..guess if it wasn't Halloween, this story would be stupid
Posted on 10/29/2007 9:05:09 PM PDT by CurlyBill
Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Wednesday, October 31, 2007
It’s not your imagination — maybe that sound in the night really was a moan.
Stories of spirits and unexplained phenomena have persisted on U.S. military bases in the Pacific for years.
Doors slam, shadows creep and voices shout in the night. Could it be spirits of the dead reaching out?
As costumed ghosts and ghouls hit the streets for Halloween, Stars and Stripes has compiled some accounts of allegedly real ghosts and ghouls to keep the holiday creepy.
Many of the buildings on Yongsan Garrison in South Korea have been there longer than the U.S. military. Some date back to Japan’s occupation of Korea before and during World War II.
One of those buildings, near the gas station on the garrison’s South Post, has been surrounded by rumors for years.
“I hate being here at night. The hairs on the back of my neck stand up just talking about it,” said Sgt. 1st Class Riviere Cools, 52nd Medical Battalion as he eyed the squat, red-brick building in the center of his unit’s complex of offices. “I don’t believe in that kind of stuff, but in the back of my mind, there are souls here.”
The entire compound, surrounded by a thick, crumbling, brick wall, was a prison during the occupation.
For years, said U.S. Army Garrison spokesman David McNally, soldiers working there have passed along stories claiming that the area, especially the small building in the center, was haunted.
McNally said the building was most likely the prison’s administrative office, but those working around it have a more sinister theory.
“Everybody that’s worked in that building right there has either seen something or heard something,” said Staff Sgt. Sae Kim, 52nd Medical Battalion. “Because that’s where they burned people.”
McNally was quick to point out there was no evidence to suggest that the building was a crematorium, but that doesn’t stop the stories from spreading.
“I haven’t seen any ghosts,” said Sgt. 1st Class Freeman Witherspoon. “But I definitely have heard the rumors. People say they see shadows when they have duty at night.”
Strange presences in rooms and doors that mysteriously open and close are part of chapel lore, employees say.
Some tell stories of strange figures passing by and then disappearing.
“My predecessor said that she used to hear footsteps through the halls late at night,” said Staff Sgt. Desmond West, the Unit Ministry Team noncommissioned officer in charge.
Last year, Spc. Jennifer Villagomez, a funds clerk, said she was working late when a voice emanated from her unplugged computer speakers.
It sounded like a Japanese man, “like a drill sergeant yelling at a private,” she said.
At first, Villagomez said she thought the sounds were a practical joke and called for a sergeant who was the only other person in the building at the time.
“And as I heard him come closer to my office, the voice on the speaker went lower and lower until it went away, just before he walked in the room,” Villagomez said.
She said that since that incident, she tries not to be the last person to in the office at night.
Sgt. Joshua Lee, who works at the chapel with Villagomez, said he didn’t hear the voice that night but has witnessed other strange occurrences.
Chapel lights switch on and doors open seemingly on their own, Lee said.
West, who has worked in the chapel for four years, said he has never seen or heard anything peculiar.
“But the day I start hearing things, I’m running out of here,” he said.
Reportedly haunted sites can be found around almost any corner on and off Okinawa bases.
So many ghost stories abound that Marine Corps Community Services and 18th Services Squadron on Kadena Air Base both run special Halloween spooky sites tours that sell out weeks in advance.
Web sites and a book on the subject — Jayne A. Hitchcock’s “The Ghosts of Okinawa” — celebrate the local haunts.
A World War II soldier is said to roam Gate 3 on Camp Hansen in blood-splattered fatigues asking sentries to light his cigarette.
Marines refused to stand guard due to the haunting, and the gate was eventually closed, according to Hitchcock.
Camp Foster is said to be the home of a ghostly samurai warrior who eternally travels from Stillwell Drive uphill toward Futenma Housing.
Kadena Air Base also has its ghost stories.
A small house behind the Kadena United Services Organization, numbered 2283, is now used for storage because, it is said, no one willingly lives in it for long.
Some say the house remains haunted after a man murdered his family there. Others say the house rests on an ancient burial site, and the souls of the dead beneath are restless.
