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Ghost stories abound in old Fort Sill buildings

By Ms. Marie Berberea (TRADOC)October 7, 2010

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(Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

FORT SILL, Okla.-- As more horror movies cross television screens, brightly colored costumes are picked, and ghost stories are shared, it only means one thing. Halloween is fast approaching

Those searching for goose bump worthy stories need to look no further than Fort Sill.

Fort Sill has a very rich history starting as an Army post in 1869. The grounds have seen their fair share of Soldiers, and other visitors, came through and according to many sources, some of those visitors' ghosts have stuck around long since their passing.

Author, Robert Hiatt, wrote a book, "The Ghosts of Fort Sill," in 1989. In it, he interviewed those who lived or worked on the Old Post Quadrangle at the time.

The stories

Twenty ghost stories were shared with the author, including a child-like ghost who liked to play tricks on the residents and a group of gossiping ghosts who would vanish as soon as someone living would look for the origin of voices.

One of the most documented ghostly occurrences was recorded and witnessed by more than one person in late December 1980.

According to the book, a contractor had set up a computer room in the basement of Building 463, which was formerly part of the Old Cavalry Post Hospital and is now the building that houses the garrison conference room behind Taylor Hall. Because of the expense of computer time, it was decided to have a night shift start at 4 p.m. The night shift consisted of one man and three women. According to the workers, on the first night of the shift, they realized something strange seemed to be happening on the floors above. At first, they thought there were other people somewhere in the building, because they heard footsteps up and down the deserted halls. At other times voices could be heard, but they were very far away and could not be understood.

One night, one of the ladies and the man, decided to see who else was in the building that late. When they said they heard the walking on the floor above, they rushed up the stairs to find an empty hall. One of them asked who was there and the reply was dead silence.

All four workers were now convinced the building was haunted and it was agreed that no one would leave the computer room without another person.

At first, it was like a game and a lot of jokes were made about the unexplained noises. But the joking soon ended, because the unseen visitor seemed to be getting closer to the computer room on his nightly walks. At times it seemed as though the spirit was on the other side of the computer door, according to the employees. One of the witnesses reported, "You could just feel it was there."

The male worker moved to the day shift leaving a woman who replaced him and three others on the night shift. It was learned at this time the computer room used to be a morgue.

The hauntings seemed to get worse. On three different occasions, between that December and March 1981 the military police were called to search the building for intruders. On one occasion, police dogs were let loose in the building. They found nothing. One night the four women were so disturbed by the weird activity, they ran outside. They were too afraid to go back in, so they locked up and went home. It was not long after that the women were placed on the day shift.

Editor's note: This is the first in a series of articles leading up to Halloween. The stories came from the book, "The Ghosts of Fort Sill," by Robert Hiatt. Next week: An interview with residents who live on the Old Post Quadrangle today.