Basic Training  –

I guess my days in the United States Air Force Security Service started like most others in the Green Monster at Lackland AFB. We were told we were there to select what job we would like to do while in the Air Force. When I sat down at a desk with a Staff Sergeant he asked where I was from and I said Athens, Ga. He told me he was from a small town about 12 miles from Athens so we got off to a good start. We went through the very large book he had and I kept saying no or he'd say I couldn't do that because of my size or that I didn't do well on the mechanical part of the tests we'd taken. Finally, he said here's something you might like, its Radio Traffic Analysis. He read the description and then said there was Radio Intercept Operator but I couldn't do that as I had class B hearing. So I chose RTA and Linguist as a second choice. I had a third choice but I don't remember what I chose. I went through about 3 cigarettes looking for a job while most of the others were out of there in what seemed like only a few minutes.

Most of the guys in my Flight went to training as firemen and I'm almost sure that it wasn't one of their choices. Quite a number of the flight left after four weeks of basic training and a few of those were heading for Keesler AFB in Mississippi and as I'd find out later were to be trained as Radio Intercept Operators (292's). I stayed at Lackland and as I'd suspected our basic was cut two weeks short because of Christmas. I thought it was good timing until I found out that I had no orders to go anywhere. I was stuck at Lackland but with one stripe. So I spent the holidays and the next two months not in basic but not quite out of it either. I got a temporary job in the squadron typing up basic training schedules for the Flight TI's. Finally, I got notified that I was to take a language aptitude test. I took the test figuring I'd definitely fail since my eight grade teacher after asking what I was taking the next year and my answering that I thought I'd take Latin said, "You'd better learn English first". Much to my surprise I was informed that I'd passed the test and would be going to Yale University. Another week or two passed and I was informed that I would be taking another language test. (They must have talked to that eighth grade teacher). But a day before I was to take the test I got orders to report to March AFB, California. I was to go to RTA school which was my first choice. A few days later I was on my way home for my first leave and then to March AFB.

March AFB -

I took the train from home to March AFB and met three other guys along the way who were going to March also, one named Charlie Hansford from Monroe, LA whom I went to Turkey with later. I had been told that it doesn't rain very much in Southern California but when we got off the train in Colton, CA and took a limo to March it was pouring down rain and mostly rained for the next two weeks. After those two weeks it didn't rain again for 6 months. We got out of the limo at the March front gate and was told we had to wait for a bus to take us up to the school which was not on the base proper but was up on a hill on the south side of the base which was across a main highway. He pointed out where the school was but I can't remember being able to see it from the front gate. So we took the base bus up to the school and was anxious to get started. The base as I remember it consisted of 4 three story barracks, a chow hall and I think another building that may have been a small PX or something like that. Down a paved road about ¼ mile there was a two story building where we were to go to school. (I went by there a couple of years ago and there was a chain link fence across the road but the buildings were still there – deserted).

The commander's office was in one of the buildings and we signed in and after being assigned a room and such we took it easy until the next day when we were briefed on the rules and found out when we'd be starting school. I'll always remember the first day of class. The instructor was a Staff Sergeant and he told us that we were there to learn how to think. He said that all we'd ever had to do in high school was to memorize stuff. I thought about that and decided he was right. Anyway, he said that if we'd been C students in high school we'd be B students after the course and if we'd been B students we'd be A students. He also told us that we would be told what we were to figure out and how we arrived at the answer was totally up to us although he'd show an example and how it was solved. We could work alone or in groups just so we came up with the answer. This was totally unlike any school any of us had ever attended. We were also encouraged to get up and walk around outside or get a drink or something if we got to a point where we appeared brain locked. It was definitely not my high school.

The problems presented were interesting and I got the hang of it pretty quickly. This part of the schooling was to last 13 weeks and  was not classified. After that there was 2 weeks of KP and hopefully by then our clearances would have arrived and we would start the second 13 weeks of class. There were several guys who didn't make it past the 1st four weeks and they got assigned to other duty. I remember one lived about a mile or so  from the Miami, FL airport and that's exactly where he was assigned. Go figure.

One of the requirements of the first 13 weeks was that everyone had to pass a typing test of 30 words per minute. I had taken typing in high school and passed it on the first try. Most of the others had to come back in the afternoon or evening to practice until they could pass the test. We only went to school for 5 hours (8 am to 1 pm) and our time after that was our own. If we had money we'd be in the Los Angeles area by 3 pm and return to base about midnight. One of the guys lived in Lakewood, CA so we had a ride to the LA area.

We only had a problem with one person. He was a S/Sgt. and was made barracks chief. He started checking our rooms and passing out gigs. Everyone started getting pretty fed up with his playing at military and even the Navy guys were perturbed (we had several naval personel that lived on the top floor of the barracks to which I was assigned). He even decided that we would march as a unit one night. Wellllll! There was a line about 50 guys long the next morning to see the commander. The commander decided to change the barracks chief and there was no more marching on the street without safety equipment (which we didn't have). Life returned to normal. (I happened to be assigned to the same office although another section at AFSCC Kelly AFB, TX a few years later and the sergeant had made Tech Sergeant and was a darnn good analyst and was well liked.) The USAFSS changed people. By the time we left they were already gearing down the school as it was soon to be moved to Goodfellow AFB, TX.

There was a lot of good times to remember from March AFB and its that assignment when I met the girl that I would later marry. So I really learned a lot. It finally rained on the 15th of September and we all went outside and stood in the rain (sprinkle). I checked out of March AFB and stayed with my fiancée and her family a week and then headed to Athens, GA, my home and then my next assignment.

Oh! I almost forgot that our gang was told we'd be heading to Misawa, Japan but we had heard that some would be going to Turkey where there was a shorter tour and per diam. I hope that Admin Airman enjoyed the beer and Champagne we gave him.

National Security Agency (NSA) -

Bob McQuary from Texas and Charlie Hansford from Monroe, LA arrived at my house in Athens, GA on Thursday the 23rd of October 1958 and we spent the night drinking at a place I knew. We left early the next day and drove to Washington, DC. We stayed that night at the Hotel Carlyle in DC and checked in at Fort Meade, MD the next day which would have been Saturday the 25th. Thus started our orientation at NSA.

