Most Haunted Places in America: Keesler Air Force Base
In January of 1941, the city officials of Biloxi, Mississippi submitted a formal offer to the US Army to build a base in their town as a part of the ramping up of preparation for World War II. By June of that year, the War Department activated the Army Air Corps Station No. 8, Aviation Mechanics School, in the southern city. Two months after that, the base was officially dedicated to the honor of 2nd Lt. Samuel Reeves Keesler, Jr., a Mississippi native who was killed in action during World War I.
When Keesler was commissioned, it was to house both a basic training center and a technical training center. Through the years, however, it became one of the more important military technical schools in the country. By 1943, Keesler had trained the Tuskegee Airmen, as well as 7000 other African-American soldiers who moved on to become cadets, radio operators, aviation technicians, bombardiers, and mechanics.
By 1947, Keessler had become the home of the Radar School, making it responsible for operating the two largest military training schools in the United States. The population of the base ebbed and flowed with the military activity of the country, and after the Viet Nam War ended Keesler started seeing major cutbacks. Operations and training schools moved from base to base across the country as base after base was closed and business was consolidated.
On August 29, 2005 the base suffered a direct hit from Category 3 Hurricane Katrina. All of the nonessential personnel had been evacuated by the time the storm surge hit, but over half the base wound up under six feet of water, sustaining massive damage.
Keesler has been home to at least two distinctive hauntings. The first seems to stem from a young man who hanged himself with his bedsheets in the male dormitory that housed the 334th Training Squadron. This wing of the building was subsequently closed, but was reopened later when an overflow of recruits came to basic training. Men going through the barracks said that the hallway outside the dead man’s room was often unnaturally cold, and that the overhead lights would flicker unexpectedly.
In addition to these phenomena, worse things have supposedly happened in the actual room where the suicide took place. Two soldiers were assigned to this room, and they were unaware of it’s macabre history. The story goes that one of the soldiers became possessed during the night, and he was found standing beside his room. This same soldier also reported waking up in the middle of the night unable to breathe, because his bedsheet was tangled and twisted around his neck. Not long after, a cleansing was performed by a local priest and the barracks again fell into disuse. The building was demolished before any other soldiers bunked there.
There also seems to be a bit of paranormal activity going on in the female dormitory, as well. There is said to be the spirit of a young man who projects feelings of loathing onto the female soldiers he encounters, giving them the feeling that they are not welcome “in his Air Force”. Women can feel his presence hovering near them most of the time, but he also is frequently encountered in one of the stairwells. He also makes a point of messing with the frequency settings on the women’s radios.
There is also a teenager called Jeremy there, but he is said to be a pretty thoughtful and playful spirit. He is said to check on everyone at night, making sure that everything is OK. He also plays around with the soldiers – opening windows at night, and moving items around inside of locked cabinets. People say that he only appears to people whose doors are opened; he doesn’t intrude when people want privacy. Sensitives who have encountered Jeremy report that he went through the training program in 1967 and that he was scared of “going to ‘Nam tomorrow”. He is thought to have died from shrapnel wounds in Viet Nam.
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