Introducing... Unexplained: Lying in Wait

0:15 Pushkin.

0:18 While Cautionary Tales is having a Halloween makeover, I'm here to tell you about another podcast that investigates true stories with a paranormal twist. In Unexplained, host Richard McLean-Smith investigates haunting and mysterious real-life events from throughout history. The episode I'm about to play takes us to Afghanistan in July 2009.

0:44 US and British forces are fighting a war against an enemy that's often hard to see. But what happens to a small group of Marines stationed at a remote outpost is about to take them into altogether stranger territory. As part of Operation Kanjar, a major US offensive aimed at pushing back the Taliban in Helmand province, around 4,000 Marines have been deployed to the region. Among them are eight soldiers tasked with occupying a strange and isolated observation post known simply as The Rock. Their war is about to get stranger than they could ever have imagined. Enjoy the episode, and remember you can get Unexplained wherever you get your podcasts.

1:42 Daoud watched nervously as the choppers descended from out of the dawn sky, their giant blades thrumming ominously as they dropped closer to the ground, kicking up dust and beating back the green shoots of wheat now oscillating wildly before him. He turned sharply and made a quick retreat back into his house, vaulting the door behind him. Then, peering out from the corner of a window, he watched as the first pair of camel-coloured combat boots hit the floor, followed by numerous others, and prayed to Allah that he would be left alone. Moments later, there came a loud, insistent knock at his door. The men, he assumed, were Americans, strangers, the people he'd been warned not to cooperate with. They

2:30 were joined at the door by a more familiar face, who put the stranger's short, insistent words into Pashto, so that he could understand their demands. But Dawood was finding it hard to concentrate, too distracted by the service rifles in their hands. Just a few weeks ago, men not unlike these killed a 10-year-old boy in Dawood's village. Just another of the tens of thousands of Afghan civilians that would fall victim to a war of which they had no control, caught in the crossfire between Taliban insurgents and the invading US and British forces. While Dawood, in his own home, did his best not to seem guilty of anything, The interpreter explained that the soldiers wanted to use his home for the next few weeks, adding that they would

3:18 pay good money for it. But Daoud couldn't possibly agree. If word got out to the Taliban that he'd taken money from the Americans, the consequences would not be worth thinking about. Captain Junwei's son sighed and looked about at his men, who were growing ever more skittish, stood out in the open. Each passing second, bringing them closer to the possibility of death. The strange men in uniform were US Marines, members of the 2nd Battalion 8th Regiment, newly arrived in the region after spending two months acclimatising at Camp Leatherhead, the Marines' primary base in Helmand Province in South Afghanistan. The unit formed a handful of the 4,000 new troops sent into Helmand as part of Operation Kanjar.

4:10 the latest roll in the dice of the US government's efforts to neutralise the Taliban's grip on the region. It was July 2009, and with all things going to plan, the war would be all but over soon. Dawood's village, Soh Hodez, was one of many similar-sized rural communities clustered around the Helmand River in the Gamsir district of Helmand.

4:40 Although surrounded on all sides by endless miles of desert, there the land was rich and green, quite different to how many of the Marines had imagined Afghanistan to look like. To some, it reminded them of the verdant countryside that surrounded their training base in North Carolina, though they were under no illusions of just how far from home they really were. Out of 20 of the districts of Afghanistan considered the most dangerous by the US military, nine were located in Helmand Province, being as it was a vital asset for the Taliban, on account of the vast sprawling poppy fields that also lined the banks of the Helmand River.

5:22 The fields which they cultivated for opium to help fund their operations had flourished thanks to an extensive canal and irrigation system that had been constructed back in the 1950s and 60s, largely with the help of significant US government investment. The system had even been partially designed by the company Morrison Knudsen, perhaps better known for building the Hoover Dam and the San Francisco Bay Bridge. It was just one of the many ironies that characterised this most messy of wars.

5:57 The attempt to commandeer Dawood's home was part of a new tactic to go from village to village, setting up outposts and establishing a visible presence throughout the region. to try and root out any Taliban strongholds, while simultaneously engaging with the local population in the hope of winning their support.

