I'm a Search and Rescue Officer for the US Forest Service, I have some stories to tell

For work restrictions and safety reasons I can't share specific locations, so I have fake named them. <br><br>***I'd also like to mention that these are real events that have happened, but in some cases the details are fictionalized for drama and the events are placed in chronologically weird orders for storytelling purposes.***<br><br>I've been an SAR (Search And Rescue) Officer for the US Forest Service for 12 years now, and over the years I've encountered some really strange things out in the woods.<br><br>***I base all these stories off of real events that have taken place over the 12 years I've been an SAR Officer.***<br><br>I got my training my first year as an apprentice to an experienced SAR Officer, so even though my name and basic details about me are fake, all the stories are based off of real events that I've experienced as an SAR Officer. <br><br>***All the names are fictional except for the ones I mention in the law enforcement stories. Those are real people that have been involved in SAR Calls.***<br><br>My favorite story to tell is about the time we searched for a 5 day missing man, and found him speaking in a voice greater than 2 octaves beyond a normal speaking voice.<br><br>It was nighttime, and it had rained the previous 2 nights prior, so the forest was really wet and we had to be careful because the terrain was really slippery. Our team was well experienced and we knew the area really well, but we still had to take caution. <br><br>We got to the last known location of the missing person and started setting up our base camp, which usually takes around 15-30 minutes depending on the equipment needed and the amount of volunteers on the team. While we are setting up base camp, we send out 2 teams to Fan Out, which is usually 1k-2k from the base camp. This ensures if the missing person is found, they won't be too far from anyone, and also covers more area in search. <br><br>Once we finished setting up, we got all the radio updates from the 2 teams that fanedit out, and by the time we got to do our own search, it was almost midnight. The 2 teams that fanedit out didn't find anything, so it was just me and my partner continuing the search. We had flashlights and a red light, because sometimes flashlight light can give away the presence of being human in the wilderness. <br><br>We walked in silence for around 10 minutes when all of a sudden a voice louder than 2 octaves beyond normal speaking shot out into the forest, and it was speaking in a language I didn't recognize. I stopped dead in my tracks, and looked at my partner who gave me a wide eyed stare. <br><br>The voice wasn't coming from straight ahead of us, or directly behind us. It was coming from the left of us, and it stopped suddenly. Behind us was a thick forest with tall pine and spruce trees, and I saw one or two areas where we could see movement. My partner and I slowly turned our heads towards the area where we saw movement and started to creep towards it, flashlights turned off, and red lights turned on. We were about 15 feet away when a giant bear jumped out in front of us, and started to growl. <br><br>It was weird because in the light from the red lens, a bear doesn't look like a bear, it just looks like a giant shadow. I froze, then turned to run. I heard my partner yell behind me, but I didn't look back. I ran as fast as I could back towards the sound of my partner, which in my head wasn't working because I thought I had left him behind. <br><br>I kept thinking that the bear was going to tackle me and I was going to become a dinner for it. I ran as fast as I could, and once I reached my partner and told him to let's go, we took off at a sprint back to the truck. <br><br>When we got there we jumped in, started the truck, and backed up. We realized we had left two other volunteers there and didn't even realize it. They had been talking to us on the radios the entire time. We called after us as we fled the scene and told them to come back to base camp immediately, and to tell everyone else to meet us back at the truck. <br><br>We didn't realize we had left the missing man behind until we got back to base camp and everyone else was there. We had left him there, and searched in the opposite direction. We all ran back to where we left him, and when we got there he was gone. It was darkness, and we couldn't see anything, so we called for someone to bring flashlights, red lights, and we started searching. <br><br>We found him about 20 seconds after we called out his name. He was sitting on a rock, hugging himself, speaking in a voice greater than 2 octaves beyond normal speaking. He was saying "I'm a little teapot" over and over again, and was just shaking his body back and forth. We all just kind of stood there in silence as we got a light to him and he saw us, and suddenly stopped what he was doing and started to walk towards us. <br><br>He started running towards us and then stopped dead in his tracks and turned around and ran back the way he had came and didn't say anything. We all just kind of looked at each other and went "What the fuck was that?" and we all ran after him. We eventually caught up to him and asked him what he was doing and he said "I don't know, I just felt a compulsion to go back to my car and I just started running." We asked him to come back to the truck, and he just kind of nodded and walked alongside us as we walked back to the truck. <br><br>We asked him what he was doing out here by himself for 5 days and he said he just came out here to hike. I asked him if he was okay, and he said he was. I asked him if he took any medications, and he said he did but didn't specify what. I asked if he was on any hallucinogens and he said yes. I asked if he was taking any psych medications and he said yes to that as well. I asked if he was on any stimulants and he said no to those, but said he did consume some energy drinks prior to coming out. I asked if he used any recreational drugs and he said he did. I asked what kind and he said he smoked weed and did a little bit of mushrooms and psilocybin. I asked if he took any LSD, and he said no, but that he did take a lot of ketamine. I asked if he had taken any speed or Ecstasy and he said yes, but that he hadn't taken any of those in a few years. <br><br>We got to the truck, called his family to come pick him up, then we all headed back out on the trail. We didn't find anything that indicated he had made a fire, started a camp, or anything like that, which is unusual considering he was out there for almost a week. We got back to his car and found a half empty energy drink and 2 empty water bottles, but that's it. No backpack, no tent, no sleeping bag, no fire starter, nothing. We were all confused by this, because usually someone can survive out in the wilderness for that long on minimal supplies, but nothing indicated that he had even tried to make it through the night. <br><br>When we made it back to base camp we called his family in and they were confused about how he survived so long out there. They told us he was a experienced backpacker and he had all the gear and supplies he needed, but clearly he didn't. They were all confused, and I was too. I think if he had admitted to taking more than just what he said he took, he would have been admitted to a mental facility for his own safety. He never admitted to taking anything more, so he never got committed.<br><br>The only time when something like this has happened again was 4 years ago, and it was another incident that was really weird. <br><br>A 17 year old girl called her parents around midnight screaming for help because she hadn't seen her father in over 12 hours. She told them that she was scared and wanted to come home, and that her dad was nowhere to be found. They immediately got in their car and drove out to her location and found her hysterically crying, shaking from the fear, and just begging them to just "just take her home, please." <br><br>They asked her what happened and she told them he had taken her out into the wilderness so she could learn how to forage for berries, but that she really hated doing it. She told them she was really afraid of being out in the wilderness, and that she wanted to go home. They asked if her father had been with her recently and she said no. They asked if she wanted to tell them what really happened, and she broke down crying even more and begged them to just get her out of there. <br><br>She got in the car with them, and they asked if they could go back to her location with her to see if they could find any evidence of what had happened, and she broke down crying again, but said it was okay. We, along with the parents, went back to where she had last seen him, and started searching. <br><br>About 20 minutes into the search, we found him. He was sitting on the forest floor, staring straight ahead of him, and didn't respond to anything. We asked him what happened to his daughter and he just didn't answer. We asked him if he was okay and still nothing. We asked if we could get him to come back to civilization and he still didn