Disappearing Soldiers and Armies While we never hear about it because for the most part it doesn’t make the main stream news, soldiers and other members of the military sometimes disappear. Yes, there are many desertions I am sorry to say and other reasons for the disappearances. Since 1970 the number of desertions in the U.S. Army has been 33,094. This is according to Quora. Just recently six soldiers deserted from Germany went to a Florida town to investigate UFOs. One of the problems with desertion figures is they may not all be desertions. Soldiers may have left on leave and didn’t come back through no fault of their own. If one believes in UFOs being alien, one of the places for abductions might be the military, because when they go missing, it is chalked up to desertion. I certainly am not saying all desertions are abductions by aliens, I have not lost my mind. Six percent of all Americans claim to have been abducted by aliens. Accounting for the crazies, maybe the number is more like three or four percent, maybe less, and maybe even zero, who knows? My point is there is a number claimed. The difference between the people in the military who go missing is they don’t seem to return very often and I bet they would never tell the military they were the subject of an alien abduction, because they are afraid of being locked in the booby hatch. Also, some of those numbers might indicate multiple times the same person deserted and came back. An article appeared recently about soldiers who have disappeared from Fort Hood. Last year one female soldier was found dead after the remains of another soldier were found nearby. I would have to think the murder rate of soldiers is even higher in foreign countries. If we look at historical events, we find it unexplained why multiple times large numbers of soldiers went missing. In World War I, an entire battalion of soldiers disappeared without a trace. On 2 October 1918 the American 77th Division which was led by Major Charles W. Whittlesey launched an attack on the Germans. He was to be supported by French troops on the left and American troops on the right. What happened was the 77th lost support on both sides, but didn’t know it and continued to attack. They became surrounded by the Germans and for six days battled bravely. Then when rescue forces broke through the battalion was not there. None of the men could be found and the Germans denied ever capturing them. No evidence of their fate was found. Another Brigade, the 5th Norfolks was also involved in World War I at Gallipoli fighting the Turks. The 5th Norfolks were pushed into a forest during the fighting and then vanished. Stories circulated that a cloud which was near the ground engulfed them and took them away. It was thought the Turks had captured them, but that turned out not to be the case. I don’t know if there is any connection, but 14,000 out of 36,000 Commonwealth soldiers who had died were never found. The question is did they really die or did they meet some other fate? The year was 120 A.D. The Romans had sent the 9th Legion, an army of 5,000 of their best fighters, to the border between Britain and Scotland. There had been constant small skirmishes, because the local tribes didn’t want the Romans there. Finally, Rome made the decision Scotland had to be conquered to stop the attacks so they sent the 9th Legion into Scotland. The 9th Legion disappeared on the way. There are no records, but not one survivor was recovered and no bodies. The 9th Legion was considered a large force and it seems there would have been some survivors in any battle they encountered even if they lost. On top of that, the 9th was tough and had been in many battles before. To this day it is a mystery what happened to it. Before the disappearance of the Roman 9th Legion, the ancient Egyptians had their own mysterious disaster, this time it was an army of 50,000 men. This boggles the mind. In 522 B.C. pharaoh Cambyses II was battling his brother for the throne. He sent his great army on a march over the desert and it vanished without a trace. Some believe a great sand storm buried all of them and that is why they disappeared. One thing we have to remember is the ancient Egyptians were great record keepers and there is no mention of anyone from that army surviving. This has prompted many expensive searches over the centuries, but nothing has ever been found. One army which had lost about half of their men which we know what happened to was the Japanese Army which captured Ramree Island in 1942. There were about 1,000 Japanese soldiers on the island when the British invaded in 1945. When the British attacked the Japanese retreated to the swamp on the island. The British asked for their surrender several times, but were ignored. The Japanese encountered all sorts of poisonous snakes, insects carrying diseases but the greatest threat was yet to be discovered. As they got deeper into the swamp they were attacked by the largest crocodiles on earth, the salt water crocodiles. They grow to 2,000 pounds and they were having their way with the Japanese. The crocks had heard the noises of the soldiers and gathered in a large group before the attack. Almost half of the Japanese force was eaten or killed by poison or disease. In the battle for Nan King the Chinese sent 3,000 soldiers to guard a bridge which the Japanese had to cross. This was on December 10, 1939. The Chinese general had sent the soldiers and when he went to contact them the next day, they were all gone and had left no trace. No battles had been fought. Nothing was ever found no weapons or evidence the men had ever been there. When the war ended an investigation was conducted, but nothing was ever found out about those men. Archduke Habsburg formed an army of about 4,000 men to fight Philip V. This was in 1707, during the war of the Spanish secession. His army marched toward the Pyrenees. That was the last time any of them were ever seen. No traces of a battle were ever found and no weapons. None of the men were ever located again. Not one piece of equipment was ever found. The battle of Saigon took place in 1858. 650 Zowai soldiers were marching toward Saigon. They had another force only 2 kilometers behind them. They all disappeared without a trace and the force behind them never heard anything. There had been no battle and no noise, yet not a trace of the Zowai soldiers were ever found and nothing associated with them like equipment was ever recovered. How do entire armies just disappear which sometimes have thousands of men? You would think something would be left.
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