6:18 For those like Dawood, it is a fraught existence, stuck between the harsh authority of the Taliban and the ambiguous motives of the invading forces. For those like Captain Sun and his men, it is just the beginning of what must seem an impossible task. the first of many they'll face in the next seven months of their deployment. On this occasion, it ends with Daoud being forced to give up his home for at least the next few weeks after local elders convince him to hand over the property.

6:50 Daoud has barely finished loading the last of his possessions onto a cart as the marines move in. He doesn't take the money, telling them instead to make it known that he had no choice in the matter. And in many ways, he didn't. Not far from Sohadez, another unit from the 2nd and 8th are undertaking their first patrol outside the wire. Among them is 20-year-old Lance Corporal Charles Seth Sharp. Hailing from the town of Adairsville in northwestern Georgia, Sharp had been motivated to join the Marines... partly in an effort to bring structure and focus to his life and to make his family proud, but mostly by the desire to fight for those who couldn't fight for themselves.

7:43 While stationed in Iraq the year before, Sharp made a strange request to his family, asking them to send him colouring books and crayons for Christmas. He wanted to give them to all the children he'd met throughout his time there. Only a few days before heading out on patrol, Sharp had written a letter to his grandmother, telling her that he was about to take part in a mission that his grandchildren would learn about in history class. But Sharp would never live to have grandchildren. That morning on his first patrol, his unit came under attack. He was shot in the neck by an unseen shooter and died soon after, becoming the first US casualty of Operation Kanjar. For many in the 2nd Battalion and 8th Regiment, The time spent

8:31 in Camp Leatherneck had been a frustrating one, all cooped up together under one giant tent, nicknamed the Circus Tent. Having trained for months, building themselves up for action, the last thing they wanted was to be sitting around kicking their heels in the desert. Sharp's death was a harsh wake-up call to the reality of combat, and a brutal reminder of the true nature of the battle they were engaged in. The Taliban were not a simple enemy to be routed and crushed through sheer might and will. There were no military compounds to storm or governments to overthrow.

9:08 Theirs was a much longer game, characterised by stealth and surprise. Their presence felt not by what you did see, but what you didn't. A movement in the tree line up ahead or the improvised explosive device buried six inches underground and primed to kill and even when they did finally make their presence known, they could just as quickly disappear, like phantoms, back into the landscape, each member often indistinguishable to the Marines from the many other people whose land they now stalked. As one Taliban commander was often fond of saying, the Americans might have the watches, but they had the time. Of all the conflicts in recent years, it is little wonder that out of this one, Tales of ghosts would emerge. You're listening to Unexplained, and I'm

10:05 Richard McLean Smith. The small group of marines stamped their feet to keep warm as a hazy pale sun crept up over the makeshift walls of patrol base Hassan Abad, a rudimentary settlement on the outskirts of Hassan Abad village that was composed of little more than giant reinforced sacks of gravel and a few khaki tents. On the orders of their sergeant, the eight men, comprising a small unit from Gulf Company, 2nd Battalion, 8th Regiment, jumped into the waiting armoured trucks and sat anxiously as the gate was opened.

10:47 Moments later, they were out beyond the perimeter wall, huddled together with the nervous energy of the recently deployed the prospect of hitting an IED, an ever-constant in their minds. For some, this was little more than routine. For others, like 22-year-old Lance Corporal Adam Wilson, this was their first time on assignment beyond the wire. Wilson looked out through the truck's dusty window at the alien landscape beyond, a mix of scrub and wheat fields, a far cry from his home city of Xenia in Ohio. While up above, His compatriot, tending the truck's single machine gun, surveyed the horizon for any signs of a threat. Thankfully, with only a few hundred metres to travel, it wasn't long before