The one thing we quickly decided was that we were glad we weren't in the Marines. We'd head to the chow hall about 7 am each morning and at about the same time a platoon of Marines would burst out of the woods running. They had been at that for an hour or two. Also, there was a Marine at each hallway corner in the NSA building and they had to snap too every time an officer passed. The place was full of officers.

The second thing we learned was that although we were in the USAFSS, and that was who paid us, we were actually going to be taking direction from the NSA. We didn't mind that at all as what we were learning was interesting.

We spent a lot of evenings in downtown Washington DC and frequented several joints on 14th street, the best of which was Benny's that had a really good three piece combo and a singer that sometimes would change a word here and there that made it more amusing. There was also the Hayloft and a couple of others that we haunted. The beer drinking age in DC was 18.

There was six of us usually and we pretty well had the country covered since we all lived in a different area. One night we got free beers for a couple of hours as a guy was trying to get his girlfriend back after she found out that Castle was from San Diego. She turned around and started talking to us and pretty soon had turned her chair around and was ignoring her date. He finally got her back. But it cost him.

Three days before Christmas we left Ft. Meade. There was an airline pilot strike at the time and getting a reservation was tough. John Farrow from Boulder, CO had bought an old Oldsmobile or Buick for $50.00 and Castle Rodriguez and I decided to ride with him to Denver and then try to go on from there. We got to the Lincoln Memorial and had a flat on the inside of the circle. Castle took one look at the car and the flat and got his bags out of the trunk and hailed a cab and headed for the train depot.

John and I got the tire changed and away we went. Each time we got a tank of gas we also had to get a quart of oil. It didn't take me long that night to realize that John couldn't stay awake at night whether driving or not. So I drove through the ice covered mountain roads in West Virginia and on into the morning into Ohio. When we got to Kansas City I realized there was probably no way I'd get to the Los Angeles area before Christmas unless I could get an airplane reservation. So I had Farrow let me out on a corner in KC and I hailed a cab and told the cabbie to take me to the airport. I got the grand tour, I guess, as he pointed out every joint and who played their trumpet or sax there. I finally got to the airport about midnight and found that there were two seats available for that morning on a Continental Electra (the only airline flying) and it was going to cost a bundle. I arrived at LAX the afternoon of Christmas eve.

Travel to Samsun –

I left Southern California (it was 90 degress in January) and headed to Dallas on an unscheduled airline. When we got over Midland, TX I looked out the window and noticed that the wing was becoming black. I signaled the stewardess and told her that I though we'd hit a gusher. She looked at the wing and promptly headed for the cockpit. Very soon one of the flight crew came back and looked out at the wing and then another and then another. Three members of the flight crew and the stewardess were looking out the window. I didn't ask but I was fairly sure that there wasn't a person left in the cockpit to fly the plane. The captain finally decided we'd be able to get to Dallas and we made it ok. I got a Delta flight to Charleston, SC but we had to change planes in Atlanta. There was time for a family member to come to the airport and visit before I left.  In Charleston I met up with the rest of our group of six and we had to stick around a couple of days before we took off on January 19th 1959 in a Super G Constellation, with the seats facing backwards, for Bermuda, Casablanca, and Tripoli. It was in Casablanca that I realized that all coffee isn't created equally. We had to deplane while it was refueled and I ordered a coffee. The waiter asked if I'd like cream and I said just little sugar and a little cream. That coffee was almost undrinkable it was so strong. I found out that the Arabs drink their coffee half coffee and half cream. Found out later that the Turks coffee is drunk the same way. Also, Turks don't like their coffee but drink tea instead. We finally landed at  Whellus AFB, Tripoli, on the 20th of  January.  I went into Tripoli a couple of times and my comment in a letter was that there were Arabs and Italians everywhere.

We left Tripoli on January 23, 1959 on a French airline, Union Aeromaritime de Transport. This was surely the best airline I ever flew on. We were still climbing when the waiter came around with a white towel over his arm and a tablet and pen to ask what I'd like to drink. About the only thing I ever drank was beer but I said scotch and water. Every time I drank down about two inches he'd be back filling the glass back up. We had to stop and deplane for refueling in Athens, Greece and he gave everyone two chits good for two drinks at the bar. I'm not sure how some of the guys got through customs in Ankara, Turkey. We went to Ankara where we went through customs and then back to Istanbul where I think we stayed at the Tuslog building or somewhere near there. We finally took the ferry across the Bosporus and made it to Tuslog Det 3 at Karamusel. One of the guys had bought a bottle of Rocky and since we had no water we mixed it with hot tea and were feeling no pain when we checked in at Karamusel. That stuff is really strong and tastes like liquorices. At this point Castle and Farrow were at the base they'd be at for the next 18 months. We still got together for the next few days and I asked Farrow how it was going and I quote "I sleep pretty well at night, and fairly well in the morning but I just toss and turn all afternoon". While I was there we watched a movie in the gym at night on a fairly small screen and there was an Airman/NCO club and I think there was a three lane bowling alley although we didn't try the bowling alley. For entertainment that was about it. Some of the guys, McQuary for one, only stayed a couple of days and were on to Trabzon. I think that Willett left for Samsun before I did as I had an adventure coming with the dentist after they found 5 cavities. It was strange as I didn't have any in Basic at Lackland. Hansford also was delayed by his teeth and after having them fixed left with me for Ankara and then he went on to Trabzon.

I had never had a tooth filled in my life so I was a little apprehensive. As well I should have been. The dentist was a Major so I figured he knew what he was about. On the first tooth he said it was just a little pin hole and he'd just clean it out a little and put a small filling in it. Well, he was drilling and then the drill dropped through as the tooth was hollow. He was drilling away and I was vibrating at about the same rate as the rpm of the drill. He'd said it was just a pin hole so I thought this was normal. After a bit the Major stepped back and looked at me and was a little pale. He said "Did I give you a shot". I said no and I thought he'd faint. It was me with the tooth that was hurting like crazy. He started apologizing and kept apologizing until he was finished with the tooth. The other 4 teeth went a lot better and the fillings lasted for many years.

Then it was the 4th of February and off to Istanbul on the ferry again and then back to Ankara and finally to Samsun where everything was white and it was very cold.

