There may be no place in Ohio where the line between fact, folklore and secrecy is quite as blurry as Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton.
For generations, whispers have escaped from behind the gates of the sprawling military installation. Crashed flying saucers. Alien bodies. Secret rooms. Strange creatures painted on walls. Ghostly children wandering through an old hospital. Some stories are almost certainly legends. Others are surprisingly true. And a few blur the lines somewhere in between.
The most famous mystery at Wright-Patt involves a building that, according to the Air Force, never existed: Following the alleged 1947 UFO crash near Roswell, New Mexico, a legend emerged that wreckage recovered from the site was eventually transported to Wright-Patterson. More sensational versions claimed something else arrived with it: the bodies of extraterrestrial beings. According to the legend, the evidence disappeared into Hangar 18, where scientists studied it in secret. But Wright-Patterson Air Force Base says there has never been a Hangar 18!
Wright-Patt was a key place in America for investigating reports of unidentified flying objects.
Beginning in 1947, the Air Force conducted a series of UFO investigations known as Project Sign, Project Grudge and, most famously, Project Blue Book, headquartered at Wright-Patterson.
Between 1947 and 1969, the Air Force investigated 12,618 UFO sightings. Most were eventually attributed to aircraft, balloons, astronomical phenomena or other explainable causes. Yet 701 remained officially unidentified.
So, although Hangar 18 appears to be folklore, the secretive investigation of strange objects in America’s skies at Wright-Patt was very real.
Best known for Hangar 18, Wright-Patt has other legends behind its gates.
Walk into an old military building and discover giant green demons surrounded by flames painted across the walls, and you might reasonably assume you’ve stumbled onto another Wright-Patt legend. Except these painted creatures existed. In 1943, German prisoners of war painted bizarre murals inside what was then a cafeteria in Building 280. The paintings depict enormous green, goblin-like creatures surrounded by fire. They became known as the Green Devils.
Why German POWs chose such sinister imagery for a cafeteria wall isn’t clear, but the murals survived long after the war. When plans eventually called for the building’s demolition, the Air Force said it would preserve the eerie artwork. Even stranger, Wright-Patt has another connection to Germany. An area near Gate 15 was once used as a landfill. During later construction, workers reportedly unearthed original German World War II technology documents discarded there decades earlier.
And if these legends and actual events don’t offer enough peculiarity for one place, let’s throw in The Ghosts of Wright-Patt.
Building 219 once served as a hospital and pediatric clinic. Its basement housed a morgue, while operating rooms were located upstairs. Over the years, workers reported seeing apparitions in the building, including a blond-haired boy believed to be about eight to ten years old. Others described hearing a child laughing, running and playing when no child could be found. Another account involved five military lawyers meeting in a basement room. The sounds of a noisy child reportedly became so distracting that someone was sent to find the youngster. No child was there.
Building 70 developed stories of its own. Workers reported footsteps, whispers, electronic equipment behaving strangely and people hearing their names called when they believed they were alone. One employee reported seeing an older woman inside the building after hours. The figure appeared three-dimensional but strangely wax-like, almost like a mannequin.
The stories became intriguing enough that in 2008 Wright-Patterson invited the paranormal investigators from the television series Ghost Hunters onto the active military installation to investigate Building 70, Building 219 and the historic Arnold House.
What makes the legends of Wright-Patt so intriguing is that it isn’t an abandoned asylum or forgotten mansion where legends grow unchecked. It’s an active United States Air Force installation with a long history of aviation research, experimental technology and classified work.
Hangar 18 apparently never existed. Project Blue Book did. Alien bodies have never been proven to be there, but 701 UFO cases investigated there remained unidentified. Ghosts haven’t been proven to wander their buildings, but military and civilian employees reported seeing and hearing things they couldn’t explain. One thing is certain. Those creepy Green Devils were real. But why were they painted in the first place?
Such are the Whispers of Ohio!
By Frank Rocco Satullo, The OhioTraveler, Your Tour Guide to Fun