11:36 they'd arrived at their destination. The truck skidded to a stop beside what looked like little more than a huge pile of mud. After being ushered out at the vehicles, the men took a moment to survey the place that they would be calling home for the next 60 days. a small outpost set up about 20 metres high on the top of a strange dirt hill known as Observation Point Rock, or simply The Rock. Being the highest point for some considerable distance, The Rock was an obvious place to put an observation post from which any incoming enemies could be spotted long before they had time to reach the patrol base. Despite its relative closeness to the main base, however, the facilities were basic at best, with no electricity, running water,

12:32 or even beds to sleep in. As such, it was necessary to maintain a steady rotation of personnel to occupy the post. Feeling thoroughly exposed, and the heat already beginning to rise, the Marines quickly made their way to the shelter of the compound above, where they were greeted by its outgoing occupiers, a group of Welsh guards from the British Army. Lance Corporal Wilson couldn't help contrasting the fresh faces of his fellow marines with this tired, despondent group of men, now hastily packing their bags, evidently in a hurry to vacate the place. Meanwhile, Corporal Jacob Lena, the unit second in command, made his way along one of the few shallow trenches that had been carved into the mound and surveyed the scene. The post was centred around

13:23 a single machine gun that poked out of a small hutch on the west side of the hill. Some old magazines were littered about the place, while the remnants of a small homemade gym could just about be glimpsed from underneath some camouflage netting. Just then, Lena was startled by the bark of a dog, which revealed itself moments later, eager to meet the new arrivals. As one of the British soldiers explained, It was a local stray they'd adopted and called Ugly Betty. Lena promised to look after it for them. Ordinarily, this would be the point at which the previous group took a moment to go over a few details about the local landscape, sniper spots to look out for, or any individuals they might want to be

14:11 suspicious of, but the Welsh guards offered no such courtesy, preferring instead to simply clear out as quickly as possible. There was one piece of advice, however, that they were willing to impart. If the men should dig anything up, it might be best to put it back where they found it. A little confused by those final words, the Marines soon made themselves busy settling into their new home, as they quickly got down to the business of determining sentry shifts and figuring out the most comfortable places to sleep.

14:51 With temperatures routinely hitting around 100 degrees Fahrenheit, it was clear that finding ways to stay in the shade would also be vital. As the last of the sun's light ebbed away and the hazy pink and inky hues of dusk descended, the men could be thankful to have made it through their first day without incident. That evening, Corporal Lena took first watch at the machine gun and gazed out at the complicated mix of compounds and fields and fir trees dotted before him, the shadows growing longer and longer before disappearing, only to later re-emerge, the same but different, under the gentle moonlight. Not far to the south, Lina could just make out the old rusted shells of two Soviet-era tanks, half buried in the earth. Remnants of a

15:43 past both distant, yet inextricably linked to Lina's own presence, thirty years later, and only a few hundred metres away. The tanks were as alien to this landscape as Lina was, each of them brought there by the same winds that had left so many unwitting innocents sprawling in its wake. Lina scanned back across the fields, almost willing for something to happen, doing his best to stop his mind from wandering.

16:13 It was always difficult being on watch in places of such isolation. trying to toe the line between staying alert to any possible threat, while simultaneously trying your hardest not to allow the possibility of such a threat to overwhelm you. Lina was just eyeing the lip of a nearby ditch when a burst of static blared out of the outpost radio, causing him to jump. Catching himself, Lina turned to face it, anticipating an imminent communication from the patrol base. Then it crackled again, and a muffled voice could just about be heard swimming in the thick of it. Lina grabbed the device and fiddled with the controls. Switching it back to the correct frequency, he called up the base and asked them to repeat the message. But the receiver at base

17:04 control was confused. They hadn't sent a message. Lina looked again at the radio and then apologised for wasting the operator's time and returned to the gun. Then the radio crackled into life again. Lina could hear that strange muffled voice buried somewhere deep within it. As he listened closer, he soon realised it wasn't speaking in English, but Russian.

17:34 Perhaps it was just picking up someone else's transmissions, he thought, giving the radio a good thump. Or perhaps he'd simply imagined it completely. Over the next few days, with little else to do with their time, the Marines' attention soon turned to fortifying their position. Most pressing of all was the fact that, with the exception of a few well-placed sandbags, nowhere offered significant safety from any major line of enemy fire.

