As I've spent so much time lurking about here, I think it's time I came off of a story or two. Here is the first. I may sound hokey, but I do not like fictional ghost stories, I only like local legends and actual events. This story is true to the best of my knowledge. I have only left off the names of those involved.

Before I became a science teacher, I was an Air Traffic Control Specialist in the US Navy. I was stationed at NAS Cecil Field in Jacksonville, FL from 1984 -1990 during which I spent numerous hours 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 the tower during these hours even though we did have a couple of periods where only one person was in the tower on mids. The only restroom was located directly below the tower on the fourth floor landing. I always felt uncomfortable going into there at night. Actually, it wasn't the restroom as much as it was the fourth floor landing itself. I blew it off most of the time as my imagination because the fourth floor landing was poorly lighted.

Many times I heard the door to the tower open and close. The funny thing is that the door (which is on the fourth floor landing) is controlled by a five button electric cipher lock which makes a very distinctive "snap" when the door is opened. Also, only controllers are given the combination. If I was talking to airplanes, I wouldn't bother to look to see who was there. Sometimes it was another controller and sometimes nobody came up the ladder. A couple of times I heard footsteps coming up the ladder (it has steel steps) which would stop in the tower cab itself (about 8 feet behind me). The other thing that I heard was the toilet flushing when there was nobody in the restroom below. There were only three other people in the building and they had a bathroom four floors below. Still, I blew it off as my imagination working overtime in a post W.W.II building.

I found out that it was not just MY imagination one mid watch in 1987. I was standing watch with a twenty year veteran controller who had completed two tours at Cecil (10 years total). We were doing the end of the day paperwork when I heard the cipher lock snap, the door open, and the footsteps up the ladder, stopping in the tower cab. I turned to see who was coming up at the same time the other controller turned around to do the same. There was nobody there. The other controller looked at me and smiled, and I smiled back at him. We did not say a word, we both turned back around and went right back to what we were doing.

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

None of the old timers at the airport ever knew of a controller who died while stationed at Cecil, but there have been many crashes of aircraft. One controller said the ghost was one of the pilots who died in 1984 (6 months before I got there) when a Ground Controller made a fatal error resulting in a collision between a departing A-7 and an S-3 that was crossing the runway (one person 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 AC1 XXX. Of course this part is conjecture and I would ask, then why does the pilot stopped off to relieve himself from time to time?