
Originally Posted by
TransconIII
Seems like you guys are really trying to milk those PCS travel days. Can't blame you, my only regret is not taking even more time to drive across the country the two times a transfer gave me the opportunity, but it's hard to pass up having a couple days off on either end of your trip to relax.
Anyway, sticking with the military theme: Standing watch as an E-3 on an old ship put me in some pretty lonesome and creepy places. Sailors really are a superstitious bunch, and it didn't help that this ship was so old that it had done a deployment to Vietnam. When you're 'the new guy' on a ship, it's hard to decipher if what people tell you is sort of a hazing joke or if they're genuine, until you pull your weight a little and people begin to be 'straight-up' with you. Standing lookout on a nice day was enjoyable, however I stood most of it in the ever-longer nights of an Alaskan fall. Even if the boat wasn't haunted, this was still creepy. You're at the very top of the ship, standing alone on top of the bridge, completely dark except for navigational lights, always seemed to be low visibility, the wind making all sorts of weird noises whipping through the antennae and railings, and the constant pitching and rolling leading to a state of constant fatigue, all of which really made my mind run wild. Night seemed to last from 4pm to 10am, so most of our observations were done through night vision goggles (NVG's), which certainly helped, but cast everything in an eerie green haze, especially the clouds and fog. People claimed that on some nights, through the NVG's, you could see a young girl standing on the bow of the ship on some bits, just looking back at you. No one knew what she could possibly be from, maybe a girl who had been a refugee or a human trafficking victim, but that's as deep as the story goes.
Another story goes that a guy on lookout, once again on watch at night, saw a figure walk forward toward the bow of the ship and simply jump overboard. He promptly sounded the man overboard alarm, but when accountability was done, everyone was confirmed onboard.
The watch we stood in port involved making rounds of the ship at all hours, checking various spaces for fire, flooding, machinery malfunctions, etc. At night, the interior of the ship was lit only by red lights, so that should you need to step outside or stand watch on the bridge, your eyes could adjust to the dark more quickly. You were also only one of two people awake at night, the other standing watch outside. For some reason, everyone would get creeped out from the same portion of the round, way up forward, far away from crew berthing, where it was primarily storage space, as well as below the main deck, so there were no windows of any sort. Part of the round was to open up a hatch in the deck and check a storage space. A friend of mine once did this and heard screaming as soon as he opened the hatch. He turns the light on, and it stops instantly. He puts his head down inside the hatch and sees that there is no one down there, promptly closes and secures the hatch and got the hell out of there.
Not particularly scary, I know, and I never saw or heard anything personally, but the sense of claustrophobia, even when you're outside, knowing that if you see anything weird you have no place to go, and no alternative but to do as you're told, sure makes you hope you don't see anything.
Ultimately, when you're out to sea, sh*t just seems to get haunted. Hope this was better than just a plain old 'bump'.