Series 2: The Ghosts of Fort Huachuca

Fort Huachuca is a United States Intelligence Installation located just outside of a little town named Sierra Vista, in Southeast Arizona.

Brief History

The Base has been in operation since 1775 and has been home to many brave men and woman and many wars. We Thank Them All.

It only took about 5 minutes to drive through the little town of Sierra Vista, AZ.  The main road leading to the base only had one light, it was a yellow caution, flashing just to make you aware you were entering a town. It had a few houses, a store, gas station and a Post office. In no time we were turning down one of the only streets leading away from the small town.

When first arriving in Ft Huachuca, with only one road in and one road out, both passing through the main security gates, you only see desert covered mountains. Tall Yucca Cactus, Indian Paintbrush, and large boulders lined the road through the cascade of blooming desert plant life through hill tops carved into roads, down several miles on a long, winding road on the other side of the mountain into a beautiful juniper tree covered valley with green grass and fields of vegetation.

There aren’t many buildings on this base, some officer housing to the west, a small hospital, enlisted apartment housing with a small park, Commanding Officer’s quarters, a school and an air strip with 5 or 6 buildings situated around it, all cradled in rolling hills with a huge open valley surrounded by the Huachuca Mountains.

Several rows of individual houses lined one of the few streets of the Officer Housing area. Our house was the third on the right from the corner. Even though all the houses looked the same; same color, same landscape, ours was a nice three bedroom, two bath, with a huge backyard.  It had a swing set, a tether ball buried into the ground, and a Seesaw (Teeter Totter) for us to play on. Having these in our backyard made us popular with the other kids.  There was always someone asking to play with us.

One day I was in the backyard playing before dinner with the tether ball; it would swing around the poll, from left to right as I made it go faster and faster. As I was standing there alone in all my glorified power, a little boy about my age with blond hair wearing a stained white shirt and dirty tan pants walked around from the side of my house. There was no fencing as the houses backed up to a huge culvert (ditch) that separated us from the Hospital.

He walked over to where I was playing and said, “Hi, can I play with you?” “Do you know how to play tether ball?” I asked. “No, not really but you can teach me; I’ll play nice, I promise.” “Ok, my name is Sheri, what’s yours?”  He said, “My name is Jeffery, can I play with you?” Asking me as if he had not just asked. I replied back, “Yeah sure, you can play, come over here and I will show you how.”

Just as Jeffrey was walking towards me, my older sister opened the back door and yelled, “Mom said to come inside, it’s time for dinner.” Looking over in her direction, I said to her “Hold on just a minute, I was just about to show Jeffrey how to play tether ball.” The look on her face turned to one of confusion, “Who’s Jeffrey?” I turned back to look at him and he was gone! I thought he must have run off so I said to her, “You must have scared him off with your yelling.” She just looked at me and yelled, “There was no one there stupid, now get in the house!” I just let the tether ball fall and walked into the house. No point in arguing when I could no longer see Jeffrey, but I knew I saw him.

Later that night, while getting ready for bed, I thought I saw something move past my window. It was already dark outside, so I dismissed it and thought I should close the curtain. When I walked over to the window, I looked outside and thought I saw a tall dark man standing over by the tether ball. I quickly looked again and saw nothing there so I closed the curtain and jumped into my bed making a tent by throwing the blankets over my head.

As I laid there scared and trying to go to sleep, I remembered a poem about the sandman so I pulled the covers back and recited what I could recall, “Sandman, come take me to slumber land, bring your dust for me to sleep, make my eyes heavy once again, please take me to slumber land.” Looking up at the ceiling, I saw a small cloud form with swirling motions coming towards me, the dust filled my eyes and I fell off to sleep.

The next day at school I was playing in the sandbox during recess. There was a little boy that I went to school with named Henry sitting across from me building sand castles and running these small wooden trucks along the sandy paths with his hands. We weren’t really speaking to each other; he was in his own little world as I was in mine. All of a sudden my attention was drawn to a woman standing behind him. She appeared out of nowhere and was looking down at Henry with a smile on her face. Without speaking to her, I could hear her in my head, “This is my grandson Henry, could you please tell him that I know he misses me so and I miss him too, and that I will always love him and be with him.”

