Fort Polk

you share your photos how'd you get into photography

Yeah, so I was at Fort Polk, Louisiana.

We were doing some kind of military training, getting the 82nd Airborne ready to go to deployment.

And it was kind of like a real laser-tagged life game.

I was no longer sleeping in a hole, getting rained on, getting hit by thousands of mosquitoes, literally.

And I really wanted something to do with my time while I was like in the respawn area.

And I bought a camera at Fort Polk and still have it to this day.

But that's basically what got me in.

One of the earliest lessons in discipline I ever learned came from my mentor, brother, and family, Leon.

At Fort Polk, he showed me that discipline was the daily grind, the choice to put in the work when others would not.

The military provides endless opportunities for advancement, physical development, specialized schools, competitions, education, and leadership, but only for those willing to outwork everyone else.

Leon and I set goals and worked toward them every single day.

Yeah.

No, it's the truth.

Uh, speaking of Fort Polk.

So Fort Polk is the joint readiness training center.

Yeah.

Uh, you know, and that, um, the, the nearby Army base, Fort Polk, had a, had a decent, uh, arcade on it, but we didn't go there very often.

But like, yeah, I think, I, I didn't start seeing MVS cabs, like, on, you know, even, like, a remotely regular basis until, like, 2002, 2003, you know? And well, well past the arcade days.

So it's like, oh, you know.

The radio stations and newspapers in the area also received calls.

There is an Army base, Fort Polk, nearby.

They denied conducting any tests, but unofficially, a wife of an officer who was stationed there said that there were, in fact, tests going on on that night.

So I think the fact that Fort Polk is near Leesville could be an important factor in a number of these sightings.

Thank you very much, Trent.

I found it very interesting to explore Leesville's UFO history.

Thanks.

What the hell was that? This next story was written by another soldier who, like the previous guy, was working as part of an observer coach trainer team at Fort Polk's Joint Readiness Training Center.

What was supposed to be an ordinary day on the job took a strange turn when he found himself lost in the woods on a dark, rainy night.

He writes, So I'm an OCT down at JRTC and still relatively new.

This led me to do the absolute worst thing possible.

I took out my phone and started to Google stuff about the box.

What started as me searching, does Fort Polk have bobcats, quickly devolved into a Reddit thread that literally described our location and experiences down to the last detail of what I'd experienced.

I don't think I've ever felt chills like that in my entire life.

Where are we going? They're like, so you're going to spend six months on your way out.

You're going to spend in Fort Polk.

Then you're going to spend six months in Kuwait.

Then you're going to spend a year in Iraq.

I don't know a whole bunch about their mission, but it's a pretty powerful mission they have out there.

I want to say at one time, so the reason the military got involved is there's a training area right outside of Fort Polk.

It's Pisan Ridge, and that's where over 600 wild horses were.

But the problem was is that it's in the middle of the training area.

That's pretty hardcore.

Um, so you guys, or you, uh, ended up getting sent to Fort Polk after the invasion.

Yeah.

So after, uh, after we, uh, came back from the invasion, I was on PCS orders to go to Fort Polk, but I had to go to BNOC en route because I was, uh, you know, I went to, I was a, I went to the, like, staff sergeant board while we were forward deployed to Iraq.

And, um, so, like, I was either s- I can't remember if I, I was promotable for several months.

I can't remember if I had pinned staff sergeant yet or if I was still a sergeant promotable.

And I don't remember if we had to go to school back then yet or not beforehand.

Um, but anyways, I went to BNOC en route, and when I was in BNOC, I started trying to put together a packet to go, get to go to regiment.