Kadena’s golf course might be the site where in 1945 a group of high-school girls pressed into service in the Japanese Imperial Army committed suicide, according to another yarn.
The spirits of the dead girls are said to still haunt the land.
Off-base, half-finished buildings are abandoned due to reports of ghostly visitors.
Construction of the Royal Hotel off Route 329, near the Nakagusuku Castle ruins, was begun some three decades ago — possibly on a sacred site.
Mysterious accidents and deaths drove workers to abandon construction.
Meanwhile, at Maeda Point, there is rumored to be a prophet-of-death ghost.
The elderly Okinawan apparition is said to appear at a tomb that can be seen only from the water, and within days of a sighting, a body is found on a nearby beach.
Stars and Stripes reporters Travis Tritten, Jimmy Norris, Vince Little and Cindy Fisher contributed to this story.
Ghost Ping!!
Ghost Ping!!
Call TAPS!
Try the Blimp Hangars at Lakehurst NJ on a stormy evening.
I’ve heard of some of these.
There also seems to be a story of an area that was highly contested on Okinawa, in some back area. Seems that the sodiers have continued their struggle into eternity.
In my hometown, Ft. Sam Houston has a lot of such stories.
Do tell.
Anybody ever heard of “Lakenheath Charlie?”
Blood Angel
At Ahmed Al Jaber AB in Kuwait they have many bombed out Hardened Aircraft Structures. (HAS)
In one, that was bombed during the Gulf War, there is an imprint in the wall of an office in the HAS.
It has a bloody imprint on the wall of the HAS that streakes downward.
A torso, and two hands smear the wall.
This was a haunted HAS, I was told. But for the 4 weeks I worked near it, I never had any issues.
..guess if it wasn't Halloween, this story would be stupid
Do tell.
There are number of places at Ft. Sam that are supposed to be haunted. I have heard stories about the parade ground, some of the barracks, the O Club, and building that used to house a kitchen.
I never heard any stories about Lackland, Kelly, or Randolph. I am not saying that there aren’t any such stories - simply that I have not heard them.
Okay, who’s got the “Oh the Huge Manatee!” pic?
I’ll make a few calls.
The parade ground at Ft. Sam is said to be the stomping grounds of Pedro the Rooster. Qarters No. 1 is also said to be home to spectral inhabitants.
Qarters = Quarters
http://www.caller2.com/multimedia/cams/ghostcam/main.html#
I toured it as a teen, and my hair stood up in the infirmary, I could feel it. -spooky-
Ever visted the battleship Texas? I went there many a time as a kid. My friends and I spent much time at the 20mm guns defending against swarms of Zeros and Bettys.
I haven’t visited the Lexington...yet.
In Naval lore , it is said the the helm of the USS Sullivans, has a mind of it’s own and has on occasions, in heavy sea needed little or no tending(One of the Sullivan brothers was a helmsman ) also on board the USS Enterprise, in the after maneuvering room there is a eternal card game going on with the sounds of chips and the shuffling of cards.... the Original Carrier (Big E).. had lost it’s maneuvering room crew to flooding above and went down with the ship....after being told there was on way of rescue, the crew was heard over the sound powered phones calmly playing cards
When you go, you have to also visit the TX State Aquarium, and pet sharks and rays in the pool. Corpus is the neatest city: you can fish, crab, dine, beach.
The last time I was in Corpus was many, many years ago (before the Lexington was moved there).
Thanks - great post...
Hear that Bill and Hillary? The souls you thought you got rid of may still be here. Happy Halloween.
Anybody ever hear of “The Colonel” at Bitburg Germany? Stories have it that a Luftwaffe Colonel crash-landed his plane on a hill outside Bitburg Air Base. Bitburg has closed down since I was there in the late 70’s/early 80’s but one area we (Security Police) guarded was an ammo dump just off base on that hill. Many a night as I was guarding it alone and no lights in the area at all, my imagination or a spiritual presence kept me “eyes wide open” all night. I did see or felt a lot of strange things in that area that I really couldn’t explain such as a shadow next to a building in the shape of a man but when I got closer, it was gone. The K-9 kennels were right there also and the dogs would go crazy every once in awhile for no reason. A few of us were sure we had an intruder one time and as we lay in waiting and saw bushes moving as if someone was approaching our position, then all of a sudden nothing ... no wind, no-body, nothing. Of all the places that I’ve pulled security for the Air Force, I hated that one worst of all! Makes for good Halloween war stories to tell my kids though.
