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Ghost at Navy Base

Tony, Washington, USA
August 1999

Are patients from another era walking the halls of an old Navy hospital? Some Sailors at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island think so.

I came across this story at NAS Whidbey Island, Wash., where I worked as a federal employee as a writer/editor for our base newspaper. While doing routine business with our Fleet Imaging Center, I was told by some of the active duty Photographer Mates that they believe the building they work in is haunted.

While on call one night, one of the Sailors was called at his home around 2:30 in the morning by the base Security that a light was on in the Photo Lab and he saw a shadow through the window. The Sailor was asked to come open the building up for a search. When he arrived, he opened the building for the Security patrolman who had a guard dog with him. From the crack under the door, they could see the light was now off and the dog was barking. This room was locked because it housed expensive digital imaging equipment. The Navy photographer opened the door and made the dog go in only to have it run back out. Again, the dog pushed him and ran out, hiding behind the guard. He reached in and put the light on and reached for his gun, but when he searched the room, no one was there.

In researching this building at the base Public Works, I discovered the old wooden building was originally built in the mid 1940s as a dispensary. Another Sailor said he was responsible for going through a checklist at closing to make sure Xerox machines, radios, coffee pots etc... were shut off, but yet when he opened up the office first thing in the morning, he would periodically find the radio blaring in one of the rooms and computers and copy machine on -- he had the only key. There are still remnants of the old dispensary in the building such as medicine cabinets marked "sterile -- do not touch". Another Sailor said he was cleaning out a supply cabinet on a Saturday morning by himself when he heard the door open between the reception area and the actual working area and someone walking down the tiled floor. He shouted, "I'm back here." When he did not get an answer, he went out to investigate, and again no one was in the building. The last Sailor I talked to who worked in what was once a treatment room said he hadn't had anything happened to him, but whenever he was in the room, he would be overcome by a strange feeling.

Maybe these Navy photographers will get lucky on get a ghost on film. Tony, Oak Harbor, Wash.

Tony, Washington, USA
00:00 / 01:04
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