WARNING: If you don't want to know what happens in this episode, don't read this photo recap!
When Sergeant Green's U.S. Marine squad rolled into Afghanistan in the summer of 2009, they were heading to an outpost known as Observation Post Rock, aka "OP Rock." One of the squad members, Zolik, noted that the observation post wasn't much more than just a giant rock out in the open ... and thought it had a strange vibe.
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Corporal Lena, the squad’s second in command, took it upon himself to take care of a dog known as "Ugly Betty," whom the British commander they were relieving claimed was the best sentry around.
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While Lena was on watch that night, he heard some strange sounds coming over the observation post's radio. He checked in with the main base to make sure they hadn't transmitted anything, and they hadn't. He grabbed a fresh battery for the radio and hoped that solved the problem.
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Lena noted a few days into the deployment that the British trenches weren't very deep. The squad knew they needed to dig deeper and wider trenches and got to work. As Lena was digging into the rock, he hit metal. He reached into the hole and recovered what looked like an engineering stake. As he brushed it off, he noticed there was Russian lettering on it. As the Russians had been in Afghanistan in the 1980s, it didn't surprise him to find some leftover Russian gear floating around the military outcrops.
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As Wilson dug into the rock, part of the outcrop collapsed under his shovel. Corporal Smith began helping him investigate the small hole, in which they found small pottery shards. Smith kept investigating and eventually pulled out a long bone that Lena recognized as a human femur. Wilson and Lena encouraged Smith to put it back into the grave, and he did. Lena was troubled, as no matter where they dug in the outcrop, they would inevitably come up with bones. “O.P. Rock” was on top of a graveyard.
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On another night, as Lena was sleeping, he was awakened by a bloodcurdling scream. Thinking one of his team had been grabbed by Taliban or worse, he grabbed his gun and began taking stock of the situation. As Lena was checking over the observation post, he bumped into Wilson, who had also heard the scream. Meanwhile, Diggs assumed a person had been caught in the razor wire that surrounded the post, but he saw nothing as he scanned the area ...
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... until something moved just outside the perimeter. Wilson and Lena joined Diggs, guns at the ready. Lena grabbed the thermal imagers but could only track Ugly Betty in the distance. They chalked it up to late-night fatigue and decided to check it out in the daylight. The next morning, they couldn't find a trace of anything.
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On another evening's watch, Zolik was getting beaten down by the heat ... until he suddenly felt a cold chill sweep across him. Out of nowhere, he could feel what he described as a breath on his face as something whispered in his ear in Russian. He chalked it up to being tired ... right up until he heard footsteps above him on the observation post. Thinking it was Smith, Zolik tried to catch him playing a prank, but there was nobody there.
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As Zolik scanned the area around the post with thermal imaging, he caught sight of what looked like another soldier with balled fists. Zolik prepared himself to shoot but he couldn't until he was absolutely sure it wasn't one of his own men. He lost sight of the figure for a moment, and when he looked back through the imaging scope, the figure was gone. Zolik was armed to fight the Taliban and occasionally the heat, but how was he supposed to fight spirits? Zolik requested a transfer out of the unit and it was granted.
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A few days after Zolik had shipped out, Lena was on watch and heard Ugly Betty barking. Lena grabbed his night vision goggles and tried to see what she was after. Lena stopped cold at what looked like a Taliban scout in the distance. He knew that his eyes might have been playing tricks on him with that much distance, so he grabbed his thermal imaging and tried to find the figure again. Not seeing him, Lena switched back to the night vision goggles ... and the figure looked as though it had moved 100 meters closer in seconds. Lena realized that Zolik had been right: this place was haunted.
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Diggs was on watch with Smith on another evening when he heard footsteps. When Diggs turned, expecting to see Sergeant Green, nothing was there. He dismissed it as loose gravel ... until Ugly Betty began growling. Diggs scanned the area with the thermal optics, though the only heat signatures were the dog and the other Marines. He asked Smith if he'd seen anything, but Smith said he hadn't. Diggs tried to shake it off, but he soon heard the crunch again and felt something breathe on him. He, too, began to admit that Zolik had been right about the place.
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Wilson was on the machine gun post another night when a cold chill hit him. He also heard a strange whispering that grew more distinctly Russian ... and became overwhelmingly loud.
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On their last night at OP Rock, Diggs noted that the radio was once again on the fritz. Two brand new batteries had gone dead in a matter of minutes. Lena put in the final battery but that quickly went dead as well. With no radio, they couldn't call for help.
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As Wilson was on watch that night, he was bracing himself for the whispering to commence again. Out of nowhere, the sound of machine gun fire assaulted his ears. Lena made his way to Wilson in the machine gun nest and discovered that the gun had not fired. Suddenly, they heard an RPG flying toward them, but nothing hit. They all thought they were being overrun by the Taliban but couldn't find any sign of enemy soldiers.
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Lena later discovered that when the Russians had rolled into the area in the 1980s, they had killed all of the Mujahadeen who'd been using OP Rock as a hideout. When the Taliban had retaken the area, they had ritually executed all of the Russian soldiers. When the Marines had retaken the area, they had buried a number of Taliban soldiers in the ground there.
