Ghost spooks soldiers in Afghanistan.

[Wooddevil]

FORWARD OPERATING BASE SALERNO, Afghanistan - The two soldiers had heard stories about a ghost that was supposed to haunt the guard towers overlooking a graveyard on the outskirts of the base.

Then they heard a laugh over the radio. It was shrill, almost painful, and - according to them - could only have been made by a little girl.

"No grown man in the Army could have made it,'' said Painter, who is 23.

Painter and Jackson, paratroopers with the 2nd Battalion of the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, called the other guard towers to see whether other soldiers had heard the laugh. They suspected their buddies were playing a practical joke. But no one had heard it.

It brought to mind the stories they had heard about the haunted tower.

The story around the base was that two Marines were in the tower one night when they saw an Afghan girl and her pet goat walking on the road. When they took off their night-vision goggles, she was gone.

When they put their goggles back on, the girl was standing on the balcony of their tower. Both men ran down the stairs. The rumor is that they refused to return to the guard tower, even if it meant they would be punished.

The night after hearing the laugh, Painter and Jackson were back in the tower - weary and a little jumpy. A few hours into the shift, the "ghost'' was back.

Both paratroopers said they could feel something moving behind them, and every once in a while it sounded like someone stepped on the trap door leading to the tower's middle level. The temperature in the tower dropped a few degrees, they said. Both men said they were huddled in the corner next to the radio.

"Are you movin'?'' Painter would ask when he heard something.

"No. You?'' Jackson would reply.

Then another tower called. The soldiers there said they were detecting a 3-foot-tall "form'' walking around the bottom of the tower that Jackson and Painter were in. The soldiers told Painter and Jackson that it looked like it was waving.

Reluctantly, Jackson said, he went to investigate.

"I walked around the whole balcony and didn't see anything,'' he said.

Both paratroopers were anxious for their shift to end. With less than an hour to go, a call came over the radio. Their relief was going to be late, maybe by as much as two hours. The paratroopers cursed their luck and continued to scan the horizon.

Their shift ended without any other incidents.

"That night, you could just feel it,'' Painter said.

Added Jackson: "There were no jokes that night.''

The ghost story is a legend around Salerno. Almost all of the paratroopers know at least one version, especially the one where the Marines refuse to return to the tower. According to some versions, the Marines are in tears.

The story has made it back to the United States. Both soldiers told their families about it. Painter's family told him they wouldn't go back to the tower. Jackson's father told him not to make the ghost angry.

Jackson, who said he believed in ghosts before he deployed to Afghanistan, doesn't think the ghost is harmful.

"I didn't feel threatened,'' said Jackson, who is 24. "It was just having fun.''

Staff photo by Mike Spencer

Guard tower six at Forward Operating Base Salerno in Afghanistan, seen through a night-vision lens, is rumored to be haunted by a child.

But after two weeks of duty in one of the towers without seeing anything, Spc. Drew Painter and Spc. Jeremiah Jackson were skeptical.

[ghost_fanatic_chic16]

That is creepy, i heard a story like that before about soldier grounds being haunted ...

[x o i s k]

cool find...spooky

[ForRizzle]

They should get an infared camcorder and record it on video

[~TheBigK~]

Thats a really cool story

[chesy8367]

I heard a similar story of a little girl haunting the ramp (a vehicle parking lot for tanks and amtracks) at Camp Schwab, Okinawa aboard the Marine Base there... I was deployed there just prior to 911 and it is an often told story at the club on post which goes back to sometime in the 50's. According to the version I heard the armed sentries are posted after working hours and walk a beat around the area ensuring nobody tampers with the equipment, etc, and have on numerous occaisions over the years spotted a little girl Japanese girl darting in and out between the armored vehicles as if playing hide and seek in the darkness and giggling as if fooling someone. Shocked, the sentries contact the guard shack who in turn send the reactionary force down to the ramp to investigate and find nothing. This is a very well known peice of folklore among those posted to the base though I heard of no such encounters during my stay.

[Miss Airborne]

I did two deployments to Afghanistan and spent alot of time at FOB Salerno.The first time I went there was on my first deployment. At the time there was a main compound where pretty much everyone stayed and then a seperate compound quite aways from the main camp where aviation personnel stayed at ( like myelf).One evening me and one other female from my platoon went to see a friend who was pulling guard duty at one of the guard shacks.We lost track of time laughing and bullsh**ting that it was dark by the time we left to head back to our camp.Unfortunately this night there wasn't a full moon and we didn't have our NVG's with us.Well we got lost trying to get back and ended outside the compound somewhere.We managed to find our way back in the way we left and started to go towards the guard tower to ask for directions because afterall the soldiers pulling guard duty had NVG's.So we finally heading back to the main compound and started to hear something coming up behind us and turned around,but nothing was there.We were really freaked out and decided to walk faster.As we continued to walk we heard that same noise again and also something like footsteps we turned around,but nothing was there.By this time we were closer to the corner to turn to get to the compound.So when this story was posted I believe those guys when they say that guard tower was haunted.I never heard that story until I went to get a update to read about Salerno and it's improvements since I was there.Those two soldiers from 2/504th PIR weren't lying either.We never did ask our friend if he saw anything through his NVG's that night,but would he have the balls to say something knowing that he had many more guard duty shifts to pull in that tower??? So I believe that something is going on there and that that little girl that's been seen walking her goat does exist out there. Miss Airborne 82ND AIRBORNE DIVISION

