The Modern Day Bard who was a Soldier.
One thing the pandemic has taught us all is that there are a lot of YouTube creators out there and they are not all created equally. I found one that I can’t stop watching, a modern day bard, a man who will ask you to commit atrocities to the like button before engaging you in stories about strange, dark and mysterious mishaps, usually something in some dark forest. Here’s the glitch, he isn’t just making up these stories or reading the poorly-punctuated, grammar-slaughtering rantings of kids who light black candles in closets and play with Ouija boards, if that is the strange and unusual you seek, go forth, it’s all over the place. However, if you want a gifted story-teller who pulls you in and is as entertaining as he is informative, look no further than Mr. Ballen.
John Allen, aka- Mr. Ballen, is the Navy Seal turned popular YouTuber who tells the best stories out there because they’re true. Most of the stories he brilliantly relays are from the Missing 411 Series by David Paulides. These are the stories of the many people who mysteriously go missing, generally in the forests of the Pacific Northwestern United States and Canada, among other places. What marks these stories is that these disappearances happen under extremely mysterious circumstances. Some of the stories end with people being found alive in impossible places and under unbelievable conditions. In some of the stories, there is no rhyme or reason to how the person could have gone missing at all. Some are stories of closure, still others remain totally unsolved, as though people have just vanished into thin air. He also features stories about places all around the globe where people aren’t supposed to go and what happens to the people who went there anyway. It really doesn’t matter the story, Mr. Ballen is such a good story teller he could make a story about the many shades of beige absolutely riveting. His kids are lucky.
I cannot stress enough how big a part the storytelling talent of Mr. Ballen sets him apart. This is the guy you want around your camp fire when you’re out camping, not just because he’s a bad ass Navy Seal but because of his skill as a story-teller. Here’s a guy who can take stories that most folks try to exaggerate or make more out of in a vain attempt to make them interesting, and then does the opposite. He does the research, a rarity among YouTubers in general. His presentation reflects the fact that he spends time on each story he tells. He’s not reading cards, he’s not aping someone else’s re-telling. He gets to know the story through doing the research and you can tell he invests the time because it comes out in the narration. It’s top notch. He’s honest about the information he collects and he tells the stories in a pretty non-biased way. As long as you don’t stare too long at his mustache, just trust me, it’s impossible not to get completely engaged in his story-telling style.
Of course there’s a lot more to John Allen than being a top notch modern day bard. After he left the military he noticed the struggle so many vets have finding work after leaving the service. To that end, he helped found Elite Meet, a “network-focused 501(c)3 organization that provides support to transitioning elite Veterans and an unmatched talent pool to corporate partners.” It isn’t surprising to me at all that John Allen is an inspiration to others, nor is it a surprise that he seems just as easily inspired by others. Not often do you find that type of balanced humility, a person unafraid to admit being inspired by other people even while knowing they are an inspiration to so many. That humility and honesty are reflected in his story-telling as well and it translates into genuine sincerity in the content.
When I left Parris Island in 1991 it was a different time, I hit the trails of the Pacific Northwest, among others, and to be honest, I could have wound up being one of those statistics a million times over. I went out into the forests alone and ill prepared more times than I care to admit. Had there been such a thing as YouTube back then, or enough mysterious missing peoples cases investigated to fill an entire series of popular books, I might have been more careful. The fact that I’m alive today is really just dumb luck. In the time I spent in the forests of the Pacific Crest, Appalachian, John Muir and too many other trails to count, I did see some pretty crazy things, heard even stranger things and even found things out in the woods that didn’t belong there. Now that I’m a little older and there is indeed a YouTube, I can’t help but be grateful that there is someone out there like Mr. Ballen, re-telling these strange and mysterious stories, it’s the next best thing to being there.
Make sure to visit his channel and subscribe, you’ll be glad you did. It’s guaranteed top notch content at least 3 times a week that you can count on from one of the best story tellers out there. https://www.youtube.com/c/MrBallen
