Ok, so here I am, situated at work, back to the daily grind. IM finding it hard to return to my normal routine. I am slightly freaked by what happened to me at the U.S.S. Lexington, permanently docked in Corpus Christi, TX.
I traveled to Corpus Christi with one of my close friends Ralph. Having been thru a lot the past few months, a vacation far, far away from El Paso was in call for him. It had been nearly a year since my last trip out to Corpus, so it seemed logical to go along with him. We would make a break to San Antonio a few days later, but that will get covered in a future posting.
Ralph told me he is interested in ghosts and hauntings. To aide us in our trip across Texas, I took some books for us to read and get an idea of what is out there. They were of no help to us, but it was ok regardless. I kept chiding him by saying that we were gonna go hunt ghosts most of the time and actively look for haunted places, to which he was sorta scared and we laughed it off. Out of the many times I made my way out to south Texas, I had never taken the tour of the U.S.S. Lexington.
Jan. 21, 2005
A long, battle scarred ship emerges from the stoic vintage grey drab paint resting in the harbor as we walked up the gang plank towards the entrance to the decommissioned Lex (as Corpus Christi residents & veterans lovingly call her) and entered her airplane hangar one deck below the flight deck. We decided to start our tour of Lex in her engine room & crew berthing quarters, and might I say, I am way too tall for Naval service, I had to duck my head around every corner of the ship as I had to watch out for low air ducts, pipes and bulkheads.
Low celing!
The ship still smelled of oil and paint, the ongoing maintenance and upkeep of the ship still evident in the welders patching up the decades old accumulation of rust alongside the outer hull. The engine rooms still hummed with angry electricity boxes and transformers and for the most part, the entire ship still looked as if it were ready for action, if called for in a moments notice. The guns still placed alongside the ship, and the bridge still looks as if its ready to go out to sea.
U.S.S. Lexington's Quad 40 anti-aircraft guns
The crews quarters were sparse. Spartan accommodations would be exaggerating. They were lockers. Five foot, eleven inch tall men would feel cramped in the berths. The protecting plastic barriers blocked off entry to the rest of the ship, and let me tell you, it looked rather erie to venture alone in some of the deeper areas of the ship. We meandered our way past the berths to the medical facilities on ship. Ralph was just in heaven looking at the antiquated equipment that used to be in use.
Overlooking the flight deck
We did get lost once, but we saw others ahead of us and asked how to get out. We ended up on the flight deck and saw some great opportunities to get onto the bridge of the Lex. The view offered at the captains chair was awesome. I had full view of the landing deck and saw out into Corpus Christi Bay and I swore I was out in the Pacific Ocean. It wasn't until I looked to the starboard side of the Lex and saw the Harbor Bridge that I realized I was still in Corpus Christi.
Harbor Bridge, Corpus Christi Tx
After making our way back to the flight deck, Ralph and I saw the quad 40 guns that flanked the aft A deck levels of the Lex. We walked inside and saw the arrestor system to stop landing planes and made our way back inside the hangar. It started to get late, and realizing I wanted to still show Ralph what Aransas Pass and Mustang Island looked like, we decided to call the tour of the ship a day and stop for a rest. I needed the bathroom bad so we found the hatch to go under the ship and to the still operable restrooms onboard the Lex. That's when things got weird...
The urinals are located to the left as you enter the room. The center of the room still has operating showers, and behind the showers are the toilets. I needed to use the toilet, so I chose the one at the far end of the wall. I sat there... doing my business and saw the door move as someone on the other side started to knock twice. Remembering I had frightened Ralph earlier in the trip out to Corpus, I ignored it. The knock happened again, the door moved again. I looked down and saw no feet in front of the stall door. I had casually laughed and said "Ha ha, very funny Ralph" when the door happened to move as someone apparently was still outside the stall knocking. Agitated, I opened the door fast and found no one around. No one was in the stall beside me, and there was nothing but a flat, steel wall to the other side.
Standing in front of the stall I was using (with my pants up, you sick bastards) I called out to Ralph to see where he was. He came around the corner on the opposite side of the restrooms and looked puzzled at me. I asked where he was a moment ago and what he was doing. He was testing the showers and no where near me. I asked if he heard any knocking and he told me no. He did hear me say something to him, but he didn't pay attention to it since he was in the shower areas. I had to laugh it off and finished up my business, walked out of the restrooms and back up to the hangar and onto the gang plank back onto North Beach.
I do believe in ghosts. I believe there are ghosts onboard the Lex. I do believe that what happened to me onboard the Lex was a ghost playing the same sort of joke I would play in the same situation. I would love to go back onboard the Lex one more time. They have specials where you get to spend the night onboard to experience life the way sailors used to live, if only for one night. I wonder how many of the ships residents still call her home after all these years.
Out to sea
For more information about the U.S.S. Lexington, tours or its location, visit their website at www.usslexington.com. They even have a ghost cam...
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