American soldier Lawrence Stevens served in Seoul during the Korean War (1950-1953) and lived with 16 other soldiers from the postal service in the old, bombed-out headquarters of the Imperial Japanese Army.
Seeing the terrible conditions in the streets of local Koreans, Stevens decided that he was very lucky to have a location in the renovated barracks. But on the evening of June 12, 1953, Stevens felt a little less fortunate.
It was a hot, sultry day in the capital. Stevens was walking on business from Seoul to Yong-Dong-Po across the Hangang River, and his attention was riveted by the incredible poverty around him. This country, barely recovering from past devastating wars, was now embroiled in a bloody Korean conflict.
Seoul in 1952
Returning that evening to the location, Lawrence played cards with his colleagues for several hours, after which he quietly went to bed. Thin partitions were installed in the barracks, thanks to which each soldier felt the extraordinary luxury of his own "room". Stevens had managed to find a good book in town and was eager to read it. Any printed publication in this war-torn country was very rare.
Stevens entered his "room" and plopped down on a canvas cot. Putting the precious book on a small box with his few belongings, he stretched out on a cot and lit a cigarette, and a little later turned on the lamp above his head.
Promotional video:
His eyes drooped with fatigue, and his head filled with thoughts of his own home in Shelbyville, Indiana. In a few weeks, he will be demobilized and will finally be able to enjoy Mom's incomparable cooking.
Whenever Stevens plunged into the world of dreams, he forgot where he was. Suddenly, something prompted him to open his eyes - and he saw a strange image that quickly returned him to a clear understanding of military reality.
Standing in Stevens's room was a US Marine in full combat gear; an M-1 rifle hung over his shoulder. The soldier was quite real, except for one gruesome detail: where the head should have been, Stevens saw only a bloody stump of neck sticking out of a green uniform.
Blood slowly oozed and trickled down the soldier's shoulder onto the blond head, which was clamped under the arm. Scarlet spots fell on the barracks floor.
In horror, Stevens could not take his eyes off the bloody ghost - and suddenly it turned around, approached him and sat down on his box with things.
While the dumbfounded Stevens looked at one point, the creepy creature carefully placed its head on the stump of its neck. Beads of sweat appeared on the bloody infantryman's forehead, and he brushed them away with his right hand. He looked at Stevens with a look that the young soldier could never forget, and then said:
- The Chinese broke through in all directions. I will certainly be glad when these three months are over.
(In 1962, Stevens's story was published in the pages of the American magazine about anomalous phenomena "Faith" and Stevens tried to tell every detail of that story. He remembered the words of the ghost forever).
The grim infantryman dabbed his forehead again and wiped off the blood that had spilled on the back of his hand. At that moment, Stevens' nerves gave way - he jumped up in horror and flew out of the room. The young soldier was deeply shocked and could not figure out what to do next and where to run. Finally he knocked on the "room" of his close friend Leo Brandenburg.
Brandenburg opened the door, rubbed his sleepy eyes and resented:
- What the heck! What's the matter with you, Stevens?
American soldiers in Korea (photo 1952)
The frightened soldier entered and … was at a loss: how to tell about what happened? After all, Stevens didn't want his friend to think he was crazy.
At the same time, he could not restrain himself - and his whole story poured out in a stream. Having finished the story, Stevens hesitantly looked at his friend - and was surprised: Brandenburg put his hand on his trembling shoulder, while smiling barely noticeably.
“I'm very glad, Larry, that you told me about this,” Leo said quietly. - You helped me solve many problems. I know that what you saw was not a hallucination, because this infantryman also came to me. No doubt it was the ghost of Seoul.
Brandenburg suggested going to Stevens' room together and inspecting it, but the image of a headless Marine impressed Stevens too much, so he did not want to return to his room and decided to spend the night in the guardroom. The commanders teach the soldiers that military regulations provide for many emergencies, but there is certainly nothing about organizing ghost surveillance. Stevens was completely unprepared for such visions and did not want to once again face the terrible phantom.
The next morning, after drinking a cup of strong black coffee, Stevens suddenly felt a strong urge to go to his "room". Gathering all his courage into a fist, he opened the door. He especially wanted to look at the floor of the "room" - there should have been blood stains on it; he saw them for sure - and hoped to find physical evidence of the night's visit on the floor.
There were no tracks anywhere. Stevens carefully examined the entire floor, but, to his surprise, found that there was not a single speck on it!
Three weeks later, the demobilization order came, and Stevens, a US Army soldier, went to his homeland. Upon returning home to Shelbyville, all the horrors of war - both real and supernatural - gradually began to fade from his memory. Bloody details became vague - in their place came other, more pleasant memories.
In September 1953, the Korean War officially ended. When Stevens found out about this, he suddenly remembered his strange night guest.
What did this Marine say then? "I will certainly be glad when these three months are over."
Stevens heard those words from him in June. Since then, just three months have passed. What Stevens didn’t realize then was that the headless Marine predicted the end of the Korean War - three months before it actually happened.