M. Charles "Rusty" Reustle, acting deputy director of the museum, twice has experienced the same strange occurrence and has heard of dozens of others.

On separate occassions, Reustle said, he was walking out of the office area and heard the rustle of clothes and footsteps behind him. Turning to say hello, Reustle was surprised to see no one there.

"It's just unexplained," Reustle said, unwilling to guess about a reason. "I don't have time to think about it."

Two other museum staffers have walked out of the offices and seen a man in a Japanese aviator's uniform and a U.S. sailor in the hallway, communications director Donna Strong said. One staffer blinked; the other walked closer, only to see the aviator and sailor disappear just as quickly as lights aboard the Lex sometimes turn on and off by themselves.

Reustle recently learned of a painting crew who stopped for a break and returned to find their work completed - in a very short time for the size of the job. In another instance, equipment was being loaded on dollies and taken up an escalator -- or so it sounded. Upon looking, a worker saw only the dolly at the bottom of the steps and no one near it.

There are more stories, including an instance in which the foc'sle had just been mopped and the mopper went for coffee at the end of the hangar deck. He returned to see a set of footprints in the center of the wet area, but no prints leading in or out.

"A lot of people this happens to are skeptics and level-headed," Strong said, "not people who seem receptive to such phenomena."

Strong laughed at Baker's suggestion that ghost stories are sometimes used to increase traffic to historic mansions and retired vessels when the flow of tourism ebbs.

Baker used the example of the ocean liner Queen Mary, berthed in Los Angeles. "Apparently, in the lowest part of the ship, you would wander through and hear sounds and echoes. It sounded like people beating on the pipes and so on, and I'm sure they were," Baker said, laughing.

A psychic was brought in to verify the presence of spirits, he said, and tourism increased.

Indeed, Strong said, she doesn't like the talk of "ghost stories" out of respect for those who served on the aircraft carrier and their families. She refers to the most recent occurrences as "sightings."

"I like to think the ship really isn't inanimate; there's a lot of history here, and I like to think the ship has kept its personality and energy. There's something more here than just a pile of steel."

Exactly what is there may not be known. But as Deal said, "We'll keep our eyes open."