freq for the flight, no answer, radios down.

I get another one. Try again. Also down.

Try the newest radio. Nothing. SHIT.

While the platoon RTO's and my teammate try getting comms up, I am watching the birds coming in, and as they get closer, I notice that the thermal sig is actually BEHIND the the second bird.

And what happens next still defies all my reasoning to this day.

The "Signature" looks like the same one from the first day. The "Fire" that probably isn't a fire.

It starts to ascend from behind the second bird, and looks kinda like a sharp, right triangle, that has a fire (On it? In it) then it (Turned? Spun?) towards the sky. And straight up out of sight. Gone. Completely. Faster than anything I have ever seen, faster than ANYTHING I know about.

Those of us that saw it, we, well, kinda froze. Just, idk, dazed? Entranced? Awestruck the hardest way?

And then, we heard the radios crackling. My RTO rushed mine to me, and I called up what just happened the best way I could.

For the moment, Higher was just quiet. Then, I get told to prep for exfil. That was it. Mission over.

Myself, and all of the personnel present were debriefed, submitted reports, swore statements, went to AO HQ, repeated what we all saw multiple times.

My team was set on an early redeployment. We were "Advised" not to publicly disclose that incident.

I can only imagine that our support platoon was told something similar, if not the same thing.

Since then, we have all been pretty quiet. Partly because of the obvious, partly for other reasons.

But, I retire soon, and decided to take advantage of the amount of anonymity that I am afforded here, to at least get this out in a way. Whether or not anyone reads this, or if anyone even gives this a thought, its the same to me.

But, it feels nice just to type this out, and I guess give form to this experience that constantly is part of the repeating cycle of memories in my head, that always turns, and never stops, never rests.....

Thank you for the opportunity all the same.

(Addition: Forgive me if some parts seem a little off, brain trauma does that)