Without even thinking about it, I relayed the message to Henry. As I spoke to him I could see his confusion turn to that of fear. “What did you say?” The words rolled slowly from his lips, everything seemed to be in slow motion. “Your grandmother is standing right behind you, she says you are sad and miss her dearly, she wants you to know that she misses you too, and she loves you. She is holding her stomach now and leaning over, says she died from a sickness in her stomach.” I reiterated again, much to the surprise of Henry, he stammered and started getting really upset. “My grandma died last week, she isn’t standing behind me, she can’t be!” He started crying and yelling for the teacher to come over. As he was explaining to our teacher that I was lying and making up stories about his grandma, his grandmother just looked at me and smiled, as she was disappearing I could hear her say, “Thank You!”

I was told, by the teacher to stop making up stories and scaring Henry like that! Feeling very misunderstood, I said, “I’m sorry I made you sad Henry.” Henry responded in a low voice, “It’s ok” and went back to playing as if nothing had just happened. I continued to play until the bell rang, signaling that recess was over. As I sat there, I started thinking, this place is really weird!

Later that day, after school was let out, my sisters and I had finished our homework and were ready to run outside and play. There were still places to explore. Just behind the Officers housing was a Nature Preserve. The Guard’s shack at the entry prevented us from exploring on the main road, so we would walk along the ditch, making our way to the back side of the “protected” area situated along the Huachuca Mountains. There were piles of dirt stacked all along the back side as if someone had been doing a lot of digging and just left the mounds of dirt behind. We would traverse our way up and around what looked like hundreds of mounds of dirt, sliding down some that were so steep we couldn’t stand to walk on them.

During this one particular day of exploring, I saw two men who were dressed differently than any of the Military men I had seen on the base on the side of the mountain standing there just observing our movement. Pointing in the direction of the mountains I asked my younger sister Angie, “Do you see those men standing over there?” She said, “No, what men?” I looked again and they were gone.

As we made our way beyond the mounds of dirt, my sister asked me, “What did those men look like?”  “I dunno, kinda tall and they had long black hair with darker skin, like an Indian.” Just as I finished describing them to her, I saw them again, this time just past the juniper trees that lined the preserve. “Look, there they are again, do you see them this time?” I whispered as I looked in the direction of the two men, standing behind the trees, watching us. “Yes, I see them!” She replied in a whisper, as if not to allow them to overhear.  I said to Angie, as I started to back away from the trees, “Let’s get out of here!”

We practically ran over the mounds of dirt back to the path that lead to our house. Thoughts were rushing through my head so fast I started saying them out loud, “Who were those men? How did they get down from the side of the mountain in front of us so fast? Why were they just staring at us? First watching me, Angie couldn’t see them on the mountain.” Angie chimes in, “I saw them in the trees! Their faces looked like they were painted.” “They did, didn’t they? If I tell you something, promise not to tell a soul?” I felt the need to tell her what I had been seeing since we moved onto the Base. “Sure! What is it?” “I have seen people that no one else can see.” I whispered as I shared my secret, “I saw a little boy when I was out back playing with the tether ball, he told me his name was Jeffrey but when Theresa called me in for supper, she said she didn’t see him. Then I saw a tall dark man standing by the tether ball that night when I was getting ready for bed.”

Angie interrupted me, “That is scary! Do you see them now?” “No, but seeing those men just now, after seeing Henry’s grandma that died, I am starting to get scared too.” “Wait, what? Henry’s grandma?”

“Yes, there are some really weird things going on here! I am glad I’m not the only one that can see it!”

Safely back in our own home, we tried to explain to our mother what we had seen, she was only home for a short while, announcing she had to go back to work. She said in response to our fantastic explorations, “Your eyes must be playing tricks on you. There are no Indians that dress like that or wear paint on their faces, around here anymore.” “Any more?” I asked in surprise as we had just seen the two on the mountain. She dismissed my question and said, “It’s time for super, now go wash all that dirt off your hands and faces.”

