Military trucks starting and a horn sounding by itself at Camp Stanley, Korea
A caller from Tennessee, addressed by Art Bell as “[name withheld],” describes their 2002–2003 military tour at Camp Stanley in Korea, where they worked night guard duty at a gate controlling an ammunition holding area. They report that a HEMTT truck started by itself one night. A week or two later, a truck horn sounded by itself around 2 a.m. A second guard is said to have been present. The story ends with the caller saying they do not understand how such things could happen, noting that a soldier had reportedly died in the area.
This clip comes from the source recording. AI chose where it starts and ends, so it may start or end a little early or late. The word-for-word transcript is not published. You can hear the source recording on the Internet Archive (file “Ghost to Ghost 2013.mp3”, starting at 7:00). Is this you, or someone you know? Ask for a correction or removal.
The story as told
The caller, whom Art addresses as “[name withheld]” from Tennessee, says that in 2002–2003 they were in the military and stationed overseas in Korea, at Camp Stanley, a base they describe as [quote withheld] Toward the end of their tour they were put on unit police duty (“UP”) and placed in charge of the gates, rotating between them. They say they preferred the night shift. The gate they worked controlled access to the “AHA,” an ammunition holding area where ammo was stored in a tunnel inside a mountain. They say the site already had a reputation. Korean workers there had told them it was haunted, which they laughed off at the time. Later a safety briefing told them a soldier had been killed in the area when a split ring came off a tire the soldier was airing up.
They say that one night, while they and another guard were on duty, one of the HEMTT vehicles started on its own. They heard a rumble and went outside. The caller walked into the dark to the vehicle, looked around, saw nothing, opened the cab and shut it off, and logged the incident. They say other people had logged similar incidents, including lights switching on. About one or two weeks later, around 2 a.m., the horn of one of the HEMTTs, possibly the same vehicle, began sounding on its own. Both guards were startled, and the caller made the other guard leave the gate and go with them, which they say they were not supposed to do. They say they do not understand how it could happen, and that a man did die there.
Reported events, in order
- 1:04
The caller says they were in the military in 2002–2003 and stationed overseas in Korea.
- 1:18
They say they were at Camp Stanley, a base [quote withheld]
- 3:52
Near the end of their tour they were placed on unit police duty and put in charge of the gates, preferring the night shift.
- 4:28
They describe the gate they worked as controlling access to the AHA (ammo holding area), with ammunition stored in a tunnel inside a mountain.
- 5:14
They say the site already had a reputation. Korean workers there told them it was haunted.
- 5:21
They say a safety briefing told them a soldier had been killed in the area when a split ring came off a tire the soldier was airing up.
- 6:00
One night, they say, one of the HEMTT vehicles started on its own. The caller and the other guard heard the rumble and went outside.
- 6:57
The caller walked into the dark area, looked around the vehicle, saw nothing, opened the cab and shut the vehicle off, and logged it.
- 7:31
They say other people had logged similar incidents, including lights switching on.
- 7:59
About a week or two later, around 2 a.m., the horn of one of the HEMTTs, possibly the same one, began sounding on its own, startling both guards.
- 8:25
They say they made the other guard leave the gate and come with them, which they say they were not supposed to do, and they undid the chain.
- 8:41
They say they do not understand how it could happen and note that a man did die there.
Claims
Each claim is labeled as something the person telling the story noticed (observation), what they made of it (interpretation), something others told them (hearsay), or something the host said (host statement).
- observation· 6:00
A HEMTT vehicle started by itself while the caller and another guard were on night duty.
- observation· 7:59
A truck horn began sounding by itself around 2 a.m., possibly on the same vehicle.
- hearsay· 5:14
Korean workers at the site told the caller the place was haunted.
- hearsay· 5:21
A safety briefing stated a soldier had been killed in the area.
- hearsay· 7:31
Other personnel had logged similar incidents, including lights switching on.
- interpretation· 8:45
The caller raises a possible ghost explanation but says plainly that they do not know how it would work.
- host statement· 9:03
Art Bell says that a vehicle does not start by itself.
Scores, with reasons
An AI model gave these scores using a fixed set of scoring rules (scoring-v1). They are editorial judgments and rough guides, not the odds that anything paranormal happened. How scoring works.
