1965

DESCRIPTION

In summer I went on a visit to the old American Airbase in Upper Heyford. It was designed to be a launch site for air-craft delivered nuclear weapons, and we even got to see where they used to store the payload. The nearest structure to the payload pen was Whiskey 13, an observation post with a haunted past. Our guide told us, after some persuading from his wife, the story of a rookie stationed at the perimeter of the base, in W-13.
A young woman from the local village, riding a white horse, came up to the squat tower. From her elevated position on the horse she started to talk with him. The were friendly to each other, and when the Airman mentioned some upcoming leave she invited him to tea with her family.
The day came, and he went down the lane to their farmhouse. An older woman answered the door, who bore a resemblance to the rider. when the airman asked after the girl he learnt that this was the girls mother. The girls ageing mother stated that she had died falling from her horse two years earlier.

He returned to his post the next night, and with his last check-in he claimed he saw her again. She was coming to him. After he failed to respond to his next scheduled check, a unit was sent out. They found him dead.

A slightly less supernatural telling of the story says that there was no woman or horse. There was, however, a young American far away from home. In truth he did die at his post, but it was by his own hand and his own rifle.

In either case, the security guards who kept an eye on the site after the Americans left in 1993, have reported glitches in the old analogue telephones. Nocturnal animals and decay sometimes caused faults. The light on the incoming line from Whiskey 13 sometimes flickers, but nobody dares pick up.

Submitted by Khoops