Sometimes things happen during war time that seem very strange. People see things, hear things and even windup doing things, that are out of the norm. I am the first to admit that during a war, unbelievable pressure is put on people at certain times. Just imagine that you are fighting for your life and are outnumbered by a superior force and people are dying all around you, while the enemy is advancing. That situation just has to be one of the worst that a person could find themselves in. Some people will handle it completely different than others. One way of handling it might be by trying to protect yourself by digging a deep hole to fight from, another might be to attack, since you may feel that you have nothing to lose at that point. Audie Murphy, the guy who became a movie star after the Second World War, was one of those attack people. He was the most decorated American soldier of the entire war. His reaction to pressure was to go on the offensive. I only mention this because I want to illustrate that war can make people do different things and it all depends on the individual, what his or her reaction will be. Is this true for other things during war, like sightings? The following story is about World War One.

During World War One, English and French soldiers were serving in Flanders, in France. The Germans were advancing on Paris and the allies were getting despondent, as all their attempts at stopping the Germans were meeting in failure. Then it happened. The date was somewhere near the end of August and the year was 1914. Nine English soldiers were guarding a battalion as they rested in the woods. The guards were at the edge of those woods. The soldiers were all on edge, they were expecting a surprise German attack. That is when it happened. One of the soldiers looked skyward and saw something. It was a strange glowing light. He stated that it was not the moon, or any lights from the area. The light just kept getting brighter and brighter, until three distinct shapes could be seen. One of the figures had wings and they were spread open. The other two figures looked like people in long flowing garments. All three floated above the German lines and were quite visible to everyone in the allied lines. Everyone had their eyes glued on them and they all remained staring at them for about 45 minutes. Some soldiers had testified that there was a cloud behind the figures and this cloud hid them from the enemy and only the British and French troops could see the figures. The British believed that they were looking at Saint George, while the French believed it was Saint Michael. One soldier later claimed that at one battle, where the allies turned and attacked the Germans, he had seen this same figure riding a white horse, while he was at the head of the attack. The witness was a minister. One officer who had been in the battle at Mona, stated that he saw Saint George. The allies were in a terrible position at Mona and the officer stated that he appealed to the vision for help. He went on to say that at this point, the Germans saw the vision and they abandoned the attack. What did all these soldiers see? Were there angels helping them? Why were most of the sightings of the same angel, if that is what it was? I guess we will never be able to answer all these questions.

Strange things are always happening around us that we can't account for. Take the case of Thomas Edison. I think that everyone is familiar with the great inventor. There is no doubt that he was very intelligent, is there? When he was dying, he laid on his bed and seemed to be in a coma. All those around him believed that they would never hear the inventor utter another word before his death. He sure had a surprise for those people. As he was laying there at death's door, he suddenly sat straight up and said, "I am surprised, it's very beautiful over there." Was this the ramblings of a delusional person, or had he glimpsed the afterlife and were we getting a rare preview of what awaits us? I think that it is important to note that Edison devoted much of his life to trying to develop a device that could communicate with the dead and finally gave up on it.

An article that appeared in Stars & Stripes, a very famous U.S. Military newspaper, talks about U.S. bases that are haunted. These bases are usually located in the Pacific. As we all know, the Pacific arena was where some of the fiercest fighting of the war took place. Many times, Japanese troops would rather have been wiped out than surrender, so the amount of dead on both sides, was enormous. Some people believe that where you have a lot of violent death, you have spirits that are still around. One of the places that is mentioned is Yongsan Garrison in South Korea. The buildings are old and some even date back to the Japanese occupation of Korea. There is one building in particular, that no one wants to be around. One sergeant stated, "I hate being here at night. The hairs on the back of my neck stand up just talking about it," This area was a prison during the Japanese occupation. It is claimed that apparitions have been seen by many people and sounds can be heard on a regular basis. Moving shadows have been seen by many on guard duty. The central focus seems to be a small building. The building is believed to have been the administrative office of the prison. So what exactly is going on in this building? There have been reports of doors opening and closing by themselves, dark figures standing in doorways and then disappearing, footsteps being heard and voices coming over devices like radios or any device with speakers. The voice is said to sound Japanese and male. In the beginning some thought that the voices were a joke, but as time progressed and they could hear footsteps coming closer and close to their work area and then stopping, they realized that this was some sort of ghostly presence.

There she is, still beautiful after all these years. No I am not talking about some aging actress, I am talking about the USS Lexington, an aircraft carrier from World War Two. She has found a permanent home in Corpus Christi, Texas and has become a floating museum. There is something very strange about this ship. Many tourists have been treated with stories about the exploits of this ship by a young sailor. He seems to enjoy telling people about the ships exploits in World War Two. There is a slight problem with this however, you see, the man is a ghost. This has happened so many times that he has been given a name by the people that run the museum, they have named him Charly. Ironically, many visitors have called the main office to tell them how helpful their guide was, not knowing that they were being guided by a supernatural being. Charly was a sailor that was killed during World War Two by a Japanese kamikaze attack on October 31, 1944. According to the Corpus Christi Caller-Times, over two hundred visitors have spoke with Charly. Can you imagine their reaction, if they had known who or what they were really talking to? One of the human tour guides said that it seems that Charly knows an awful lot about the carrier. A crew was hired to restore and paint the ship. They started and then went on break. When they came back, all the work had been finished. There have been many sightings of both ghostly American crewmen and Japanese pilots. Strangely, this ship was named the Blue Ghost by the Japanese.

Otranto was being besieged in 1537, by Suleyman the Magnificent. It is said that it was about to fall, when suddenly an army of Angels and Martyrs appeared on the city's walls. It was further stated that the amount of angels were so large that they couldn't be easily counted. These were the same martyrs that were reported to have fought and died in 1480. These angels and martyrs were said to have appeared again in 1644, saving the city from the invading Ottoman Empire. A woman reported being out for a drive with her dog, in Scotland. To her surprise she saw a huge battle taking place, it was the spectral battle of Nechtansmere being played out again. She was so scared that she actually left her car and ran, only to encounter two of the soldiers who took no notice of her. They were bending over fallen comrades. When she returned home, she described the scene to a noted historian and he told her that the clothes she described belonged to the period of time when the battle took place.

I am not a big believer in the paranormal, as a matter of fact I really don't believe in it at all. What I do believe is that there are an awful lot of unexplained things and events that take place every day on this planet. When people report a paranormal event, that doesn't mean that they are lying or insane. It is quite possible that they saw something. It is just the explanation of the event that I may not agree with.