18:08 Though some trenches had been dug in and around the compound, none were deep enough to bring you lower than the parapet without crouching. And so, one morning, Corporal Lena, Lance Corporal Wilson and one other compatriot began the arduous task of rectifying the situation. The clatter of shovels scraping at dirt rang out through the camp as the men battled against the rock-hard ground and the ever-rising temperatures. As Wilson paused for some water, Lena dug his shovel in once more and it clanged against something buried a few inches under the surface. Lena threw down the shovel and and pulled a thin, tangled strip of metal from the ground.

18:52 It blew off the dirt, and held it up to the light. It was hard to tell what it was exactly. An old piece of shrapnel, thought Wilson, most likely. Lena nodded in agreement, as he tried to read some strange markings that had been etched onto the side of it. It looked like Russian Cyrillic. He thought back to that strange radio transmission, but thought better of telling Wilson about it, lest he sound like he was going crazy. Half an hour later, with the men having hardly made a dent in the trench, Wilson slammed his shovel into the ground, only for it to give way completely, unearthing a small sunken space about two feet wide beneath it. Seeing something inside it, Wilson reached in and pulled it out, and

19:41 then recoiled in horror. He was holding a human leg bone, Wilson's colleague grabbed it from him quickly and goofed around with it, but neither Wilson or Lena saw the funny side. Both suddenly remembered those final words the British had said to them. If you dig anything up, it might be best to put it back where you found it. Lena took the bone and buried it back in the hole where Wilson had found it. Their attention soon turned back to the task at hand, but only moments later, Wilson found another fragment of bone Then Lena did too. It soon became clear why the previous occupants had preferred not to dig any deeper. They were camped out on a graveyard.

20:35 As news of the gruesome discovery made its way through the group on the rock, it was hard not to be a little unsettled by it. Even in the height of war, such things rarely fail to make the skin crawl. Perhaps it was all the talk of the bones, or maybe it was just the strangeness of the location and the unending cycle of boredom that goes with occupying a remote outpost. Either way, something of that place was beginning to seep into the men. Two weeks later, one of the men stationed at the rock, Corporal Austin Hoyt, celebrated his 20th birthday. That night, it was his turn to take machine gun duty. Growing up on a farm back in the States, he was used to the quiet and had thought nothing of being stationed out at the rock

21:27 for sixty days. But back home, the quiet was something to be cherished and revered. Here, it was only ever a vacuum for the worst thoughts to infiltrate. It was a quiet that spoke not of hopes and dreams and languid reminiscences, but only of things lying in wait. Then suddenly, the quiet was broken by a horrific scream. Hoyt scrambled for his night vision binoculars and scoured the perimeter fencing below, assuming someone had been caught in the razor wire that surrounded the compound. But the fencing was completely empty and untouched.

22:08 Blurring his binoculars to the ground, Hoyt gasped at the sight of a large humanoid shadow darting out across a nearby field. Moments later, it was gone, Just then, Lance Corporal Wilson and Corporal Lena burst into the machine gun post clutching their rifles. They'd heard the scream too. With no choice but to head out to investigate, the three of them picked their way to the bottom of the hill and stepped out beyond the wire. After a thorough scout of the surrounding area, the men found nothing untoward.

22:51 After only four weeks, Lance Corporal Zolnick couldn't quite put his finger on it, but it was clear that something in the mood of the men had shifted. On machine gun watch that night, as all the stars of the desert emerged one by one from out of the sky, he soon found his mind wandering to thoughts of family and loved ones back home. Phoning home was a rare event at the best of times, but out there it would be months before he was able to speak to any of them again. but many service personnel posted all over the world, far from home, especially with so many being barely out of their teens in young relationships and marriages, it could be all too easy to let the separation eat you up. Many preferred not to call home at all,

23:38 to avoid the pain of hearing their loved one's voices. Others were reluctant to make any promises of future calls, just in case they were unable to fulfil them. Zolnik took a swig of water to perk him up and slapped away at another giant moth that was buzzing about his head. When suddenly, he felt the unmistakable sensation of a cold breeze across his face, followed by what sounded like a voice whispering to him from out of the darkness.

