Kissie Sykes Searches the Flight Line for Her Kin
Havelock, NC
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Free for authorized base visitors. Military ID or civilian visitor pass required at gate.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Paved roads and sidewalks throughout the base
Equipment
No Photos
Est. 1942 · World War II · Marine Corps Aviation · Displaced Cemetery · North Carolina Heritage
MCAS Cherry Point was commissioned in 1942 on Craven County coastal land in what was then the rural community of Havelock, North Carolina. The land acquisition for the airfield encompassed farms, homesteads, and community burial grounds including the Little Witness Cemetery. The Sykes family was among three families from whom the station purchased land before the base opened.
The Little Witness Cemetery was the burial ground for Kissie Sykes and her children. When the Marine Corps built the air station's flight line, construction required relocating Kissie's grave; her children's graves were, per the legend preserved in base folklore, not moved with hers. She is reinterred on base in one of the thirteen graveyards retained inside the fence line, in the plot nearest the gas chamber.
The official MCAS Cherry Point public affairs office documented the Kissie Sykes legend in a 2015 article published through DVIDS, presenting the historical record of the displaced cemetery alongside the folklore that has grown up around it.
The base has hosted Marine aviation operations continuously since World War II and remains one of the largest Marine Corps air installations on the East Coast.
Sources
The official MCAS Cherry Point public affairs office published a documented account of the Kissie Sykes legend, drawing on cemetery records and base history. This distinguishes the Cherry Point folklore from most military ghost stories — it has a named subject tied to a real, displaced burial.
Kissie Sykes was buried with her children in the Little Witness Cemetery on land acquired by the Navy before the air station was completed. Early in the construction of the flight line, her gravesite was relocated to make room for the project. Per the legend, she was separated from her children in the process. She is reinterred in one of the thirteen small graveyards that remain on base, in the plot closest to the gas chamber.
Air Rescue and Fire Fighting personnel have reported trucks turning on with no operator and doors opening on their own. In one account repeated in the base's own 2015 article, Marines said something resembling a woman jumped onto an ARFF truck. Pilots are said to have refused landings after seeing a woman walk across the flight line.
The most circulated account involves a lance corporal reportedly found curled in a ball beside Kissie's grave, repeating 'she wants her kids.' The version widely told on base places the incident at the gravesite; a variant circulating in paranormal databases relocates it to a guard shack. The base's official version is the graveside one.
Reports from on-base housing describe children's toys rearranged between when rooms are vacated and when parents return, and figures in children's bedrooms after lights-out. A consistent thread across versions is that Kissie is said to respond poorly to men who raise their voices at children — a detail stable enough across retellings to suggest a settled narrative rather than casual rumor.
Notable Entities
MCAS Cherry Point is an active military installation. Civilian access requires a visitor pass at the front gate. The site associated with Kissie Sykes — the flight line area and on-base housing where her family once lived — is not a public attraction. The Cherry Point area along the waterfront is where the legend is centered.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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