Soldiers vs Giants Through the Ages

I'm Luke Lamana and this is War Time Stories. Anybody else get that feeling? What feeling? In the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks, the United States military launched Operation Enduring Freedom, which began in October of 2001. Their goal was the dismantling of the Taliban regime that was harboring al-Qaeda terrorists believed to be responsible for the attacks. This military action involved a large-scale deployment of U.S. forces into Afghanistan, leading to significant combat operations and the toppling of the Taliban government. Squaring off against overwhelming American air superiority, the Taliban forces soon fled the cities, fighting refuge in the nation's many vast, rugged mountain ranges. These natural fortresses now serving as their home base, the insurgents then launched a fierce resistance against both the American troops and their western allies. With the Kandahar region being identified as a key stronghold for the Taliban, securing the mountains was essential in disrupting their supply lines, their operations, and control. To accomplish this monumental task, the Americans would employ a search and destroy strategy. These missions involved ground troops, often special operations forces, such as the U.S. Army Rangers and Navy SEALs, conducting thorough searches of areas known or suspected to be occupied by the enemy. The operations often required clearing and securing large areas of terrain, sometimes involving house-to-house searches, or patrolling through remote regions looking for caves. Search and destroy missions were usually coordinated with intelligence gathered from various sources, including reconnaissance flights, surveillance drones, and local informants. This intelligence helped identify likely enemy locations and optimize mission effectiveness. The mountainous terrain otherwise required adapting their tactics to deal with the high altitude conditions and the challenging geography. Uniquely dangerous as these missions were, whether from the enemy's improvised explosive devices, IEDs, accidents and injuries or direct engagements, it was no surprise that patrols often suffered casualties. However, sometime in early 2002, one of these patrols disappeared entirely. Alarmed at the prolonged period of radio silence, another special forces team was quickly inserted into the Kandahar mountains to find the missing men and return with either their bodies or any remaining survivors. Far from what they might have expected, however, the true fate of the missing patrol would take them beyond anything they had been trained for. "Hold up. Looks like we got something here." "Oh man, this is messed up." "Haw, Sarge. These are definitely our guys. Well, look at this gear. It's like he got ripped right off him." "Should we send up a sit-up now?" "No, stay sharp. Whatever happened here, we might still be in the middle of it." Rifles up. Patroling the last known area where the previous team had been inserted, this second team soon stumbled across pieces of scattered military gear and shredded uniforms, which clearly belonged to the missing men. Puzzled by what appeared to be a macabre trail of breadcrumbs, they began following it, keeping the rifles at the ready, increasingly unsure of what to expect. Having worked their way up a steep mountain footpath, the men eventually found themselves standing in front of a series of large caves, but the caves were not what first caught their attention. Littering the ground in front of the cave entrances was what appeared to be piles of bones. Like this unusually gruesome feature, their first thought was that this must be a part of a vast Taliban cave network. But before they had time to formulate their next plan of action, the Special Forces team was suddenly confronted with a far more terrifying reality. Emerging from one of the caves, its primal war cry echoing off the surrounding mountains, a giant man appeared, wielding a long wooden spear. Its head crowned with thick, untamed red hair, its body wrapped in animal skins, its teeth bareed in a primitive challenge, it charged directly at the now stunned Americans. Before the men could even raise the rifles, the giant, massive spear in hand, had thrust the weapon through the torso of the nearest man, simultaneously lifting him off the ground. Prompting the other men to let loose with a torrent of gunfire. After 30 seconds of sustained firing, the giant finally collapsed, bringing the harrowing ordeal to an abrupt end. I say again, line 5, one letter, alpha, break. Sierra 1 is down, we need immediate meta back, over. Self India Alpha, November Tango, a very large man with a wooden spear, over. Baffled and horrified by their encounter, the operators immediately radioed back to their command, a transmission that arguably must have been the most insane situation report ever heard by the man sitting radio watch on the other end. Undoubtedly it took time to clarify what they were trying to report, that one of their team members was now dead, and that they had just killed his attacker, a literal giant. Once the report had been submitted, they remained on sight, waiting for the arrival of the extraction team, and marveling at the size of this creature. During measurements of the massive foul smelling corpse, the giant was described as being at least 13 feet tall, and notably having six fingers on each hand, escaping mouth, showing two rows of teeth. The men also came to another horrifying realization about the piles of bones and military gear they had seen scattered around the area. It appeared they wouldn't be returning with any of the missing team's bodies. The giant had clearly eaten them, but they would soon find out that the giant's corpse was evidently of great interest to someone up the chain of command. After some time, a Chinook transport helicopter arrived, bringing with it loading pallets and harnessing gear, they were going to take the giant back with them. The return trip made all the more unbearable by the creature's awful stench upon arrival back at base, the men were immediately debriefed. After each man shared his account of the mission, namely the details of the climactic battle with a literal giant, they were made to sign non-disclosure agreements for ever swearing to secrecy regarding the encounter. This came as no surprise to the operators. They never saw the thing's body after departing the helicopter. They had no proof. Even if they wanted to tell someone about their incredible encounter, who on Earth would believe them. Since the story began making headlines in various military papers and other news sites in 2022, the giant of Kandahar has since become a staple in the vast realm of cryptid lore. But how did this incredible story first come to light? The earliest known record of the account surfaced in 2008, only about six years after the incident was said to have taken place, so much for keeping it a secret. However, the original testimony came not from any of the soldiers who reportedly killed the giant, but from the pilot of the CH-47 Shunok helicopter that transported its corpse out of the mountains. This pilot, who remained anonymous, was interviewed by George Norrie on the coast-to-coast [BLANK_AUDIO] program during a December 3rd 2008 episode titled Flash Points and Giants. Considering that he only witnessed the loading and transport of the Giants body, his own testimony includes very little about what had happened before the helicopter arrived to pick it up. His testimony was compelling in that he never sought to embellish the story by recounting a harrowing tale of a man being speared by the Giant, followed by a dramatic firefight. The pilot simply explained only what he had personally witnessed and was forthcoming in stating that he heard most of what had happened second hand from the soldiers who had killed the creature. Again, like I said, it was second hand. He said that when this big got this thing, it had actually taken out the first crew that had found him and they went in afterwards and when they came up on this thing, supposedly, of course, second hand. But the way they painted it out, yes, this kind was eating probably more than our guys with the killing fields that they more or less described. But basically, we said that the thing ran like the wind through stones at the guys at a pretty good distance, so they said, and of course, our weapons did take it out because I was looking at this dead thing. So most of it was covered up with the tarps and the rigging and stuff like that. And most of what we had to see, we were just goofed around with and seeing what we could see on this thing because it was a pretty large dude. Could not, you know, locate, measure or anything like that. I can tell you that it's hand more or less looked kind of human, very dirty except for the six fingers. Having already been covered by a large tarp and strapped to a 463L palette, a standard aircraft loading palette measuring nine by seven feet, the pilot otherwise had a clear view of the creature's hands and feet. Though he wasn't allowed to get close enough to get exact measurements, the pilot estimated that the feet which were covered in some kind of canvas material, like rudimentary shoes, were at least 28 to 30 inches in length. Having been curled into a fetal position to fit onto the loading palette, if it had been laid out, he remarked that the giant would have easily measured a staggering 12 feet in height, if not more. Charged with airlifting the thing out of the mountains, the pilot could at least accurately attest to how much it weighed. What I can't tell you is the weight of the thing, basically it was approximately 1500 pounds when I was getting on the aircraft. Now, if you take away the palette weight and all the rigging that we had to hold this thing down, we figured it was around 1100 pounds. When asked about what else he saw that was noteworthy, he said the fingers were pasty white in color, appearing Caucasian, which was surprising considering the dark complexion of the local people. But he reasoned this could have been attributed to the creature now being dead. He also described the awful musky skunk-like odor coming from the thing, which he offhandedly said must have been intolerable for his loadmaster, who was riding with the body in the back of the Chinook as they returned to base. In closing when asked about where the giant ended up, he said he wasn't sure. But got the impression it had been translated back to an Air Force Base in Ohio. Mention was then made in the interview of the fact that there is only one Air Force Base in Ohio referring to Wright Patterson Air Force Base. And if that is the case, it only adds to the intrigue of the story and the likeness for it to be buried by the US government because that base is notably involved with all manner of things strange and unexplained, such as the Air Force well-documented research into UFO sightings which began in the 1950s. And then bone matter, when I'm not close enough to identify what kind of bones, but I did see something I knew was a piece of our communications equipment. So instantly we're thinking ambush maybe animal, you know, could be anything. And there was enough room in front of this cave, but it has sheer drop-off, but there was enough room that we actually got into a decent dispersal in case of an ambush. And he comes out, it was a man at least 12 to 15 feet in height. This is a monster. Red beard, his hair was long, past the shoulder, the scarlet red, and he runs at us. We'll call of us into the reality. This is so real. We just went into complete muscle memory at that point. Considering the widespread account of the soldiers encounter with the canter heart giant includes details, not provided by the Air Force pilot in his 2008 interview, such as the giant's red hair color, its double row of teeth, and the brutal killing of one of the soldiers with a spear, it begs the question who provided this additional information on the story. In reading through various articles which have covered it, it was stated that in some circles, the truth of this giant story is widely considered to be an open secret among soldiers who served in Kandahar in 2002. But more precisely in 2016, a video was uploaded to the internet that featured an interview with a man going by the name Mr. K, who claimed to be one of the operators on the search team who encountered the giant. The video has since been pulled down for unknown reasons. Perhaps because his testimony provided more details on the soldier's actual violent encounter, his testimony has come to define the giant of Kandahar story, introducing the concept of a spear wielding beast with red hair and two rows of teeth that took the internet by storm. Of course, with such a shocking story making the rounds in recent years and even being picked up by the military times and reputable news sources, everybody wanted to know, is this story true? When confronted about the alleged incident the US Department of Defense to nobody's great surprise stated that they had no record or information about a special forces member being killed by a giant in Kandahar. This official denial of course didn't quell anyone's interest in the story, quite the opposite. Now that the story has been brought to light and is being widely considered credible, even more service members across different nationalities have finally come forward to share their own testimonies about similar things they saw during their combat deployments. Fascinating as they are to read, the following accounts, several of which were submitted to the tales from the Gridsquare project, appear to indicate that the Kandahar giant was only one of many of his kind that still exists hiding in the remote mountains of Afghanistan. Hey, is that a, is that a new optic? Yeah, recon three or something, LT wanted me to test it out and then train everybody else. How's it working? Well, I'll put it this way. I am just pushing buttons and seeing what happened. Oh, okay, I do see. Huh, looks like we got a couple of tally just over there. How many? Maybe two, three, just a big blob, it's hard to tell. It's like they're all huddled around. Oh, oh, what? That, that can't. Hey, how tall would you say the trees are around here? Huh? The trees, how tall on average are the trees? I don't know, maybe 10, 15 feet. That's what I thought. This story comes from a soldier who was serving in north eastern Afghanistan several years after the original Kandahar story is said to have occurred. He was actually in country when the 2008 coast to coast interview about the Kandahar giant first aired. He writes, "I was deployed as an infantry team leader with the Army in the Khanar province of Afghanistan from 2008 to 2009. One night, we set out on an observation patrol to overlook a village that we suspected IEDs in provides explosive devices were coming out of due to a successful ID recovery a few weeks prior. My