newest update : Okinawa!

So Steven got his clearing papers today and we've been busy, busy running around and getting everything done in order to leave Fort Carson, FINALLY! we got all of the easy things on the checklist done today, the ones that are going to be the toughest on us is clearing housing and Steven's CIF gear. (he has to wash and polish etc etc. ALL OF HIS ARMY GEAR! ahhh!) that will be time consuming. We have a deadline to meet of June 26th, so we're in somewhat of a hurry.. But we're confident that we'll get everything done in time.

There's a possibility that Matthew and I may have to travel to Okinawa a few weeks after Steven does due to the fact that our passports may not be in on time to make it there for Steven's deadline. That's going to be hard, but i believe that god doesn't give you anything you can't handle, or atleast learn from! every experience will make us stronger as a couple, as well as individually.

So for now, everything seems to be going as smoothly as it can for now. We're both excited, scared, and second guessing ourselves now that the date is getting closer.. wishing that we had picked a duty station closer to california and our friends and family.. But it's going to be the experience of a lifetime and something we would never beable to do otherwise! so because of those reasons we are eager to see what our lives will be like in Japan.


I love you all!
Stay tuned for more news!

Old Hospital Complex.

So I've been doing some more research on the "haunted hospital" here at fort Carson. I'll copy and paste what I've found so far along with the links to the actual site. I've also taken some pictures that you may or may not find interesting... I'll go ahead and post these on here too.

"The Old Hospital Complex (5EP 1778) at Fort Carson, Colorado, consists of 59 buildings. The Complex was built during World War II and is significant due to its association with the history of the United States. The complex is semi-permanent construction, constructed from the Department of the Army's Series 800 plans. This report documents the complex in accordance with Section 1(g) of the Memorandum of Agreement enacted among the Department of the Army, Headquarters Fort Carson, the Colorado State Historic Preservation Office, and the

Advisory Council on Historic Preservation."

Link : http://stinet.dtic.mil/oai/oai?&verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=ADA321945

Just some history for you about Fort Carson around the time the hospital was built

Fort Carson was established in 1942, following Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor. The city of Colorado Springs, Colorado purchased land south of the city and donated it to the War Department. Construction began immediately and the first building, the camp headquarters, was completed January 31, 1942. Camp Carson was named in honor of the legendary Army scout, Gen. Christopher "Kit" Carson, who explored much of the West in the 1800s.

"The hospital was of the semi-permanent type concrete block and had space for 1,726 beds with an expansion capability of 2,000 beds."

Link:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Carson

One of the most interesting sites I found about the hospital.

"To provide immediate medical care for Camp Carson's soldiers, a Station Hospital was opened in August 1942. With a 2,000 bed capacity and 11 square miles of floor space, the Carson Hospital Center was the largest in the country during WW 11. During their existence, the combined general and convalescent hospitals cared for more than 30.000 patients. The staff consisted of three Women's Army Corps (WAC) hospital companies, about 2,000 civilians. and hundreds of doctors, nurses and medical corpsmen. In the fall of 1945, a temporary separation center was established at the hospital. About 9,000 soldiers from installations in a four-state area were processed for discharge from the Army through this separation center.
In addition to being a general and convalescent hospital. Carson Hospital Center was a major training center. The Army Nurse Training Center, activated on October 23. 1943, trained more than 3.000 civilian nurses in Army nursing techniques in less than two years. A large number of field. evacuation and general hospitals. and medical ship platoons were activated.trained and shipped to ports of embarkation by Camp Carson. When the war ended. the Camp Carson Hospital Center was inactivated. In its place, the 400 bed Station Hospital continued treatment of patients scheduled to be released before May 31. 1946. With the outbreak of the Korean War, the hospital was expanded to 1 ,500 beds. In addition to a greatly increased patient load. in July 1951 it was asked to assist the Camp Carson Separation Center. In a little more than two years. hospital personnel were responsible for complete physical examinations of more than 100,000 soldiers. "

Graduates of the Camp Carson Army Nurse Training Center pass in review

Volunteer Red Cross workers were a mainstay of the Camp Carson Station Hospital.


