These guys are the folks who define the phrase professional soldier. The atmosphere in that room was so taut that night it was almost unimaginable. No these guys were 100% certain that what they encountered was not a bear. There are a couple of indicators from the account, number one being that it moved stealthily. Bears and other critters don't understand noise discipline. When a four legged animal wanders in the woods you can hear it a long ways off. Why would a bear up and follow a group of guys over 1000 meters (very quickly) to simply stare at them on two legs when it had to be moving (very quickly) on four?
I had a Grizzly Bear encounter myself, there once. It was terrifying and hilarious all at the same time. I was leading a patrol deep in the Nisqually training area and I had a point guy about maybe 100 meters in front of the main element. Suddenly we heard a scream and this guys comes ripping back thru the formation at a dead run. He's got no weapon, no helmet, no rucksack and he is sprinting like the devil himself were on his tail. Well almost....as he puffed by me I could hear him muttering to himself: F*** it! F*** it! F*** it! I turned around after his disappeared to our direct "six" and there was Mr Grizzly all POed over something. This guy IIRC was on two legs but dropped to four and he was yowling and growling and spittin' mad. So my whole patrol opens up on him! Too bad all they had was blank ammo. LOTS of noise and this thing wasn't in a mood to play. So I fished out a CS grenade and lobbed it right between his legs & below his nose. When that thing popped...that bear ATE that gas. I felt a little sorry for the critter since he was crying and rubbing his face with his paw. I tried to tell him not to rub it (makes the pain about 100 times worse) but he didn't listen. I'll bet he was traumatized to the point of being (forgive me) un-bearable.
There have been a number of bear encounters in and around Fort Lewis. Especially by the Rangers. No, these guys knew it was no bear. I was sworn to secrecy because no official report was made. The guys throwing up on the chopper made it a medevac mission and thus justifiable.
Thanks again for your detailed commentary! If it wasn’t a bear, that doesn’t leave much to choose from among known fauna, I reckon. I’ve got no explanation for these specific reports, and they certainly don’t seem easily classifiable into the hoax/dupe category...