Account/testimony of my possible ghost experience aboard USAF KC-10A tail number 2-0191 circa late 1994

realityisprobablynotwhatwethink.txt

From 1993 until 1997 I served as AFSC 2A636 (aircraft electrical and environmental systems specialist) in the USAF on the KC-10 aircraft.
I was stationed at March AFB from 1993-1995, it was subsequently closed to active duty by Pres. Clinton and they shipped us all north to Travis AFB, where I served until 1997.
The following happened while I was at March (which was a lovely base, btw... possibly one of the best times in my life was spent there).
It was an activity-free Friday afternoon- all missions were done, we were sitting around.
Erik Anderson (who outranked me) suggested we take the downtime to catch up on some OJT (on the job training) to sign off some stuff.
So we go to the flightline, which is completely dead at this point, and we pick any old available jet, the one we picked happened to
be 02-0191 (tail number; we just called it 2191). I remember this because of a reason you will learn shortly.
We board the jet and since it was so dead, Erik did not bother tagging the battery switch (which normally warns anyone else
on board, such as crew chiefs, to not turn power on), which was not procedure, but given the deadness of the flightline at the time,
it was a corner worth cutting.
He decides to train me on GCU (generator control unit) replacement. The GCU's are below the cargo deck in something called the CAC
(center accessory compartment), which sits between 2 giant fuel tanks.
So there we were, in the center compartment below cargo deck, and both GCU electrical panels are off, and he's explaining things to me.
And while he was explaining things to me, we both heard someone walking around up above us on the cargo deck, which was not particularly
unusual as an aircraft's crew chiefs are known to visit their jets often to do checks or paperwork or both. But at some point we got
to a point where we had to remove equipment, and at that point it strongly behooved us to warn whoever was walking up top not to turn
battery power on the jet on or we could get shocked. So Erik goes "Hold on, let me let that crew chief know we're onboard."
So when I say "footsteps" I have to clarify. The cargo deck of the KC-10 is covered in these cargo rollers with ball bearings. And
if you walk the deck, your boot will often catch a roller and you'll end up spinning it and it will make a ball-bearingy sound.
Anyway, I distinctly remember hearing that sound, but I might be imagining that part. All I can say is that both of us were 100%
convinced there was someone walking around above us.
So Erik pokes his head outside the hatch above us. Around this moment, the sound suddenly stopped.
Erik looks down at me with a funny look. "What's wrong?" I ask. He goes "Hold on" and leaps up onto the cargo deck proper.
I hear him walk to the back of the jet asking "Hello? Hello?". Nothing. I hear him walk to the front of the jet, "Hello? Hello?"
Nothing again.
I hear him walk down the metal steps leading up to the jet (very noisy)... "Hello?" Then I hear him climb back up those steps.
Suddenly I see his head through the hatch above me.
"Dude. There is no one onboard, nor around, this jet." He is shaking his head in disbelief.
"BULLSHIT!" I say. "You're fucking kidding me." He checks AGAIN. Nothing.
We finish the training, and for the rest of the afternoon, since I seemed spooked, Erik proceeds to fuck with me. "BOO!"
"Fucking quit it, man!" ;)
But I'm a curious sort, and I was convinced that what we heard was genuinely unusual (also: there was no wind on the flightline
at that time), so I did some research.
At that time, the name of the head crew chief in charge of that jet was Aceron (his last name; we called each other by last names).
The next day at shift change (he was dayshift I think, I was swings), I pulled him aside.
"Ace," I asked, trying not to make a leading question. "You're the head crew chief of 2-191, right?"
"Yeah. What's up?"
"So have you ever... eh... experienced anything... *unusual* on that jet?"
"Oh yeah," he says.
(Side note. If you are a ghost researcher, the military is a fucking GOLD MINE.)
Ace: "One night I was alone on the jet, or so I thought, signing off on some things. At some point I realized I heard someone walking
in the back of the jet, and I wanted to close it up for the night so I said 'Hey! I'm closing the jet up! Come on out!' but I heard
no response. Then I went back to the paperwork one final time, and I heard someone walking back there AGAIN. At that point,
the hair on the back of my neck stood up and I closed the jet and got the hell out of there as quickly as possible."
"Holy shit," I probably said.
"You know the story about what happened to that jet, right?"
"Nah, what do you mean?"
Ace: "So the tail of 2-0191 is not the original tail. A couple years back, some idiot drove a high-reach into it and totaled it, so
they decided to salvage the tail from 2-0190, the one from the Barksdale accident, and install it on this jet."
Ace: "Ever since then, people have reported weird stuff on that jet. I didn't believe them until I heard it myself."
(Honestly, military people are extremely skeptical and NOT prone to fancy. And USAF guys are fairly intelligent. So, very good
witnesses overall IMHO.)
"What was the tail number of the Barksdale jet?
"02-0190."
"Are you fucking serious? It differed by 1 fucking digit?"
"Yes."
"And where did the Barksdale fire start?"
"They think it started in the CAC or right next to it."
"And where did the airman die?"
"In the tail. He fled to the tail, failed to notice the oxygen masks he could have taken, and died of smoke inhalation."
So basically, a fatal accident happened which started in the exact same location we were training, on a jet with a tail number
differing by only one digit, with a major part reclaimed from the other jet, which is the same part that an airman died in.
"OK, well... all of these things taken together are really fucking weird."
"Yeah. Well, gotta go to work. Bye!"

That's my story as I recall it.