TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. -- The 801st Rapid Engineer Deployable Heavy Operational Repair Squadron Engineer Training Squadron hosts an extensive haunted trail, open to both Team Tyndall and the local area each year.
This year’s haunted trail will be held from Oct. 28-29 from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. at the Silver Flag exercise site just east of Tyndall Air Force Base on Highway 98.
“This year, we’ve got food trucks, a photo booth, bouncy houses for the kids as well as some other small events and we are bringing back the giant movie screen,” said Staff Sgt. Jared Mattson, 801st RHTS water and fuels system contingency training instructor.
The haunted trail is not only open to installation personnel but the local community as well. Mattson explained that while it’s good to maintain a close-knit community within installation personnel, inviting the local community out to join in the spooky season activities encourages unity and cohesion between Tyndall and the local population.
“We always want to maintain a good relationship with the local areas surrounding any of our military installations because we’re occupying a space where civilians live and work,” said Staff Sgt. Derrick Bass, 801st RHTS power production contingency training instructor. “Opening up the haunted trail to the local public provides an open door to be able to say, hey, we’re here as well as you, we work and live with you and we’re excited to show you what we do.”
The Silver Flag haunted trail’s thrill-seeking attendance continues to grow with every passing year, and the Airmen in charge of spooking and scaring couldn’t be more excited to provide a chilling experience.
“Scaring people is the best,” stated Mattson. “They are there to get scared, so the challenge of ensuring that we are actually scaring them to the best of our ability is a lot of fun.”
Bass also expressed that his favorite part is the attendee’s experiences.
“I look forward to the people and their reactions and seeing their faces and hearing their laughter afterwards,” said Bass. “I love at the very end when everybody’s kind of wrapping up and you can see the last people leaving and they just can’t stop talking about what they just went through.”
The Airmen of the 801st RHTS and Team Tyndall welcome the surrounding area out for a spooky season event they won’t soon forget.