lieutenant gave me a new thermal imaging system called the Recon 3 that none of us were familiar with and told me to figure out what I could and pass along that information to the other team leaders. I started to look across the valley to what I could see and that led me to look along the spur we were set in on. Catching on a very large heat signature at the top of one of the the false people. peaks. I did everything I could to get a clear image, suspecting that it was a group of Taliban huddled together around a light as they tend to do in the mountains. All of a sudden, the heat signature stood up as one being. The trees in that area grew to about 10 to 12 feet tall, and this thing was at least as big if not taller than the trees that surrounded it. It started taking steps parallel to my position and was covering ground quickly with ease. Its stride was slow and relaxed, and yet it moved with incredible speed. That led me to believe this creature was gigantic. It very quickly traversed the landscape, and I lost sight of it along a neighboring spur. I couldn't believe what I saw initially assuming I had imagined it. I'd never had seen anything like that in my life. I didn't tell many people about it, either when I was still in the army, and even when I got out, I kept it to myself thinking, "There was no way I saw what I saw." But then, in 2010, I listened to a story on Coast to Coast, specifically the story about the giant of Kandahar. That made all the memories of my time and service come flooding back and made me consider other things I saw during that deployment. For instance, the Kandahar creature was described as having "fire orange red hair," and it reminded me of a tradition that the locals in the area of my sighting would do. The Afghanis would dye their hair a bright orange color, and even dye their goats the same color. They never gave any explanation why. It seemed like it was every once in a while they would do this, and then all of a sudden those orange dyed goats would be gone, and the local's hair would also no longer be dyed orange. I assumed maybe it was a cultural thing, I didn't understand, but now it makes me wonder if that was some kind of gesture to the creature, or if the goats were being sacrificed to it. I am a Christian, and the Bible briefly discusses beings called the Nephilim. I think that's what I saw, a member of an ancient race of giants. Although he mentions the interview with the Air Force pilot being what reminded him of his own experience, it should be reiterated that the 2008 Coast to Coast broadcast did not provide any details about the giant having red hair. Those came about in 2016. It's possible that almost a decade on, considering Mr. Case interview and everything else that's been said about the Canterhart Giant story since it first aired, the detail about the red hair got mixed up in the overall narrative, hence why the soldier thought he heard about it from the Chinook pilot. But it's no less interesting that he did find a correlation with the hair-dying practice of the Afghani people in the region that seemingly validated the idea that the giant's hair could have been red as Mr. K had indicated. If the giants are out there even today, praying on humans as the Canterhart story ominously indicates, he otherwise may not have been at all wrong to reason that the villagers would make efforts to appease the giants by dying their hair and making sacrificial offerings of red-haired useful, huh? Taliban moved through the North Road sometimes. Sometimes. Maybe at night. Maybe at night. Great. Also, one man says his neighbor stole three goats. Whole Haram, tragic. Anything else? What? They say we should not go northwest of the village. Why? They say something lives up there. Something like Taliban? No. Then what? A giant? A giant. A giant. What? Like a big dude? No, not like a big dude. Like Goliath. So, all right, let me make sure I got this right. Taliban may be used in North Road. Some guys, neighbors stole his goats. Three goats. Three goats. And there's a biblical giant living up in the mountains. That is what they say. These are village people. They tell stories. Hemat. Yes boss. Never mind. All right, let's move out. Sir, which way were we heading from here? North? More to the Northwest. Northwest? Northwest. Don't worry. What's the worst that could happen? Yes boss. Everybody, mount up, we're moving. Let's go. As you may already know, I'm a big fan of the tales from the Grid Square project. I found this first story when I was enjoying reading over a few that Nick had posted. In it, a soldier shares an unusual rumor he heard while patrolling through a village in a Koringal Valley region of Afghanistan. At that point, in his deployment, he'd been in country for a while and he was familiar with the environment, the local customs, and the various nuances of living in a country like Afghanistan. Or at least he thought he was. He writes, "Our platoon lived on combat outpost or cop Monty North of Asadabad. We would move to contact or go on hunter killer missions in the surrounding areas. That basically means we'd pick a direction and keep going forward until the Taliban started shooting at us. During these patrols, we'd often end up in the Koringal Valley and the surrounding hills. These areas felt like they were lost the time, like the people there would speak dialects of posh too that even our interpreters didn't understand. We would ask people in one village about the folks in another village just on the other side of the ridge and they would have absolutely no clue about them. That's how secluded some of these people were. I actually still have tools I traded with some villagers handmade axes and a hammer that have been crafted in the same manner they made tools in the middle ages, crazy cool stuff. The Koringal Valley was the most interesting and fantastical place I'd ever been to. Honestly, when we weren't being shot at, they're taking IDF indirect fire, I had the time of my life exploring those hills and mountains. I've done both Iraq and Syria, both of which were cool in their own ways, but for me nothing could compare to Afghanistan. Most of the time, we would aerosalt in or move dismounted, being light infantry and all. However, on this patrol, we left the cop mounted in our vehicles. We ended up catching contact on our road march to the turnoff point into the Koringal Valley. After a short fire fight, we were ordered to push further up and into the valley to cut off the enemy element while Kiowa helicopters would chase and drive them toward us. We moved the rest of the afternoon up deeper into the valley until we ended up in a little village. We set our VPP vehicle patrol base, and our lieutenant grabbed some guys and went and conducted Kaley, key leader engagement. They basically went to go chat with the elders of the village to see if they had any useful information to offer about Taliban in the area. Camps, ambush sites, IEDs, stockpiles, that sort of thing. In the meantime, the rest of us just posted up and kept an eye out. Villagers and kids came out and hung out with us, being super curious about who we were, where we were from, standard stuff. While we were messing around with the locals, giving kids candy out of our marries, etc. Our turp interpreter came up to me and said that the villagers were telling him to make sure we did not go up past the northwest part of the village. Long story short, our turp, Hemat, had basically sworn his life to me after I saved him during a fire fight four months earlier. So the dude hung around me any time he could. Our other turp, who we called Borat, went with the LT to talk with the village leaders. Hemat and I were pretty tight and he would share more shit with me than he did with anyone else. So when I asked about what was in the northwest part of the village, he told me that the locals said that the giant who lived up past the village was not to be messed with. I just paused because like what the hell, right, a giant? And Hemat was super casual about the whole thing by the way, like it wasn't a big deal for him to hear the locals talk about a giant living in the hills. I brushed this off at the moment. The sun was setting, and as team leader I had to make sure my guys were doing what they were supposed to be doing, getting nods mounted, and prepping to move out. So, I was standing in the turret pulling security facing north. Lighting conditions were dusk, dark, but light enough that you didn't need your nods yet, you know? And as I'm standing there scanning for bad guys, I see something, emerge from a cave a little ways up the mountain. It was a man. Lanky and extremely tall. With the lighting conditions, I could still pick out that he had a beard and long, crazy hair. Honest assessment, at 100 meters he looked to be 8-9 feet tall. It looked like someone took an NBA player and just scaled him up like this guy was big. He was shirtless, but wore the same baggy pants that dudes in Afghan generally wore. He was proportioned in a way where it was clear that it wasn't just a normal tall man, but a humanoid species, not exactly like ours, if that makes sense. He was visible to me for about five seconds, long enough that I absolutely have no doubt in my mind as to what I was looking at. He came out, grabbed something off the ground outside his cave, looked in our general direction, then went back inside and didn't come out again. Talk about a hell of a way to start my hour on watch. Being the team lead, I made the decision not to tell my soldiers what I just seen. We were in a spot where contact was very likely and most of the guys under my watch were young dudes on their first deployment. I wanted them to focus on the mission, not, you know, giants and shit. About 40 minutes later, the Taliban we'd been pursuing, or their friends, shot two RPGs at our VPB. One went right over my head, close enough that I could have caught the damn thing. They hit us with PKM and small arms from about 300 meters and the fight was on. Kiwaz came on station, shot rockets, they dipped. After that, the firefight died down. We set in for the night at 100% security for the first few hours. At first light, we conducted a BDA battle damage assessment to see if we actually killed the guys we were shooting at. We moved up the hill, looked around, found one Taliban KIA who had crawled under the rocks and died. They were booster papers and spent casings from at least five different weapons in the area around him. All in a day's work, I guess. We packed our stuff back in the trucks and returned to base. We never went back up to that village. Eventually, I told a couple of guys what I saw and why I was generally met with "that's crazy man" or "nothing about this place surprises me." If you've been Afghanistan or deployed with a combat unit to any other place where shit kicks off on the regular, you know how casual or jaded dudes quickly get. By the time I saw the giant, we'd been in country for about five months. This was in the middle of peak fighting season. We averaged at least one firefight every other day, so at the time, nobody, including myself, would have given a rat's ass about a giant in the mountains if there was one. We were all just trying to do our jobs and not get killed. Hey guys real quick. I wanted to take a moment to thank some of the folks who helped make these episodes possible, our sponsors. Football is finally back and after week one, this is when it starts getting interesting. So all off season, you know, you can guess how teams are going to look, but now we've actually seen them play. And with the season now starting, price picks is bringing out their best offer yet. 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It was back in December 2008 when an Air Force Chinook pilot originally went on the coast-to-coast AM show, then hosted by George Norrie to go public with an incredible story from his time in service. He had been, apparently, one of the pilots tasked with picking up the remains of a massive red-haired man, estimated to be about 12 feet tall. I'm sure each of us can remember a time where something happened to us and then we kind of just forget about it. Maybe too much other stuff was going on. Maybe it was something seemingly insignificant at the time. Or it was just something we thought was weird, but we couldn't explain it. And maybe years go by and all of a sudden a smell, a sound. Or someone else's story, something suddenly reminds us about that experience. Well, ever since 2008, as they have heard these stories, more and more stories are coming forward from military members about their remembering having encountered massive people living in Afghanistan. This next story was shared by one of your fellow subscribers, a soldier writing under the handle Jeremy Brewer 3463. I will therefore assume that we can call him Jeremy. He took the time to post this in the comment section of our original Giants of Afghanistan episode. He describes an instance in which his unit was being watched by something as they made their way through a rugged narrow valley. Something which he thinks might further confirm the rumors about Giants. He writes. So when I was in Afghanistan, I spent a lot of my time as a forward observer. One day, my unit was called to be on a quick reaction force QRF for another unit that called in what we call a tick troops in contact. The platoon got caught in a firefight in a small valley north of us, flipped one of their MRAP, all terrain vehicles, and we had to go in and help them out. I always found it funny how these all terrain vehicles had trouble with, you know, terrain. Because as soon as we rolled into the valley, we almost flipped one of our own trucks going down a narrow road. So our convoy comes to a halt as the guys ahead of us attempt to guide this vehicle through the narrow pass. We were all pretty on edge, literally, right? We knew the Taliban were in the area and we were stuck in this valley flanked on either side by ridges and mountains. Prime real estate for anyone looking to ambush us. So when one of our guys started calling out about a spotter on a mountain to the south of us, we're all thinking we're about to be in for a bad time. I brought up my binoculars and saw the silhouette on the ridge line and yeah, it looked like a person, but it was just way too big. So I called back to the guy basically saying that's a rock dude, it's too big to be a person. But that's when he told me that this rock had moved. So I went to one of the trucks, opened the door and told the crows gunner to point the weapon in the direction we'd seen this thing. Crows are basically these remote operated weapons that use thermal sites, so if anyone or anything was on that ridge, we'd be able to see it. But when we looked, there was nothing. I leaned back out, brought up my binos and scanned the ridge line, but the silhouette wasn't there anymore. Even the guy who called it out couldn't see it