USS Hornet

Commissioned in 1943, the USS Hornet has one of the most decorated service records of any aircraft carrier. But with any military vessel of renown, decorated service is not achieved without some loss of life. P.O.I.'s California team went aboard to discover if those lost had taken permanent shore leave… or if they still were still on board.

Located in Alameda, CA, the USS Hornet is actually the 8^th ship to have the name USS Hornet. During its time in service, the ship was under air attack 59 times and never hit, it shot down 255 aircraft in a month, it supported nearly every Pacific amphibious landing that happened after March 1944, and it earned 9 battle stars during World War II along with the Presidential Unit citation. It also recovered the astronauts of Apollo 11 and 12.

There are many stories about the hauntings (of which nearly all who have spent time on the ship have witnessed and will gladly attest to), and there are a few sudden, violent deaths associated with the carrier. There was one gentleman who was killed by a bomb elevator. He was on deck and, though they were all instructed to not look in or step inside the elevators, he apparently did and the bombs came quickly, crushing him to death. There is another section called the Catapult Room, where another man lost his life by either decapitation or a broken neck when some cables snapped.

There are a lot of reports of gelatinous orbs throughout the ship and occasional full bodied apparitions in various areas.

Jen and I arrived on the ship for the event and greeted some friends we knew were going to be there, and were surprised to find a group from Los Angeles, LA Paranormal, consisting of Layla, Grant and Brian. We formed a group, picked up a person who didn’t really know anyone else, got a guide who has served on a few carriers, and we were off.

The first area we stopped at was The Brig. We all filed inside and heard the door clank shut behind us, and I started laughing when I saw the guide on the other side of the door. He refused to come inside. Come to find out later that he never goes inside a brig because, on a previous carrier, he actually was held in a brig. We set up numerous bits of equipment but didn’t pick up anything on either Mel-meters or ovilus devices that we used.

We left that room, and I wandered into the room referred to as The Catapult room. I instantly felt sick to my stomach and started my recorder. The woman I was with started asking questions, and in my headphones I heard a clear answer to our question. We asked for confirmation of the answer, and I did not audibly hear a response to it.

We were able to explore a good deal of the carrier, with the most interesting experiences happening in the Catapult room and the sick bay area operating room. In the operating room, another woman and I felt extremely sick and dizzy. I inquired if there were x-ray machines around, but was told that none of the equipment has any power getting to it. Only the lights and air circulation systems had power in that area.

It was a great trip to the Hornet, and I can’t wait to get back there with possibly a smaller group to get into areas we were unable to reach this go-round.