Seriously, have you encountered a ghost before?

Here's my "ghost story". It was 1983 at Holloman AFB in southern New Mexico. I was working the early morning shift for line delivery in the Bomb Dump (Munitions Storage Area) and it was around 2 am. To make things even creepier, there were coyotes howling inside the fence (FYI: the week before one approached within 10 feet of me while I was carrying a 2.75 rocket in both hands), tarantulas were crawling on the ground, and bats were flying through the air. So far...a normal desert morning...if just a little bit chilly (which is good because it slows down the rattle snakes). I had just been let into the area by the Munitions Controller on duty and we were the only two people inside a barbed wire fence with a high security lock 7 miles into the desert from the main base. Being a good Airman, I picked up the keys to a Bobtail truck (munitions tow vehicle) and went outside with a flashlight to conduct its daily checkout. I did my walk around, kicked the tires, then popped the hood and reached into the engine compartment to pull out the oil dip stick. At that moment the engine of a forklift two feet behind me turned over. I Literally dove over the Bobtail! When I stood up, I was yelling to whoever was there that "I was going to kill them when I caught them", but there was no one there. The engine then stopped by itself. I walked up to the forklift, saw that there was not a key in the ignition, then lifted the engine access panel. The engine started up again...then it stopped...then it started again...then it stopped. I reached in and pulled the battery cable (which was loose) and nothing else happened. Ghost? Maybe, however it could also have been dew in the ignition system...or space aliens...or a cloaked desert Sasquatch...either way I'll never know for sure.

I cannot say beyond a shadow of a doubt that I have, but I have experienced some pretty weird things in a multitude of different places... Everything ranging from hearing footsteps on the floor above me when no one else was home, items being moved around in my room while away for just a few minutes, to my oldest daughter talking to a mysterious woman she called "the lady" the entire time we lived in one apartment complex to never speaking of this woman again the day we moved out.

I've heard stories of some really weird stuff at a local cemetery. One story in particular gives me chills. A county sheriff was patrolling a county road near a cemetery called the "Fargo Cemetery" when he encountered a woman in a white dress walking down the road. The sheriff stopped and confronted the woman thinking she was in duress. The moment he caught up to her and she turned around, she vanished.

I am not certain I would actually LIKE to encounter an apparition. It would likely scare the crap out of me.

Not that I know of. Oh wait ...

CH (MAJ) William Beaver

My family and I had just moved into a house we built in Fayetteville, NC (near Ft Bragg) and were eating dinner one evening in the breakfast room off the kitchen. As is my habit, I was facing the entrance to the kitchen and I could see into the dining room and the hallway (I never sit with my back to the entrance at a restaurant, etc.).

As we were sitting there eating and talking, I looked up and saw an old lady standing in the dining room. I saw her just as clear as day. I stood up and started walking toward the dining room, asking if I could help her. I wondered who she was and how she had gotten in my house. As soon as I stood up, she turned and disappeared. I walked into the dining room and throughout the house and could not find her. I should also note that I checked all doors and they were locked from the inside (deadbolts).

My wife had gotten up and asked me what I was doing. I told her I was looking for the woman I had seen. Nobody else had seen her. She laughed at me and told me to stop because I was scaring the kids. I told her that I was not kidding and that I had seen the woman. I described her and the dress she was wearing.

Three years later, I was visiting a relative who lived in my great-grandfather's/grandfather's old plantation home in Alabama. I was looking through some old pictures and saw a picture of the woman (wearing the exact same dress I had seen that day in Fayetteville). It was my grandmother, who I had never met (she had died many years before I was born). I had also never seen that picture before. I pointed it out to my wife and told her it was the same woman in the same dress and she refused to believe it, however, it is absolutely the truth.

I never saw her again, after that one time, and have no clue why she would have appeared to me there.

yes several times including shadow people

I really, truly wish I believed in ghosts. All I have are wisps of encounters that I can't adequately explain:

During my last trip the cemetery back home, my mother and I were walking around at night, looking at my sister's grave. (We had placed beautiful lighted globes on it.)We wandered away and came to the old, moss covered grave of a Confederate vet.
There was a small flag near the headstone. I knelt down and put my hand on top to try and read the inscription. The flag started flying. No wind anywhere. The little stick was practically horizontal. I pulled my hand back, and the little flag stopped.
I whispered, "Hello, soldier." The waving started again. I had chill bumps all over my body. I even video'd some of it. It was still waving until we stepped away, when it fluttered to a stand-still.

The first "encounter" I had was a child. We lived in Germany. It was in the middle of the night and I started screaming. My mother came rushing in and found me blabbering about the "man with the big, funny eyes." Obviously, I was terrified. My father went pale when my mother told him. She noticed and asked him what was wrong. Apparently, we had moved in to the apartment shortly after the previous occupant hung himself in the living room. Which would explain the eyes. We moved right back out that week.

Another opportunity for my peers to feel I'm nuts... I was incredibly close to my grandmother throughout my childhood. Even when other teens were growing apart from hanging out with family, I was with my grandmother nearly every weekend even up thru high school. I'd golf with her, help her in the garden or play cards. I entered the military and went to my first duty station; Maine to California. One afternoon in 1988 I'm mowing the lawn in the California heat. I go to take a shower, there I go to a knee crying for no reason, then the phone rings and my mom tells me Memere passed away. I've always felt her presence.

I didn't believe in them, until I experienced it myself. I had a neighbor who was always claiming that she could communicate with the dead. I used to make fun of her about it because I thought she was crazy. One day she invited me over, and out of curiosity I went. She lit some candles, turned off all the lights and pulled out a Ouija board. She started talking and put her hand on the board. All of a sudden a huge wind blew through the house, and the candles went out. A super bright blue light started glowing in the hallway that lit up the entire house. Then she removed her hand from the board, and the little mouse thing on the Ouija board started moving around on its own. I freaked out and ran out of the house. I refused to ever go in that house again, but I became a believer.

I will admit that its possible that the entire thing could have planned out and setup. Rather it was or not it felt real, and I believed it.

Not that I know of. I do enjoy watching Ghost Adventures, though. My cousin is a paranormal investigator. Someday I want to take the haunted tour of the Old Missouri State Pen.