Samsun –

While in later years my impression of my stay at Samsun was that it wasn't so bad my first letter to my fiancée stated "Well, I finally made it to Samsun. This is about a horrible place in which to be stationed. I'm staying at the Vidinli Hotel. It’s the best in town but it's still not so good"

I arrived at the hump backed airport aboard a Turkish Hava Yollari airliner from Anakra on the 7th of February.  It was said that with THY the first person on the plane was the pilot and the last one closed the door. There was snow all over and we were lucky? to get there that day as they don't always fly in bad weather. As a matter of fact, the flight from Ankara to Samsun was cancelled the day before so I had to stay in Ankara an extra day. I was met and traveled to the clump of buildings that represented our base in what was to become familiar transportation, the back of a 6 by truck. I checked in but it was Saturday so I didn't see to many people. I had briefings on Monday and Tuesday but I can only remember one meeting. That was with the commander, a Lieutenant Colonel who's name I can't remember. I do remember him informing us that buying items in the PX and selling them on the local economy was illegal and that black marketing could get us jailed for a long time. However, he just said that he would not tell up not to do it but rather just not to get caught. He also mentioned that the new base would probably be completed and ready for occupancy in June and if we bought into a house (buy the furniture of someone leaving) we would have to get rid of it when we moved up to the hill and could lose money as they didn't know yet how we could dispose of the refrigerators and such (black market as they were purchased from the PX in Ankara). Because of this I stayed in a hotel until we moved. I was also warned about drinking the water or eating anything made with milk unless it was boiled. I think there was a 203 with me in the commander's office and he mentioned to him that if he bought into a house with other 203s that only one 203 was to speak to the Russian maid in Russian. I guess they were trying to make it seem that there were fewer Russian speakers among us than there were. I might mention that the majority of the maids were Russian. I always wondered why. Also, my duffle bag arrived on Wednesday.

I finally went to work on Friday the 13th of February 1959, but not until noon, as we couldn't get up the road to the hill because of the snow. By the 18th of February I was down to one dollar to my name and was becoming very hungry. We worked 3-1, 3-1, 3-3 which is to say 3 days with one off and 3 swings (4-12 midnight) one off and 3 mids (midnight to 8am) with three days off. When I worked swings I only ate lunch and  when I worked mids I missed breakfast and slept through lunch. Only on days or when we were off did I get reasonable meals. I solved the money problem by seeing the First Sergeant who kept a slush fund for people like me but the food problem continued until we moved onto the new base.

Here's the best I can remember of the hill. There was a wooden building about the size of a small house (ops) about 10 yards off the road and a smaller building next to it which was the Commanders office and admin. The wind could whistle through the ops building and we could be heard outside if we didn't talk softly. There was a small wooden building past the admin which was the garage and transportation office. Across the dirt road from ops was a building (about one room) made of rock and wood and housed one Turk who made tuna and spam sandwiches and sold those as well as soda pop and candy. Those sandwiches were what kept me alive. Next to the sandwich shop and about 20 yards down the road there was a 4 seater outhouse. This outhouse was reported missing one night in late February during a snow storm and was written up in the day file as such. However, when daylight came it was still there. We did have an episode in which one of the operators was in the outhouse late one night when a Turk guard thought he saw someone on the ops building roof and took a shot. The bullet went through the outhouse and off the roof of ops. The operator came through the ops door with his pants and shorts still around his ankles and unable to talk. Such was life at Det 3-2 in early 1959.

Now that I've described the base I will mention the Vidinli Hotel. It had a nice dining room in which I could get a fair meal. There was always sheep and steaks on the menu. I don't particularly like sheep and I was pretty sure that the steak was water buffalo. There was definitely no pork of any kind so no bacon or ham. I once bought a canned ham at the PX but couldn't talk them into cooking it after they found out it was pork. There were finite hours when they were open and unless I was on 3 day break they didn't seem to be open when I needed to eat. I might inject here that there was a British subject staying at the Vidinli who each morning ordered a 3 minute soft boiled egg. And each morning it was either under cooked or could be bounced off the floor. He finally started loaning them his wrist watch to time the egg cooking but that just didn't help.  I should mention here that the Turks really disliked the Communists, the Greeks and the British in that order and tolerated the Americans. After a week or so I met an airman who had been there a while and he took me to a local restaurant. Since I couldn't speak Turkish I had to go into the kitchen and point out what I'd like to eat. That was really a mistake. While the food would taste ok I wasn't always sure what I was eating. I even tried a custard which is made of milk and it was very good but I only pushed my luck a couple of times with the custards. Willett wasn't as lucky as he came down with hepatitis and was flown to the hospital in Ankara on April the 16th with a shrunken liver. I found out he had stayed there around 2 months and was sent home as his father died and they owned two pharmacies in New York City and his mother got him out on a hardship discharge as she needed his help.

The Vidinli Hotel wasn't all bad. I was on the 4th floor and my window was constructed in two pieces without a screen. Just unlock the window fastener and push the left side open revealed a granite window sill that was about 18 inches in depth and the width of the window. It was a perfect place for a case of beer. I could lie in my bed in the morning or whenever I woke up and reach up and unlock the window, push it open and get a beer all without getting out of bed. It was perfect in a place where you shouldn't drink too much water. And when it snowed the beer was very cold.

Now back to my first day at work and the guys on Baker trick. I got up the hill about noon because of the snow and there was a lot going on and about all I got accomplished was to be introduced to most of the shift personnel. The next day my training started. The 202 I was going to replace had about 2 weeks to go and the first thing out of his mouth was that I was in charge and the other guys on the trick would follow my directions. My main problem was that I was only 19 ½ years old and had never been in charge of anything in my life. I found out very quick that everyone aged quickly at Samsun. I can't remember the 202 whose place I took but he was Mormon and was from West Covina, CA. Naturally he didn't smoke or drink beer but I think he was a pretty good 202. When he left I really was in charge of the trick although for a few weeks there was an NCOIC. That didn't mean a lot as most of the 292's and 203's knew what they were about and when they called me over it usually meant that I started sending messages to the communications room to be sent here and there immediately. Since there wasn't a whole lot to do after work it was really enjoyable when there was something going on at work. I remember one morning we'd had things going and one of the guys went out to the front door of ops and locked it and would not let the next shift come in. When they pounded on the door they were told to go over to the snack shack until we were done. I think the first sergeant finally told us to let them in and get down the hill as the Turk who drove our 6 by was still waiting for us. Swings was the easiest work and then mids and days were a little more hectic but only because there were more people under foot. For me mids was more work as I had to summarize the days activities in a long message and send it out as soon as possible after midnight. I think I remember the 203's having someone doing the same thing.

