In the military, a smoke pit can be anywhere, a few stacked wooden pallets and sandbags on a distant

forward operating base in an overseas desert somewhere, or a concrete pavilion and

some tables outside of a barracks building on Camp Hanson in Okinawa. Whether at work or off duty, nowadays smoking isn't allowed in any of the buildings on military installations,

so that's what the smoke pit is for.

But what is also highly frowned on during working hours is the discussion of strange and unbelievable happenings.

The kinds of stories guys will insist are true,

but are often denigrated as campfire stories or some other made-up nonsense. And if they ever really

tried to file a former report about the events, they would probably find themselves pulled

off of their upcoming deployments as a mental health risk and instead sent

to see some kind of specialist. So the stories end up circulating around places like the smoke

pit. But as for the guys telling the stories, they certainly believe what they saw and heard,

whether or not anyone else does.

This episode contains a compilation of several of these kinds of stories.

The first is from a soldier, writing under the anonymous heading of Sergeant M.

The second set of encounters are actually from a buddy of mine, Tripp, a fellow Marine who

I met while I was stationed overseas in Okinawa.

And perhaps, not so ironically, where did I first meet Tripp?

In the smoke pit, right outside our barracks.

Anyway, let's get to the stories.

I'm Luke Lamanah, and this is wartime stories.

I'll begin this episode with Sergeant M's experience told from his perspective.

In 2015, I was placed on desk duty in the barracks on a 24-hour rotation charge quarters, as it's officially called.

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