Random animals you have met on missions

[mikeylikey]

Man......Zebras are mean animals.  I would not want to walk into one.  At the zoo is one thing, but in the wild, a Zebra will chew your freaking face off. 

[TEAM SURGE]

Man......Zebras are mean animals.  I would not want to walk into one.  At the zoo is one thing, but in the wild, a Zebra will chew your freaking face off. 

I had no idea!
I always thought of Zebras as like kinda like a cow you know just kinda eat and mope around

[mikeylikey]

Man......Zebras are mean animals.  I would not want to walk into one.  At the zoo is one thing, but in the wild, a Zebra will chew your freaking face off. 

I had no idea!
I always thought of Zebras as like kinda like a cow you know just kinda eat and mope around

Ya....eat your face, and mope around all over your body. 

[TEAM SURGE]

Man......Zebras are mean animals.  I would not want to walk into one.  At the zoo is one thing, but in the wild, a Zebra will chew your freaking face off. 

I had no idea!
I always thought of Zebras as like kinda like a cow you know just kinda eat and mope around

Ya....eat your face, and mope around all over your body. 

ZZZZZZZZZ........ no thanks! I will stay away from Zebras!

[Tubacap]

It was especially bad when NBC news showed the tape of police officers rounding dogs up and shooting them.  However, dogs will revert to pack minded animals within 3 days of no human contact or food.  They become vicious, and will kill people.  Dogs are nice when they have people to interact with, but remove the person and the dog is no different than a wild zebra.

Interesting to note..... cats were seen acting the same way.  Cats that were neighbors and would fight with each other were found to be living together in communal hunting parties after the people left.  Weird stuff, that really has never been seen before, because we don't have many major cities destroyed that often.

Then again, people revert to uncivilized brutal monsters when they are deprived of fresh food and water for a few days as well.  Take away creature comforts and we are no different than Cats and Dogs.       

I just did a research presentation on human behavior in regards to traditional gender roles in the aftermath of a disaster.  It is interesting to note that men turn into the "hunters and gatherers" of the house taking care of construction and insurance claims, and women tend to stay home and take care of the immediate needs of the household.

[JROB]

About two weeks ago a suicidal turkey decided to fly into our van

[ol'fido]

Once had a cadet stepped on by a cow during some nocturnal tactical exercises(war games!) the night before a mission. He fell asleep in a pasture near the fence line and the cow was just grazing along. No injuries were reported by either the cadet or the cow.

Once had a cadet punch a deer in the snout late one night in a corn field during war games. The deer was grazing through the corn when the cadet sprang from ambush at what he thought was another cadet moving through the corn rows. The punch was a reflex action. "Mongo hit deer!" The cadet was thereafter known as "Deerslayer". It is not known what the deer was referred to by the other deer after this episode.

Once had two female cadets want to pet the nice kitty. It was black and had white stripes down its back. Pee-ewww!

A ground team training exercise in deeeep Southern Illinois had to engage in an emergency retrograde action( they ran like heck) after encountering a timber rattler that  was decribed as being "as thick as my wrist".

And finally, there was the cadet who while on firewatch during a bivouac at the Garden of the Gods State Park. Heard coyotes barking and baying just beyond the bushes of the campsite. When it was pointed out to him that on the other side of the bushes was a 150' sheer cliff, he claimed that they must ahve been "Flying Coyotes".

[tarheel gumby]

on a FLWG SAREX bumped into a drunk that swore that he was being chased by the "Skunk APE"........ I almost wet myself laughing
That was waay back in the 1980's

[RedFox24]

Olefido

We didn't run like heck, we "tactically withdrew".  That wasn't the last timber rattler I have run into, unfortunately, but he was the meanest one.   

Wasn't the "flying coyotes" cadet from Bloomington?  Forgot all about that until I read that. 

Saw "Deerslayer" the other night, but made it a point not to engage him in conversation!!! 

What about the kid and the glow worms?  I can see his face but can't remember his name.  That had to have been early 80's?

Memories, memories!!!

[ol'fido]

Cadet Jernick from Evanston.