anymore. Around that time, the truck finally made it through the pass, so we didn't have any more time to look more into this, and I think at that point, we were all just glad to get on with the mission. Honestly, I never really thought about what I saw until a couple of years ago when a coworker told me the story about the giant of Candahar. Still, I think it was something that could be explained as parodolia, you know, that thing where you see shapes or faces in animate objects. We were in a combat zone, and the imagination is a hell of a thing. You see something bizarre, but your mind is always trying to make sense of it rationally. Go try to sleep alone in the woods at night. You will hear and see shadows of things that have your mind racing. Even though you know it's nothing, but maybe like woodland critters that are out there. Still, after hearing all these other stories of guys seeing similar things, I can't help but wonder if what we saw was a rock or something else entirely. Being a drone operator with eyes high above the terrain would of course be an ideal way to see a lot more than the average soldier on the ground possibly could. It applies to spotting both enemy soldiers and whatever else is out there. But when it comes to gathering intel using drones, a lot of what is observed is recorded and then sent for more careful analysis. Full-motion video or FMV analysts in Afghanistan played a crucial role in military operations, intelligence gathering and surveillance. The primary responsibility was to analyze live and recorded video feeds from various aerial surveillance platforms such as drones and manned aircraft. This next account was shared by another Air Force veteran who was working as an intel analyst in Afghanistan sometime between 2012 and 2018. The video footage he was tasked with reviewing was recorded near the Korngall Valley in the Kunar province, which often served as a covert route for Taliban insurgents to funnel men and supplies over the border with Pakistan. It sounds like his primary goal in reviewing the footage was to determine patterns of life, basically getting an idea of what people living in the area possibly enemy insurgents were doing on a day-to-day basis. When they wake up, where they go, when they come back, if they carry weapons, what kind of weapons, etc. and this is typically done prior to committing any other operations in the area, like sending foot patrols through the villages and so on. However, this airman describes witnessing a far more unnerving sight. He writes, "I was an FMV analyst from 2012-2018. We were doing a pre-opsoc north-east of Korngall, getting patterns of life on, damn near every warm body. We saw some dudes around a fire, which is completely normal, but watched to see if we could ID any weapons. After about 20 minutes, what we thought were two dudes huddled together under a blanket, stood up. I mean, this guy made the rest of the dudes look like children in terms of height. He stood up and walked over to a mud hut that he had to bend way over to get inside. We were using infrared, IR, so I couldn't say if he was red-haired or not. But I just know that he was a big mother-effer, at least eight or nine feet tall." It's worth noting from his observations, he indicated this particular giant was intermingling with local villagers. The people in Afghanistan and the surrounding regions have long been very tribal, adhering to their cultural differences, perhaps the giants not far from being human themselves are similarly diverse, including their diets. Maybe not all of them are man-eaters. Of course, nothing is really known about these giants other than what has been scantly observed, but as far as their coexistence with humans is concerned, and as one of these men indicated in his testimony, giants have been documented as far back as at least five or 6,000 years. A giant named Goliath fought with the Philistine army, and he was their most fearsome soldier standing nearly ten feet tall and carrying a bronze spear with a tip that weighed nearly 15 pounds by itself, just the tip of the spear. By comparison, your standard fully loaded military rifle weighs half of that. Far from Goliath being the only giant, the annals of King David from 3000 years ago would indicate there were other remnants of an ancient giant race that he and his men fought and killed in later battles, along with those accounted for much earlier by Moses and Joshua. They are often called the Refaites, or Refaim, being descendants of a giant named Rapha. Another of them was killed by King David's brother, Jonathan, in a battle in Gath, Goliath's homeland. Like the giant of Candahar, he was recorded in the second book of Samuel as being a huge man, with six fingers on each hand, and six toes on each foot, twenty-four in all. Despite Goliath that the head of an army, one would expect that in any tribe, the leader would often be the biggest, meanest, and strongest one in the group. That might explain why a giant named Og was made King over the region of Bashaun, northwest of the Sea of Galilee in modern day Syria. How do we know he was a giant? He was cited by Joshua as being one of the last of the Refaites. The third book of Deuteronomy records him having an iron bedstead, presumably because he needed something stronger than wood, a bed which measured thirteen feet in length by six feet in width. It doesn't sound like he would have slept comfortably, on a small army cot. Giants ruling over humans, fighting alongside them millennia ago, and now, in even the last two decades, we hear tell of Giants warming themselves by the fire with Afghani locals. This next account would likewise indicate that Giants are still out there in remote areas intermingling with humans to this day. I, Dave, you have only things caffeine in it, I think I'm losing my marble, I'm seeing things. What's that left in it? You've seen insurgents? No, it's, never mind, just, I must be naked. This next account was shared by an Australian officer serving in the central region of Afghanistan, possibly with either the mentoring task force or the special operations task force based on the context he provides. In his story, we find him sitting up on his L.A.V., light armored vehicle, late at night keeping an eye out for enemy insurgents. Like the previous soldiers' observations through night optics, as with most of the other testimonies, I am no less struck by the general matter of fact tone. This man takes when sharing his incredible story. Something the Air Force pilot who is interviewed on the Coast Coast AM program more or less stated, even if you have never believed in something like Giants, when you suddenly find yourself looking at one. You can't really do much else, but just accept the facts. The Australian officer writes, "I was an L.T. in the Australian Army at the time and deployed to the Uraskan province. I was on picket what you yanks would call security or sentry in my L.A.V. in the early hours one morning and was scanning across the valley with the thermal imager. That was when I saw a large human-like figure that looked different from normal because it didn't have the usual clothes the Afghans would wear. It looked like a person. Lankier, not much detailed through the thermal imager and due to distance. It walked behind a few compounds and I could see it from the chest/arm pits up. I laced the compound walls to confirm the distance a few times because I knew I would get a good return off the walls. I thought it was around 500 to 600 meters out, but when I did a more detailed scan, I realized it was further away. Using the LRF, the laser rangefinder, I was shocked to see it was actually at a distance of 1800 meters. It wasn't in any hurry and I followed it for about five minutes before it went out of my field of view. No idea what it was, but it would have been at least 12 feet tall. I don't know of anyone else who saw anything like it. Never told anyone about it before, but it has stayed with me over all these years. Of course, by now, we realize that he is not alone in seeing something like that. I get the feeling that these few accounts are not the only ones either. But of course, as each of these men has indicated, nobody wants to go around telling people that they saw what most would consider a fairytale monster. So, like so many others, they keep it to themselves until someone takes a sincere interest in hearing their story. This next story was shared by an Air Force veteran who served in Afghanistan as a UAV or unmanned aerial vehicle operator. He is absolutely certain of the existence of these beings because what he saw was unmistakable. He writes, "I was a senior operator on the Reaper, heading up to work, a tasking in the northern parts of the country. I was scanning around, doing my thing, and looking at stuff. There are small villages up high in the central mountains that I've scanned probably a dozen times. I found a super small mudhut, which is where I saw the giants. They were three-ish, maybe even four meters tall. There's a ruler tool on the screen that tells you how wide your crosshair is, and these people were as tall as the crosshair was wide. They didn't do anything crazy, just normal people things, tending fires and other chores. I wish I could say they did something exciting, but really they just moped around their small clearing. There were a few goats tied up, and a fire that one of them was tending. Hard to tell details, but they seemed to wear rugged clothing. I would guess similar to Afghan traditional garb from how they moved, but they seemed heavily cloaked. The only interesting thing was their size. The goats looked like cats next to them. This was all in midwave IR infrared at night, so they showed up as black, humanoid heat signatures. I wish I could have used our daytime camera. I always wondered if they had red hair. I was only able to monitor them for like 10 minutes before we were too far away to see. As if all these stories were not enough, just recently in late 2023, a journalist named Mike from Atlas News reached out to me to do an interview. When we finally spoke, I realized that he is also an army combat veteran who served in both Iraq and Afghanistan. We had a long talk about all manner of the strange and unexplained with regard to military operations, bases, training grounds, religious texts, and so on. And about halfway through the conversation, we landed on the subject of cryptids, and Mike was quick to express his disbelief in many of these entities, but then he offhandedly told me about one unexplained experience that he had while patrolling in Afghanistan. In summary, he was on patrol near the eastern Afghan border with Pakistan, a region not far from where many of these aforementioned giants were seen. His unit's mission was what he directly referred to as "human" or "human intelligence gathering", interviewing the local village leaders and trying to wean any intel they could give him about Taliban insurgents moving through the area. But during a conversation with one man, his interpreter explained that the man was trying to tell them to avoid going into the nearby mountains because there was a group of individuals living there that most of the villagers tried to avoid. Individuals, he said, that had "pale skin", a habit of harassing the locals while they were feeding their goats in the highlands, and even throwing large rocks at them. Through his interpreter and then showing his own rifle and the rifles of the men around him, Mike then asked if these pale skinned individuals carried any kind of rifles or other weapons, and whether they were Taliban. I don't have like plate carriers, but I just remember the dude was like, yeah, they have like beers and they're like heavy, heavy set, and they're super tall like you guys, and so I didn't want to put it down until later and I asked about it, I was like, hey, do we get that base figured out? And they're like, yeah, it's nothing, don't worry about it. But it was like this dude literally just told us the story of his life. I don't know, maybe it's a nomadic tally base, but it was just one of the weird things was like, why don't you tell us where these people live, and then years later somebody talked about Afghan giants, and I was like, whatever. And then I thought about it and I was like, wow, the description matches up, and the kind of remote location matches up. And so after I discovered all this stuff, I'm looking back and like, I don't know, I chalk it up to it being to foreign fighters, Syrians, Chechens, or something, but that is sort of weird. With the Canterhart giant being possibly the only direct confrontation between soldiers and a remnant species of giant men, at least in Afghanistan, it's understandable why this would appear nothing more than a modern day spin on the David and Goliath story. But the fact there are other witnesses, all of whom relay grounded testimony, devoid of any theatrics, certainly this must lend some credibility to the continued existence of these creatures, even if the Canterhart story has been a bit embellished over the years. In any case, until further evidence finally surfaces which dispels our lingering unbelief, we are at least left to wonder, but these military men appear certain of what they saw. And as they say in the world, there is no smoke without fire. Before 1941, the idea of World War II was an abstract concept for Solomon Islanders. The war was happening far away in Europe, or at worst, in the mainland regions of Asia, which was still thousands of miles away. But following the attack on Pearl Harbor, the island began to finally experience the far-reaching impacts of the war. Britain began evacuating their colonial settlers off the islands and sending local workers, either back to their villages or into hiding to prepare for a potential invasion. Sure enough, with the Japanese Empire's aim to create a defensive buffer against attack from the Allied forces, in May of 1942, the Solomon Islands would become the furthest extent of their military island outposts far to the south of Japan. They quickly occupied the primary islands, beginning with construction of an airstrip on Guadalcanal, along with other float plane bases and defensive fortifications. With this occupation threatening to cut communication and shipping lines between Australia and the United States, and leave Australia exposed to a possible invasion, the US moved quickly to initiate their own counter-invasion strategy to retake the islands. The US chose the island of Guadalcanal, as its first counter-punch on dry land, with the first marine division landing on August 7, 1942. During their prior invasion, the Japanese soldiers faced little to no resistance from a largely peaceful and unarmed population of local islanders. The Japanese Imperial Army's following treatment of the island natives was nothing less than a b*tch. bismal during their invasion and short lived occupation. The Solomon