Both my parents worked outside of the home. My father was an Officer in the Army but when he wasn’t on duty, he worked in town at night, playing piano and singing, “For the boys” as he used to call it. My mother was a waitress and also took in laundry to make ends meet.

This night, after my mother went back to work and the dishes were done, my older sister decided to go over to a friend’s house and left me in charge of my 2 younger sisters. Second born, first born responsibilities.  It was already getting dark when she left so she told us, “Just get ready for bed, watch some TV, I’ll be right back.” So, we did just that, we all got ready for bed, sat down in the living room, turned on the TV and started watching a show called, Family Affair.

Not too long after we began watching the show, there was a loud knock on the front door. “BOOM, BOOM, BOOM!” I told my sisters to stay right where they were on the couch, I’d go look and see who was at the front door. There was a window by the front door and a light on outside but it looked like the shadow of the person outside was blocking the light.  All I could see was a tall figure that was once again knocking loudly on the front door. I jumped backed a little with the next, “BOOM, BOOM, BOOM!” “Who’s there?” I called out. I heard a muffled voice say, “Open the door, can we come in?” After the experiences I had been having since moving in this house, I was scared to death of who or what this might be knocking louder and louder on the door again 3 times, “BOOM, BOOM, BOOM!” I thought the door was going to bust open.

I ran over to my sisters, picked up my baby sister who was only 3 years old and ran into my parents’ bedroom. It was the only bedroom that had a telephone in it, so I had my sisters crawl under the bed, while I grabbed the telephone. Fearing for our lives as the knocking continued, all I could remember was that I was told to dial 0 in case of an emergency; that would take me right to the MP’s station on the base. The knocking was like an echo in the background as a voice came over the phone, “MP Post 223, what’s your emergency?” I managed to get this out without crying, “Someone is outside our front door, knocking really loud, my sisters and I are hiding under the bed in my parent’s bedroom.” I started to calm down as I was speaking with the Military Police (MP) Officer, he asked my name and location, once I told him we were in the Officer’s housing on the second street and who my father was, he said he would stay on the phone with me until the MP’s arrived.

“Has the knocking stopped?” “Yes, I don’t hear it anymore.” “Okay good, stay with me, the MP’s will be right there.” He reassured me as I was telling my younger sisters who were now sobbing and upset that the army men would be here soon to save us!

The nice officer on the phone let me know that the MP’s were in front of my house and asked if I could look out the bedroom window and see the flashlight one of them was holding? Crawling out from under our safe haven, I told him, yes, I see the flashlight. He told me to stay in the bedroom until he tells me it’s ok to come out, the officers were going to take a look around the house. Within minutes the voice on the phone said, “Ok Sheri, they say it is all clear, it’s okay to come out from under the bed and go to the front door and open it for the MP that was shining the flashlight.” My sisters and I walked out of the room and headed for the front door.  As I unlocked and opened the door I was relieved to see the two Officers standing there!

My older sister came walking up the driveway just as the MP was asking who was home with us, “What happened? Who’s in trouble?” I began explaining what had happened, exactly as I saw and heard it and was told no one was outside when the officers pulled up. One of the MP’s had asked one of the neighbors if they had seen anything; none of them saw anything or anyone at our front door.

The officers told my sister Theresa, to take us back inside and make sure we get to bed. They would be calling our parents just to let them know there was an incident but that we were all alright. “Alright?” I thought to myself. I am definitely not ‘alright’ but what could I do or say that would make any of this alright? I knew what I saw and heard, my sisters both heard the loud knocking, they were scared too!

Theresa said, looking right at me, “Okay, that’s enough for tonight, all three of you need to go to bed. Mom and dad will deal with you in the morning.” “Fine! I am going to bed! No one believes anything I say anyway,” I said as I twirled around and headed for the hallway leading to the bedrooms. I could hear her yell something at me, but paid it no mind as I walked into the room I shared with her and jumped in my bed, pulled the blankets over my head and prayed for uninterrupted sleep.

