56 replies to this topic

[earth_spirit]

Flight 401 crashed outside of Miami in what's known as "Alligator Alley."  Here's an interesting link if anyone wants to read more about it:

http://www.geocities...ts13/main_9.htm

[Caesar]

Hey thanks for the link earth_spirit

[Mykiedave]

I was watching a show from '94 today called The Extraordinary, hosted by Corbin Berson. There was a segment that caught my attention when it mentioned an RAF Transport Yard from WW I. The story contained the details of a young mechanic named Freddie Jackson who accidently walked into a moving propeller in 1918. Two weeks later the squad was notifed that the base was shutting down and moving and that many of them would be reassinged. They decided to take a group photo. When they recieved the picture they noticed that behind the last row of service men there was Freddies Jackson. The man who had died two weeks earlier. The photographer was from London and they were in Lincolnshire. The men all had on there uniform hats, Freddie didn't he was buried without one. The last row had been standing with their backs to the hanger door so no one could have moved in behind them. This incident took place at Cromwell Air Transport Yard in Lincolnshire in 1918.

[ubergroov]

Earth-spirit,

I almost fell out of my chair when I read your intriguing story and the account of the "hard stand" monster at RAF Alconbury. Just tonight, my father shared with me his stories about this base and it prompted me to do the internet search that brought me to your message. I think you'll find my father's experiences at this air force base in the early 1970s very interesting.

He was the NCOIC of a group of 3 men and their dogs, charged with guarding bunkers within a large, fenced area. I believe that nuclear warheads were stored beneath many of these bunkers. One foggy night my father got a radio call that there was an intruder within the perimeter and shots were fired. He tore out in his truck and sped towards the location of the shooting. Seeing a figure in the fog, he pulled over thinking it was one of his guards. He rolled down his window and was screamed at full in the face by what can only be described as a man-like, bipedal creature. My father nearly soiled himself in fear. In an instant the thing ran off at incredible speed and my father drove after it. Within moments it had sped past another of the guards, who also fired upon it; he missed due to the fact that he was practically dragged backwards by his guard dogs who were yelping and straining to flee in the opposite direction. The third guard and his dogs were running towards the scene when they turned the corner of a bunker only to be intercepted by the creature running at full speed. As his dogs wailed, the thing hit the taut leashes and pulled them away from his grasp, lacerating a good deal of skin from the unfortunate man’s forearm in the process. My father and these men witnessed this creature make fantastic, running bounds across the grounds before leaping over two tall, well-spaced barbed wire fences in a single bound. It disappeared into the surrounding woods.

My father’s description of the creature is little vague, but in his defense he only saw it briefly and, as he puts it, the whole situation was fast, confusing and difficult to process. It was hairy, approximately 5’9” in height, and had intelligent, human-like eyes, a flat nose, and large ears. The teeth were large but not fanged. The lower face was rounded in a way that suggested the look of a walrus. The face was narrow around the eyes, but the head flared out again at the top. It had very muscular, frog-like thighs. He believes (but is uncertain) that it had reverse articulated legs like a horse.

Interestingly enough, my father also shared with me what I think is the same tale of the Phantom jet that you described. Like you, he got the story secondhand, but in his version, the mechanic involved did not die, but instead lost his sanity after witnessing the “hard stand monster”, and was eventually kicked out of the service. Having seen this creature with his own eyes, he fully believed the account.

My father experienced many incredible things at this base and I would be very interested to learn more of what you and others might know of it. I will forward him the link to this site and perhaps he will share his stories firsthand.

[westerday]

read the story and must admit i am aware of the story however i need to add something to the account..I was stationed in RAF Alconbury from 1969 to 1972 and the story of the aircraft mechanic was old when i arrived. I was told that he was let out of the service with a section 8 due to the extreme fright and  reaction to the Alconbury beast. My son recently wrote to this wonderful site (i didnt know existed) and spoke of my "encounter" with "said beast" in November 1972 just prior to my discharge from the Air Force. My son's account is listed under the name Ubergroov and is somewhat accurate but a little lost in translation....thats how stories and legends are born haha. I do not mean to take away from the writer of the story i am responding to, i am only saying that the story pre-dates 1972....  thanks!

