Are Airmen's ghosts still around?

  • Published
  • By Linda Welz
  • 452 AMW public affairs
MARCH AIR RESERVE BASE, Calif. --  (Final in a four-part series on things that go bump in the night)

Chaplain Dave Sarmiento, 163rd Reconnaissance Wing duty chaplain, March Air Reserve Base, California, has heard many stories of ghosts roaming the halls in buildings at March Field.

One such story came from a former wing commander of his who told him of an incident that occurred in the 1990s when the commander returned to his office after investigating the noise of rustling papers near a cubicle, finding papers strewn everywhere.

"He said he kept hearing the noise and when he looked up, he saw this Airman in his doorway," Sarmiento said. "He said the Airman was a young man with ash blonde hair, wearing a WWI khaki uniform with a Smokey (Bear) hat, high collar with turbo prop wing insignia, knee-high brown leather boots, a garrison belt and a waist belt, but that he could see right through the Airman."

More recently, Sarmiento said some contractors told him they saw a young lady with red hair and freckles in a blue skirt and long-sleeved, princess-cut blouse, on more than one occasion.

"One man said the lady came down a hallway whistling and asked him what he was doing in her work area," Sarmiento said. "When the man responded to her, he said he could see right through her even though he could see all of her being. He got scared and ran out of the building."

Still others have told him that the radio they were listening to suddenly blurred into what they believed was some type of evil voice being broadcast.

"They said their tools were laid on a desk, but after they heard the 'voice' they got down from their ladders and found their tools were all over the carpet," Sarmiento said. "They left and would not come back until I prayed over the location, which I did."

He understood these to be valid experiences by those who shared with him, but he wasn't sure what to think of it until he experienced something unexplainable of his own.

"One Friday night before a three-day weekend, everyone was gone. I was the only one in the building and had just unplugged a string of decorative lights when I felt like I needed to close my office door, which had a window in it," Sarmiento said.

He was talking to his mom on the phone and did not heed her advice when, after finding out he was alone, told him he needed to go home. He said he needed to send one more email.
While doing so, he looked out the window in his door.

"I saw the cord I had unplugged, still unplugged, but the lights were on. At that moment, I knew that this was not a make-believe story, that this had really happened," Sarmiento said. "Now everything makes sense to me, after the lights incident," he said.

He also said he went to the copier once with some papers. After putting the papers through the feeder, it spit them out all over the floor.

"And, the copies that were made flew out onto the floor too! Really weird."

The chaplain tells his stories to share, not scare.

If you have any stories to share, please contact the 452nd Air Mobility Wing public affairs office at 951-655-4137 or email 452amw.paworkflow@us.af.mil. We are also on social media at www.facebook.com/TeamMarch and www.twitter.com/March_ARB.