Islanders quickly began to hate the Japanese invaders for their cruelty, not only to them, but to the thousands of Korean forced laborers they brought with them. The Islanders thus did all they could to work against the Japanese and assist the American forces before and during their island campaigns. Prior to the war, the Royal Australian Navy had implemented a Coast Watching Intelligence network, which was comprised of civilians, district officers, plantation owners, and even missionaries. Upon discovering the Coast Watchers existence, the Japanese of course tried to root them out, but failed time and time again. While these Coast Watcher men may not have been capable of hand-to-hand combat, they knew the islands far better than the Japanese. They were thus skilled at alluding capture, remaining hidden in the dense jungle, while spying on the Japanese and providing allied forces with regular radio reports on Imperial troop movements. Apparently, it was a Coast Watcher who alerted the Australians to the Japanese air-based construction on Guadalcanal, who then passed this information along to the Americans, which was the reason the island was chosen for their initial assault. With the help of the Coast Watchers and the Australian Navy, the American forces quickly overran the Japanese coastal defenses, however, the entire campaign to retake the islands would still last for a total of six long and bloody months. After losing their foothold on the beaches, the Japanese began pulling back their forces towards the center of their respective island. They maintained an offensive strategy by way of guerrilla tactics, conducting raids on the American forces, before once again retreating back into the dense jungle. The mountainous jungle terrain was very difficult to navigate, making it a slow effort for the American soldiers and Marines to pursue their enemy. Some islands were cleared of enemy troops within days, others took the entirety of six months. But as the Americans forced them further and further towards the central, unexplored regions of the island jungle, horrifying rumors then began to circulate amongst the Japanese soldiers. Reports were now being made about their men encountering giant, hairy creatures. Giant men. These giants were described as being between eight to fifteen feet tall with red eyes, some of which were covered in shaggy, black, brown, or red hair. But while many such stories have come about during other military campaigns, stories about men like ape creatures, such as the Rockapes or Batutut in Vietnam, these giants were considered an entirely different kind of creature. They were said to be much more human, and they carried massive stone clubs, spears, and other rudimentary weapons. When encountered, these giants were said to mercilessly attack the Japanese men who were unfortunate enough to stumble across them, smashing them with their heavy clubs, spearing them, carrying them off-screening, or even tearing them apart and eating them alive on the spot. Other stories describe the giants displaying territorial acts, bellowing loudly and ripping entire trees out of the ground in massive displays of strength, the terrified Japanese soldiers then scattering into the jungle. The men then tried to hide, laying low to the ground throughout the night, hearing the nerve-wracking sounds of these monstrous beings crashing through the dense jungle around them, hunting them. Sleep became impossible for the Japanese, not only from abject terror, but from the sounds of the giants bellowing howls, and the abruptly silenced screams of fellow soldiers piercing the night air. As the battle raged on over the following weeks, during the daylight hours, the Japanese men had the American forces to contend with on their front lines, and by night, they now live in a constant state of terror, unable to sleep for fear of what would happen to them, if they were found by the giants. If these stories are true, it must mean that at least some of the Japanese soldiers survived to tell them, captured by American troops, terrified by what they had seen, we can imagine these men would have seemed completely delusional when recounting their experiences to their captors. It should be pointed out that the thought of surrendering was unthinkable for a Japanese soldier, whatever the circumstances, although the idea of being ripped apart by giants would likely not have ever occurred to them. Traditionally speaking, their orders were to return home victorious, to die while fighting, or to honorably take their own lives if they were defeated. Many Japanese soldiers were of course taken captive during the war, but culturally, dating as far back to their samurai warrior ethos, the Japanese imperial army viewed survival following defeat as a shameful disgrace. If it was Japanese soldiers who came out of those jungles raving about man-eating giants, it became of these men is now unknown. 80 years later, their stories are now considered myths, at least to most people living outside the Solomon Islands. But bizarre as it sounds, many among the islanders themselves would assure us these kinds of stories are quite possibly true. For locals, the existence of giants on their islands, even their continued existence today, is no myth. It is a commonly accepted fact. The Solomon Islands remain an impoverished and developing country until today, and much of the nation's past has unfortunately been lost to undocumented history. But it is known that by the year 1942, much of the inner regions of the island jungles had long remained unexplored, even by locals. These dense jungles and much of what lives in them remain a complete mystery, even today. The reason for this is found in the islander's ancestral origins. A couple hundred years ago, the Solomon Islanders were comprised entirely of highly territorial, tribal people. These people were known to be headhunters and even cannibals. Always at war with one another, these people lived in fortified encampments, possibly even treetop dwellings for their safety and protection against not only dangerous animal life, but against enemy tribes. When Christian missionaries began arriving to the islands in the 1800s, the religious conversion that took place over the following decades brought an end to these tribal wars, thus eliminating the need to continue living in fortified villages in the hard-to-reach, mountainous jungle interiors. Instead islanders then began building their peaceful village settlements closer to the beaches. This of course set the stage for the perfect, secluded environment for a species of cryptid monsters to now thrive in. Over the following two centuries, the interior jungles and what might live there became increasingly unknown and few locals risked exploring too far into them, but something that did survive over the centuries were the local legends. As much as Europeans might have sung songs or told fables about man-eating predators to keep children from wandering too far into the wild forests, the island people told their children stories about something less conventional than wolves or bears. They told horrifying stories about cannibalistic giants, but why? Ask a local, even today, and they will tell you why, because these giants are real. The Second World War seems to have merely cast an unexpected, international spotlight on their existence. Nicholas Cox is a field archaeologist who has explored these islands in recent years in search of the long-abandoned remains of Japanese island fortifications and wartime artifacts, now buried in 80 years of jungle overgrowth. His interest in the Solomon Islands began in 2019 when a friend mentioned a Nick that he had worked on a Solomon Islands forestry initiative in 1995, his friend being the first non-Islander to see the remains of World War II Japanese tunnels on the island of Kalamongara. Nick then excitedly began planning his own expedition to the islands, and it was during his preliminary research for this expedition that he stumbled across these accounts of Japanese soldiers supposedly encountering terrifying gigantic men. He noted that these stories about the Japanese encountering giants have largely been circulated by non-Japanese sources, however, these same stories do of course circulate in both English and Japanese-speaking cryptosoological forums, articles, and other websites, with Japanese people referring to these beings as "titans". As fascinating as the stories were, Nick was disheartened to find no actual documented personal accounts or anecdotes from individual Japanese soldiers, somewhat deflated by this lack of evidence he started to think that the stories may be entirely fabricated. Upon reaching the islands however, his interest in the stories was almost immediately rekindled. When he asked about giants, the locals attitude towards the existence of them was shockingly mundane, they said it was entirely true without any hint of the existence of such giants being mythological. Much to his surprise, some of the islanders he spoke with even assured him of the giants ongoing existence even until today. Our islanders said they believed the giants had gone extinct, or possibly because of their violent natures, had killed each other off hundreds of years ago, at least by the time the Christian missionaries had started arriving to the islands. As for the stories involving Japanese soldiers, while no locals could confirm these stories themselves, they stated that they very well could be true. And if the giants do exist, they said, the island's interior regions are exactly where anyone would find them. Do if any locals ever explore so far into the interior jungles, in part because of their very real fear of what might live there. During these conversations with the island people who are primarily all devout Christians, along with the stories about legendary giants, they also acknowledged their family connections to headhunter tribes. They possess an ancestral history of which many locals expressed a feeling of remorse, yet also a kind of morbid fascination with regard to the violent and cannibalistic behavior of their ancestors. Because the giants themselves are also thought to be cannibalistic, some islanders believe that their native ancestors were cannibals because their culture was influenced by their prolonged contact with these violent, man-eating giants. While many of the islands in the Solomon Island chain are said to have no giant populations to speak of, Nick was told that the island of Malaita is replete with giants. Bizarrely, a local man named Ishmael claimed that he himself was descended from these giants, and that among his family lineage was a particular giant who was a notable figure, a celebrated warrior from a tribe of giants on the island of Malaita, who lived during the colonial period when headhunter still thrived. And I'll explain that while many giants lived in the jungles, others like his ancestral line lived in the cave systems. Despite being separated on the surface by miles of ocean, there are locals who even believe some of the islands are linked by these extensive cave systems. Whether Ishmael's family history is believable or not, this idea of strange beings or cryptids remaining isolated by living in deep underground cave systems is not an uncommon belief around the world, whether or not it ties into the hollow earth theory that many ascribe to. As for the ancestral origin of the giants, among the Solomon Island people exists an understanding that, although they are a distinctly separate creature, whatever the original lineage of these giants is, it was born out of humanity. The name Solomon Islands itself comes from scripture, named after King Solomon. At the Islanders now being primarily Christian, they may inherently ascribe the giants lineage to that of a race of giants known in the Old Testament as the Nephilim. As such, because of their genetic lineage being traced back to humans, it is believed that they can thus still interbreed with humans, and the Islanders even have stories about this happening. For instance, the Guadalcanal people and many other Solomon Islanders all know the story of Mango, a local woman who passed away in the year 2000. The story goes that around 1950, only a few years after the end of the war, she had disappeared from her village, after failing to find her everyone eventually gave her up for dead. That is, until she was found, 25 years later, hysterically frothing at the mouth, clearly mad in a garden on the northeast coast of Guadalcanal, seeing that she was heavily pregnant in a need of help, the men captured her with some difficulty. Sadly, she remained mentally unstable for the rest of her life, but she was at least nurse back to the brink of sanity, enough to explain what had happened to her. Nothing much was ever said about the entire 25-year period of her absence, but she was able to communicate that she had been taken captive by a giant, who had taken her as a wife. She claimed she was eventually impregnated by this giant, which was the child she was now carrying. Through her pregnancy, she eventually gave birth to what the locals believed was a half-cast boy. The boy lived to the age of five, at which point, for some unknown reason, one of Mango's brothers, the boy's uncle, is said to have killed him. Some islanders are said to know where the boy is buried, and according to others, Mango is evidently just one of several women to whom this type of thing has happened. This account of Mango in the existence of giants on the Solomon Islands was largely brought to international attention when it was published in a book titled Solomon Islands Mysteries, Accounts of Giants and UFOs in the Solomon Islands. The author, Marius Borel, began living in the Solomon Islands in 1995, following the end of his own military career as an aircraft/helicopter engineer with the Royal Australian Air Force. Within his book are two more similar instances to the story of Mango, where Guadalcanal women have been taken by the Giants. He also recounts many of the oral histories that were told to him by the islanders. These included stories about their ancestral tribes fighting "literal wars" with the Giants. On occasions when the Giants began killing the islanders, either for food or seemingly just for sport. Brazenly raiding their villages as with the Japanese stories, there are horrible accounts of the Giants eating people alive on the spot. Numerous village chiefs then sent their warrior hunting parties after them, only for them to return in vain with fewer and fewer warriors. From the accumulation of this research it occurred to Marius that the Giants had for a time considered the Solomon Islander people like pigs to be eaten. He believes one of the major reasons why the Solomon Island population is far smaller than they should be is because with over 5,000 years of Giants on the island's treating humans as food to be eaten, those people never had the opportunity