The Haunted Schoolhouse

by Natalie Berkheimer

I have always had an interest in ghosts but have treated them with kid gloves. I was extremely sensitive as a child and still am to this day. I hadn't thought much about it because I was new to the military and very busy getting myself adjusted when this all happened.

I had graduated from boot camp and my first leg of electronics training when I arrived at Sheppard AFB in Wichita Falls, TX. After much waiting I was excited to be assigned a training shift. There were so many tech schoolers here fresh out of boot camp and all eager to start classes and leave this decrepit, crumbling dinosaur. Since there were so many of us we had to be divided into shifts. I was assigned to a class of six other students in a group of 30 on the midshift. This entailed sleeping during the day and going to class from 11 pm to 7 am, Sunday through Thursday. In short, this became known as the vampire shift. Now as I have said before, there were thousands of us students and this was during a time of "Force Reshaping" which chalked up to a lot of airmen being discharged from the military for trivial things. This was a "two strikes you're out" environment and since I didn't want to lose my job and go home empty-handed, I kept my mouth shut the whole time.

It all started the first night of class. Having become accustomed to rising early and falling asleep by nine pm, this was a rough adjustment to all. I was one of two females in my class and one of 10 at this base who were training for my career field, I felt I had a lot to prove. But, back to the story at hand. It was close to two am and I was torturing myself to stay awake. Finally, I got up and went out to the hall to fill up my water bottle in hopes that drinking would keep me up. As I was filling up I kept turning around because I thought there was someone behind me. Once I even started talking because I thought it was one of my classmates out to join me in the mission to stay awake. But when I turned there was no one to be found. I thought it strange but also just assumed it was my mind playing tricks on me due to the weird hours I was now forced to keep. Every night, multiple times a night, this would happen. It became increasingly uncomfortable to go to the bathroom by myself. I put up with it because I was one of the few females around and also I just didn't want to look like a big weirdo crying wolf. It was definitely unnerving having to go down two stories to reach the women's bathroom. It was made worse by the fact that we were the only class at this time of night on our wing of the building (there were two wings) and the 20+ empty, dark classrooms I had to pass each way. All this compounded by the disembodied footsteps that could be heard but no owner to be seen.

One warm night we all went outside for a break and sat around chit chatting. Someone looked up and said, "You know, I think this used to be a hospital." We all turned and I thought to myself, yes, this does. This would explain the two wings connected by ramps in the middle and staircases on the outsides of either wing. I thought about it and said, "You know you're right, if you were to look at the building from the air, it would be in the shape of an H." We all joked around saying it used to be a looney bin for all the tech schoolers who went crazy trying to memorize the tons of tech data and trying to stay awake at this ungodly hour.

I don't remember at what point this all started but slowly but surely the other female and I started walking each other to the latrines. Then the males started going in groups. As we became more accustomed to our nocturnal schedules I think we became more aware of our surroundings. I started to wonder why the floors were concrete painted the ruddy brown color of dried blood. Or why all the floors had a window in the exit door except the one on the ground floor. It was only until the night I came to a revelation so obvious yet profound that anything really disturbing started to happen.

I was hurrying down the ramps to meet my classmates in the basement/ break room when I stopped on the ground floor and it hit me. It hit me so hard that I said aloud, "Oh my God, the basement used to be the morgue that's why the double doors have no windows. And this ground floor used to be the intensive care unit and operating rooms where patients recovered or...died." It hit me like a ton of bricks. I was lost in thought, my mind racing back to a time when this place was teaming with energy and chaos. My train of thought was broken by the sound of wooden soled footsteps walking toward me from the far end of the hall. My first thought was, "Everyone here wears combat boots, who's wearing dress shoes?" I looked up in case it was a superior but no one was there. The footsteps kept on coming, but faster now and as they increased speed the lights flicked on and off in sequence down the hall towards me. It was as if someone was running down the hallway with a wave of darkness in tow because it was pure dark shadow rushing toward me. I turned in terror and went to descend the final ramp to the break room but before I could finish turning on my heels something with the force of something only sheer malice could drive, shoved me hard in the back. It felt like to hands gripped my shoulders and threw me down. I rolled once and found my footing. I got up an ran the rest of the way down.

Another time I got left behind on one of our many group bathroom breaks and as I was rounding the corner to ascend the ramp to the second floor, I saw in the corner of my eye a man wearing army greens standing with his back to me about 10 feet to my left. I stopped dead where I was and it seemed that he too just realized I was there for as he began to turn I felt a cold angry sensation. I didn't stick around. I bolted up the ramp and the whole time kept thinking to myself, "I bet that's the one who tried to push me down the ramp!"

There were other times that I saw things out of the corner of my eye but none ever left me with fear only the feeling of not being alone. Many times I saw either doctors conferring in a corner or a sturdy-looking nurse hurrying down the hallway. Almost all of the activity centering on the ground floor. I assume this is because it is the floor that saw the most action.

No one said anything until the night we finally graduated. Probably for a lot of the same reasons I had for keeping my mouth shut. It was only then that my sightings of the angry soldier and the medical staff were concurred. Although, those that saw my soldier never said anything about him being angry. Was he a trigger-happy youngster done in by a Japanese during one of the world wars? Possibly. This is the only explanation I can come to as to why he singled me out, because I am half Asian.

I never did find out more about the old hospital-turned schoolhouse but someday I would like to go back and find out more.