Special Halloween Series: A haunting you can 'bank' on

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Kevin Wallace
  • 100th Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs
RAF MILDENHALL, England --  Bank, commissary, base exchange and rumored to once have been a morgue, Bldg. 131 has served as home to many facilities over the years.

However, for years, another presence has dwelled within the brick walls that currently make up Keesler Federal Credit Union.

Pat Bishop worked in Bldg. 131 when it was a commissary in 1999, and recalls encounters that literally made goose bumps.

You've just entered the RAF Mildenhall Fright Zone, and the stories you're about to hear are actual accounts of former employees.

As a commissary cashier, Bishop witnessed many supernatural occurrences of a poltergeist nature.

"I was helping a customer when the clock just flew off the wall like someone had thrown it," recalled Bishop.

Another morning, near the deli, Bishop saw meat literally flying off shelves and saw loaves of bread tossed about.

Bishop said the commissary was rumored to once have been a morgue and that many people used to say it was haunted.

"I thought it was a ghost," she said. "But, I didn't get the feeling he would hurt us."

Skeptics may doubt Bishop's account. Most people go their entire life with never seeing a ghost, spook or specter.

However, Bishop isn't the only one who witnessed the haunting at Bldg. 131.

Miri Cressey explained unbelievable encounters she witnessed.

"[After the manager stocked the open-front refrigerator,] he turned around and walked away," recalled Cressey. "All the meat was tossed out of the refrigerator, like it was jumping out."

Cressey described other "bursts of kinetic energy," which included bread recurrently flying off shelves and doors slamming when no one was around.

Dale Kesler used to work in the old commissary deli and said he would put something down in a specific spot and find it somewhere else.

Kesler used to question himself and then think, "No, I know I put it there," he said. "It turned into jokes about the ghost anytime someone misplaced something."

Was there paranormal activity at the old commissary?

Many former employees agreed there was.

However, Keesler Federal Credit Union currently occupies the building and employees have not been haunted, said Sally Middleton, branch manager.

Middleton has heard rumors of hauntings, she said. But, that's it, just rumors.

"None of us have experienced any unusual activities within the branch," said Middleton. "I have spent a night here [and] the only thing that was 'frightful' was spiders."

Could it be that whatever was haunting the old RAF Mildenhall Commissary cleared the building along with the bread, meat and milk?

Perhaps it's in hiding, waiting for the right moment to resurface ... only time will tell as here in Suffolk, countless paranormal presences have been sighted throughout history only to go many years without been seen again.

Maybe one dark, dreary night, the ghost of Bldg. 131 will creep back to familiar grounds, to resume haunting as it did a decade ago.

Stay tuned as the 100th ARW PA Office brings you your next RAF Mildenhall Fright Zone. This special series will run until Halloween 2011.

(Capt. Shane Balken and Louis Arana-Barradas contributed to this article.)