Link:http://www.carson.army.mil/pao/History%20Book/History%20Book.htm



So now that we know a little bit of history, We understand that this hospital was once occupied by many WWII Soldiers, among many other people.. Children, mothers, wives, etc.


*Here's another story about the hospital/mental clinic on Fort Carson*

"Fort Carson - The old Fort Carson Hospital/Mental Clinic - The old Fort Carson Hospital and other surrounding building were built around 1941, after the attack on Pearl Harbor. In the forties there were a lot of German and Italian POW's located on Fort Carson. There is also an intricate system of tunnels linking the hospital's buildings together, One of the post's Military Police investigated an open door one night and deep into one of the tunnels he found an old setup of children's toys, a small chair, a small kids table and a few other things. There were also witnessed by three military policeman words painted inside an area under the building with no visible way to get inside and paint them there. They weren't painted over because the surface wasn't painted, and they weren't sandblasted off either. On some nights especially when the weather gets colder, many strange noises are heard there. Movement is heard through the building like furniture being shoved around, repetitive banging noises, and sometimes faces are seen peering through the barred windows. An elder American Indian Woman says the site was directly on the old trail of tears. She said that there is a large low-lying field where no building will stand; several attempts at building there have been unsuccessful.

Link:http://release-me.net/colorado.php


If your wondering what the "trail of tears" is, here you go..
"In 1838 and 1839, as part of Andrew Jackson's Indian removal policy, the Cherokee nation was forced to give up its lands east of the Mississippi River and to migrate to an area in present-day Oklahoma. The Cherokee people called this journey the "Trail of Tears," because of its devastating effects. The migrants faced hunger, disease, and exhaustion on the forced march. Over 4,000 out of 15,000 of the Cherokees died."

This picture, The Trail of Tears, was painted by Robert Lindneux in 1942. It commemorates the suffering of the Cherokee people under forced removal. If any depictions of the "Trail of Tears" were created at the time of the march, they have not survived.

Image Credit: The Granger Collection, New York

Link:http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4h1567.html

So Steven and I drove by the hospital yesterday morning and decided to walk around and take some pictures. It's not as scary during the day, and it was actually really interesting.


Here some of them are:

Here's a side-view picture of one of the entrances to the hospital.

Here's a view of it from the front.

a look at the inside of one of the hallways

this tree is in-between two buildings.. i imagine this is sort of like a corridor.

down one of the hallways on the other side of the building

a close up of the doors.

a big empty room. Possibly a waiting room.

Fort Carson - Haunted Hospital

A while back Steven brought up this old hospital here on post that is infamous for being haunted. Steven works night shifts pretty often (10:00 PM - 6:00 AM) and one night during a night shift he had, a friend told him about this haunted hospital. So they drove there to check it out. It has what everyone calls a "blood room" Steven describes it as a room that looks as if someone was slaughtered inside.. there's even drag marks on the floor. He says that once your in there, all you can think about is wanting to leave. He and his friend stood there inside the hospital with there flashlights off for a few seconds, and a heard noises coming from upstairs. Steven said that he heard something that sounded like a cart being wheeled around, and then it crashing into a wall, also he says he heard what sounded like someone moaning. His friend heard the same things!

So anyway, after hearing about this so called "haunted" hospital, I wanted to check it out for myself. I haven't found the courage in myself to go inside yet, but he's driven me by there and I've gotten out of the car and looked around. The building itself just has a creepy feeling to it. At night when we can't get Matt to go to sleep sometimes we'll drive around to calm him down.. Almost every time we do that we drive by this place. Recently we've started taking pictures of the building and the windows in hopes to capture some kind of proof of our own that this place really is 'haunted'. Steven brought a picture home that one of his co-workers had taken of the side of the building, and in one of the windows you can clearly make out a woman in a gown holding a baby in each arm.

I'll be updating this blog post as i continue to do more research on this place. So if your interested, stay tuned.. I'll be posting pictures and facts as i come across them.

below i'll list some links that have info. on them about the hospital.

http://theshadowlands.net/places/colorado.htm
(scroll down and you should see it, look for fort carson.)