The Poltergeist of Barking SandsWhen Cora Rolfe moved into her comfortable beachfront house here a few years ago, it didn't take her long to figure out something odd was going on.
"Sometimes, when you walk down the hall, it'll be cold,' recalled Mrs. Rolfe, whose husband, Bruce, a Navy lieutenant commander, was assigned to the nearby missile testing range. "It'll just be like an air conditioner. It's a real strange kind of feeling."
At night, the ceiling light in one bedroom would flash on and off and the hallway smoke alarm blared so often for no apparent reason that they finally disconnected it, she said.
Also at night, they could hear what sounded like the refrigerator door opening and closing, Mrs. Rolfe recalled. When they looked into the kitchen, the noise stopped.
But it wasn't until the Rolfes' visiting grandchildren reported seeing a woman dressed in white that the couple seriously began to think the house was haunted. While this "white lady" evidently has never been seen by adults, Mrs. Rolfe said she overheard one youngster conversing with the ghost.
"He was crying and told the lady he didn't want any chocolate chips," she said.
These and other unusual incidents at Barking Sands are acknowledged - in fact, discussed openly - by officials at the Pacific Missile Range facility, a sophisticated Navy launch and tracking site that this year became a research base for the Strategic Defense Initiative project, nicknamed "Star Wars."
Housing manager Charlene Castor said she no longer is surprised when she gets complaints about odd goings-on in the quarters. "They come home and they find ashtrays and tables in a different area." Castor said. "Household items shifted around, refrigerators opening and closing, shoes turned upside down. All I recommend is they have their place blessed."
The Rolfes' house at 1204-B Regulus Drive has been a frequent source of queries, she said. Over the years, other children have described a "white lady" with "long hair" and wearing a "white shawl" said base spokeswoman Mariana Graham. "Only children see her," Graham said. "These children didn't know each other."
There also have been reports of "ghost cattle" that walk right through fences, and during construction at a radar facility several years ago, a Marine guard "emptied his M-16" rifle at what he thought were nighttime intruders, Graham said. Closer inspection revealed nothing.
In 1982, a woman who lived in the housing area became so upset at hearing a voice call her name, she had the house exorcised, Graham said, The voices stopped.
Graham said two airfield firefighters, Dwayne Fernandez And Bobby Castillo, recently reported see a male apparition walk between their bunks at the station house.
What's going on here ?
.....Mrs. Rolfe confirms in the case of the chilly hallway. "It's not anything I've felt scared by," she said.
However, as she was packing her household belonging for a move to San Diego last month, Mrs. Rolfe said, she was hit by something invisible that flew out of a kitchen cupboard door.
Material copied from The Honolulu Advertiser Monday, November 11, 1985 ,p.A-3by Jim Borg.