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

I wasn't sure where else to post these stories, so I figured I'd share them here. I've been an SAR officer for a few years now, and along the way I've seen some things that I think you guys will be interesting. <br><br>* I have a pretty good track record for finding missing people. Most of the time they just wander off the path, or slip down a small cliff, and they can't find their way back. The majority of them have heard the old 'stay where you are' thing, and they don't wander far. But I've had two cases where that didn't happen. Both bother me a lot, and I use them as motivation to search even harder on the missing persons cases I get called on. <br>The first was a little boy who was out berry picking with his parents. He and his sister were together, and both of them went missing around the same time. Their parents lost sight of them for a few seconds, and in that time both the kids apparently wandered off. When their parents couldn't find them, they called us, and we came out to search the area. We found the daughter pretty quickly, and when we asked where her brother was, she told us that he'd been taken away by 'the bear man'. She said he gave her berries and told her to stay quiet, that he wanted to play with her brother for a while. The last she saw of her brother, he was riding on the shoulders of 'the bear man' and seemed calm. Of course, our first thought was abduction, but we never found a trace of another human being in that area. The little girl was also insistent that he wasn't a normal man, but that he was tall and covered in hair, 'like a bear', and that he had a 'weird face'. We searched that area for *weeks*, it was one of the longest calls I've ever been on, but we never found a single trace of that kid. <br>The other was a young woman who was out hiking with her mom and grandpa. According to the mother, her daughter had climbed up a tree to get a better view of the forest, and she'd never come back down. They waited at the base of the tree for hours, calling her name, before they called for help. Again, we searched everywhere, and we never found a trace of her. I have no idea where she could possibly have gone, because neither her mother or grandpa saw her come down.<br><br>* A few times, I've been out on my own searching with a canine, and they've tried to lead me straight up a tree. I've always figured that maybe the missing person had climbed up for some reason, or that the canine had caught a squirrel scent or something, but after the two instances mentioned above, I make sure to actually investigate anymore. <br><br>* I was on a call with another SAR officer, and we were searching a pretty small area. We'd both been walking for a while, and we'd seen each other a few times throughout the day, but we'd separated again to search some small cliffs. I heard a weird noise, and turned to look at my partner, because I could see him through a little clearing. I thought he'd slipped and was trying to get up, but then I realized that he was crawling on all fours, and he was making this...onisitcnt scrabbling noise. I walked over to him, and when he saw me he jumped up and started walking towards me. He wasn't acting right, though. He wasn't walking normally, and his legs seemed kind of...twisted. When I called out to him, he didn't seem to hear me. I kept asking him if he was okay, and he didn't answer. I was starting to get really worried, so I tried to walk towards him. He struggled up to his feet, and started to walk towards me. I saw that he was holding his gun, and I started to get really afraid. I realized that he was going to shoot me, and I was going to die out there. I didn't know what to do. I was frozen to the spot in shock and fear, and I was almost certain I was going to die. He came closer and closer, and I drew my handgun. I didn't want to shoot him, but I wasn't going to die out there. When he was only a few feet away from me, he suddenly stopped. His body twitched violently, and he doubled over, falling to his knees. He threw up all over the ground, and I saw that his eyes were bleeding. I don't know what happened, and he won't talk about it, but he's never been the same since. <br><br>* I was out searching on my own one day, and I heard strange noises. At first, it sounded like twigs snapping, but then it sounded like somebody was'runnjng through the underbrush. I drew my gun, because I was almost sure that it was the missing person, and they might not be entirely right in the head. I followed the noise, and I started to hear rustling. It sounded like whatever was making the noise was trying to get out from the underbrush, but it couldn't. I was ready to shoot, but the noise sounded almost...painful. I put my gun away and went over, to see if I could help. I never Sure what I saw, but it looked like a humanoid figure with seaweed covering its body. It was scratching at its face, trying to get the seaweed off, but it was so sticky that it was cutting its face. I tried to help it, and it grabbed onto me. I never felt so much pain in my life. I passed out, and I woke up a few hours later, alone in the woods. I had no signs of injuries, and there was no sign of what I'd seen. I don't know what it was, or where it came from. <br><br>* I was on a call with another SAR officer, and we were searching a pretty small area. We'd both been walking for a while, and we'd seen each other a few times throughout the day, but we'd separated again to search some small cliffs. I heard a weird noise, and turned to look at my partner, because I could see him through a little clearing. I thought he'd slipped and was trying to get up, but then I realized that he was crawling on all fours, and he was making this...onisitcnt scrabbling noise. I walked over to him, and when he saw me he jumped up and started walking towards me. He wasn't acting right, though. He wasn't walking normally, and his legs seemed kind of...twisted. When I called out to him, he didn't seem to hear me. I kept asking him if he was okay, and he didn't answer. I was starting to get really worried, so I walked towards him. He struggled up to his feet, and started to walk towards me. I saw that he was holding his gun, and I started to get really afraid. I realized that he was going to shoot me, and I was going to die out there. I didn't know what to do. I was frozen to the spot in shock and fear, and I was almost certain I was going to die. He came closer and closer, and I drew my handgun. I didn't want to shoot him, but I wasn't going to die out there. When he was only a few feet away from me, he suddenly stopped. His body twitched violently, and he doubled over, falling to his knees. He threw up all over the ground, and I saw that his eyes were bleeding. I don't know what happened, and he won't talk about it, but he's never been the same since. <br><br>* I was out on a search with a canine, and the canine started barking. She'd lost the scent, and had found something else. I went over to see what she'd found, and there was a bag of stuff on the ground. It was a small backpack, and it was full of water, non-perishable food, and some other survival supplies. There was also a small pistol, and a booklet with instructions on how to find your way back to civilization. The whole thing was obviously abandoned by someone who'd been out there, but we never found out who it was. <br><br>* I was going to put this story with the last one, but it didn't really fit. I was out on a search, and one of the other officers found a little pouch of something. We couldn't figure out what it was, but it looked kind of like marijuana. We sent it back to the station for testing, and it came back as an unknown substance. We figured that it was some new street drug, and we turned it over to the police department. They also couldn't figure out what it was, and they didn't think it was worth any further investigation, so that was that. <br><br>* There's a lot of unclaimed remains in the forest. A lot of people who just never get found, no matter how long we search. There was a story going around that a lot of those people were being used to train canines, and I can't say that didn't happen. I never saw it, and I never participated in it, but I can't say that it never happened by people I worked with. I don't really think that what we were doing was wrong, because we were training search and rescue canines, and we were using human remains because there was no other way to train them. But, I can see why it's not something people want to hear. <br><br>* I found a missing person once, and they were dead. They'd fallen down a cliff, and they