Edited June 23, 2006 by Miss Airborne

[~Onyx~]

Quite the interesting story. I certainly hope that with all the equipment available to them(NVG'S, heat-sensitive equipment, etc.) that they could find the time(after thier duties are preformed of course) to record some of these phenomenon. I would be more apt to believe any footage they acquired simply beacuse of the lack of incentive to hoax...what would they have to gain.

[Loaf]

I heard (and saw a news video) about a medical station somewhere in Afghanistan that soldiers said they were sure was haunted.

It was similar to this. Apparently they just took up an old building to make the medical station in, and a few weeks later people were saying that they saw figures walking around. Some wouldn't even go in.

Creepy stuff.

[DeadRobot]

Afghan - Tajikistan border - Hindu Kush mountains - The "Ail", feminine looking entities with floating hair, pale eyes resembling milky white orbs and glacier pale skin are said to inhabit the region whenever the suns rises so high, that you cannot see your own shadow, or at twilight. Even though they normally go on about their business, it is best to treat them with respect, since the Ail are known to be quite violent and hostile. That is why you almost never see any villagers or nomads out during those times in the day.

Kabul - Kabul University - It has been told that some of the abandoned dorms and abandoned classrooms were used by the Taliban to torture and kill people whom dare defy them. While some foreign aid workers were helping out on re-building Kabul University, it was said by many that they smelled the foul scent of rotting flesh, feces and other bodily wastes. Others said they also saw the entities of the victims that were tortured to death by the Taliban or heard screaming and crying in pain, when there was no one there.

Taken from http://theshadowlands.net/places/afghanistan.htm. The ail remind me a little of the banshee.

[chaostrom]

I heard a similar story of a little girl haunting the ramp (a vehicle parking lot for tanks and amtracks) at Camp Schwab, Okinawa aboard the Marine Base there... I was deployed there just prior to 911 and it is an often told story at the club on post which goes back to sometime in the 50's. According to the version I heard the armed sentries are posted after working hours and walk a beat around the area ensuring nobody tampers with the equipment, etc, and have on numerous occaisions over the years spotted a little girl Japanese girl darting in and out between the armored vehicles as if playing hide and seek in the darkness and giggling as if fooling someone. Shocked, the sentries contact the guard shack who in turn send the reactionary force down to the ramp to investigate and find nothing. This is a very well known peice of folklore among those posted to the base though I heard of no such encounters during my stay.

Wait a minute, what the hell is the ghost of a Japanese girl doing in Afghanistan?

[Katryona]

Wait a minute, what the hell is the ghost of a Japanese girl doing in Afghanistan?

chesy8367 is talking about a similar story in Okinawa, Japan. Hence the Japanese girl.

[chaostrom]

I heard a similar story of a little girl haunting the ramp (a vehicle parking lot for tanks and amtracks) at Camp Schwab, Okinawa aboard the Marine Base there... I was deployed there just prior to 911 and it is an often told story at the club on post which goes back to sometime in the 50's. According to the version I heard the armed sentries are posted after working hours and walk a beat around the area ensuring nobody tampers with the equipment, etc, and have on numerous occaisions over the years spotted a little girl Japanese girl darting in and out between the armored vehicles as if playing hide and seek in the darkness and giggling as if fooling someone. Shocked, the sentries contact the guard shack who in turn send the reactionary force down to the ramp to investigate and find nothing. This is a very well known peice of folklore among those posted to the base though I heard of no such encounters during my stay.

chesy8367 is talking about a similar story in Okinawa, Japan. Hence the Japanese girl.

Oh! Right, right... I believe I've made a fool of myself, overlooked that completely

[Miss Airborne]

I'm not into all this paranormal and ghost bulls***,but I had to tell my story because I've been to FOB Salerno so many times and never heard anything about this.I even spent time on missions with 2/504th PIR and never heard a thing.As old as these buildings are in Afghanistan it wouldn't surprise me if they were haunted.I have a few places in mind that could be the building used and made into a medical area by the army,but it's hard to pinpoint eactly where.Pretty creepy!! Miss Airborne