MWSS-171 puts on masks to scare all

Photo By Cpl. Joseph Karwick | A Marine Wing Support Squadron 171 haunted house volunteer crawls along the floor of the Motor Transportation building here Oct. 27, 2012, scare approaching patrons making their way through the haunted house. The haunted house took place over a span of three days so as many station residents and Japanese visitors as possible could participate.  

IWAKUNI, YAMAGUCHI, JAPAN

10.27.2012

Story by Lance Cpl. Joseph Karwick 

III Marine Expeditionary Force   

IWAKUNI, Japan - Screams of station residents, Iwakuni residents and children from the Yahata Children’s home echoed along the walls of Marine Wing Support Squadron 171’s Motor Transportation building during the MWSS-171 Haunted House here Oct. 27, 2012.

The unit invited station residents and their special guests, children and chaperones from the children's home, to their haunted house.

“Today 171 is sponsoring a haunted house for the station residents,” said Petty Officer 3rd Class Scotti Hargrove, an MWSS-171 corpsman and haunted house volunteer. “It was a lot of the kids' first time experiencing a haunted house, or even Halloween in general. A lot of them were really scared.”

Halloween, though considered an annual event back in the states, is not well-known in Japan.

“It’s pretty fun showing this to the Japanese,” said Lance Cpl. Seth Dennis, an MWSS-171 Motor Transportation operator and haunted house volunteer. “They might not necessarily know what Halloween is or just might not be too familiar with it.”

With a large numbers of attendees, it was a long night for those dressed up and responsible for doing the scaring.

“What gets me motivated to scare these people is myself and my fellow ghosts and goblins talking about the people that just passed and how scared they were,” said Dennis. “We were trying to scare everyone that comes through, we had pretty much every age group, we even have adults getting scared. I think that's the part I like the most.”

Though many may find it easier to scare the likes of children, it can be difficult at times to scare adults who are familiar with Halloween customs.

“The Marines of 171 definitely put together a good show for everyone,” said Hargrove. “Their efforts were shown in the details of the haunted house and their ability to scare everyone, regardless of age.”

As people made their way through the haunted house, they reacted
differently to what was scariest, whether it was the man hanging from the ceiling, the room full of crazy clowns, the ghostly girl crawling around a strobe light-lit hallway, or even the crazy doctor locked in his bloody operating room.

“I definitely enjoyed it,” said Hargrove. "The scariest part was probably the end when the zombies chased you with chainsaws. They all kind of came out of nowhere. I went through with a group from the children's home and they were holding on to me so tightly and screaming.”

After making their way through the haunted house, children from the Yahata Children's home left the station, station residents returned to their homes and everyone left with their fair share of fear from the night’s events.

• Date Taken: 10.27.2012
• Date Posted: 11.02.2012 01:39
• Story ID: 97164
• Location: IWAKUNI, YAMAGUCHI, JP