to breed. He additionally suggested that from his own studies, his opinion on why the Giants stopped hunting the island people is a culmination of three things, a war among the Giants tribes that took place some time in previous centuries, the introduction of firearms to the islands, and quite bizarrely alien intervention. Suffice it to say, the book makes for an interesting read. Having read this book during his expedition research when he was interviewed in 2021 on the Into the Portal podcast, Nicholas Cox offered his own opinion on Boreal's work. Nick acknowledged that despite his fascination with exploring any combination of military history and cryptozoology, such crossovers seem to always tread a fine line between reality and far-fetched conspiracy. He pointed out that Marius' book is heavily criticized by skeptics because of the author's frequent and seemingly sporadic deflections into his theories about world-order governments, alien cover-ups, and his knowledge of the existence of subterranean UFO bases on the islands. If not only to add to the growing weirdness of this story, as indicated by Marius in his book, the islands are evidently no stranger to UFO sightings. There's at least one undocumented incident where American sailors described seeing dozens of bright orbs flying in a diamond formation over their ships during the invasion of Guadalcanal. Believing it to be some kind of new Japanese weapon, their defenses were scrambled, but the UFOs eventually disappeared without incident and were ultimately forgotten about in the following invasion. As regard to the existence of giants, however, there is another intriguing account that is attributed to Boreal and his time spent living on the islands. On the island of Guadalcanal is a gold mine, aptly called Gold Ridge Mine. For various reasons, over the last 30 years, it has gone in and out of being an active mining project, but in the mid-90s, shortly following an extensive negotiation with the island government for the approval of the mining efforts, the mining company was finally given the green light to begin clearing out the surrounding jungle to open up the gold mine. At some point during excavation, one of the bulldozers was rendered inoperative when the massive dozer blade detached, one of its large retaining pins having broken. The blade weighed several tons, and because they did not have the necessary equipment to lift it out of the mud, the remaining pins were removed and the blade was completely detached. The men planned to conduct the necessary repairs to the dozer overnight and would reattach the blade the following day, so the crew and their equipment went home for the day, leaving the blade stuck in the mud. The next morning, however, the crew was startled to return to the site only to find that the massive blade had disappeared. When more startling were the now three to four foot long humanoid footprints appearing in the mud around where the blade had been lodged, after scouting the surrounding area the blade was found about a hundred meters away on the side of a small hill. Baffled, the men realized that something with very large feet had seemingly picked up the blade and moved it, possibly it had even thrown the heavy blade a good distance based on where the footprints ended, and where the blade was found. Mary offers at least something to compare with the stories regarding the Japanese encounters, in that the locals and mine workers always left the jungle areas before nightfall. The Japanese soldiers however had no choice but to remain in the deep jungle recesses overnight, for months, which might explain why they and these giants eventually crossed paths. If at all true, the giants perhaps became annoyed by their prolonged invasion of their territory, the noise of the gunfire, or otherwise felt threatened by these armed men, which resulted in their violent responses. In trying to rationalize that the stories might have some shred of truth to them, Nicholas Cox points out that the Solomon Islanders have also reported seeing other kinds of hairy, humanoid creatures on the islands. A creature known as the Kakamora, something akin to a North American Sasquatch, or perhaps more closely the Australian Yahweh, is believed to inhabit many of the island jungles. If true, and if it all related to their international counterparts, it's no surprise that island locals describe these Kakamora creatures in ways similar to the descriptions offered by those who have encountered creatures like Bigfoot, they are said to be incredibly smelly, hairy, and even have sharp claws, and more horrifically, they are known to eat humans. They are said to enter villages in human settlements around dusk, often to steal fruit from plantations, and the occasional human, typically a child. Having reclusive creatures, they reportedly live in the island interiors, and are said to dwell in either tall trees or caves. As far as they're perceived intelligence, the Kakamora do not appear to be capable of making fire, but have been said to steal fire from humans, which is then used to create their own fires. They are otherwise said to possess a strange cackling type of language, and have been seen or heard singing while gathered together, an eerie kind of song reverberating through the dense jungle. Nicholas Cox said with interest that during his own research into the stories about giants, he himself had read extensive articles written by German anthropologists around the turn of the 20th century. In these men's articles, he was surprised to find that they offered rather prosaic descriptions of the Kakamora, in a way that would make the reader consider them to be everyday creatures. They speak plainly about their diet, their lifestyles, and other facets of the Kakamora's nature that would not be expected if these were undocumented creatures or mythical cryptids. Nick also reasoned that anthropologically, two separate but similarly behaved creatures that giants in the Kakamora could not possibly exist within the same regions without one of the two being driven to extinction. He therefore surmised that the smaller-sized Kakamora, which are often described around being four to five feet tall, are more likely what is being portrayed as giants, or perhaps a juvenile version of the giants. But as far as the idea that a four-foot creature would eventually grow into a 15-foot monster, his opinion is that, as with all fisherman's tales, the stories of these giants reaching such massive heights is likely an embellishment. With each retelling of the stories, especially by men who were frightened off by them and wanted to justify their abject terror, the creatures get taller and taller. It's unreasonable to think, he says, that such massive creatures could remain undocumented when their sheer size would require a large diet, an extensive foraging range on these small islands, and likely frequent exposure to modern humans. Notice the legends about giants, he thinks, might stem from encounters with larger, adult Kakamoras. Even if they reached a maximum height of just over that of six or seven feet, their size and unusual appearance could still be terrifying to behold, Solomon Islanderman stand on average at about five feet four inches in height. But with regard to the intervention of giants against the occupation of Guadalcanal by Japanese forces during World War II, Marius Boreon at least acknowledges one mystery that puzzled the American forces after landing on the island. The Japanese had months to prepare for the American counter-strike, so when the Marines landed at Red Beach on August 7, they were surprised to find no Japanese resistance waiting for them. No American casualties were sustained during their landing. Moving west and further inland, they then quickly secured the partially constructed airfield at Lunga Point, which was then renamed by the Americans to Henderson Airfield. This almost complete lack of resistance was certainly uncharacteristic of the Japanese during any of the following island campaigns. So why did such a large force of Japanese eventually flee? The primary conclusion by historians is that the Japanese simply did not expect the Americans to target the island, even in spite of knowing the island's strategic value. It is assumed that they had succumbed to complacency because of all their previous victories in Asia, and were genuinely surprised by the Allied invasion. That, and the Americans had anticipated thousands more Japanese soldiers to be on the island. But the tens of thousands of Japanese soldiers that fought in the battle arrived to the island by way of the Japanese navy as reinforcements, after the American invasion had already commenced. In his book, Marius stated his belief that, despite what is recorded in the history books, "Apart from some Japanese soldiers of the Guadalcanal occupation of World War II losing their lives due to being a free feed for the giants, they more than likely had a few encounters with a species of "warrior half human lizard types." And when the news got back to Jap headquarters about what was happening, it was "abandoned island and let them have it." That's why there were no Japanese to be initially found when the Allies arrived on Guadalcanal, and why the Japanese got a good hiding on the way out, end quote. So now we see the larger picture of Marius' theory, which is that the Japanese were also being picked off by "warrior half human lizard creatures," which prompted the Japanese to then want to abandon the island altogether. But if that were remotely true when the Japanese were encountering these creatures and the giants before the Americans pushed the Japanese back into the jungles, well, it doesn't explain why the Japanese navy was then still sending thousands of troops to continue fighting to keep the island. This is likely one aspect of Marius' seemingly bizarre approach to explaining what took place on the island that draws heavy criticism from skeptics. For everything we've covered so far, these lizard men are a bit of a hard shift for this story. But in short, combined with his suspicions about the island's hiding numerous subterranean UFO bases, Marius believes there is a race of reptilian humanoids living in those same cave systems. These subterranean creatures are, of course, something that has been purportedly seen in other areas of the world, no less the double creatures that were reported by several American soldiers fighting in Vietnam. In relation to these creatures, Marius visited the Japanese war memorial on Guadalcanal and recounted his visit in the book. While the primary feature of the memorial is a large geometric concrete statue, one corner of the original memorial garden hosted a bronze statue of a man. Marius' interpretation of this statue was that it is "a half-human man with scales, who is holding a ray-gun-style object that is attached to the end of his tail." But others have pointed out that the statue is not of someone with scales holding a gun. It was a fisherman holding a net and looking out to sea. The statue was evidently made before the war by a Japanese sculptor who was drafted into the Imperial Army and was killed on Guadalcanal. The statue was then apparently donated by his father to the Mount Austin Memorial. Why Marius describes the statue as portraying a lizard person, does come off a bit conspiratorial, trying to tie the statue in with the supposed existence of the lizard man. But if only to add to the statue's intrigue and the strangeness of this story, the statue had bullet holes fired through it by MEF militants sometime between 1999 and 2003. And then in 2008, thieves apparently sawed the statue down and stole it, presumably to sell it for scrap. But because it was too heavy to carry, it was abandoned nearby. And to date, the statue has not been put back, as the likelihood is that it would be stolen again and is believed to be kept in storage somewhere on the island. Getting back to the Japanese aspect of this story, again, why would they send reinforcements to save an island that they did not want? The simple fact that the Japanese had only a few hundred troops on the island prior to the invasion and that that was a genuine error committed out of complacency, that would seem a much more practical explanation than anything else. and whatever the case that you are. UFO sightings, the Kakamora, the local legends, the violent history of these islands, and these bizarre stories about Japanese soldiers encountering reptilian humanoids and giants. All of this spins a fascinating web of mystery around the Solomon Islands that remains to be fully explained. All of this makes the islands sound like something out of a King Kong movie. And indeed, perhaps there is a reason why the Solomon Islands' national logo is literally the land that time forgot, a title that has been given to books and movies portraying that general theme of prehistoric creatures surviving on a secluded island. But even if all the stories about giants living on these islands are merely legends and folklore, where did they originate from? One possibility to consider comes from a seemingly unrelated magazine article from a 1977 edition of the Pacific Islands Monthly, which is titled Kakamora Goes Home. This article is an obituary piece on a well-respected doctor who spent the majority of his adult life living with and serving the Malaysian people on the island of Makira. Having moved to the island as a missionary school teacher in 1903, the article states with interest that Makira was one of the islands well known for its cannibalism in the old days. During his stay on the island, Dr. Fox was adopted into the Arosi tribe and exchanged names with a young chief thus adopting his nickname Kakamora, which would indicate the chief was named after the strange Harry creatures said to live on the island. The article goes on to say that in 1933, Dr. Fox went to live on the island of Malaita, which was, quote, "an island greatly feared because of the hostility of its people." But this was during 1933, and the people of Malaita were still considered hostile. And this is the same island that the locals still say is "replete with giants." And one man named Ishmael said he was descended from a warrior giant from this island. The article even points out that Dr. Fox was a coast watcher himself, providing intelligence and helping the Allied invasion root out the Japanese. But get this, quote, "the Japanese always tried to catch him, but he was always warned of their approach in time and was able to escape into the interior where the Japanese were afraid to follow because of the hostility of the natives." So far from being a religious, peaceful, and ocean-side dwelling people, it seems that during World War II, the people living on the island of Malaita remained a hostile, tribal people who lived in the interior jungles and terrorized the Japanese soldiers. So perhaps it was merely violent local tribesmen