Hauntings at Vancouver Barracks

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Story provided by Vancouver historian and ghost hunter Jeff Davis, from his website at http://www.ghostsandcritters.com/

Date: 27 September 2002
From: D. C.
Subject: Vancouver Barracks

I just recently moved back home after a year of duty at the Vancouver Barracks.

I was there a few months before anyone told me of any “hauntings.” It was not long before nearly everyone had advised me of their own personal or hand-me-down story.

I had the west end of the National Guard Recruiting Offices.

There were many times before Sept. 11th and the fencing went up that I would drop an applicant off at Recruit Medical Facility and returned to use the bathroom in the basement – only to hear someone walking around upstairs. I would hurry upstairs to find nothing. I was concerned due to the fact my laptop was upstairs and office unlocked.

There was another incident in which we had a young soldier in the middle office. We advised him to keep any individual below the rank of Colonel out of our offices. Later he explained that he swore someone was in my office, as he heard papers shuffling around on my desk.

The guard force also has many stories about the buildings as they would have to walk the grounds and secure the buildings/shut off lights.

There was one incident where all of the wall lockers in our bathroom were violently opening and closing. The installation had already been cleared and there were no personnel except for the guard force. The individual that encountered the event quit.

On the other side of the building there is also a basement bathroom. There are previous full-time personnel that swear to this day that some entity placed a hand in the middle of their shoulders while they were relieving themselves.

It does not occur just there. I would occasionally feel what seemed like a fly or gnat landing on the side of my flat-top haircut. Eventually it came to happen so often, I just ignored it as a phantom feeling – only to reflect and realize it may have been exactly that.

I had a Saturday that I had to finish up paperwork on one soldier. Upon returning, I was the only one in the building. I could smell aftershave really strong in the west classroom above the bathroom.

I pulled the double doors closed and started to close my office door. As I did, the other doors would slightly squeak open. I slowly opened my door and the double doors would close. I repeated this several times and got the same response and attributed it to the air-pressure changes. That was until I tried it one last time and instead of the double doors closing upon my door opening, they opened full shoulder width and stayed open.

There are also many stories about Mikey and his story of living in the building and being awakened by what sounded like hundreds of soldiers scrambling for a roll-call. He opened the door and it was icy-cold and though he could hear the sounds, he saw nothing.

This is the same side that the guard force radios would automatically have a “hotmike” when they entered the area. Our building would do it every time regardless of handset carried.

The maintenance techs would be really good sources of info also as they have been there for nearly 20 years. I encountered a smoke smell one evening and went through the entire building and it was specifically in and just outside my office. I have a witness to this and later, I found that there had been a fire in the building that killed a few soldiers.

Eventually, we had a digital camera up in the attic where there are still charred rafters and we had photos of the white orb you mention.