Crailsheim Germany U.S. Army Personal
Have An Unexplained Experience


Date: May or June 1980
Time: Evening

Brian Vike is asking that if any service personal who were serving at the Crailsheim, Germany Army Base, and may have any information as to what may have taken place there regarding the servicemen who was stationed there, I would greatly appreciate hearing from you. Also I would like to ask if any service personal had any unusual sightings in or around the base would they please contact me. All personal information will be kept confidential. Thank you.
Message: In May or June of 1980 I was stationed in Crailsheim, Germany. One evening an Army buddy and me where given a ride out to a lake (approx 6 miles from town). There was suppose to be a large party out there.

When we arrived there were probably thirty or forty people, drinking and smoking hash, around a dying bonfire. My buddy and I had one beer each and decided to leave the lame party, and head back to town.

After walking about two miles we left the small paved road we were on and started across a field with two foot high grass. Soon I realized my buddy wasn't beside me. I started back through the now bent grass, until I came upon my friend laying on his back.

Worried, I ran over and looked down at him. Being from Minnesota, he looked as though he were laying in fresh snow, making snow angels.

At this point I figure someone from the bonfire either slipped him some drugs, or he is playing some, uncharacteristic, game. I'm start getting upset because all I want is to get back to town before the bars close.

I tell him to get up, so we can get back to town. He lays there looking up at me saying " you gotta see this". He says this a few times when I suddenly realize, he's not looking up at me. But rather up past me.

The last thing I remember is turning my head to look up and then slowly spiraling to the ground.

The next thing I remember is waking up walking, and I mean literally, one foot coming down in front of the other on the pavement (walking trail I believe).

At first I was disoriented and didn't know where I was. Soon I got my bearings and realized I was a half mile out of Crailsheim.

I figure it was three miles from the field to where I, I guess came to.

My buddy and I never spoke about that night, actually we very seldom spoke to each other after that night. We both left Germany in early within two months of that night (early July).

I left Germany almost twenty-five years ago. The first twenty-two years I rarely thought of that night, but the last three, almost daily.

The people I have told this story to have tried to explain it as some drug induced, or some sexual experience that has been blocked by my subconscious. I have too much awareness for those explanations.

I'd like to know if there has been any similar stories related to that area of Germany in that time period. Thanks.

Additional Information:

Hi Brian, Thanks for your quick response. I wish I could tell you that I turned and looked up into the belly of the mother ship, or that I saw even a flicker of a light in the night sky. But. unfortunately what I mentioned earlier is all I remember. As far as my buddy at the time, I haven't spoken to him since about two weeks after that night. I would like to also state that I have never, before or after that evening, blacked -out. Which makes what happened twenty-five years ago frustrating as hell.

It's hard for me to articulate the almost emotional numbness, until recently, I've felt towards that evening. When I would tell friends and family about it, they would say that it was very strange, while I would blow it off to maybe being overly tired that night.

There is one more thing that I remember. It's actually a feeling. I felt as though the U.S Army (which if I failed to mention, I served 6 years in) was looking out for me. Almost in an overly protective way. As an example; lets just say there were thing I did in my last two months in Germany I am not proud of.

Let me preface this next part by saying that I was a good soldier. I had planned to be a lifer. The following I have never spoken to anyone about.

One evening about a week after my night in the field, my platoon ( about twenty-five of us) were guarding an ammo site about twenty miles outside Crailsheim. On about the tenth night, of a two weeks assignment, I remember thinking that I had had enough of the Army. There was no big event that drove me to this realization. I had just had enough.( to this day I don't know where that thought came from) I walked out of the barracks, and along with another soldier I had told my plan to, climbed over the fence and left. I spent three days with an on again off again girlfriend.

When I met my platoon back at Crailsheim nothing was said by my platoon Sgt. or company commander. Everyone knew I was AWOL, it was no secret. but none of my superiors would mention it. The soldier I jumped the fence with, was only gone two hours before he went back to the ammo site. He was court marshaled. My last night in Crailsheim, my platoon Sgt came up to me at the NCO club. He said "Someone must really like you". I knew he was talking about the night I left the ammo site. I also know there was something else he wanted to say, but he never said it.

There were also times after that night in the field that I felt I was being watched. But nothing I can point to and say, one night I saw something hiding behind a tree.
Anyways, I came back to the States where I re-enlisted and served three years of honorable service filled with awards and commendations. (I taught basic training in Fort Bliss, Texas) I was suppose to go to Fort Lewis,Wa, but I was reassigned to Texas. Forty miles from White Sands. Hmmm. My life in the military could go on for hundreds of pages, but I wouldn't do that to you.

So thanks for your time. And no, I don't recall any strange experience from my time in, TX and N.M.

Today was the first time I've been to your site. I like it. Keep up the good work.

PS I believe firmly that we make our own choices and that no one can makes us do what we don't want, but I'll always feel guilty for the young soldier that climbed that fence with me.

If you have seen anything like this in the same area please be kind enough to contact Brian Vike at: sighting@telus.net with the details of your sighting. All personal information is kept confidential.

Credit:The Vike Archives & Sightings.com