Texas military members investigate paranormal phenomenon

WICHITA FALLS, Texas -- Night is falling over farms along the Red River and, now, every October sunset feels like Halloween.

While other families gather closer to their hearths, the Military Paranormal Investigations group is getting ready to visit a graveyard.

Organized less than a year ago, this group of U.S. military members and their families is one of a growing community of men and women nationwide who are interested in looking at the supernatural through scientific eyes. No mediums or psychics are involved, and MPI members said they have approached each of their nearly 20 investigations as skeptics ready to disprove a myth.

Their first investigation was in what's left of the town of Clara, Texas, which was battered by drought, a hurricane, an inadequate water supply and an exodus of residents during the 1920s oil boom. All that remains now of the Wichita County ghost town are a church, rectory and cemetery.

Through the years, reports swirled of paranormal events at the site: unexplained lighted, vortexes, crying children and a graveyard apparition of Pleasant Queen, the first person buried in the cemetery. The MPI investigators said they saw orb-like objects, but said they appeared to swirls of dust or bugs. They saw no vortexes, apparitions or unexplained lights. They heard no crying, but did "capture" so-called electronic voice phenomena, which some say is static heard on radios or electronic devices and others as the voices of spirits.

While many group members are in the Air Force, the group and its activities have no affiliation with that or any other armed service.

"We're open to spiritual aspect but we're strictly scientific in our approach," said Joe Eversole, MPI lead investigator and an Air Force tech sergeant. "We don't believe anything until it can be measured or recorded."

Eversole and wife, Celeste; Rob Wirth and wife, Misty; Jeff Jones, his wife, Melissa, and son Kyle; Jamie Sampson; and Jeramiah Lewis said they will investigate any case.

Because of the Air Force connection however -- Rob Wirth is a tech sergeant, Jeff Jones is a master sergeant, while Lewis and Sampson are staff sergeants -- military sites are of particular interest. They travel to sites where paranormal occurrences have been reported and hunt for evidence to back up -- or refute -- the claims.

All agree their most exciting investigation to date was of the MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History in Little Rock, Ark., built as a confederate arsenal in the 1840s. Ultimately converted to a U.S. Army installation, Gen. Douglas MacArthur was born there in 1880.

"It was just amazing. We captured a lot of great stuff and it was an intense experience," said Wirth.

Closer to home, the group has gathered data at Fort Richardson in Jacksboro and is keen to do a thorough investigation of 10th Cavalry Creek, where it's said Buffalo Soldiers killed in an Indian raid were buried in a mass grave with their horses.

"We're curious whether this site has a paranormal connection to the 'Screaming Sheila Bridge,' " said Eversole, referring to another "haunted" site nearby, where a woman was supposedly hanged long ago. "But the evidence is what tells the story."

It's easy to see why guys who spend their days working in instructional technologies for the Air Force would be drawn to paranormal investigation: The gear is way cool.

Eversole and Wirth are glad to show off their collection of LED surveillance cameras, digital voice recorders (sensitive enough to pick up EVPs -- Electronic Voice Phenomenon -- words the human ear cannot hear) and electromagnetic field meters (spirits are said to disturb normal magnetic fields.) The data is analyzed by an array of special computer programs.

Practical experience, however, has led them to use domestic tools like laser levels (even a shadow can break the light beam), compasses and, in case a surveillance proves uneventful, a deck of cards.

Everyone in MPI brings different skills to the table; while some focus on detection technology others focus on case management, historic research of sites and scheduling investigations. In the field everyone takes part in data gathering.

All say they share a common curiosity born of an experience or experiences that could not be explained. Once shows like the Sci-Fi Channel's "Ghosthunters" and Bravo's "Paranormal State" hit television, it became evident others were looking for answers too.

"I've wondered about this kind of thing since I was a kid," said Eversole. "Now I can prove or disprove it for myself."

On the Web: www.mpi-paranormal.com.

(Judith McGinnis is a reporter for the Wichita Falls Times Record News in Texas.)