Our facilities in town consisted of a recreation center which was a wooden building built from scrap lumber which was built on land donated temporarily by the American Tobacco Company. The building had a dirt floor and leaked a little and had a movie screen on one wall and also housed the athletic supplies like basketball and softball bats and gloves and stuff like that. There of course was no heat. We also had a PX (I think) and a Class VI store as well as an airman's club downtown as we could get more support monies for an airmans club than an NCO club since we probably had only about 6 NCO's on the base. There was also a civilian club downtown that they kept open after we moved to the new base. The Officers (all seven of them) lived in a couple of houses I believe. As far as I know only three of them had anything to do with us. The other four were involved with construction at the new base or overseeing Tompane and supply.

There were two Sergeants that I definitely remember. I can't remember either one's name but they stick in my mind after all this time. One may have been the Baker trick NCOIC when I first arrived. He was a Master Sergeant and at night on swings when everything was quite we would sit around a stove (it was either a pot bellied stove or an Aladdin stove) and keep warm and listen to him tell of his time in WWII in Europe and in Japan, etc.  He was obviously a little shell shocked as he was quite shakey and was waiting to be retired. He said he'd been in the battle of the bulge and had lain for 3 days under corpses so that he wasn't stabbed with a bayonet as the Germans came through. He'd also spent some time in Japan where he said he had married a Japanese girl in a Japanese ceremony which wasn't recognized in the U.S.  He was only at Samsun a short time after I arrived and then was gone. The shift was now all A2C's.

The other person I remember was a Chief Master Sergeant who came in about April and was concerned with getting the electronics and antennas working at the new base. He was only 27 years of age and kept complaining that there were no promotional opportunities in the Air Force. He didn't want to be an officer as he wanted to be a hands on technician. I believe he had an Electronics Engineering degree and probably was given a high rank when he enlisted. He was certainly an interesting person.

I spent one Saturday afternoon and part of Sunday with an Iranian Major who I happened to meet. He said he was going to school at the Turkish War College in Ankara and was an artillery officer and was just in Samsun because he wanted to look around at the city. He took me to the Turkish Officers Club on Saturday afternoon which was only occupied by three Turkish officers. They just looked at us when we came in and went back to their discussion. This Major told me that he'd gone to artillery school at Ft. Bliss in El Paso and was there almost a year. He said that had created a problem for him since he could never marry a girl that he'd not dated and Iranian's believed in arranged marriages. He was a little downcast as he didn't think he ever get married. He was an interesting person.

I did get invited to dinner by a Turkish family. When I walked in there was a cow's head on a platter in the middle of the dining room table. I made some excuse and left. I'm afraid I'm a bad guest.

As I've said it was very cold in February and March with a good amount of snow. I as well as most of the others always went to watch the movies each week even though they were not all that good and it sometimes seemed colder sitting on those wooden benches than being outside. Here's a sample of movies: The 24th of Feb. was Proud Rebel and Thunder Road, the 16th of March was Thundering Jets and Andy Hardy Comes Home, on March 22nd there was a movie starring Sterling Hayden and on March 25 there was The Bravados. 

Another problem during February and March was that my pay hadn't kept up and I didn't get any regular pay until April. I was always living on the edge of being a pauper until about the middle of April.

The last of March an Airman talked me into switching hotels from the Vidinli to the Atlantic Hotel. The Vidinli costs me $1.00 a day and the Atlantic was only half of that. The street level was a grain store and the hotel started on the 2nd floor. All the GIs except the guy who talked me into moving lived on the 3rd and 4th floors. I got a room on the 2nd floor and the only other GI was the airman that got me to move. I had hardly dropped my suitcases and he my duffel bag when the manager gave me a piece of paper that had listed a lot of items in the PX and their prices and the prices he would pay. For instance, cigarettes were about $1.20 a carton and he'd pay $7.50 a carton. Figuring that out at 50 cents a day for rent came out to just over 2 cartons a month. There was coffee, shirts, pants, socks and various other stuff but cigarettes was the main thing, especially menthol.

The other interesting thing about living on the 2nd floor (with the office just two rooms away) was the fact that across the hall lived two belly dancers (aged 19 and 20 - sisters), a French pavion girl next door on the left and a Turkish pavion girl on the right. The airman lived to the right of the belly dancers. Hula hoops had just become the craze in the States and the young belly dancers had one apiece. They could really make those things go. The airman who talked me into switching hotels was gone after about a month and about 3 weeks later the young belly dancers left for Istanbul. Another Turkish pavion bowler took their room. I and the girls lived there on the 2nd floor until I moved onto the base. I did finally add beanie weenies and saltine crackers from the PX to my diet and the French girl would let me heat them on here Aladdin stove. There was only one bathroom on each floor and at the Atlantic it was Turkish. That means no toilet stool. Instead there was a porcelain area with a hole and two raised foot pads in front of the hole. There was also a spigot on the left for washing your fingers. There was no toilet paper so I bought some at the PX. It was definitely not designed for reading the newpaper. I might add that it was bad manners to shake hands with your left hand. Also, if I wanted to take a shower I walked to the managers office and informed him and he would have someone light off the stove with the water coils in order to heat the water.

I have read several interesting online entries about the Samsun mascot. Several of the people writing called him Goulon. I don't remember him being called that, but remember I have class B hearing.  Here's a quote from a letter I wrote on April the 27th, 1959. "We had a Commander's call this afternoon but there wasn't much to it. One thing they did was to introduce our new squadron mascot. His name is Capt. Elliot after the guy that got him for us and he's a three hundred pound sandy haired bear. He's really playful and a dancing bear at that. They are in the process of trying to teach him some new tricks. I'll bet not many squadrons have a Russian brown bear as a mascot". Actually, Capt. Elliot had come into town a few days before and was driving a jeep with the bear in the passenger seat according to some that saw him. I've seen that some say he came from Sinop but I thought he had come from Trabzon and was on his way to Anakara. At any rate he was a little inebriated and tried to sign in at the Vidinli Hotel as Capt. Elliot and Mr. Bear. Needless to say they weren't having any of it at the Vidinli and wouldn't rent him a room. The bear was taken over to the recreation area by some of the guys for safe keeping as a Turk stayed there to make sure nothing got stolen and the officers may have had a spare bedroom in one of their houses. The bear had a nose ring and was usually staked out just outside the recreation building where he danced to the music. We had a PA system in the building with a speaker outside and there was usually records playing all day. Also, staking out the bear on the street side of the building was a deterrent for anyone not suppose to be there. Usually when I went to the rec building I'd sit on his back without putting any weight on him and scratch his head and ears. He liked that. Back to his name. Later on we called him Goulash (like the Romanian stew) because he usually had a stew to eat. He was given cooked meat with vegetables until he ate the dog the next year and after that he only had vegetables to eat.