My eyes popped open, hearing what sounded like a door close. I pulled the blanket back to look over at Theresa’s bed, she was sound asleep and unaware of the door slamming. Just as I turned over to go back to sleep, I saw a shadow walk from the closed bedroom door, and past my sister Theresa who was asleep in her bed.  As the figure moved closer to me I could make out the form of a large woman, she was dressed in a long blue robe with one white slipper on her right foot. It looked like she was holding something in her hand but I couldn’t tell what it was. She moved right through my bedroom window and disappeared into the night. Shaking in fear, I threw my blankets back over my head and once again prayed for sleep to come quickly.

My parents were already up and sitting at the kitchen table by the time I woke up and got dressed for school. My father started the inquisition as I walked into the kitchen, “So, mind telling me exactly what happened last night?” In pure exhaustion, I spilled out everything I had seen up until last night and even what I saw after going to bed. Confessing we were in places not permitted and getting in trouble at school, I held nothing back. Much to my surprise, I was met with disbelief. Given the punishment of no outside for the rest of the week I felt defeated.  What else could I do to change their minds to believe, what even I was struggling with?

I tried to go on with the day, the next week, and months without seeing anything. This didn’t last long. I started seeing men, woman, children; all walking around the base, dressed like cowboys. Long sleeved shirts and pants that were torn and dirty. There were more Indians, men, children and women around the mountains, they seemed to stay within the tree lines.  There were some with a determination in their step, while others looked lost and bewildered that they were still here on this plane. They had with them their horses and covered wagons. At times, I could hear the clanking of the utensils that hung from the back of the wagons as they rolled by. Another world existing, right beside our world, and no one else could see them but me and my sister Angie! I was seeing so many “ghosts” walking around; this little base became very crowded.

The air strip is where I started to go to get away from all the chatter. I love the rumbles of the airplanes as they come and go. I would lay at the end of the runway watching all the jets and airplanes take off and come in for a landing. Flying was on my list of things to do, even at such a young age, I could see beyond what others said was impossible. I imagined being able, by sheer will, to just float up and fly! I could see myself soaring through the blue atmosphere and other times going beyond our planet, moving through the many galaxies.

Most days the sun was very bright but one day, while taking in the vibration of the jets taking off and darting into the bright sky, a very bright ball started flying towards me. At first I thought it was just the reflection of the sun, as the light stays in view several minutes after looking away. Then it darted to the left just as it came to a stop right above me!

The bright light expanded into a brilliant golden sphere, just inside the sphere was the shape of a man. In a state of awe, I began communicating with this being; without speaking, he told me not to be afraid. Standing up from my laying position, I asked him who he was, “What’s your name?” I asked but before my next thought, I heard the name, Jacob! “Jacob.” We both said together in my mind. I felt the warmest feelings of love I had ever felt. It rushed all over my body as I could hear him continue to explain that he is my Guardian Angel and that he will always be with me. I have to but utter the thought Jacob, and he would be by my side.

I trusted his words. I could feel he meant them from the depths of his soul as I felt his embrace, all-encompassing and full of love. He told me of the days ahead and that they would be trying but to have Faith, above all things Faith in my Heavenly Father and all that is Holy and Sacred in Him. I could feel he had to go, and I cried out, “Please don’t leave me here! Take me with you!” “We are always with you,” and with that Jacob was gone from my sight, but I could feel him around me and took comfort in the thought that I am not here alone, that God and Jacob were watching over me.

Shortly after Jacob introduced himself, I started noticing different colors around people. Strangers and those I knew alike would start to ‘glow,’ depending on what they were doing or talking about. I would see the colors that were bright, like red, when people were upset or arguing.  Children had more of a glow than adults did, actually most adults didn’t have much color around them, they were more like a dirty white and the glow didn’t extend out very far from their heads.

