66 lines
3.7 KiB
Plaintext
66 lines
3.7 KiB
Plaintext
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06-Aug-88 06:39 MST
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Sb: APn 08/05 0731 Forrestal Ghost
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Copyright, 1988. The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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MAYPORT NAVAL STATION, Fla. (AP) -- Ghosts are fine, traditional things to
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have around ancient English castles, but the Navy says rumors of one stalking
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the depths of the aircraft carrier USS Forrestal have spooked a few sailors.
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Flickering lights. Bumps in the night. Locked doors opening. Voices on
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disconnected telephones. And a vanishing figure in a khaki uniform. The
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figure's even got a nickname: George.
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At least that's what some of the men say aboard the Forrestal, in its fourth
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month of a six-month deployment in the Indian Ocean and the North Arabian Sea.
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They were interviewed by Lt. James E. Brooks, who detailed the story of the
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ghost in a 12-page news release issued last month.
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The report about George hasn't ruffled any Navy feathers, Mayport Navy
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spokesman Lt. Park Balevre said Thursday. "I thought it was cute. I think most
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people did."
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"What Lt. Brooks had in mind was a fluff piece to show the lighter side of
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the Navy," said Balevre.
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But according to Brooks, some sailors don't think the ghost story is at all
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cute.
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George lurks in two of the ship's below-the-waterline storage areas, one of
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them a former morgue, spooked sailors claim.
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"I've got one guy working for me now who refuses to go down there alone. Our
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last chief petty officer in charge, who has since transferred, refused to go
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down there at all," says Petty Officer Daniel Balboa, in charge of the
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officers' mess.
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"I've never seen any ghosts but you can hear weird things down there," said
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Balboa.
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"I was taking inventory one night and heard a noise like deck grating being
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picked up and dropped," he recalled. "I'd turn around and look but didn't see
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anything. When I turned around to begin my work again, the noise started
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again."
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One night, Balboa said, he was checking temperatures in food-storage
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freezers and kept finding open doors he had shut behind him.
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"It is impossible for anyone to open the reefer (refrigerator) doors from
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the outside, behind me. To open them from the outside requires a key since the
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doors lock automatically.
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"I had the only key with me. That incident puts me on the verge of
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believing," he said.
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Some say the ghost is a chief killed during a 1967 flight deck fire that
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killed 137 sailors in the Gulf of Tonkin off the coast of North Vietnam, Brooks
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wrote. Others guess he's a pilot whose body was once stored on the ship.
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Petty Officer James Hillard hasn't ventured into the haunted areas since he
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saw George last year while checking out odd footsteps.
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"He was wearing a khaki uniform, like an officer or chief would wear," he
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says. He followed the apparition into a compartment but "there was nobody in
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there, and I swear that is where he went," Hillard said.
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Mess Specialist 2nd Class Gary Weiss saw a khaki-clad ghost go down a ladder
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to pump room No. 1. Whoever went down into the pump room never came out and the
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ladder is the only access, he said.
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Hillard said he once was helping move supplies when a telephone that was
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reportedly disconnected kept ringing.
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"The phone rang and I answered it. This time there was a faint voice
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calling, `Help! Help! I'm on the sixth deck!' Rumor had it that a crew member
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was killed down there. I'm very scared to go down there alone. If I do, I get
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out of there as fast as I can," Hillard said.
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Others are dubious.
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"I think it's the guys' imagination," said Senior Chief Petty Officer James
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Williams. "I'm not superstitious but when I go down there by myself, I find it
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uneasy. When that happens, your imagination is going to play tricks on you."
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