I think it was the April 27th Commanders call when we learned that we'd be moving up to the new base on May 24th and 25th. I might mention here that a lot of the airman had their fatigues tailored to fit and their fatigue shirts were tailored to look a lot like Ike jackets. Most of the guys wore white athletic socks and things were quite casual while living downtown. I think we were issued parkas until spring.

The 25th of May came around finally and I moved up to the new base. Baker trick was assigned to dormitory #1 which is the 1st one when you enter the base. We continued to work at the old site as the new ops wasn't going to be ready for about 3 weeks.  The food consignment had not arrived for the dining hall and the food had to be bought downtown but the German cooks could make it taste better than we were used to before. One Turkish National had been hired for each dormitory and several had been hired for the Dining Hall. There was 27,000 pounds of food which was to arrive any day now. The club downtown was closed down but the one on the new base wasn't going to be ready for 3 or 4 days. I think I remember that the floor in the gym had not been put in as the Turks didn't know how to put it in and I think someone was brought from Germany just for that installation. It was completed well after the move but before the fall basketball season began.

The 27,000 pounds of food was to arrive from Germany on the 28th of May and the day after it arrived we had our first labor dispute. The Turkish dining room helpers all walked out the door and stood outside after they saw and smelled the bacon cooking. They refused to touch anything that the bacon had touched which means they weren't going to be too useful in the kitchen or dining room. They were offered more wages and when the wages had doubled some decided to go back to work. The ones that refused were replaced later by others who would work around the pork. So the almighty dollar had corrupted enough of them to get on with our lives. The bacon and eggs tasted particularly good that morning. I had lost 11 pounds in February, March and April and had only weighed 150 pounds to start with. I thought the German cooks were great and they could sure make some fine pastries. We had to eat K rations once a month by Air Force decree and they even made that taste eatable.

That dining hall made life livable again. When on swings we would send a couple of people up in the jeep who would pick up food for the shift about 7:30pm and we could get our coffee jug refilled anytime at night on swings or mids. The dining hall was open for the mids shift before midnight and after midnight for the swing shift who were getting off. And mids would send someone up to the dining hall about 4 o'clock in the morning for food (usually donuts and other pastries) and more coffee.

Life was good again as soon as the club opened and the movie screen was raised outside the club's back door. Actually the movie screen wasn't moved from downtown until  Friday the 17th of July. The projector was in a window at the back of the Admin building so we could bring a blanket and lay on the hill between the Admin and the club and watch the movies. This was much better than downtown since the Turkish help in the club would bring the beer and snacks to whom ever ordered them. Life was good that summer of 1959, except for two weeks when we were forced to watch The Ten Commandments over and over again when there was no new movies on the white boat one week. Everyone new the first half of the dialog but due to the expertise of the Turkish waiters I'm not so sure that many could remember the second half of the movie as well.

After the move to the new base it wasn't long before we got the softball teams organized again as Baker was 6-0 downtown before the move. The Air Force appropriated $10,000 to build the softball field and for equipment. We got all new bats and gloves.  It probably paid for the basketball flooring also. We were ready for the 1st softball game on July 17th and lost to Dog trick.

We had a Staff Sergeant (a little large around the middle) that was in charge of recreation. He was a very good fast pitch softball pitcher and pitched for the day workers who were those who worked in admin and supply plus the recreation department. I'm pretty sure we only had five teams, the four shifts and the day workers. Someone said the officers would field a team but there was never more than about 7 officers so they never had one. The rec sergeant was very active and he organized a softball tournament which I think included Sinop and Trabzon. I remember that the Army team from Sinop couldn't find their third baseman. A number of us fanned out looking for him. Someone found him eating an ice cream and flushing the toilet in one of the dormitories. He didn't want to play softball because he hadn't had any ice cream nor seen a flush toilet since arriving in Sinop about 10 months before. He just wanted to keep flushing that toilet. He finally went out and played third base. They probably had to tie him up to get him back in the 6 by and back to Sinop. We knew things were not all that good in Sinop as some of them had come down to Samsun on R&R when I was at the Atlantic Hotel.

Just before Christmas our Recreation Sergeant organized the first all Turkey basketball tournament. The teams that came included Det 3, the Navy at Karamusel, Trabzon, Sinop, Diyarbakir and our Samsun team. It was a double elimination tournament and we beat Det 3 twice to win it all. There were some really good players on all the teams. Det 3 had a guard that scored 33 points against us and only missed one shot in the game. We had a guy named Buddy Meyers who looked roly poly but was a great dribbler and dead shot. He'd been all West Virginia in high school with a 28 point average and had a chance to go to Pittsburg on a scholarship but joined the Air Force instead. In the last two games of the tournament we won the first game against Det 3 by 1 point in overtime and the second by 2 points in double overtime to win the tournament. They were really good games. An all star team from Mainsite, Samsun and Trabzon went to Germany in February 1960 and won the all European tournament.

I'm getting ahead of myself. About two weeks after we moved onto the new base we heard through the grapevine that there would be a dedication ceremony with the raising of the American and Turkish flags. However, due to Tuslog agreements we were not permitted to stand in formation or march or any such military thing. We were told that if anyone wanted to attend that we should stand in a choir type formation around the flag poles. I decided to go. I found out that although the Turkish garrison gave us a Turkish flag that we didn't have an American flag. So one of the teachers at a school downtown had her students make an American flag. The flag looked ok but they were running out of time so they pasted paper stars on the field of blue and they were short a couple of stars as the picture from a book they used didn't have the last two states represented. Also, as the flags were being raised it started to sprinkle rain and then some stars started to fall off. Since it was raining the flags were quickly lowered and taken into the admin building. A week or so later our flag arrived. That orginal flag was in a case in the admin building when I finally left for good.