[Mykiedave]

Welcome father and son. We would love to hear more about the base westerday. I'd be interested in any research done on this particular area.

[earth_spirit]

The Hard Stand Monster lives!

Ubergroov, as I started writing about my experience at RAF Alconbury I thought I'd add a little "color" to the story by mentioning the Hard Stand Monster, but it appears now that the story has taken on a life of its own. I did some online research, as well, but I couldn't find anything halfway related. In all honesty, I have to tell you that the guy who originally told me the story was a consumate BS artist, but he also wrote my annual Airman Performance Report. Needless to say, I wasn't about to call him a liar to his face--unless I wanted a less than outstanding performance report for the year!

So when he told me this crew chief died of fright in the back seat of an RF-4C and that there were "claw marks" (his exact words) in the glass of the canopy, I smiled and told him what an interesting story it was. All the time I was thinking about what a crock of fertilizer he was handing me, and that same thought has gone through my mind every time I've told that story over the last 25 years--that is, until today when I read your post.

Quote

". . . hairy, approximately 5’9" in height, and had intelligent, human-like eyes, a flat nose, and large ears. The teeth were large but not fanged. The lower face was rounded in a way that suggested the look of a walrus. The face was narrow around the eyes, but the head flared out again at the top. It had very muscular, frog-like thighs."

It sounds a lot like my ex-wife, so I know I'd be scared!

Just reading your description makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck. In all honesty, when those lights went on in the aircraft hangar that Saturday night I mentioned, I half expected to see the Hard Stand Monster standing there when I turned around. {raising right hand}

Westerday, thanks for the historical update. The way the story was told to me was that the RF-4C in question was from the 75th Tac Recon Wing out of Bergstrom AFB, TX at the time, and it may be that the guy who told me the story heard it in 1972 when he was TDY at Alconbury. I did some quick research and found out that the base got their first RF-4Cs in 1963, so if there's any truth to the story, it probably occurred between then and your arrival in 1969. Then again, you know how stories get changed every time one of them is repeated. I suspect that the "death from fright" was an embellishment that was added on over the years.

Just the fact that you had an encounter with the creature goes a long way towards adding credibility to the story.

A big "Thanks" to both of you for taking the time to add to this otherwise undocumented story. Maybe we'll get a few more responses now that you've given some life to story.

Edited by earth_spirit, 21 June 2006 - 01:45 PM.

[earth_spirit]

Mykiedave, I'd almost forgotten the story of poor Freddie Jackson until you mentioned it.  That's probably one of the first aviation related ghost stories I ever heard.  If anyone is curious, you can the picture in question at:

http://www.livingsto...ddiejackson.htm

[ubergroov]

Ex-wife! LOL

Earth-spirit, I am hesitant to offer details to any more of my father’s experiences as I don’t want to misrepresent him (and I suspect and hope that he’ll share them himself) but from what he told me, your haunting experience was par for the course. Incredibly, he and his fellow airmen jointly witnessed a floating apparition on the very same night that they encountered the hard stand monster. On another occasion, my father found himself surrounded by the disembodied voices of children. He also heard reports from others who had seen and heard very disturbing things. Even his flat, located nearby in King’s Ripton (forgive my spelling) was haunted!

I have known these stories since I was a teenager, but being a diehard skeptic and unblessed with such experiences, I always took them with a very large grain of salt (forgive me Pops ). Your account has aided my slow acceptance of the reality of such phenomenon. I suspect that you had a very real experience with the supernatural that weekend.

By the way, I’m very impressed with your memory of those times and the detail of your accounts. A fantastic quality in a story teller heheh.

[ubergroov]

Forgive me for stretching out my commentary on the hard stand monster, (I realize that this website, and more specifically this thread's topic, are devoted primarily to ghosts) but I thought I'd share something I found intriguing during my internet searching.

http://www.hinchbk.c.../tour/ws10.html

RAF Alconbury is located near the town of Huntingdon. Huntingdon is also home to the historical Hithinbrooke House. This school, still in operation, dates  back to 1565. (One of its students was none other than Oliver Cromwell) In 1947, The 9th Earl of Sandwhich demolished the entire west wing of the Hitchingbrooke house. Amazingly, he did so because he believed it was inhabited by a werewolf.