What?! You mean...Fort Marcy Park off the GW Parkway is haunted? Oh dear!
giggle.
I live near Lakehurst. How can you get on the base?
But there are other explanations for certain sites thought as haunted. These areas caused passers by and locals to get nauseous and sick. One of the reasons for this is toxic waste. For a long time, when a C.O. gave a grunt an order to “get rid” of some garbage, one of the techniques for making it disappear was to simply burn or bury it. That’s why there are areas that cannot be excavated and used for future building sites in much of the world (Americans aren’t the only one who did this). Now, we have the benefit of proper garbage disposal to include toxic substances.
wow pretty neat.
They cite the Embassy Suites in Greenville, SC. About 11 years ago on my way home from the job I had then, I took a route that included the road that ran behind the Embassy Suites.
Well on a dark rainy evening I took that route and had 2 tires blow out (low shoulder) just as I passed the place. I never went that way again if it was dark.
You might be referring to Yorktown. Enterprise survived the war and was scrapped.
Ping to something right down your alley! :-)
Building 5418 on Fort Dix, NJ is also very creepy. There used to be a morgue in the basement.
That would be Yorktown.Enterprise survived and was scrapped at the brooklyn naval yard in 1959 or 60.
Control towers at WW2 airfields in England.Lots of ghosts at these places.
The Olympia is a museum ship in downtown Philly. There have been rumors for decades of the presence of a former crewman in the forward gun deck, the spirit of the only sailor to die in action aboard the ship.
A ghost-hunter team was aboard the ship a few years back. You can read their findings HERE.
Thw “Duke of Iwo Jima”???
(Re Col Sully...)
Ghosts....
“Have you heard of the “Duke of Iwo Jima?.” This was supposedly a Japanese Officer who wore a “boat cloak” and trooped the Japanese lines every night. There were Marines (one of which I knew well, and was no BSer) who swore that they had seen this apparition.”
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Add to the list of creepy Oki sites YONTAN AF (aka Yomitan) on the west side of the island about 10 miles north of Kadena. Lot of “special attack missions” flown out of here in 1945. At night you hear and see things you know damned well aren’t there — aircraft engines, yelling etc.
Great thread! Thanks for the ping!
That’s very creepy!
If you had heard the children who burned up in the fire, like I have, you would not be a doubter.
Not on Enterprise, as other posts correctly state, but I have a faint memory of the card game story from some WW2 magazine article. When word was sent down that rescue was unlikely, one of the trapped sailors replied “OK, we have a helluva acey-deucey game going on down here”. I think it was from early in the war, and may have been from the Oklahoma, capsized at Pearl Harbor.
I was there during the off-season, so the place was pretty deserted. I had a key to the rec center, and had let myself in to use the exercise room late one night. The exercise room was attached to a central lobby which had some pool tables in it. The barracks wings were also attached to the lobby.
I was just finishing up in the exercise room when I heard somebody rack up some balls on the pool table, and then heard the break. I thought somebody had come in after me from outside, because the barracks were empty. I gathered my things, but when I walked out into the lobby to see who was there, it was dark, and the pool tables were sitting there empty! I could see all the barracks wings leading off the lobby were dark too. I determined that I was the only person in the entire building!
I locked the place up and left, feeling the hair on my neck standing up. Pretty weird. To this day, I'm almost sure I heard somebody playing pool, but it obviously was something else, or I imagined it. I think the whole place has since been torn down.
Mimi-nashi-Hôïchi (Hoichi the Earless)
A bit flowery for modern taste, but Mr. Hearn knew traditional Japan as well as any Westerner. Worth searching out and reading. Another great tale is of the samurai-turned-priest who meets a gang of blood-sucking demons in the forest late at night . . . .
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