The Ghost of OMQ

The "Class of 76" was a fairly young and lusty lot and consequently during our time at Laarbruch the number of dependants increased as all these "studs" gave proof to their virility.   Therefore it came as no surprise when one of our young and lusty Engineering Officers and his wife proudly announced they were to join the ranks of Parenthood.  The already parents amongst us nodded sagely at the news and advised that their troubles were just about to begin but we could not have envisaged the manner in which their troubles were to be manifested.

It was after the baby was a few months old that they reported that odd noises were being heard in their house, an on-base semi-detached Married Quarter.  Initially it was put down to quirks in the plumbing, maybe an airlock in the pipes or something similar.  However, as time went by the noises grew louder and could be clearly identified as the sounds of furniture or other such large objects being moved, scraped along the attic floor - be aware that the majority of German houses have substantial, habitable attics and cellars.  Initial thoughts that it might be their neighbours were quickly disproved.

Indeed, investigations which followed subsequent occurrences of these noises revealed that large items in the attic had been clearly been repositioned although there was no way anyone could have entered the house undetected to carry out this rearrangement.  What was established, however, was that the disturbance only occurred when the baby was in the house and often whenever the child had been laid down to sleep.

Given that there was no natural explanation for these events thoughts turned to the supernatural for it had to be considered that a Poltergeist could be responsible for these deeds.  Indeed, matters came to such a stage where our hapless new parents had to temporarily move out of the house and for a form of exorcism to be carried out as it was assumed that this spirit must be jealous of the presence of the new baby in its domain.  ("Poltergeist Experts" can quote countless cases of this occurring, apparently!)  Whether or not this was the case is a matter of conjecture and for you to make up your own mind but following the visit by the Service Padres the noises stopped and life was able to resume without further disturbances from above.

I have often reflected about this mild ghost story - albeit, not so mild to those who were the attention of this apparition - and the thought does occur that if it was a case of the Spirit World being involved it may have been the Revenge of the Phantom, a way of getting back at the Squadron, given that we had so successfully replaced that type with our own baby, the Jaguar!

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