24:08 Zolnik spun round, looking about, but no one was there.' Who' s there?' he said urgently, but there was no reply. It was only then that he noticed just how cold the air had suddenly become. Then the whispering voice came again. Zolnik jumped. God damn it, that isn't funny, he said angrily. Then came the sound of footsteps approaching, crunching in the dirt.

24:40 Zolnik froze as they drew nearer, then stepped up to the top of the mound above the machine gun post. Zolnik grabbed his rifle and ran out of the hutch. Hoyt, is that you? he said as he looked up, squinting into the dark. Hoyt had been due to take over from him at any minute, but no one was there. Doing his best to suppress a rising fear, Zolnick ran back inside the hutch and pointed his gun down toward the stretch of land at the base of the mound and hurriedly scanned it back and forth through his thermoscope.

25:16 With a jolt of adrenaline, he spotted the white thermal outline of a figure, about a hundred yards from the outpost. Just then, Boyd finally arrived to relieve Zolnick of his duty, seeing clearly that something had rattled him.

25:33 What is it?

25:33 Boyd asked, assuming a defensive position. There's someone out there, hissed Zolnick. Boyd scanned the land below them with his own thermoscope, but saw nothing. I guess they're gone now, he said. Then he patted Zolnik on the shoulder and told him to get some sleep. Zolnik hastily took another look through his scope, but the figure, if it had ever been there at all, was gone. Satisfied all was safe, he dutifully retired to bed. Over the next few days, however, it was clear that something had gotten into Zolnik, who seemed unable to shift something from his mind As Zolnick's concentration continued to deteriorate, the sergeant eventually made the decision to have him transferred out. As one day bled into

26:30 the next, the men on the rock seemed to become more and more untethered from the strictures of life they'd so assiduously observed on patrol base Hassan Abad. Beards were left unshaven, and some of the men even took to sitting about shirtless under the oppressive desert heat. Sometime around 30 days into their posting, Corporal Lena was back on night watch at the machine gun, with the ever-loyal Ugly Betty by his side to keep him company. After another painfully slow night, it had just passed 1.30am when Betty sat up suddenly and began barking incessantly into the dark.

27:11 Lena snatched up the night vision binoculars and scanned the fields below. As Betty's barks grew louder and more insistent, Lina caught sight of a figure dressed in purahor no tumbun, about 200 metres away, standing completely still, that appeared to be staring directly at him. Lina grabbed hurriedly for his thermoscope to pinpoint the figure's position, but when he looked again, the figure had gone. Grabbing the night vision binoculars again, he gasped when he saw the same person now standing a hundred metres closer. On the verge of firing a warning shot, Lina grabbed his rifle and looked down the thermal scope to find the figure again, but once again they'd completely vanished. In a panic, Lina was just about

28:01 to alert the others when he felt the heavy tap of fingers on his shoulders, the sergeant's signal to let him know he was there. With a sigh of relief, Lina span around, only to find to his horror. There was no one there. Then Betty began to bark again. Lena grabbed the binoculars and scanned the surrounding area once more.

28:25 There was no one there. Despite his fear that he'd be judged at best unfit for duty and at worst insane, after 40 days of strange, inexplicable experiences, Corporal Lena decided finally decided to tell Wilson and Hoyt about everything that had been going on. Having expected them to poke fun at him, it was with some surprise when both of them revealed that they too had been experiencing ghostly, inexplicable events.

28:59 Then Hoyt thought back to the night Zolnick had seemed so spooked, right before the sergeant had had him transferred out. Clearly it had been happening to him too. The men agreed to keep it between themselves for the time being, eager to just see out the remainder of their posting and get back to the main base. In all that time, the men had experienced little by way of active duty, having not fired a single shot, so in many ways theirs had been a good posting. If anything, they should be grateful for making it through unscathed, with or without the mysterious goings-on. On their last night at the post, it fell to Lance Corporal Wilson to tend the machine gun.

