VA Hospital II

The main building entrance facing the water felt like the most likely place we might gain entry. But every old window sported a giant air conditioner and windows without AC were replacement windows – sturdy and unopenable. How, how had others gotten in? We knew they had, we’d seen photos. We do not like to be stymied. A grate over a basement “window” revealed a small hole we could probably have fit through. But a small lake lay beneath it and it led to a small crawlspace – we didn’t know where it would wind up and we decided to keep searching. Around in the ambulance bay several windows looked like they should be openable, but they weren’t. Here another grate over a basement crawlspace window led to a larger opening with no lake. Should we try? My opinion is that no matter how tiny and isolated a basement crawlspace looks, there is almost always a connection between a downstairs area and the upstairs. It’s a rare basement area that doesn’t need to be accessed from above. There were pipes of all sizes and we were pretty sure someone would have needed to come look at them every now and then.

The grate covering the window area would have killed us had it fallen on us as we crawled beneath it and we cautiously leaned it at enough of an angle to prevent its falling. We smushed ourselves through the window opening and landed in muddy crawlspace about three and a half feet high. Trying to keep our gear out of the mud we crouched our way under a series of pipes, both of us hitting our head on the final pipe that had been sawed off to create a rather sharp final blow. And there were the stairs. A small half-flight to a door that led into the basement floor of the hospital. We were in.