If the existence of the hard stand monster is to be credited, and if it was seen as early as the 1960s, might it not be possible for the Earl to have seen something similar to it in his nearby estate less than 20 years earlier? (scratching chin thoughtfully...) Something must have made a big impact on the Earl for him to want to go through the expense and effort of the demolition, particularly on a site of such historical value. Then again, he might simply have been a superstitious, raving loon. heheh

[MoonChild]

Welcome to GV and enjoy the stay westerday and ubergroov

[Caesar]

[move][glow=red,2,300]welcome to gv ubergroov  ;D[/glow][/move]

[Mykiedave]

Thanks for the link Earth_spirit. I was looking all over for it and wouldn 't you know it? It seems we actually have it here in our home somewhere as well. I believe it was the great writer/philosopher Homer who said, "D'OH!!:

[earth_spirit]

You're welcome, Mykiedave!

Ubergroov, I can't thank you enough for the contributions that both you and your father have made to what started off as some old GI's "war story." It's interesting to see the snowball effect that it's had. By the way, if you hadn't seen the post, your father did write and he pretty much confirmed what you wrote about the creature he encountered there at Alconbury.

As for the other experiences he had while stationed in England, I would recommend twisting his arm (figuratively, of course) and getting him to post a few more stories here. The ones that you mentioned sounded fascinating! And if he's not able to write anything, I would hope that you'd consider posting them here on his behalf. You're not a bad writer yourself. I know that because you had the hair standing up on the back of my neck more than once yesterday with your descriptions. It also gave me "the willies" because I remembered how I missed the bus from Peterborough to Alconbury and had to walk back to the base around eleven o'clock one night. After reading your post, I let out a belated "thank you" to the drunken Englishman who stopped and gave me a ride that dark night in July. Otherwise, I might have bumped into the creature, as well.

On a related note, your father sounds like he's a bit of an oral historian himself. Have you considered having him sit down in front of a video camera and tell a few of his stories? Trust me on this one. You'll never regret it if you do.

As for your skepticism, that's a good quality. I always like some background information when I hear a tale about the paranormal--the more the better. An old GI spinning tales about ghostly creatures and sudden death in the dark of night on some lonely maintenance pad is interesting, but it's more entertaining than anything else. But when other people start confirming these stories--especially with eye witness accounts--you have to sit up and take notice.

The story of the Earl of Sandwich brings up another good point. First of all, I'd agree that the Earl was a few bricks shy of a full load, but if you look at the dates we've mentioned, who's to say that the original sighting of the creature at Alconbury and the Earl's renovation project weren't closer together? I was told the original incident happened to an RF-4C crew chief, and that would put the time frame between 1963 when the first RF-4C was added to the Air Force inventory and 1969 when your father arrived at Alconbury. But who's to say that it might not have happened to a B-17 crew chief during WWII? You know how stories change every time they're told, and many times people will embellish for effect or fill a blank spot when they've forgotten something. Since the main character in the story is an aircraft mechanic, that could easily move the time frame all the way back to the late 1930's when the base was first built.

Looking forward to hearing more from you. And by the way, I was probably a little harsh on my ex-wife in that previous post. She really is a nice person--as long as she stays on her medication :-)

And as we used to say in the Air Force, "Keep the gray side up, the rubber side down and don't forget to scan your engines for gremlins after passing 10,000 feet!"

Edited by earth_spirit, 21 June 2006 - 01:48 PM.

[Mykiedave]

[quote]As for the other experiences he had while stationed in England, I would recommend twisting his arm (figuratively, of course) and getting him to post a few more stories here.  The ones that you mentioned sounded fascinating!  
On a related note, your father sounds like he's a bit of an oral historian himself.  Have you considered having him sit down in front of a video camera and tell a few of his stories?  Trust me on this one.  You'll never regret it if you do.

I agree 110% on BOTH counts. I'd like to add MY thinks to all three of you for providing some wonderful reads. Ubergrove, get a tape recorder or a video, ANYTHING. I WISH I had done that with my grandfathers Vaudeville stories. I always thought I'd have PLENTY of time to learn them all, and I was saddly mistaken. Do yourself and YOUR kids the favor of getting them down on tape. THEN do US the favor of putting them down here. Thanks,

Mykiedave