that terrified the Japanese, and these larger-than-life stories about cannibalistic giants attacking them were born out of that. Or perhaps giving credence to the documented existence of these hairy hominid creatures, it was a combination of the two. The term Kakamura and the name Dr. Charles Fox appear once again in a 2008 publication called Images of the Wild Man in Southeast Asia, written by Professor Gregory Forth of the Department of Anthropology at the University of Alberta, Canada. The book examines so-called "Wild Man," images of hairy human-like creatures known to rural villagers and other local people in Southeast Asia and elsewhere. Professor Forth's research mirrors much of what Nicholas Cox found about the anthropological studies of these creatures and the well-established history they have in the Solomon Islands, especially on the island of Malaita, where Dr. Fox lived and worked for much of his life. Being nicknamed Kakamura after the tribal chief, it's no wonder why he would have otherwise obtained that name. Dr. Fox himself evidently studied these creatures with interest. His research has cited multiple times by Professor Forth. Their hairy appearance and sharp nails, their behavior in stealing food and even fire, their unintelligible language and even their use of spears and nets used to catch humans, and even a diet consisting of nuts, fruit, fish, and yes, even human flesh. This is all repeated in Dr. Forth's own research, collectively gathered from at least a century of documented studies combined with Dr. Fox's research and with interviews with Melanesian locals from different islands within the Solomon Island chain and even beyond. This article makes it clear that it was Dr. Fox who might have first identified the gradual disappearance and later resurgence of the Kakamura population due to the introduction of firearms around 1860, followed by the British authorities' confiscation of firearms in the early 20th century. Reported sightings of Kakamura resumed just two or three months after the recall, said Dr. Fox in his 1924 publication titled "The Threshold of the Pacific, an account of the social organization, magic, and religion of the people of San Cristival in the Solomon Islands." When pressed by the weight of the independent testimony he gathered, Dr. Fox was open to the possibility of Kakamura actually existing in the large forest-covered tracks in the interior of the Solomon's. As he noted, around 1920, the islanders were hopeful of capturing Kakamura for which they believed the colonial government would pay 20 English pounds per specimen. Fox alternatively suggested the creatures could reflect an earlier race, either in the Solomon's or in the islands from whence the Solomon Islanders had come. As Nicholas Cox suggested, it seems unlikely that a commonly observed creature resembling a bipedal ape would be the same species of animal as the 8-15-foot giants that have been less frequently observed. So again, perhaps these Kakamura creatures, despite their smaller stature, and perhaps in combination with the hostile locals on Malaita, are what we can ultimately credit for the origin of these stories about giants, at least with respect to the Japanese. But it cannot be denied that the existence of giants and their relation to humans goes back thousands of years, and despite widespread skepticism, they are widely considered to be real, whether or not they still exist today. The scripture speaks about them multiple times, as the ancient Israelites who traversed the desert regions of what is now Egypt and Israel encountered these beings, terrified by their appearance and saying they look like grasshoppers by comparison. And there are bizarre stories circulating still today of encounters with similarly described creatures, such as the story of a cave-dwelling spear-wielding giant encountered by US service members in 2002 in the Kandahar province of Afghanistan. Evidence of giants living in other places around the world would seem to give credence to the idea that these giants migrated around the planet the same as their human counterparts. According to archaeological evidence, it is believed that some 30,000 years ago, when giant animals still roamed the continent, the first Native Americans arrived from Asia, crossing an existing land bridge, and bizarrely, much more recently, other archaeological evidence and newspaper reports from the 20th century would seem to indicate the natives may not have been the only beings to cross over. Vastly distant from the Solomon Islands, their tribal people, and certainly from their cultural origins, several Native American tribes have their own horrifying legends about encountering giants in both central and North America, man-eating giants. In an 1833 in Lampok, Rancho, California, several Mexican soldiers were excavating a pit for a powder magazine when they dug up something unexpected, the skeleton of a giant man, which was said to be nearly four meters tall during his lifetime, just over 13 feet. Next to the strange creature lay a huge stone axe, as well as an assortment of stones and shells on which indecisiveable signs were carved, and as future newspaper articles would indicate, this would hardly be the first skeleton of its kind to be found in the Americas. Perhaps there is a threat of truth after all, to the legends about the cannibalistic giant tribes of the Solomon Islands to the Japanese encounters with them, and now the American Native tribes fighting wars with a race of similar beings. But that is a story for another time. Hey, what the hell is the hold-up done there? You've barely gone half a foot since I left you. Ah, Luciento Cabo, we've encountered some hard earth in our way. We'll get through it, but it'll take some time. Bedrock? No, Cabo, impacted gravel by the looks of it. ¡Ah! Damn! ¿Cómo pensé que iba a ser un poco de la gente? ¿Pero qué es el schedule de la gente? ¡Ey! ¿Cómo es eso? Bien, no me voy a ir a la gente, unlesses que quieren la temiente de la gente que nos vamos a ir. Oh, Manuel ¿Qué pasó? Aquí en tu casa, hay algo aquí. ¡Mot grande! Bueno, ¿qué es eso? No sé, parece un feretro, un café. El año es 1819, y el era de Spanish control, sobre partes del norte-americano western, viene a un clas. El mundo está mirando desde el coaste, con las cidades de settledas, y ha cambiado la guerra de la guerra de la guerra de la América, algunos están también empezando a filtrar en partes de Texas, California y en Número, presentando la control de los ciudadanos de los ciudadanos espalados. Quizás sentiendo una confrontación inevitable con las fuerzas americanas, o simplemente volviendo a fortificar a ellos contra los atacos de los ciudadanos de los ciudadanos indígenas, las fuerzas espaladas son la primera vez a la defensa de los defensores, sobre los regiones más de los settlements. Uno de estos es el capital de Lampock. En el que es ahora en Santa Barbara, California, Lampock fue a una francesa de la Francia y una gran número de settledas de Spanish, el sma en el medio de la tierra, belonging a los países de la gente de Chumash. While el objetivo del mundo es convertir los ciudadanos de los ciudadanos de los ciudadanos, las relaciones entre los settledas y los natos, eran más intensas. Como así, los soldados de la guerra de Gerasin era encargado a un nuevo maguete de los grãos de la Francia, entre el intento de la Francia de la California, suelta a los patos de los patos, los meninos se trabajaron en la pida. En primer lugar, las cosas eran bueno, pero después de encargar a los dos de los dos, la construcción de la Fran en un anuncio de la Francia, se han sido un gran laboratorio de la granja de la Francia. Los grãos eran una granja de la Francia y no se les pudieron empezar a los lugares de la Francia. Así que se grabaron sus actos y suelta y se empezó a la rueda de la granja de la granja de la granja, que se se ha sido impactado y hartado por un periodo de tiempo. Se ha sido como un gran gran granja de la Francia. Después de unos días, los soldados, ahora, se han abierto y se han abierto, finalmente han hecho la granja de la Francia, pero instead de trouver más clé o más sofá de la tierra, se han hecho algo, shocking. Los soldados se han abierto y se han abierto de la granja de la Francia y se han abierto de la granja de la Francia. Eso en una parte de la Francia era una granja, a lo menos para estos meninos que no fue familiar con los barrios ritualistas, pero lo que destruyeron la granja de la Francia era que la granja de la Francia era una granja de la Francia, y cuando los soldados se han abierto, se han abierto algo más creduo, el momento que se ha abierto de un hombre que se ha abierto, explica cómo la granja de la granja era tan grande, el esqueleto se expande la entire barra de la cabeza, sobre las corpes de los barrios, son actos, espíritas, carbacelos, y cincuentes de porfrarirac, con suelos, hiracos de cincuentes, como se han empezado a examinar el hombre más cláosamente, el hombre ha visto algo más distinculado, el malo se ha sido de dos rostros de los barrios y los barrios, en una descomputación de lo que se han hecho, los meninos que se han abierto y se han abierto, los los barrios locales que se han abierto, se han abierto algo más creduo, sobre lo que los soldados se han abierto. After bringing a careful of Chumosh to the digsite, los soldados ledan a los hermosos de la open pit, en ver el esqueleto geolotón y relácteos, los natos se han abierto. According to Chumosh, ¿qué los soldados de los soldados se han abierto? Esa era la forma de un hombre de los artistas del barrio, known como aligui. Los soldados explican que aligui, se han abierto mucho más de los estados, sobre la misicípia y Ohio River. Los hermosos de warfare contra otros detalles se han abierto a los soldados y el West, todo el camino a la California. Chumosh también ha abierto los cícitos de los hermosos de los hermosos de los hermosos de los hermosos de los hermosos. Con la costa y con respecto a los hermosos de los hermosos, la corregió de la misión de la misión de los soldados advíos, que es el mejor que reberen las ramas y quitar la descobertura contra sus hermanas. Después de todo, la misión de la clorje fue a introducir el chumacho de la gente de la Christianity y la civilization de Westerna. El último que necesitaba fue a apreciar a ellos por desecirar algo de los chumachos de la gente, considerado sacredo. Los soldados rápidos reberen la creación y su sarcophagus. Los patrónes de la construcción de la construcción de una otra parte de la racha y la parte de la parte de la gente que se ha llegado. Esa es hasta 1833, cuando los recorreros de la descobertura son believedos de los fondos de la mexicana de los Estados Unidos. México ha expuesto la primera década en un país para su independencia, finalmente formando la espéna de la norte y la Central América por los 18-20. Es entonces presumed que el accounto de la calentidad de la calentidad en Lampok fue encontrado entre los escadredos que se le dieron por casi el militario de español o la clergyman. Pero la historia fue descubrida, la mención de los aligüeos aligüe de la gente de la nata chumash, es por no decir que es un único que se descubre de la calentidad de la calentidad de la calentidad de los aligüeos. Asiores, como indicado por los chumashilders, el aligui no es parte de la fóquula chumashina. El nombre aligui y su apetido de reputación, parece en las historias orales de muchas de las naciones indígenas, desde todo el norteamerica. According to the Delaware, Irocoi, Cherokee y Algonquin, the aligui once ruled over the lands of what is now the eastern United States. It is said that in ancient times, their fortified settlements dotted the banks of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers. The Delaware natives sometimes refer to the Ohio River as Aligui Sipo, or River of the Aligui. Lending credibility to their existence, across these different cultures, the descriptions of the aligui are consistent, both in their physical appearance and behavior. While similar to humans, they are described as having distinct pale skin and red hair. The aligui are widely said to have been gigantic people, they towered over early men. While the reported use of tools, primitive clothing, and defensive fortifications depicts them as being both sophisticated and intelligent, the aligui were also known to be violent, a warrior society, one that, according to the spoken history of the Lenape Delaware people, was not kind to outsiders. In 1819, John Heck welder, a writer and Christian missionary who had spent much of his career with Native Americans, published a book titled "History, Manners, and Customs of the Indian Nations, who once inhabited Pennsylvania and the neighboring states." Although Heck welder's primary goal was to aid in converting the indigenous peoples to Christianity, he became fascinated by their many stories, myths, and legends, one that really stood out to him was a story shared by the Lenape people of the Delaware nation. According to Heck welder, the native's ancestors arrived in the east only to be confronted by gigantic people. The Lemme Lenape, according to the traditions handed down to them by their ancestors, resided many hundred years ago in a very distant country in the western part of the American continent. For some reason in which I do not find accounted for, they determined on migrating to the eastward and accordingly set out together in a body. After a very long journey and many nights and campments by the way, they at length arrived on the Namesi Sippet, where they fell in with the Mengue, who had likewise emigrated from a distant country and had struck upon this river somewhat higher up. The spies, which the Lenape had sent forward for the purpose of reconnoitering, had long before their arrival discovered that the country east of the Mississippi was inhabited by a very powerful nation, who had many large towns built on the Great Rivers flowing through their land. Those people, as I was told, called themselves "tallygu" or "tallygui". Colonel John Gibson, however, a gentleman who has a thorough knowledge of the Indians and speaks several of their languages, is of the opinion that they were not called "tallygui" but "allygui". Many wonderful things are told of this famous people. They are said to have been remarkably tall and stout, and there is a tradition that there were giants among them. People of a much larger size than the tallest of the Lenape. It is related that they had built to themselves regular fortifications or entrenchments. When the Lenape arrived on the banks of the Mississippi, they sent a message to the Alegui to request permission to settle themselves in their neighborhood. This was refused them, but they obtained leave to pass through the country and seek a settlement farther to the eastward. They accordingly began to cross the Namsessi Sea Poo. When the Alegui, seeing that their numbers were so very great, and in fact