Firsthand, coherent, and reasonably specific, with the caller clearly separating what they saw from what they cannot explain. Mechanical explanations remain plausible and are only partly addressed.
Evidence for and against
- Firsthand participant in both events.
- Concrete details: base, years, gate, AHA tunnel, 2 a.m., log entries.
- The sequence is coherent and answers the host’s questions.
- The caller states uncertainty rather than drawing a conclusion.
- No backing beyond a claimed second witness.
- A mechanical or electrical fault is an easy explanation for both a self-starting engine and a horn.
- The haunting reputation and the death were learned secondhand.
- The caller’s name and the spelling of the vehicle type (“Hemets”) are uncertain from the transcript.
- Whether the vehicles were regularly left with keys or open access is not stated.
- 6:19
- 8:45
What the model inferred (not said on air): The totals for each part of the score are my judgment: source proximity 22 (direct participant), specificity 15, internal consistency 16, alternative explanations 8 (a mechanical fault fits reasonably well), calibration 12 (states uncertainty plainly).
The caller’s word plus a claimed second guard and claimed log entries. Some specifics (base, years, an accident) are checkable in principle but were not checked.
Evidence for and against
- Checkable specifics given: Camp Stanley, Korea, 2002–2003.
- A claimed second witness was present at both events.
- Claimed log entries of similar incidents.
- No documentation, recording, or photograph examined on air.
- The second guard does not speak on air.
- No outside check performed.
- The log entries are only reported, not produced or read out.
- No photograph, recording, or document is examined on air.
- 3:21
- 7:31
What the model inferred (not said on air): The band is set by claimed witnesses plus specifics that are checkable in principle, none of which is verified. No on-air witness or examined material raises it further.
Unsettling but not threatening: night duty at an isolated gate, a vehicle running in the dark, and a horn blaring at 2 a.m., with a reported death at the site.
Evidence for and against
- Isolated night post at an ammunition holding area.
- The caller describes walking into a dark area to approach the running vehicle.
- Sudden horn at about 2 a.m.
- A reported gruesome death in the same area.
- No figure seen, no contact, no injury, no threat directed at anyone.
- The caller’s tone is puzzled rather than fearful.
- Whether listeners find machinery more or less unsettling than a figure is a matter of taste.
- 6:48
- 8:09
What the model inferred (not said on air): The combination of isolation, darkness, a reputed haunting, and a gruesome earlier death supports a moderate rather than high rating.
A familiar “haunted post” setup combined with an unusual kind of event (a military vehicle and horn operating without a driver).
Evidence for and against
- Distinctive event: a large military truck starting itself.
- Second distinct event: a truck horn sounding by itself around 2 a.m.
- The core structure, a reputedly haunted site plus a death in the area, is a common motif.
- The weight given to novelty in a small archive is provisional in the pilot.
- 6:00
- 7:59
What the model inferred (not said on air): The [quote withheld] setup is familiar. The specific events, a HEMTT self-starting and a truck horn sounding on a military ammunition site, are the distinctive element.
Scoring confidence 0.70 · analysis confidence 0.75 · checked against outside sources: no · evidence available: The caller’s firsthand story; Claimed second witness (the other guard) who does not speak on air; Claimed unit log entries, not produced or read out; No physical evidence, recording, or document examined. The originality score blends the model's score (58) with how rare the story's details are across the archive. This method is still provisional.
Ordinary explanations to consider
These are possibilities only. None is a finding about what happened.
- A mechanical or electrical fault (for example, in a starter or horn circuit) in an aging military vehicle. · The caller raises machine reliability themselves: [quote withheld] Both incidents involve vehicle systems.
- Another person on or near the base started the vehicle or set off the horn. · The caller reports looking around the vehicle and seeing nothing, so this possibility was not ruled out by what they saw.
- Expectation and the site’s reputation shaped how unclear sounds were read. · The caller had been told the place was haunted and had been told of a death in the area before the incidents.
What stands out
The reported events are mechanical rather than ghostly: a large military truck starting itself and, later, a truck horn sounding by itself at about 2 a.m. on a guarded ammunition site. The caller expresses their own uncertainty about how a ghost could act on a machine rather than claiming to have seen a ghost.
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