At about the same time we started up the softball league, July 17th, we started going without mail. The Turkish government had all our mail confiscated because it wasn't going through the Turkish mail system and thus they were getting no revenue. There was also a threat of closing the PX and making us buy everything on the local economy. I suspect that our move up to the new base as well as Trabzon's was hurting their local businesses very bad. After a few days, maybe a week, the mail began to flow again. I'm sure the U.S. struck some sort of deal.

The good thing that happened at this same time was that the AFEX opened the snack bar where we could buy hamburgers, cokes, etc. Also, a Turkish barber opened for business in the AFEX. This was interesting as he used manual clippers and had three wives. On July 28th a letter I dated that day has a Turkish cancellation stamp on the left top and a green Turkish NATO stamp for 195 (kurus?) affixed to it. I think I mailed it through the Turkish mail system. And there was 138 bags of mail that arrived on the white boat. There's only 140-145 personnel at the base plus maybe 15 civilians if you count Tompane, GE and some others. The mail problem was definitely fixed. And about the same time the Wing Commander visited our new base.

Another mail snafu occurred in September when a sergeant took our mail bags to mainsite and they had to fly them to us later. The person finally came from Germany and supervised the Turkish carpenters in the installation of the basketball court floor. They did a really good job.  Oh! After the floor was finished in the gym we were informed that the movies had been ordered to be shown in the gym and that we would be required to pay to see them. It was getting cold outside at night so moving indoors made sense but paying did not.

I believe the bear was brought up from downtown about the time the movie screen was brought up. That was about it for the recreation area downtown. An enclosure was made for Capt. Elliot out of 2X4's, ¼ X4 inch boards and chicken wire. This monstrosity had a tin roof to provide a little shade and was located next to the site's main road and behind the backstop on the softball field. The bear could get out any time he wanted to but he didn't want to.

Besides the political problems from time to time there were two executions while I was there. One may have been when we were downtown and the other while we were living on the base. One Turkish National was executed for grinding up his wife and selling the meat in his butcher shop. The other was a woman who had cut off her husband's testicles and he bleed to death. They hung people in the town square with a silken cord during that time. We were not allowed to leave the base and when downtown were warned to stay in our residences and leave only to catch the transport to work. We did have a Turkish guard who fired at his commander 3 times but missed. We didn't find out what happened to him. While on this type of happenings, there was a shooting at a pavion downtown, probably in April, which resulted in a man's death. None of our guys were involved but the local authorities closed all the Pavion's for 2 weeks. The girls then started showing up a the GI's houses and some big time partying ensued.

It was in November when I got a letter welcoming me to the 6970th at Fort George G. Meade, MD. Also attached was a list of rental housing in case I was married. Plans had been made by me and my fiancé to be wed in early February 1960 but I'd already heard that there would be no way that an A2C could afford to rent an apartment around NSA. I had been writing to my fiancé about my volunteering for another 12 months which would result in another stripe, leave, and a TDY trip to Goodfellow AFB before returning to Samsun. After that they would guarantee that I'd go to AFSCC at Kelly AFB and I'd never have to go anywhere without my wife unless directly ordered to by the president.

On the 15th of November I and several airmen took a trip to Trabzon in the back of a 6 by truck driven by a Turk. My butt hurt for several days after we returned because of the bouncing. Going there we had no problems except its about 250 miles of dirt road with that road at times going over mountains and sometimes on the edge of a mountain with the rocks and sea from 500-1000 feet below. There was hardly room for two trucks to pass sometimes. McQuery was working mids and Charlie Hansford was working swings so we really didn't get to even throw a party. After a couple of nights there we started out at 4 am for home. At a point a few hours out we came across a truck with its front right wheel hanging over the side of the cliff and the back right double tires almost over the cliff. It was just kind of balanced there with the sea about 500 feet below. Well, the truck driver was highly excited and trying to get our driver to hook the wench on our truck to his truck and pull him back onto the roadway. Our driver said no as the other truck could pull both right over the side. In about 15 to 20 minutes there was getting to be a crowd of people and vehicles stopped in both directions and no one could progress because the truck that was hanging over the side had gotten in that position because he and a bus going in the opposite direction tried to pass. It was a narrow spot in the road. A solution was finally thought up. From somewhere two large ropes probably an inch in diameter and quite long was produced. A rope was tied to the frame in the back and another to the front bumper of the unlucky truck and each was run across the street and then around a large tree. Several guys took hold on one of the ropes and several on the other rope and pulled them tight. The truck driver jacked up the back end of the truck and we'd pull hard on the back rope until the jack fell over. This would move the truck a few inches at a time back to the roadway. By doing this we got both the back and then the right front wheel back on the roadway. With the ropes still attached the driver backed the truck away from the cliff. There was a big roar as everyone was happy. The driver had not lost his truck and we could get on our way again.

We only made one more stop and that was when we saw a range rover pass us heading toward Trabzon. There was a woman driving and she quickly stopped, turned around and came after us. We hollered for the Turk to stop our truck. That was sure a strange sight that we would never have imagined. There was a 40 something English woman and her two sons of about 18 and 20 years old in the range rover. She said they hadn't seen anyone who spoke English for a while. They were on their way from England to Australia via range rover. They were going to take a ship in India for the last leg of the trip. I don't know how they even got that far and they were going to have to go through western Turkey, Iran, Pakistan and then India. After chatting about 30 minutes our driver wanted to get going so we wished them good luck and told them that there was an American base in Samsun and another in Trabzon.

Around Dec. 18th, about the time of the 1st ever All Turkey Christmas Basketball Tournament, we got a Juke box for the club. We also had two slot machines.

I will mention here the process of the last party before someone was to leave and one in particular. Usually the partying would start the evening before the person was to leave. At the Dining Hall the people who were leaving sat at a short timers table and on the day before leaving one of the Turkish helpers would take orders and bring the food to the table. The next morning all those seeing the person or persons off would buy a bottle of Champagne each which usually meant that everyone was soused when they boarded the bus to go to the airport. The time I have in mind everything was going along as usual and the airman got on the plane and everyone was cheering and wishing him good luck. As the plane took off one of the guys turned around, saw the airman that was suppose to be on the plane and quickly asked "who got on the plane"? We had to report what happened because the guy on the plane didn't have a ticket and someone in Ankara would have to get him back to Samsun in a couple of days and of course the airman that should have gone was still there and his bags were on the plane. That was the only time that happened.

