Ghost Stories

Cecil Tower

As I've spent somuch time lurking about here, I think it's time I came off of astory or two. Here is the first. I may sound hokey, but I do notlike fictional ghost stories, I only like local legends andactual events. This story is true to the best of my knowledge. Ihave only left off the names of those involved.

Before I became a science teacher, I was an Air Traffic ControlSpecialist in the US Navy. I was stationed at NAS Cecil Field inJacksonville, FL from 1984 -1990 during which I spent numeroushours in the control tower on mid watches (from 10:00pm - 6:30am).Most of the time I was at Cecil, we would have two people in thetower during these hours even though we did have a couple ofperiods where only one person was in the tower on mids. The onlyrestroom was located directly below the tower on the fourth floorlanding. I always felt uncomfortable going into there at night.Actually, it wasn't the restroom as much as it was the fourthfloor landing itself. I blew it off most of the time as myimagination because the fourth floor landing was poorly lighted.

Many times I heard the door to the tower open and close. Thefunny thing is that the door (which is on the fourth floorlanding) is controlled by a five button electric cipher lockwhich makes a very distinctive "snap" when the door isopened. Also, only controllers are given the combination. If Iwas talking to airplanes, I wouldn't bother to look to see whowas there. Sometimes it was another controller and sometimesnobody came up the ladder. A couple of times I heard footstepscoming up the ladder (it has steel steps) which would stop in thetower cab itself (about 8 feet behind me). The other thing that Iheard was the toilet flushing when there was nobody in therestroom below. There were only three other people in thebuilding and they had a bathroom four floors below. Still, I blewit off as my imagination working overtime in a post W.W.IIbuilding.

I found out that it was not just MY imagination one mid watch in1987. I was standing watch with a twenty year veteran controllerwho had completed two tours at Cecil (10 years total). We weredoing the end of the day paperwork when I heard the cipher locksnap, the door open, and the footsteps up the ladder, stopping inthe tower cab. I turned to see who was coming up at the same timethe other controller turned around to do the same. There wasnobody there. The other controller looked at me and smiled, and Ismiled back at him. We did not say a word, we both turned backaround and went right back to what we were doing.

I never discussed any of this with any controllers because we allhave to meet physical standards annually, which also means wehave to be mentally competent. Controllers who see UFO's and/orghosts and in the tower don't control too long. One night I wasin radar and another controller was in the tower by himself. Iheard the other radar controller teasing the tower controllerover the coordination phone line about being afraid of the "TowerGhost." The tower controller was getting angry and demandingthat we send someone up to keep him company. I asked the otherradar controller jokingly about this "Tower Ghost." Idid not let on that I had ever experienced a thing. The radarcontroller acted like I was daft. "Haven't you ever heardthe toilet flushing and the door opening?" he said. Istilled played dumb. He went on that this happened often with theguy who was up there at the moment and that he did not want toever have to stay up there by himself. The other radar controllercontinued to relate the exact same events that I had heard onmany nights. I asked a few other controllers and a few of themcame clean with their own stories, while others either seemed tobe playing dumb or outright stated that it was just people'simaginations running wild.

None of the old timers at the airport ever knew of a controllerwho died while stationed at Cecil, but there have been manycrashes of aircraft. One controller said the ghost was one of thepilots who died in 1984 (6 months before I got there) when aGround Controller made a fatal error resulting in a collisionbetween a departing A-7 and an S-3 that was crossing the runway (oneperson died in the A-7 and I think four people died in the S-3).The story was that there was a pissed off pilot looking for AC1XXX. Of course this part is conjecture and I would ask, then whydoes the pilot stopped off to relieve himself from time to time?