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Since I posted the pages
on my year at TUSLOG Detachment 150 at Sahintepe, Turkey, I received
a flood of e-mail from former Det 150 members and others who passed
on interesting stories about the site. Three of the most
interesting ones appear on this page.
Who was at the other end of the
radio link?
Virtually every time you went into Det
150's radio building, you would hear the crackling of radio speakers
or see a technical controller speaking into a telephone operator's
headset. I often wondered "Who's that at the other end?" since
after a while you sort of recognized voices, but that was about all
you knew. Well, one of the people at the other end back then
stopped by here to say hello:
"Most
interesting. Thank you for sharing this with the world. I was
stationed at Karamursel Det 63 and worked in NCMO from Apr 75 to
Oct 77. I used to monitor all the sites you speak about and report
their status to our commander, and the reports were sent on up the
line. I used to input all hazcon calls on punch cards and have
them processed on computer. This made up our ESR report or
equipment Status Report. One time Site 150 when down for several
hours because some one forgot to closed a valve and let all the
fuel for the generators run out of the day tanks back into the
ground. I never got a chance to visit any of the sites. I was
always curious to learn what they were like. I also worked as a
job controller and opened and closed jobs with all the sites
surrounding Karamursel. My wife and son were with me and we
enjoyed our tour there very much."--Danny
M.
Where did "30-G" come
from?
One of the
mysteries of Sahintepe was where it's radio call sign, 30-G, came
from. No one knew, but, of course, with everyone serving just
12 month tours, there wasn't a whole lot of corporate memory on
site! A few months ago, I received a note from someone who
knew where "30-G" came from a radio engineer who was involved in the
Tropospheric Radio System Roll-out:
"I was involved at Shahin Tepessi. Sorry I write
phonetic the way it was spoken when I was there in
1967.
"In those days I worked for
ITT-Federal Electric, as an engineer to implement select aspects
of the rediscovered 'Forward Propagated Tropospheric Scatter'
technology -- the Germans messed with it in the
1930's.
"The site was a/k/a Site
30G and as I recall the deployed gear was of the AN/FRC-75 though
it could have been -39. I believe it complemented the counterpart
used between Elmadag through Mt Pateras.
"Prior to Shahin Tepesi, I
had put in the AN/FRC-39 (radio) in Karatas. Prior to that I
had worked at Elmadag for RCA in 1964 -- from there I went to
West Berlin.
"For the Shahin Tepesi
initiative I lived with my wife at the Iron Palas, Bursa ( of
'Five Fingers' fame the black and white film with James Mason and
a French actress). I we drove through all the Olive Groves round
Gemlik way daily in our commute.
"Interestingly enough
when we left Saudi Arabia in 1999 --I was there with IBM --- there
was a mirror image antenna farm that looked like tropo outside
Riyadh being installed by somebody. Hope this helps.--Cheers,
Anton
Are any Det 150
folks still around besides me?
On July 23, 2002, I
heard from Wally Brock, one of the folks who was at Sahintepe with
me in 1982:
Ran across the
DET150 page. It was really cool to see some familiar faces. I
remember when you left. It was very interesting. I am the young
airman in the camel riding picture although not so young anymore.
I am also retired now. I have some very similar pictures as you. I
have one with me on the camel. Have you had any contact with
any of the others from that time? Curious to see what has
happened to some of them.
Take
care.
Walt aka
Wally
No, I haven't heard
from anyone else who was at Sahintepe with me except for
Wally. BTW--You can see Wally on the camel in the second
picture on the Camel Rides and
More page. I have another picture of him as the camel
stood up and he was hanging in the air, holding onto just the top of
the camel's saddle!
What is Sahintepe
like today?
On August 28, 2002, I
received an e-mail from Hakan who lives in Gemlik, the city down the
mountain from Sahintepe. Hakan provided in this e-mail and a
follow-up one some details on what Sahintepe looks like
today.
I am from Gemlik
and visited your site after the departure of the base
many times. I have been always dreaming the atmosphere
at Sahin Tepesi during the cold war when I arrive
there.
It is very nice
surprise to see your web site and took me to Sahin Tepesi in the
middle of the night. Thanks to building your site which allow to
see more deeply what was happened at Sahin Tepesi
during USA presence. I'll promote your site to my
friend as well.
By the
way, Gemlik now have sister city from US, which is Lauderhill
from Florida region I suppose.
From his second
e-mail, responding to my follow-up questions:
The base is totally
abandoned since you left. It is getting to seem like
ancient ruins in Turkey with a heavy weather conditions. I went
last few years ago and saw people having picnic there (in fact it
was very hot day). Sahintepe name is still living that
thanks to the Auto Ralli which has been organized very
successfully since many years. This ralli is getting international
each year.
I will take some pictures for you send them by
email soon. All the best from Gemlik. -- Hakan
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