Saturday, January 19, 2008
The reports of strange
happenings have come from credible people, the base commander said.
DAYTON (AP) — Workers at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base design and develop warplanes, ferry supplies to troops, and analyze data from spy satellites. Finding ghosts is not in their job descriptions.
So when reports of strange sights and sounds, unexplained voices and weird lights began to pile up, high-ranking base officials weren’t quite sure what to do. Members of their public affairs team took over.
They turned to the SCI FI Channel’s popular “Ghost Hunters” show. The cable show features Rhode Island plumbers-by-day Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson, lead investigators for The Atlantic Paranormal Society. The two travel the world investigating reports of ghosts and other paranormal activity.
The ghost hunters spent last week at Wright-Patterson, including three nights operating cameras and recording equipment in buildings where strange activity has been reported.
Col. Colleen Ryan, base commander, said she doesn’t know if there are ghosts on the base, but the reports have come from people she believes to be credible.
Ryan said inviting the ghost hunters to the base was an opportunity to get to the bottom of those reports while giving the base national exposure to the show’s relatively young viewers.
“That’s an audience our recruiters would love to reach,” Ryan said. “A lot of those viewers are technically savvy.”
She also said the base’s missions and history will be showcased on the episode.
The visit was approved by public affairs officials at the Pentagon and the ghost hunters were escorted around the base by security and public affairs officials, Ryan said. The crew was kept away from sensitive areas, and their equipment didn’t interfere with that of the base.
For the ghost hunters, it was their first investigation on an active military installation.
“The biggest thing is being called in by the Air Force in a field that has been questionable for so many years,” said Wilson.
The crew wired the buildings with recording devices and used thermal-imaging cameras. They won’t reveal what they discovered until the show airs in the spring.
Strange activity has been reported in three buildings.
Base spokeswoman Rachel Castle said the voice of a young boy playing has been reported in Building 219, a former base hospital and pediatric clinic currently being used as temporary quarters for workers whose offices are being renovated.
Reports of children laughing and footsteps on stairs have come from the Arnold House, the oldest building on base, which currently serves as a heritage center, she said.
Strange voices and shadows, banging and weird lights have been reported in Building 70, a warehouse/office structure.
Two months ago, Carolyn Kugle, who works as a management assistant in the building, heard boxes being moved around in the supply room when she was certain no one was inside.
“I said, ‘If there is something in here, make a noise,’” she recalled. “And it knocked twice on something metal.”
On New Year’s Eve, the 48-year-old Kugle, her husband, three of her sisters and an aunt returned to the building at 10:30 p.m. and noticed a light giving off a soft yellow glow in the storage room. When Kugle returned to work after the holiday, she noticed that a bright, white fluorescent light was in the place where they had seen the yellow glow.
A few days later, the group returned to the warehouse at night with cameras and recording equipment. They split up.
“My husband had someone call his name. He said it was a very husky woman’s voice,” she said. “And we took a picture in the warehouse and caught a shadow on the wall.”
Kugle said she believes it is a ghost. She added that she is a big fan of “Ghost Hunters.”
“I’d like to either have them debunk it or find some evidence to prove one way or the other,” she said.
It’s not the first time Kugle has experienced the unexplained. She said the ghost of her grandfather, who died when she was 4, came to visit her when she was 17.
“He sat on the side of my bed and was talking to me,” she said.