Michaael Gennaro

ALAMEDA, Calif. (CN) — Sitting in frigid Seaplane Lagoon off the coast of Alameda, the USS Hornet has had a storied history. One of only four such carriers left in the world, it served admirably in World War II and later helped recover astronauts after the world’s first moonwalk in 1969.

But with a sky-high suicide rate and hundreds of service members lost from combat and accidents during intense fighting, some say the Hornet is also haunted.

Some believe the spirits never left the vessel. It’s been featured on multiple ghost-hunting shows. Workers and visitors have reported a variety of eerie phenomena, from seeing apparitions and hearing voices and footsteps to being touched when seemingly no one is around.

On a recent October day, I boarded the USS Hornet to investigate these spooky claims. I was joined by two leading self-styled experts on Hornet ghost activity: Faye Navarro, a private-events manager, and Steve Jackson, an assistant on her paranormal team.

We sat down in the Admiral’s Conference Room, a nondescript chamber rumored to be one of the most haunted parts of the ship. Jackson pulled out two flashlights. He put new batteries in them, turned them off and placed them on a nearby table. Flashlights here will turn on and off on their own, he explained. Sure enough, almost immediately, the flashlights began to flicker, an eerie phenomenon that would continue with various intensity throughout our nearly three-hour conversation.

Navarro also placed what was ostensibly a motion-sensing music box at the entrance of the room. This was a “creep-o-meter,” she said. The device would, she explained, jingle if it sensed any movement.

With that spooky scene set, Navarro recounted the story of the apparition she had once seen.

It had appeared, she said, just a few feet from where we now sat.

It happened one frightful night, while she, Jackson and Jackson’s teenage daughter were visiting the ship for an overnight stay. They were in this very conference room when suddenly, Navarro saw a pair of hands out in the corridor, by the entrance to the battle dressing station.

“I just kept seeing, like, a head peer out,” Navarro explained with seriousness. “All of a sudden, I see hair and a head, and then it just kind of scurried across the floor.”

Shocked, Navarro decided to keep the sighting to herself. She didn’t want to scare Jackson’s daughter, who was spending a night aboard the ship for the first time, she said. And yet the next day, she said Jackson’s daughter reported the same sighting. Without prompting, she claimed to have also seen a mysterious figure scurrying across the floor.

In a sober tone, Jackson said he’d also seen apparitions. One night, he said, he was in the break room with his daughter when he heard someone call out “I’m here!” He looked in the direction of the voice.

“It’s a sailor there,” Jackson said. “The only way to describe it is, like, 80% of a person. So, you can see color, form, depth, but they're translucent.”

“I look and double-take, then it was gone,” Jackson continued. “I asked my daughter, ‘Hey, describe what you saw.’ And she described exactly what I saw.”

Those were hardly the only ghoulish incidents aboard the USS Hornet. There was also the time Jackson saw “half a person” — that is, a spirit with no top half — placing pillows on a mattress aboard the ship.

“That was unsettling,” he said.

Beyond spirits, both Navarro and Jackson say they’ve experienced things aboard the Hornet that simply cannot be explained.

Chained and locked doors, sometimes even watertight ones, suddenly opening. Bathroom sinks turning off and on. The smell of fresh cigars and cigarettes, even though the ship is strictly no-smoking. Unexplainable floating blue orbs. Footsteps on ladders and in empty hallways.

In the case of human apparitions, Navarro and Jackson said they’ve never felt evil or malevolent. Instead, Navarro floated the idea that maybe, the spirits of servicemen congregate near the ship because of the tight-knit nature of military service.

“I know there's that type of brotherhood, even though they were together during stressful times,” she mused. “It is such a huge bond that it doesn't surprise me that we still run into crew members that are still here.”

A battle dressing station aboard the USS Hornet aircraft carrier in Alameda, California. Self-styled paranormal expert Faye Navarro says she once saw an apparition peer at her from this room. (Michael Gennaro/Courthouse News)
A battle dressing station aboard the USS Hornet aircraft carrier in Alameda, California. Self-styled paranormal expert Faye Navarro says she once saw an apparition peer at her from this room. (Michael Gennaro/Courthouse News)
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After Navarro and Jackson recounted their ghost stories, the three of us tried to commune with a spirit using a technique they called the human pendulum.

Navarro stood behind me, Jackson in front. I did my best to relax. We asked any spirits listening to push me forward to give a “yes” answer to a question, and backwards for “no.”

I was skeptical I would move at all; after years of basketball and skateboarding, I have good balance. And yet to my disbelief, my body seemed to move on its own in response to questions asked by Navarro and Jackson. It was although I could feel a slight, inexplicable push just beneath my shoulders. It wasn’t exactly a shove, but it was noticeable.

In this way, according to Navarro and Jackson, we communed with a spirit. He said he was 23 years old when he died. He said his name began with the letter “J.” He indicated he was not a crewmember, nor a relative of mine — but by then, the experience was mostly over. My body seemed to stop moving to the queries, as if this spirit had suddenly gone shy.

As I scurried down the steep ramp of the ship back to my car, I still remained skeptical of any spirits. I know that certain brands of flashlight can be prone to flickering off and on. Still, I had no explanation for the music box detecting movement at the door — or for our impromptu seance with the spirit. Did something actually push my body, did I want to believe, or was I just caught up in the fun? I couldn’t quite figure it out.

Regardless, whether readers believe in ghosts or not, the Hornet provides overnight haunted tours on its website. Those who dare just might commune with a spirit. So some say, at least.

Equipment is provided, and tours take visitors to the most haunted locations on the ship, spots that even I did not get to visit. Perhaps like this reporter, even skeptical visitors would find themselves surprised at the spookiness of this famous ship and its many tragedies.

After the human pendulum but before disembarking, I sat down with Navarro and Jackson to say goodbye. Then suddenly, the creep-o-meter by the door played a haunting jingle, indicating movement.

But nothing was in the corridor: not even an insect. Was it J, the spirit we communed with? Or was it just an eerie coincidence?

“We try to find logic first before we believe it, or we try to say it's unexplained,” Jackson said. “It's fun to be on this ship.”