they consisted of many thousands, made a furious attack on those who had crossed, threatening them with all destruction if they dared to persist in coming over to their side of the river. Fired at the treachery of these people, and the great loss of men they had sustained, and the sides not being prepared for a conflict, the Lenape consulted on what was to be done, whether to retreat in the best manner they could, or try their strength, and let the enemy see that they were not cowards, but men. The Menguei, who had hitherto been satisfied with being spectators from a distance, offered to join them on condition that after conquering the country, they should be entitled to share it with them. Their proposal was accepted, and the resolution was taken by the two nations, conquer or die. The Lenape and Menguei declared war against the Alegui, and great battles were fought in which many warriors fell on both sides. The enemy fortified their large towns and erected fortifications, especially on large rivers and near lakes, where they were successfully attacked and sometimes stormed by the Allies. An engagement took place in which hundreds fell, who were afterwards buried in holes, or laid together in heaps and covered over with earth. No quarter was given, so that the Alegui, at last, finding that their destruction was inevitable if they persisted in their obstinacy, abandoned the country to the conquerors, and fled down the Mississippi River, from once they never returned. When a man like John Heck welder publishes a book, he puts his name on it, knowing that book might become his legacy. It doesn't seem reasonable that Heck welder would spend so much of his life living around native people learning their culture, their history, and then publish a book titled "History, Manors and Customs of the Indian Nations" who once inhabited Pennsylvania and the neighboring states, and intend for anyone to read this book as fiction. So that's it, there were giants living in the Eastern United States, but due to their territorial violence, two tribes, the Lenape and Mengue, decided enough was enough. They took a leaf out of David's book and stood up against Goliath, driving the giants out of their lands. Whether believable or not, the concept of early man going to war with other pre-human species is something that scientifically verified. As humans began to establish their dominance over the world thousands of years ago, its belief they came to blows with another branch of human evolution, the Neanderthals. Like the epic battle between the American natives and the giants, it was a fight for survival. Through a variety of factors, including disease and warfare, humans slowly managed to push the Neanderthals from their lands. As far as we know, having never found a living specimen, this is what led to the complete extinction of the Neanderthals. According to the Lenape story, the Aligui faced the same expulsion, realizing that they couldn't defend their lands, they retreated south down the Mississippi River. And if this was the case, one of the native tribes they were bound to encounter as they moved south was the Choctaw people. This begs the question, does Choctaw legend and oral history also speak about giants? It does. Giants are incorporated into their own story of creation. However, they don't refer to these giants as Aligui. Horatio Bardwell Kushman wrote on the subject in his 1899 book, History of the Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Natchez Indians. The tradition of the Choctaws told of a race of giants that once inhabited the now-state of Tennessee, and with whom their ancestors fought when they arrived in Mississippi in their migration from the West. Their tradition states that the Naholo race of giants was of wonderful stature. Kushman said Naholo came to be used to describe all white people, but it originally referred specifically to a giant white race with whom the Choctaw came into contact when they first crossed the Mississippi River. Then Naholo were said to be cannibals. Part of the inspiration for Horatio's writing on these legends is a fascinating story spoken by the Choctaw about their ancestors, the Oklahoma people. Choctaw legend says that the first of their people emerged from the dark caverns of Naniwaya, an ancient earth mound located in Southeastern Mississippi. But that is only one part of a much larger story. In an August 1980 issue of the Choctaw Nation's official newspaper, Bishinic, writer Len Greene published a ten-part series titled "Origins of the Choctaw People" retolled from old legends. This segment, simply titled The Great War, tells the story of how the Choctaw's ancestors were driven underground in the first place. Long ago, possibly in the Middle Woodland period between 300 to 600 AD, the territory east of the Mississippi was known as Okla. For the Okla people, this place was a paradise. The fertile soil of the land around Naniwaya allowed the Okla to grow and harvest large amounts of crops, filling their stores with everything from corn, beans, peas, squash, and melons. Likewise, the trees and bushes provided them with all kinds of fruits, nuts, and berries. Game animals were in no short supply and hunters rarely came back empty-handed. Despite some of these hunting parties straying into land controlled by other tribes, resulting in small skirmishes, the Okla people enjoyed a period of uninterrupted peace and prosperity. That is, until a mysterious stranger wandered into their territory one day, with an urgent warning. The man, whose name was Hopenla, claimed to be a messenger of the Almighty Sonfather. He told the Okla that a race of white skinned giants would soon descend on their lands from the north. He frantically explained to anyone that would listen, that they needed to prepare for the coming danger. But the Okla simply laughed off the strange man's ramblings. Soon they would realize the man wasn't a lunatic. Word came down from a few smaller villages on the outskirts of the Okla territory who claimed to have been visited by several massive pale beings. Due to their immense size, the Okla referred to them as the Nahulou. At that time in Choctaw history, Nahulou simply meant giant, but it has since become a blanket term describing white people in the Choctaw language. While the giants were peaceful during their visits, their presence alone was enough to spook members of the Okla hierarchy, who quickly sent bans of warriors to track down the invaders. As these men set out into the countryside, Hopenla was brought before the council of chiefs. While the council's primary concern was to protect their people, they were also adamant about defending their sacred homeland. But Hopenla told them there was no hope in winning a direct fight with Nahulou. The giants were just too powerful. The Okla's best bet for survival was to gather up all the supplies they could and go into hiding. When asked about where they could seek shelter, Hopenla led the chiefs to the river that flowed behind Naniwaya. It was there. there that he showed them a concealed entranceway to an extensive network of caverns, running deep beneath the sacred mound, which were flowing with freshwater streams. Turning to the chiefs, Hopenlas said, "We must bring to this cavern all of the corn we can gather, all of the nuts, all of the pigs, and all of the foodstuffs that we can store. We may also eat of the white and gray mushrooms that grow in these caverns, but we must not touch the black mushrooms, for they are filled with a terrible poison." Though some of the chiefs wanted to wait for the scouting parties to return with more information, Hopenlas insisted that they needed to begin preparations now. Once the invasion started, he said, "It would already be too late, and so it was decided. The chiefs mobilized their people and prepared to shelter underground. Their decision came not a moment too soon. In the fall of that year, the Nahulos struck, with full force. The Nahulos swarmed into Ocula territory from the north, killing and burning everything that stood in their path. By the time the scouting parties returned, what was left of them anyway, the scenes they described were grim. Our arrows and darts, but pierced their skins deep enough to make them angry, the warriors reported, "With their huge clubs and axes they scattered us as a flurry of dried leaves before a high wind. The ground became so slick and from our blood and our escaping entrails that we could hardly stand a fight, and the streams and rivers ran red with the blood of Ocula." Fortunately, by this point, the caverns were just about fully stocked with all of the provisions and supplies the Ocula could muster. For the many chiefs who wanted to stand and fight for their homeland, the decision to abandon it was not an easy one, but the lives of their people were worth more than their pride. And so, the Ocula left the surface behind and journeyed underground. The Ocula would remain hidden underground for some time. Eventually their initial food stores would run dry, they would need to leave their cave on occasion, only a few ever ventured out and only during the nighttime hours, to hunt, fish or harvest what food they could. But even as they hunted for wild game, the Ocula were constantly being hunted by the Hulu. Days would become weeks, weeks would become months, and soon they had spent years in hiding. They were surviving yes, but this was no way to live. They had been underground for so long that some of the younger generations had never even seen the sun or felt its warmth. But one day a rebellious young man stepped forward, determined to change things. What does this war leader suggest we do? For years our people have lived like animals, our children know only darkness and fear, and it is all they will ever know, unless we strike back. Strike back, boy our axes cannot kill the Nahuolo. Our legs are too short to run from them until they die from exhaustion. How can you be a war leader when there is no way you can fight against them? And it is exactly that way of thinking that has doomed our people for generations. Three years, in three years I'll stand before you with a way to do what none of you have dared to do. Oh, and what is that? To take back what is rightfully ours. This young Okla stood before the Council of Chiefs and declared that his name would now be "Polichitati" or "war leader". He passionately appealed to the Chiefs, saying that it was time that they rose up against the Nahuolo and reclaim the surface. Hearing this, the Council laughed, but "Polichitati" was persistent. In three years' time he said he would once again stand before the Council with a plan to fight the giants. Through to his word, "Polichitati" returned to the Chiefs three years later, still stubborn as ever. This time he presented them with a newly developed weapon. It was a small dart that contained a lethal poison harvested from the black mushrooms within the caverns. A pig was brought in and "Polichitati" gave a demonstration, loading one of the darts into a blow gun and firing it into the pig's side. The Chiefs were still skeptical, some could barely stop themselves from laughing. Three years, and this was his grand strategy to beat the giants, a tiny dart, how could it carry enough poison to kill a pig, let alone something as big as a full-grown Nahuolo. Their protests were silenced when the pig suddenly collapsed onto the ground, twitched, and stopped moving. "Polichitati" turned to the Council and said that he had already tested the poison on the Nahuolo, sneaking out one night to stick to the giants with the darts. Both of his targets were dead within minutes, and just like that, there are many years of hiding and being hunted or over. The Okla were ready for war. Armed with blow guns and their new poison darts, the Okla warriors emerged from their caverns in the dead of night, setting off into the countryside to hunt down any Nahuolo they could find. Asleep in their encampments, the giants were blissfully unaware of the small darts being shot into their skin, shrugging them off as bug bites. But then the others awoke to find dozens of their fellow warriors dead. The Nahuolo thought that they were being plagued by some kind of poisonous insect, hoping to avoid being stung themselves, the survivors quickly moved their encampments far away from the Naniwaya mound, where the Okla had remained hidden. The Okla warriors did not relent. They continued attacking the giants night after night, until finally the Nahuolo fled the region entirely. It is here that the common version of the Choctaw Creation story begins. Their Okla ancestors, after years of knowing only war and darkness, emerged from the caverns beneath Naniwaya to reclaim their homeland and build a new future. Having been completely chased out of Okla, the Nahuolo seemed to then disappear from Choctaw history. But like the Aligui, it is possible that what remained of the Nahuolo may have relocated elsewhere. According to stories told by the Paiute peoples, these giants, though now only a small remnant of their former civilization, unable to return north, may have left the east behind and headed towards the desert lands, and the west coast. Born in 1844 near Humboldt Lake, in what is now Nevada, Sarah Winamaka Hopkins was a writer, activist, educator, lecturer, and proud member of the Northern Paiute people. While the world she grew up in was becoming more and more dominated by American and European settlers, she held firm to her indigenous heritage and sought to educate Americans on the history and beliefs of her people. In 1882, Sarah published a book titled Life Among the Paiutes, Their Wrongs and Claims. In chapter 4, she tells a story, one that has long been passed down through Paiute oral history. According to this incredible account, the Paiute people once engaged in a war of total annihilation against a tribe of pale skinned, red-haired barbarians, who made their last stand at a place called Lovelock Cave, a real location in Nevada. The description of this tribe has some notable similarities to the Aligui and Nahulu. These barbarian giants were also said to be cannibals. Among the traditions of our people is one of a small tribe of barbarians who used to live along the Humboldt River. It was many hundred years ago. They used to weigh lay my people and kill and eat them. They would dig large holes in our trails at night, and if any of our people traveled at night, which they did for they were afraid of these barbarous people, they would oftentimes fall into these holes. That tribe would even eat their own dead. Yes, they would even come and dig up our dead after they were buried and would carry them off and eat them. Now and then they would come and make war on my people. They would fight, and as fast as they killed one another on either side, the women would carry off those who were killed. My people say they were very brave. When they were fighting, they would jump up