Thanks to Paul McLaughlin for submitting this story.
When I was on my basic training for the army we were on our final field stage out in the training area. Myself and a friend had drawn early morning sentry so at 2am we found ourselves lying awake in the cold looking for signs of movement. At exactly 2:43am I noticed someone walking along a ridgeline to our direct front. I nudged my friend and explained where the person was. He spotted them
straight away and told me to challenge them.
“Halt! Who goes there?!” I questioned.
No reply, the person just kept walking.
“Halt or I will shoot!” I said.
No response.
Starting to get nervous I raised my rifle to a firing position and looked through the night vision scope…the ridgeline was lit up like daytime…but the person was not visable. I lowered my weapon and tried to refocus my eyes on the area where I last saw the person…nothing.
We finished out stint on sentry without further incident.
The next morning the course commander was spotted wandering towards our section. He called our Corporal over and had a brief discussion. My Corporal called me over and left me alone with the commander.
“Sir” I said.
“Son, theres no easy way to say this, so I’m just gonna say it…your grandmother died last night…I’m sorry”
“Do you know what time she passed?” I asked.
“2:43am this morning”, he responded.
I smiled, my nana had come to say goodbye.