[stevensauri]

It was probably an alpaca.  They're used for their fur like a sheep.

I haven't encountered anything overly weird.  I've encountered the normal creatures.  Lots of deer, wild turkey (the animal not the other thing), foxes, groundhogs, snakes, spiders, mysterious furry animals, the boogeyman in the middle of the night, and the all too common sleep deprived cadet.

The most interesting thing I saw was during a training activity.  Myself and another person were standing at a rocky overlook over some rapids on a river.  I looked down at a rock less than a foot in front of me and was startled by a diamond back rattlesnake just laying there sunning itself.  I then looked around and found 2 more sitting about a foot on either side of the first snake.  They were all just sitting out there sunning themselves.  It was pretty interesting to see.

lol the sleep deprived cadet ive seen those countless times

[Major Lord]

An interesting approach to dealing with Wild Bears: http://www.adn.com/2010/07/22/1378026/officers-taser-scares-off-bear.html

I was attacked by a pack of household dogs-gone-feral on the outskirts of New Orleans shortly after the hurricane. Many had collars and looked like friendly woofie dogs, but they were very cleverly "pack hunting" me and the people I was protecting. A couple stayed in view to draw my attention while the others tried to flank me. Bad doggies, bad doggies! The dogs that did not get a 5.56 round in the snout now know better than to attack a guy with an AR-15 and a 1911. I wish I had a flash-bang; I really love dogs and hate to kill them.

One of our old-timers in the Squadron was on a mission in heavy fog in the foothills of Northern California. One of the team members thought they heard sounds of moaning or crying for help, and they called the whole world in. Naturally, it was a cow making the noise, sparking about ten years worth of "CLT" (Cow Locator Transmitter) and other even less forgiveable puns.

Major Lord

[CCAlex]

we found a cat next to our PB

[Major Lord]

we found a cat next to our PB

You must have been terrified! What did you do?

Major Lord

[CCAlex]

I have this skill that I can make a sound extremely similar to a CO2 air horn, so I honked at it and it must of jumped across the road in one shot 

[piet03]

down in Alabama once we were looking fo a huey that had made a prcautionary landing. Found them, and two moody rednecks with a still. A lot of fast talking and five bucks for a mason jar full of clear liquid  and we walked out.

[desertengineer1]

About two weeks ago I was attending Combat Airman Skills Training in Camp Guernsey, Wyoming.  One of the modules is a navigation exercise.  We're dropped off in about a 15 square mile course in varying terrain and given 6 waypoints to find.  Lots of terrain.  Average trek was a couple of miles between waypoints.  About four hours of solid walking, climbing, and searching.  Souped up version of geocaching.

Local ranchers also lease the section for grazing.  A herd of cows with moms and babies were wandering around.  Unknown to us, a team had walked through the herd a few minutes before we came along, and the moms were not happy.

Never been charged by a formation of ticked off mom cows before.  Our "fire team" had to scramble in all directions while the previous team watched and laughed.

"I'm sorry, ma'am but your husband has been injured during a training accident"

"What happened?"

"He and his team were attacked by a herd of cattle."

"Why does that not surprise me?"

[JROB]

During our sarex this weekend we arrived on private property we were briefed that it was okay to proceed. When we started walking on the property we were approached by two dogs. One of them decided to follow our Ground team during the search. We named her Delta.

[a2capt]

One time some years back when we got on "scene", where I was convinced the ELT was.  After several minutes a dog appears on scene and is running in circles, and eventually settles on the corner of this large fenced in field.

What was even better was the dog, just like the "Pointer" logo, was going off in front of a pile of tree parts and debris as we closed in.

Guess what was in there?

One of those EPRIBs that resembles a bowling pin. Probably the victim of a midnight stealth dump run ;-) When it got shut off the dog bailed.

[Krapenhoeffer]

Well, we were driving in the squadron van down the Interstate at 65 MPH, when a giant turkey flew out of nowhere, and landed on the trailer of the semi-truck in front of us... I have great respect for that turkey.

Also, do drunk pilots armed with pizzas, camping out on the flight line count as animals?