TWILIGHT ZONE EXPERIENCES

While growing up as a youngster, I enjoyed watching The Twilight Zone on television. This TV program presented the real-life experiences of ordinary people that can not be explained by science or the laws of nature. While there have been several Twilight Zone experiences in my life, this one is noteworthy because it reveals the power of God, divinely intervening in my life, to protect me from harm and possibly death.  

A LIGHT IN THE NIGHT SKY AT FORT ORD

This experience likely occurred on the last Wednesday in October 1965, which would be October 27th, just a few days after this picture was taken.  

I’m in the back row, on the right, the one with the glasses.

It all started when I had picked up my laundry from the Quartermaster after a long training day and carried it back to barracks as the sun was setting. I could see the darkness falling through the long line of windows as I walked across the length of the billet to my bunk. I began moving clothing into my footlocker when I noticed a faint glow illuminating the darkened sky outside. As I continued watching, it gradually expanded until it lit up the entire street scene, eventually pouring light into our poorly lit billet as well.

Soon, a small number of interested soldiers appeared on the street, looking up into the sky, some pointing toward the source of light directly above them.

Wanting to see everything they saw, I started walking back toward the door to exit the billet. As I passed the windows again, I could see that even more soldiers were entering the street.

When I reached the doorway, I encountered a group of about ten soldiers who were obstructing my pathway to the door. I did not recognize any of them and, consequently, I’m sure that they were not a part of my unit. They were having a great time joking, laughing, and engaging in banter with each other. So much so that they were oblivious to my need to move through them. So I asked them politely to make a way to the door for me. But nothing happened. It was as if they did not hear me. So, I asked again in a louder voice. But the result was the same. They just kept jamming as if I was not even there. So I decided to make my way through them by pressing a shoulder on them if needed. When it came time to lower my shoulder into a soldier in front of me, I found that I could not move him with the gentle force I exerted. So I gradually ramped up my effort to its maximum, and still, I could not budge him. I would have had better luck pushing into a wall. In awe of this man’s strength, I moved back to see the face of this wall of a man.

When I saw his face, I was stunned. He was staring in the direction of another soldier, but he was not moving. There was no eye movement, blinking, or breathing. There were beads of sweat on his face, but they were suspended there, defying gravity, not trickling downward or dripping off.

I then noticed that pure silence had displaced the everyday noises of active soldiers in a billet. I gazed at the other soldiers standing in the doorway. They were all frozen like manakins occupying a store window as if time had stood still. I gradually shifted my gaze back across the billet. All the men halted in mid-stride. The entire scene looked like a video when the stop button is depressed.

Then the light streaming through the windowpanes caught my notice. I observed motionless dust particles suspended in the air, unaffected by air currents or gravity.

I turned back toward the soldiers in the doorway and wondered why everything had stopped but me. Then suddenly, it all returned to normal, as if someone had pressed the play button again. The men frozen in the doorway resumed their banter from exactly where they left off, and the sounds of the billet returned as well. I looked back toward my bunk and saw that everyone was moving around again as if nothing had transpired.

I peered through the windows and saw that the light outside had faded. So I navigated through the soldiers in the doorway, opened the door, and looked up into the sky. I saw a big ball of light ascending into the sky, gradually appearing smaller and fainter as it rose, until it vanished, restoring the darkness.

I retreated to my bunk, sat down, and saw no one discussing what had just transpired. Everyone went back to doing the things they had been doing before. Then it dawned on me; they had nothing to remember. Their bodies were there, but time stopped for them, and therefore they did not experience what transpired. Their souls were unconscious. But then, why would I be the only one to experience what occurred? My answer would come soon.

The Company Clerk came in first thing in the morning and escorted me to the Company Commander’s office. Once inside the HQ, he checked with the Commander and then directed me to go in. I marched in, did a left face at the center of the Captain’s desk, came to Attention, and saluted while shouting, “Sir, Private Gordon reporting as ordered, Sir.” The Captain firmly responded, “At ease, Private,” and I moved to Parade Rest.

The Captain then spoke in an agitated voice, “Gordon, did you know that you have a type 2 profile on your eyes?” I immediately replied, “Sir, Private Gordon does not know what a type 2 profile on his eyes is, Sir.” The Commander sighed deeply and sat back in his chair. Looking me straight in the eye, he said, “Son, it means that you can not be in an Infantry Unit. I will make arrangements for someone to get you reassigned. That is all.” I came back to Attention, saluted the Captain, did a left face, marched out of his office. As I walked back to my billet, I wondered why I had to endure all of this training before anyone noticed my ineligibility.

It was not until much later in my life that I realized what a tremendous gift I had received that day. I had avoided being attached to an Infantry Unit in 1965, in the height of the Viet Nam ramp-up. Therefore, I had received an extraordinary blessing!

These thoughts brought memories of all the other times I had been removed from harm or guided away from danger. Some would call them miracles because they are scientifically indefensible. I now see them as God’s divine interventions in my life. All the encounters that I never told anyone because they would know I was crazy. When I look back at these, I see a pattern of protection that was always there for me. This experience was just another in a long chain of supernatural protections.

If this experience were an isolated event, then there could be speculation about what happened that night at Fort Ord. But it is not an isolated event. After reviewing these other events, I have concluded that God has protected and guided me all along. I have written about these experiences in other posts as well.

Further evidence will appear in the experiences that I will be publishing here in the future. Together, I hope they will lead you to believe that only God can do what I have described here. The direction of my life certainly changed course in that short, 12-hour span.

I eventually did go to Viet Nam, but not as a part of an Infantry unit. In 1966/67, I was with the 618th Maintenance Company in the Central Highlands. Years later, when I was doing my research, I discovered that most of the men in my training unit became a part of the Fourth Infantry Division. I remember watching their convoy entering the battlefield by way of Highway 19. I marveled as the line of their vehicles stretched out for miles as they moved past us and on to their Central Highlands targets.

It was only a few days later that we heard the sounds of their battles. We felt the ground shaking as the bombs and shells exploded miles away. The sounds of the explosions rumbled through the air like rolling thunder through the nights. I remember lying in my bunk on one of those nights, thinking, I’m so glad I am not where those boys are today. As it turns out, the 4th Infantry Division took more casualties than any other unit in the Vietnam War.

Thant you, Lord. Praise God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit!

May God be with all who read this letter.