LOL! Maybe he was warning us about flying Mahars from Pellucidar? (Edgar Rice Burroughs stories about the hollow Earth).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pellucidar
only weeks later he came back with half his equipment shot up or gone from a battle he described as "monumental."He said a lot more than that but I don't have the exact link handy. I have read several accounts of it and everyone is significant.