We did have an airman that really knew what he was doing when I first got to Samsun. He would listen to the weather broadcasts every day and if there was a large front coming in he would quickly request a 3 day pass and fly to Anakara. Once he got to stay a week as the Turkish airline wouldn't fly to Samsun if the weather was bad. This of course was what he was hoping for.

Anyway, my first tour had come to a close. I had bought a ticket on the White Boat to get to Istanbul on advice from Admin and then I got funded to fly to Ankara and then to Tripoli and then to Charleston, SC. I managed to sell the White Boat ticket and flew to Ankara. I stayed there overnight in a building full of Army sergeants who kept calling me sergeant since I had sewed on the third strip. They had a club on the top floor. It was a nice place to live but I left the next morning for Tripoli on the Aeromaritime de Transport Airline. When we got to Athens for what we though would be a refueling stop we were told that there was a severe sand storm over the Sahara and we'd be staying overnight at airline expense. They took us to a fairly nice hotel and all the airmen scattered like quail. Me, I just wanted to get home as this was just one more day I was to lose as my arrival at Goodfellow and return to Samsun were fixed. The next day we flew to Tripoli. I left Tripoli on a chartered Twentieth Century Airline DC6B plane. The DC6B doesn't have the range of a Super G Constellation. We couldn't go over Tunisia so we went north and then west and then down the coast of Africa to Casablanca to refuel. Then we went to the Azores (Santa Maria), and then it was announced that we were going to Gander, Newfoundland and would go to Charleston, SC from there. I'd never been in the front of a plane before and asked the stewardess if it was possible to go up front with the crew. She came back later and said to follow her. I stayed there with the crew for a while and asked why we were going so far out of our way to Gander. The co-pilot told me the last time they had gone to Bermuda with the head winds as they were they had 15 ½ hours of fuel and it took them over 15 hours to get there. To Gander we had a tail wind. In Gander no one could deplane if they couldn't show a smallpox scar or paper work because they were having a smallpox epidemic. It took us 31 hours to go from Tripoli to Charleston with a passenger list full of female dependants and their children.

Goodfellow AFB –

I stopped at home a few days and then to Southern California to be married. After a few short weeks in Southern California where the weather was in the 80's we flew to Goodfellow AFB. When we arrived at Goodfellow they were in the midst of an ice storm. We stayed downtown and I took a cab to the base the next morning. Cars were sliding all over the place. We probably never got over 5 mph in the cab we took. I was only scheduled to be at Goodfellow for 5 days and after that our time had run out. We went to the airport and my new bride left for Los Angeles and I left for Charlestown, SC via Dallas and Atlanta.

Travel back to Samsun –

When I got to Atlanta I intended to call my relatives so they would come out and we could visit. But it was snowing like I'd never seen before in North Georgia. Everyone was advised to stay off the roads as they don't have much in the line of snow clearing equipment. It was now below freezing and no planes were flying until tomorrow and no one could drive in the snow so I stayed at the airport overnight. The next morning they finally got the plane I was to fly on de-iced and off to Charleston we went where it was now snowing just like in Atlanta the night before.

I finally got out of Charleston, AFB (which is across from the commercial airport) and I believe we were in another DC6B. We went to Bermuda, Santa Maria the Azores, Casablanca and to Tripoli. From Tripoli we flew to Athens and then Ankara where I spent the night of March 15, 1960 at the Uxun Hotel. The next day I was on a flight to Samsun and not looking forward to another year that would be just like the last 8 months before I left. When I deplaned I saw six guys getting on a Group plane that had brought up the mail and other stuff and I sure felt like getting on with them.

Samsun Again –

When I got back I was put back on Baker trick, which I probably requested. About 1/3 of the guys on Baker trick were new in only the two months that I was gone. All the 292's that I ran around with were gone except Cooper who had come in about January 1960. We were always looking for good softball and basketball players for Baker trick and Cooper was a good athlete and said he'd been all state honorable mention in Illinois.   I was put in a room with another airman but I was put in a single a couple of weeks later.

In early April 1960 the club started serving pizzas. The place was really getting modernized. We also had a wire strung around all the buildings that was the transmission antenna for our new radio station. Also, there was a radio placed in the lobby of each building and ours was just outside my room. On May 27th I had to get up early to pull mess check. Actually, a Turkish lady takes up the money from civilians who eat in the dining hall and all I have to do watch her. She'd been a teacher but was in the wrong political party and had lost her job. So now she was the dining hall secretary. And speaking of political parties, at 3 am this morning the Turkish government was overthrown by the Turkish military. We were immediately confined to base and the base radio station was turned off probably after being told to by the local garrison commander. The new base was still guarded by the local Turkish military. So every time there was a political problem in the country we had to go off the air as the signal could be picked up downtown and the station was not legal to start with. We were told at work what to do in case any Turk national tried to enter the ops building. And it didn't include using the grease gun that hung inside over the door. I'm really not sure if the tommy gun was still there but it had definitely been over the old ops door. We also had M1 carbines for about 150 people.

We seemed to be getting more and more personnel on the base. And one day I came back from work to find another cot in my room. I started to move it back into the lobby and one of the guys said everyone was having to double up. I just said "right". The next day the cot was gone. I don't know why we were getting more people but we did get 2 or 3 AP's. Why I have no idea. They started guarding the gate onto the base and the only thing I noticed them checking was what anyone going downtown was carrying.

In June a dentist arrived with an assistant. I had to have my teeth checked. He said I had one small cavity and needed my teeth cleaned but they couldn't work me in this trip. So I went back up to the dorm and went to sleep as I had just come off mids. The houseboy woke me up and said I had a phone call. I answered the phone and it was the dental assistant saying they could see me now. I told him I couldn't and hung up and went back to sleep. At about this same time I had to decide whether to extend my enlistment or get booted out on return from Samsun. I extended but probably should have just gotten out. Hind sight.