in the air after the arrows that went over their heads and shoot the same arrows back again. My people took some of them into their family. days, but they could not make them like themselves. So at last they made war on them. This war lasted a long time. Their number was about 2600. The war lasted some three years. My people killed them in great numbers and what few were left went into the thick bush. It was a most horrible place for my people watched at the mouth of the cave and would kill them as they came out to get water. My people would ask them if they would be like us and not eat people like coyotes or beasts. They talked the same language, but they would not give up. At last my people were tired and they went to work and gathered wood and began to fill up the mouth of the cave. Then the poor fools began to pull the wood inside until the cave was full. At last my people set it on fire. At the same time they cried out to them. Will you give up and be like men and not eat people like beasts? Say quick, we will put out the fire. No answer came from them. My people said they thought the cave must be very deep or far into the mountain. They had never seen the cave, not known it was there until then. They called out to them as loud as they could. Will you give up? Say so or you will all die. But no answer came. Then they all left the place. In ten days some went back to see if the fire had gone out. They went back to my third or fifth great-grandfather and told him they must all be dead. There was such a horrible smell. This tribe was called people eaters and after my people had killed them all the people round us called us Seidokara. It means conqueror. It also means enemy. I do not know how we came by the name of Paiyuts. It is not an Indian word. I think it is misinterpreted. Sometimes we are called pine nut eaters. For we are the only tribe that lives in the country where pine nuts grow. My people say that the tribe we exterminated had reddish hair. I have some of their hair which has been handed down from father to son. I have a dress which has been in our family a great many years trimmed with this reddish hair. I am going to wear it sometime when I lecture. It is called the morning dress and no one has such a dress but my family. Reports of giants living and fighting for their stake in the Midwest are spoken about by other tribes, including the Kamachi's, a tribe from the Great Plains. Chief rolling thunder of the Kamachis gave the following account of an ancient race of white giants in 1857. In numerous moons ago a race of white men, ten feet high and far more rich and powerful than any white people now living, here inhabited a large range of country extending from the rising to the setting sun. Their fortifications crowned the summits of the mountains, protecting their populous cities situated in the intervening valleys. They excelled every other nation which flourished either before or since, in all manner of cunning handicraft, were brave and warlike, ruling over the land they had rested from its ancient possessors with a high and haughty hand. Compared with them, the pale faces of the present day were pigmies in both art and arms. The chief explained that when this race of giants forgot justice and mercy and became too proud, the great spirit wiped it out and all that was left of their society were the mounds still visible on the tablelands. This account was documented by Dr. Donald Panther Yates, a researcher and author of books on Native American History. Yates also writes of the Starnocke people of Navajo legend, which were described as "a regal race of white giants endowed with mining technology who dominated the west, enslaved lesser tribes, and had strongholds all throughout the Americas. They were either extinguished or went back to the heavens." Around the same time, in 1864, journalist Pedro de Cieza de Leon wrote in Chronicle of Peru about legendary giants described to him by the Manta Indigenous people. There are, however, reports concerning giants in Peru who landed on the coast at the point of Santa Elena, the natives relate the following tradition, which had been received from their ancestors from very remote times. There arrived on the coast in boats made of reeds as big as large ships, a party of men of such size that from the knee downwards their height was as great as the entire height of an ordinary man, though he might be of good stature. Their limbs were all in proportion to the deformed size of their bodies and it was a monstrous thing to see their heads with hair reaching to the shoulders. Their eyes were as large as small plates. De Leon said that the sexual habits of the giants were revolting to the natives and heaven eventually wiped out the giants because of those habits. While it is merely speculation, the existence of these legends from the early native tribes whose territories span from the east all the way to the west of what is currently the United States does seem to paint a picture. If there was any hard evidence of giants existence, this seeming timeline of events, the giants being pushed west in fight after fight and being killed in the process, could offer a reasonable explanation for the decline of the giant population in North America. In the account involving the Paiute people, it's interesting to note that Sarah Winemucka never once referred to the cannibal tribe in the story as giants, only calling them barbarians. There is one mention made of their ability to reach up high and grab arrows flying over their heads that may hint at their impressive size, but the only concrete description Hopkins ever gives is of their white skin, red hair, and violent cannibalistic tendencies. What sets the Paiute story apart from those of the Tumash, the Lenape Delaware, the Choctaw, and the others, is that there is actually some evidence to suggest that a cannibalistic tribe may have once inhabited Lovelock cave. During excavations on the site in 1912, miners unearthed thousands of ancient artifacts. Among them were stone tools, fishing nets, textiles, baskets, and even a few duck decoys used for hunting. The miners left these artifacts in a pile before eventually contacting the University of California. Anthropologist Luelan L. Loud traveled from the University to the site to investigate. Apparently, human bones were also discovered within the cave during later archaeological digs, some of which appeared to have been split open to extract their marrow. Even remains of human hair was discovered and it was red. While the finding of red hair has been disputed by the fact that black hair can turn red over time, it is commonly agreed that the excavation of Lovelock cave was not handled well, and certainly not up to modern standards. But some proponents of the Citica Giants theory say researchers have deliberately covered up any giant remains found there. Of course, the truth behind these incredible stories will likely remain shrouded in mystery. Evidence is important in creating a foundation for belief in anything. Say the dinosaurs, for example. We wouldn't have believed they existed until we found their bones. But even when William Buckland found the fossilized bones of a Megalosaurus in 1824, he wasn't the first. They had already been uncovered for centuries. It was just that nobody knew what the bones were, thinking them to be elephant bones. The idea of extinct giant reptiles was far too radical to consider. Still, dinosaurs wouldn't become a mainstream fascination until 30 years after Buckland's discovery when the Megalosaurus was finally displayed along two other model dinosaurs at London's Crystal Palace in 1854. So perhaps, in the same fashion as the Megalosaurus, evidence of giants has been found and reported by the media, but it just wasn't something something that people at that time found very unusual or very interesting. And over time, the idea of giants ever existing slipped into obscurity, eventually becoming a thing of myth. But if the giants are myths, why would there be stories like these in American newspapers? July 9, 1908, San Francisco, California, the Sunday edition of the call, a widely read and reputable paper had a rather interesting front page. We can read about the day's forecast, clear Southwest wind, maximum temperature 62, with a low of 52. We can read about Mori Preston, the socialist labor candidate for President of the United States, who declined his nomination. Or a bit of hot gossip about Dr. Henry Nelson Minor of Berkeley, who exclaimed the judge that his wife was like a vampire, sucking my blood dropped by drop, during a popular divorce case. Or there's Mr. William Woody of Cottonwood, accidentally shooting through his left hand, and hitting Mrs. Henry Beebe, who was standing next to him, as he cleaned his revolver during the old soldier's camp meeting near Whitmore. There's an update on the rise in anarchy in Salvador, the revolutionaries had just captured the town of Gracias. On crammed in between these everyday stories, is something a bit eye-catching. A story titled "Discover Skeletons of 14 prehistoric Indians" remains of giant race are found near Santa Monica Beach. Special dispatch to the call, Los Angeles, July 8th. Fourteen skeletons of giant Indians, supposed to have roved this section centuries ago, have just been dug from the sands of the beach on the Malibu Ranch, just north of Santa Monica. The smallest skeleton indicates a stature of seven feet, while several of the Indians must have been at least eight feet tall. The discovery was made by three Santa Monica men camping at the mouth of Malibu Canyon. The skull's teeth and bones are in an excellent state of preservation. Many relics of an extinct race have been found in the same locality, but no skeletons of such size have ever before been unearthed. Just over a week later, the same story was run again in another reputable paper, the name might ring a bell, the Lompock Journal. On the front page of the Saturday July 18th, 1908 edition, right above a blurb about new laws regarding railroads and lumber transport safety, and an awful story about a respected government man killing his three-year-old daughter and himself in a fit of insanity, there is a story titled "Find Bones of Giants". Santa Monica, what is believed to be the burial ground of the giant race which inhabited these shores before the discovery of California by Cabrillo, was found last week by campers. On the beach of Malibu Ranch where they camped, the party observed a skull protruding out of the ocean's shelving bank of sand and gravel. Digging a few minutes, they unearthed 14 more skulls and a number of complete skeletons, all more than seven and several over eight feet long, a large collection of heavy stone mortars, pestles, utensils of various kinds, and arrow points were dug up nearby. Imagine a story like that today, squashed into a small section on the front page of your daily paper, and it not being the main headline of the day. Clearly, it was more of an archaeological interest piece rather than something anyone would find all that shocking. So maybe there was a time not too long ago when the existence of Giants wasn't thought to be so far fetched, and in spite of what the first article stated, this discovery on the beaches of Santa Monica, California, is not alone. The front page of the Butler County Democrat from a decade earlier, on January 19th, 1899 in Hamilton, Ohio. The story titled, "Full Description of the Skeleton Found at Miami's Burg." A skeleton measured at 8 feet 1.5 inches was found buried in a sitting position, with the skull drooped between the knees. It was uncovered in the Miami Valley by two men, an area where it was apparently common to find relics of what the article refers to as "mound builders." The article goes into detail, discussing the anthropological comparisons that were being made between this large fossilized skeleton and Pithecanthropus erectus discovered by Dr. Dubois in Java. Then there's page three of the Northern Arizona paper, the Prescott Journal Minor, published on February 11th, 1913, a few years after the Santa Monica Beach discovery. Ancient burying ground uncovered, skeletons found indicate that race of giants once lived on banks of Sycamore Creek, another 8-foot skeleton discovered this time by Mr. Corbin of Sycamore Creek. The story also alludes to the discovery of a second massive skeleton, by a man named Peter Marks on Walnut Creek only a few months prior. There's even a discovery much more recently that made headlines. Perhaps it went unnoticed during the height of the COVID pandemic, or because most people have no real interest in the existence of giants. But in January 2022, another article was published by an archaeological magazine and quickly circulated online. And 7-8-foot skeletons uncovered in Ecuador sent for scientific testing. It seems Pedro de Cieza de Leon's interviews with the Monta people from 160 years ago now have some validation. The article explains that British archaeologist Russell Demont and his team are, as of three years ago, currently analyzing skeletal remains discovered in Ecuador and Peru. These bones, dating back to the 14th and 15th centuries, belong to individuals who stood an astonishing 7-8-foot tall. The research, funded by Germany's Freia Université or Free University, hopes to uncover whether these finds validate the long-held belief in a race of exceptionally tall people who once roamed this region of the Amazon. The team is proceeding with extreme caution, as Demont said, quote, "Even though I had been working for Frey for many years, I was afraid that they may not provide funding for someone hunting for giants, even scientists may find this a little far-fetched, especially outsiders. In light of the sensational nature of this, we must be extremely careful in our investigation, because it will be met with a lot of mistrust." What makes these findings even more intriguing is the remarkable health of the skeletons, which show no signs of the typical abnormalities associated with gigantism. Instead, they exhibit healthy joints and large lung capacities. To suggest that their height might have been a natural characteristic of their population, rather than a medical condition. The discovery site also reveals ornate burial practices, which help preserve these unique remains. It's been three years, as Demont's team continues their meticulous work, including DNA analysis. The world waits to see if these ancient giants will rewrite our understanding of human history in the Amazon jungles and beyond, bringing these age-old legends into the realm of scientific fact. War Time Stories is created and hosted by me, Luclemana, written by Jake Howard and myself, audio editing sound design mixing and mastering by Alex Carpenter, with additional audio work by me. Animation and motion design and production coordination by David Williamson, research by Jake Howard and myself. Artwork by Piccata and Radomere Isgarovic.