Airforce

Ienlisted in the U.S Air Force in 1989. My first duty station was at Hickam Air Force Base Hawaii. Great place to be stationed, little did I know it would be one of the strangest experiences of my life. I spent the first year working in one job until the office closed. I was then transferred to another operating location, this is when my experience began.

My new job was in the Job Control section at Headquarters Pacific Air Forces. Basically Job Control is a 24hr operation that logs and tracks equipment when it breaks down. When a unit had an equipment failure, they call Job Control and we would call maintenance. I began working midnight shift from 2300hrs to 0700hrs, which meant I spent a lot of time sitting around waiting for the phone to ring. The door to Job Control was in the South wall of the room. The desk sat just inside the door along the East wall and we had a television that was mounted on the North wall just below the ceiling. The door had a cypher-lock on it that required a code which was de-activated at night, which meant that no one could enter the room without buzzing me from the outside or using the only key, which I had in case I had to exit the room for some reason.

Nothing happend to me the first few nights that I was on duty. The first indication that I had of anything strange was on my third or fourth night of duty. As usual, it was pretty slow, I had just finished logging one of the few calls I had had that night. I guess it was about 0300. Having a little time on my hands, I turned on the television to pass the time. I sat there watching for a short time when I got this "feeling". You know, that feeling you get when someone is looking over your shoulder? That is what it felt like. I kept looking back over my shoulder sure that I would see someone, even though I knew it was impossible. It was like someone was watching television over my shoulder. This happened to me on several consecutive nights. It wasn't a frightening experience, just unsettling. Kind of like when someone is reading something that you are reading over your shoulder. Finally, one night, I had had enough. It seems kind of crazy but, I just blurted out, "Dammit, if you are going to watch T.V don't do it over my shoulder!!". After a few minutes, the feeling went away and didn't come back for the rest of the night. I came in the next night and began my duty day much the same way as always, working off and on for the first few hours and then watching a little T.V. It was soon after I began watching T.V. that the feeling came back, with one important difference. The feeling was no longer directly behind me, it was off to my left near the West wall. This I could live with. It wasn't nearly as unsettling as before. I worked midnight shift in Job Control for the remainder of my three year tour. Almost every night, "my friend" as I came to know him/her was there to enjoy a few hours of T.V. viewing. I for one enjoyed the company. I mean how many people do you know that you can watch whatever you want without them complaining.

After being there for a few months I began researching the history of the building. The headquarters building that I worked in was the enlisted dormatory up until just after the bombing of Pearl Harbor (which is right next door to Hickam Air Force Base) Just after the bombing the wounded were moved into a makeshift infirmary on the third floor (which is the floor I worked on). I spoke with the other Airman that worked midnight shift when I was off. They said they had felt things at times but, from what they said, nothing as concrete as what I experienced. I also heard stories from security personnel in the building that were pretty strange. There was a long narrow hallway that you had to walk down to get to the Job Control office. More than one Security Policeman I spoke to claimed that, at times, thier dogs would refuse to walk down that hall. They would just begin backing up, whimpering and barking. I don't know, maybe "my friend" was one of the Airmen that died in the bombing just looking for someone to pass the time with. What I do know is that I felt perfectly at ease once he/she decided to watch from another position and I had a companion to pass the time with, albeit a silent one.