I can't remember much from August to late February when I left for the States. Here's some things I do remember but haven't mentioned. We took the bear to the beach. It was probably in 1960 because there was a tall blond airman in charge of recreation and the Sgt. that had been in charge had left. About 10 of us and the bear got on the Air Force bus with the blond guy driving. After we arrived at the beach the blond guy was leading the bear and for some reason, perhaps it was water buffalo, the bear turned in the opposite direction and the nose ring was pulled right out of his nose. Goulash screamed and jumped straight up 2-3 feet in the air. On landing he stood up and was still hollering. The blond airman started over to try and console the bear but as he reached him the bear hit him with a haymaker and he hit the sand on his back. The guy in charge of the bear finally got up and one of the guys ran to the snack shack that we maintained on the beach and there were two ropes there. We made nooses in both ropes and got them over his head and around his neck. He was still hurting and excited. We had about 5 guys on each rope and kept him in the middle (so he couldn't reach anyone) for about 20 minutes. Finally we were able to pet him and he calmed down. We closed up the snack shack and took the bear back up the hill and put some medicine on his nose. Unfortunately, he was not as easy to control after that and the new guys didn't play with him as much as we had before. The next problem with the bear came when he ate a dog. We had always had three dogs around the base ever since we moved up there. They got use to the GI's and a couple of them became downright unfriendly to the Turk guards. One time one of them bite a guard and he was trying to have the dog shot. Anyway, the way I heard it as I didn't witness the event, one of the small dogs walked by the cage and the bear reached out, grabbed the dog, and ate him. There would not have been a problem as I described the cage he was in as more of a chicken coop than a bear cage. After that the cage was strengthened and then a new cage made of angle irons and concrete floor was made with a tree stump in the middle of the cage. Poor Goulash. He was no longer the dancing cub that had liked his ears rubbed. I made sure I went down to his cage and rubbed his ears before I left as we were the only ones left from the group living downtown. Most of the new guys won't put there hands in his cage.

Sometime along in the fall we had gotten a new Captain in charge of our side of ops. He wanted us to do more analysis and I got put on days. We had a shift NCOIC by the name of Crutcher on Baker trick sometime during 1960 and he wanted to put me in for Airman of the Month. I talked him out of it as I didn't want to talk to any board and answer questions. However, I was told to be sure to be at the Commander's Call about three months later and lo and behold my name was called and I was introduced as the Airman of the Quarter. Well, I got $25.00 but I was wearing wash and wear fatigues, shoes unpolished and white socks. The ops Captain was perturbed. And although I was automatically put in for Airman of the Quarter for Group, the Captain told me that in good conscience he couldn't write a letter of recommendation for me. The $25.00 was good though. I made it up to the Captain later since after I switched to days I worked for him.

The ops Captain decided that we should brief the Officers on the base about our efforts. So he made a schedule for once a month. I was to brief the Officers on Air Defense in the third month which may have been January 1961. There was a Major on site that had arrived after the Major that was to be the base commander. It was a foul up because the older Major had time and grade on the base commander and sometimes referred to him as that young Major. The first two briefings were held and each time the older Major managed to go to sleep in his chair. So when my time to brief them came around I decided to brief them on theirs and our Air Defense and what would probably happen if we were ever attacked. After I explained the red line on our large map I added things like how long it would take a bison to cross the red line and be over our heads. And how long the local garrison could hold off an attack by the Rooskies. The Captain congratulated me as the Major never went to sleep. It was funny because I hardly knew anything about the subject matter.

Samsun held the 2nd annual All Turkey Basketball Tournament which we didn't win. I can't remember who did. I got to play about a minute and managed to miss two passes from Cooper. I had gotten on the base team because I had scored a career high 31 points in a game against Charlie trick about two weeks before. Although working on days I still played basketball for Baker.

About three months before I would finally leave Samsun for good we got a new Chaplain. I'm not sure that I had ever actually met him although he was Methodist the same as I was while growing up. He was standing beside me in the club which was packed and we were watching some USO show people. During a break in the entertainment he turned to me and said "You must be new here". I just responded "I've been here a little while". He didn't buy rounds of beer for us on Sunday morning as the other Chaplin had so he didn't know many of us.

March finally arrived, I had extended for 9 months and I was on my way back to the States and to Kelly AFB. I went to Ankara and then to Istanbul and stayed three days at the Istanbul Hilton. Lo and behold there was a night club on the top floor of the Hilton and it was full of international airline stewardesses. But I just wanted to get home to my wife. From Istanbul we flew a 707 to Rhine Main, Germany. I stayed there about 3 days and found out that German beer has more alcohol than American beer. After that I was on my way to McGuire AFB, New Jersey where four of us took a limo to the Philadelphia Airport. And from there to Los Angeles and after a few weeks we traveled to Kelly AFB in a used car that we bought.

Kelly AFB –

I reenlisted at Kelly when my normal enlistment ended. And shortly after that after a big change at work I managed to figure out some stuff and beat the British to the punch and managed to get my 4th stripe as soon as I was eligible. I enjoyed most of my time at Kelly AFB and was there for the Cuba missile crisis and when President Kennedy was assassinated. Both times we went on alert and couldn't go home. We even worked a weekend during the missile crisis. Other than that there was softball, basketball and even bowling. At least I stayed in shape during that second enlistment. I even went to the NCO Academy at Goodfellow AFB although I had already decided to get out after the second enlistment. I was at AFSCC for over 4 years. At the end of the 3rd year I got a message that I had orders for Peshawar, Pakistan. I was on that admin guys desk in about 7 minutes. I simply asked how my wife and two children were going to Pakistan and what would the billet be like. He looked at me funny and said you're not going as key  personnel so your family can not go. I simply told him that without them I most certainly would not go. He asked me why not and I told him to look at my last assignments. Then he noticed the two remotes, back to back. He took the orders I had in my hand and said they would have to be cancelled.

That was the last I heard about going anywhere. I always wondered if I could have just stayed at Kelly if I kept reenlisting.

On October the 8th, 1965 I was discharged and cleared the base. Thus ended my career in the USAFSS. Long may it be remembered. A few months later I wrote a letter to personnel office at NSA inquiring as to any job opening. They wrote back asking that I go to the local police department and be fingerprinted. They sent a card. I never sent it back to them.

PS a few years later I was in a position to have a clearance and I saw a picture of Samsun. I asked a fellow if he knew what happed to the site at Samsun. He said it and  Trabzon had been moved to Sinop and that the buildings at Samsun were then a medical college. A fitting end to Det 3-2 at Samsun.