There was an elderly man named George, a retired Veteran, that worked at the Commissary (on Base grocery store) as a cashier. We had become friendly over the year we had been living on the base. George was always encouraging my mother to buy us some sweets. “Well, hello there, Mrs. B, how’s that husband of yours? I see you brought in your 4 sweet girls. Have you seen the new candy treats? Perhaps you would like to buy 5 of these brand new Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, hot off the assembly line, for yourself and the girls, for you are as sweet as this chocolate, I’m sure.”

Before I met Jacob, George seemed like a regular grandfather type. He was nice to most of the people that came through his line. Always greeting them with a smile, a catchy line or two, but today George was different, he was blue all over. Some places were a darker blue, like around his stomach and his throat.

Uninterested in the chocolaty goodness he was trying to sell us, I blurted out, pointing right at George,

“Mommy, why is George blue?” Not understanding what I meant my mother replied, “What? What are you talking about? George isn’t blue, he is smiling and seems very happy.” Insisting he was blue, I said,

“No, he is blue, don’t you see the blue colors all over him?”

Distracted by trying to pay for the groceries, George trying to sell her more items, and me insisting I was seeing colors around him, mom got frustrated and said, “What are you talking about? I don’t see anything but George standing there. Now grab your sister’s hands and let’s go. Thank You George, come on girls, grab a bag or a hand and let’s go.” “Thank You Mrs. B. Bye girls.” He said as he waved goodbye to us. I kept looking back at him, to the point of distracting myself from walking out the doorway and ended up hitting the side of the door. He was still blue as I walked into the door frame and out the door.

Soon afterward, I started seeing colors around animals, cars, planes and buildings; everything around me had a glow, even the grass was glowing! I started to “Know” things.

We were all out for a family weekend, driving up to the lake with some friends and family. Dad was driving, mom was in the passengers set and the four of us girls were spread out in the back. As I was sitting there I started getting images of a police car with its lights flashing red and blue. I could see the police car pulling over a car that looked like our car. “You better slow down daddy, you’re going to get pulled over and get a ticket,” I said, matter of fact. “What are you talking about? I’m not going to get pulled over, there is no police car behind me.” He said as he looked in the rear view mirror. “Ok, but if you don’t slow down, he is going to get you.” Just as the words came out of my mouth, a Police car pulled out from behind a sign on the side of the road and turned on his lights, speeding up behind our car! I could see my father’s look of confusion as he looked at me from the rear view mirror. “Not another word from you!” He said as he rolled down his driver’s window to speak to the Officer, who wrote him a ticket for speeding.  The rest of the ride to the lake was spent in silence with an occasional glance from my father. I could tell he thought I was strange but I couldn’t blame him. I felt strange, almost backwards.

The weather was a blustery 112 degrees, a typical Arizona summer. Mom had surprised us all with a new pair of sunglasses. “Don’t lose these, keep them on your face at all times, it is really sunny this weekend and you need to protect your eyes.” I had never owned a pair of sunglasses before, so this was a real treat. We played the typical movie stars and walked around like we were having our pictures taken by photographers. The day went on as planned, fun in the water, boat rides and eating barbecue. By late afternoon, I realized I was no longer wearing my sunglasses. I panicked as I started retracing my steps. Where could they be? I asked my sisters if they had theirs, which all 3 did. So, I had to find mine. Walking the path, I started asking for help, “Please Jacob, help me find my sunglasses.” I felt silly asking but thought, it was worth a shot. My mind started filling with pictures of my sunglasses, I could see them laying in the sandy path, with some grass around them. There weren’t many places with this grass so I asked, “Exactly which area of grass are they lying?” It was as if my path now became my vision.  I could see the ground glowing as I made my way back along the path I had taken. Coming to a fork in the path, I could see the path to the right light up, following the glow, I walked right up to my sunglasses! “Thank You Jacob and God for bringing me to the right place!” I was so excited I ran back to camp and told my sister Angie what had just happened. “I don’t know what’s going on with me; it’s kind of scary, but not, at the same time.” She just looked at me with her eyes real big and said, “I think it’s very scary, but I’m glad you found your sunglasses. You would have gotten in trouble.”

All I could think was, being in trouble with mom was the last of my worries. This place is so weird; I don’t know what’s going to happen next!

To be continued…