After Lights Out

My Experiences with the Paranormal in the Military

Chapter One: Baumholder

My first experience with the paranormal happened in 1992, when I was stationed in Baumholder, Germany.

The room I was assigned to was unusual from the beginning. It was enormous—large enough for six people to stay there comfortably. Instead, it was just me. I had been told that the room had once been associated with Jeffrey Dahmer. I can't say with certainty whether that story was true or simply one of the stories that circulated among soldiers. But there was one thing I knew for sure: nobody else wanted to stay in that room. I did.

During the two years I spent in Baumholder, I experienced things that became increasingly difficult to dismiss as ordinary sounds. It started with tapping and rapping. Then came the voices. But some of the strangest experiences happened when I would hear what sounded like a battle taking place outside.

I could hear gunshots. I could hear explosions, and I could hear what sounded like soldiers screaming. The sounds weren't vague or distant enough to simply dismiss. They sounded real—like an actual battle was happening somewhere outside the building. But when I looked outside, there was nothing there. No soldiers. No fighting. No explosions. There was nothing that could explain what I had just heard.

That was one of the things that stayed with me. It wasn't simply hearing an unexplained noise. It was hearing an entire scene unfold through sound and then looking outside to find complete silence and normality.

Baumholder had plenty of history, and there were stories throughout the post about strange occurrences. Beneath the base was an underground bunker system, almost like a cave beneath the post. I eventually found a hidden entrance that, as far as I knew, only a small number of soldiers knew about.

We would go down there and explore. Inside were remnants of the past, including World War II-era vehicles. Being underground, surrounded by things that had been left behind from another era, gave the place an atmosphere unlike anywhere else I had been.

Looking back, I wonder whether the history of Baumholder had something to do with what I experienced there. I don't know. I only know what I heard, and after spending two years in Germany, I left Baumholder and went to my next assignment: Korea.

I thought I was leaving the strange experiences behind. I was wrong.

Korea would prove to be just as paranormally active for me as Baumholder had been.

Chapter Two: Korea and Beyond

After two years in Baumholder, I was transferred to Korea. Korea was completely different from Germany. It was a land of mountains, forests, and winding trails, and I quickly discovered how much I enjoyed hiking. Whenever I had the opportunity, I would get out and explore.

My adventures eventually took me beyond Korea as well. I had the opportunity to travel to Japan, where I continued exploring the outdoors.

One place I visited was Aokigahara, a dense forest near Mount Fuji that is sometimes referred to in English as the "Suicide Forest" because of its tragic history. I knew something about the forest's reputation before I went there, but knowing about a place and actually standing in it are two very different things.

The forest had an atmosphere that was difficult to put into words. The trees were dense, the surroundings were quiet, and there was a sense of isolation that made the experience unlike an ordinary hike.

I wasn't there looking for anything paranormal, but by this point in my military experiences, I had learned that strange things could happen in places where you least expected them, and Japan would give me another experience that I would remember for years to come.

Chapter Three: Aokigahara

While hiking in Aokigahara, I began experiencing something I had never encountered before. I started seeing what appeared to be shadowy figures among the trees.

At first, I wasn't sure what I was looking at. Some of the figures looked almost human, but there was something different about them. I could see through them, almost as though the trees behind them were visible through their bodies.

What struck me most was their appearance.

Some seemed sad or defeated, with their heads lowered and their shoulders hanging. Others appeared angry. I remember seeing figures that seemed to be yelling or crying out toward the sky.

Then I witnessed things that affected me far more deeply than I expected. I had known about the tragic history of the forest before visiting it, but nothing could have prepared me for what I experienced there. Whatever I was seeing, it felt connected to the sadness and suffering associated with the place.

I had always been willing to consider that there were things in the world I couldn't explain. But after Baumholder and everything I experienced there, I was still able to tell myself that there had to be another explanation.

Aokigahara changed that for me. I left the forest carrying something I hadn't brought with me: a profound sense that I had encountered something beyond what I could explain.

That experience made me a true believer, and it wasn't the last time the paranormal would follow me during my military life.

Chapter Four: War and What Followed Me Home

After Baumholder, Korea, and my time in Japan, my military career continued into another chapter—war.

Over the course of my service, I would eventually experience three wars: Kuwait, Iraq, and Afghanistan. By then, I had already experienced things I couldn't explain, but the experiences didn't stop when I left Baumholder or Korea. In fact, there were times when I began to feel as though something was following me. I would see things. I would hear voices. Sometimes there was no obvious explanation for what I was experiencing, and those moments stayed with me long after they were over.

When you're in the military, you learn to keep moving forward. You have a mission, responsibilities, and people depending on you. There isn't always time to stop and ask yourself what something means, but eventually, I retired from the military.

And that's when I began looking at all of these experiences differently. Instead of simply wondering about the things I'd encountered, I wanted to understand them. Today, I have my own paranormal team, and I enjoy investigating places where other people have reported unexplained activity. Ghost hunting has become more than just a hobby for me. In many ways, it is a continuation of a journey that began during my military career.

I've spent years seeing and hearing things that I couldn't explain. I can't tell you exactly what they were. I can't prove that every unexplained experience was paranormal, but I know what I experienced. And those experiences changed the way I look at the world. They left me with the belief that there are things beyond our current scope of understanding—things we may not yet have the knowledge or technology to explain. That's what keeps me investigating.

I'm not searching for ghosts simply to prove that they exist. I'm searching because I want to understand. After everything I've seen, heard, and experienced, I can't help but wonder:

What else is out there that we haven't learned how to explain yet?

Maybe that's the real reason I became a paranormal investigator. The experiences followed me through my military career. Now, instead of running from the unexplained, I'm willing to walk toward it.

Written by: Dena Jewell

All photos are from the personal collection of Dena Jewell