29:46 Up there, in the cool night alone, Wilson repeated over and over to himself that it was just one more night, and by tomorrow it would all be over. No more whispering voices, no more ghostly figures glimpsed out of the corner of his eye, when suddenly all hell broke loose. Wilson barely had time to react as the cacophonous sound of machine gun fire rang out all around him. Running back into the hutch, he was joined almost immediately by Corporal Lena, yelling for him to tell him where the fire was coming from. But Wilson didn't know. It all happened so fast. Then an almighty whoosh ripped through the air, the sound of a rocket-propelled grenade being launched close by.

30:34 Lena shouted for Wilson to get down, and together they braced for impact. But then, nothing. Just the silence of the desert and the occasional melancholic ring of a distant cowbell. Wilson and Lena staggered to their feet in utter confusion and stared out into the night. After 60 days, Corporal Jacob Lena, Lance Corporal Adam Wilson, and Lance Corporal Austin Hoyt returned to patrol base Hassanabad. All three would return home alive after spending seven months in Helmand Province. Others who'd spent time with them on the rock were not so lucky, leaving Corporal Lina to wonder if perhaps their uncovering of things in the earth there had placed a curse on them. In many ways, however, the men had

31:31 been cursed a long time before they ever made it to observation point rock, caught up in an unwinnable war, with their valiant efforts, forever fated to be beaten back against a complex tide of history and circumstance. By the time the reports of the strange goings-on at the Rock were first published in a 2009 Times article written by Tom Coughlan, the rumours were an old secret among many of the troops that had had the misfortune to come by it, and over time, a picture began to emerge of a bleak and haunting history. One local scholar suggested that the hill had once been an ancient fort built sometime in the 18th century. He speculated that a series of tunnels had been constructed underneath it, before it later

32:19 became a sacred shrine to many of the local communities. At some point in the 1980s, It is thought to have been occupied by soldiers from the Soviet Union who fought a long and bitter battle alongside the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan, the ruling power at the time, against a number of militia groups intent on overthrowing them. Some claim that early in the conflict, Nassim al-Khundzada, the fearsome commander of one such militia group, captured the rock along with the soldiers occupying it and had them all beheaded on the spot. and buried where they fell. Others have suggested that the murdered men were in fact members of the Afghan police force. In time, helped with funding from the United States government, those same militia groups would eventually

33:11 defeat the Soviet Union and the PDPA. By then, those same groups had coalesced into a fragile coalition, often lumped together under the term Mujahideen. And it was from this group of people, in one way or another, that Osama bin Laden, al-Qaeda, and ultimately the Taliban, would emerge in the years to follow, and, well, you know the rest.

33:39 In the Soviet-Afghan war of 1979 to 1989, it is estimated that around 15,000 Soviet soldiers and anywhere between half a million to two million Afghans are thought to have been killed. Between 2001 and the formal withdrawal of all foreign troops in 2021, the war in Afghanistan and Pakistan is estimated to have caused around 240,000 direct deaths. These include 457 UK Armed Forces personnel and 2,456 US military personnel.

34:16 alongside an estimated 71,344 civilians in Afghanistan and Pakistan combined. The dead also included an estimated 68,000 Afghan military and police personnel, 84,191 opposition fighters and 1,144 other troops allied to the US military. Please remember to like and subscribe if you've enjoyed the show. Unexplained is an AV Club Productions podcast created by me, Richard McLean-Smith. All other elements of the podcast, including the music, are also produced by me. Unexplained, the book and audiobook, is now available to buy worldwide.

35:04 You can purchase from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Waterstones and other bookstores. Be sure to follow us on Instagram, TikTok and Facebook at Unexplained Podcast and on X and Blue Sky at Unexplained Pod. Until next time, stay strange and dissonant.