|
Russ
Koch, a an electronics maintenance and repair technician on
tropospheric communications equipment, (Air Force Specialty Code
30450), provided us with pictures and historical information on Det
150 in 1968 and 1969. His information is very interesting
since when he was at the site, it's name was spelled "Sahin Tepesi",
but when I arrived in 1981, the Turkish government spelled the name
as "Sahintepe".
In the
picture above, Russ is working on an AN-FRC135a
radio.
Russ, who
is enthusiastic supporter of documenting Det 150's history, told
us:
Pat,
Yes, I
have got some good stories and pics of Sahin Tepesi (as we called
it). I will send you a package of (hopefully) interesting
material to you over the Internet when I get it all
together. 'Specially the topless gypsy belly dancers we had
visit us for Christmas '68 (thanks!, SSgt Shaw).
Uh, well, maybe not
some of the real "good" photos, but at least the ones that you
could post..... (Ed. note -- Thanks, Russ, for looking
out for our kid-safe rating!)
Like our neat sailboat built from
packing crates. One of the Turk drivers capsized it and lost the
sail. We used a bed sheet after that..... Or the riot when
some Turk men spotted one of our guys ogling a top-heavy local
girl on the beach down from our site (little Gemlik) (problem was
he was using his binoculars from about 10 ft. from the girls!)
.... Like when Lt. Dorn and a guy from Power went over the cliff
trying to catch a fly ball, .. bye bye, guys! (not too well liked,
were they). .... Skiing at Uludag in a white out, remote,
lonesome bowl-skiing in the sun, trying to get up after falling in
5 ft. of powder (more like mashed potatoes). .....
(Ed. note -- Uladag is a ski resort located in Bursa, a city
of 500,000 people about 35 miles SW of Sahintepe).
I still have some of the towels and
bathrobes I got in Bursa. Best towels I have ever
had. .... (Ed. note -- no wonder the shop keepers used
to say they knew the Americans from Sahintepe for years.
Look at my Sightseeing Trips
Page for my picture in another place in the Bursa Bazaar!
)
Walking down to Gemlik from the site
- long walk back up......
(Ed. note -- check this pic of Russ
on the Sahintepe Road against the pictures we have on here
from 1981 . It looks like Russ is about one
quarter of the way up from the highway to the site.)
...Sgt. Frolich inadvertently
turning the cooling radiators off on the left side (backwards)
Klystrons, " Gee, how do I turn these valves on, Russ, turn left
or right?"...ans., "Dunno" - Few minutes later -
ZAP! zipideedooda, POWEE!... "Uh, guess ya shoulda turned em
the other way, Sgt.".,,,, (Ed. note -- Klystrons
were these huge radio tubes about twice the size of a milk
can. They cost about $5000 apiece when I was there in
1981. Klystrons had an inner plating of gold (yes, gold!)
and built up a huge amount of heat unless they were properly
cooled by a radiator).
Leveling the pool
table every day or two because of earth quakes, all the
balls would be rolled to one side. ... Souping up the slot
cars for our extra-big track in the rec room. ... Playing
the piano near the bar (undoubtedly the most awfulest piano in the
world). .... Not playing ping pong (no one would play me 'cause I
was real, real good, but also dam arrogant). Ya, you learn a
lot about yourself when you live with the same guys day in day
out, like it or not. Couldn't pay me enough to go back
voluntarily, but I can tell you for sure that, you, I and many
others came away better people for the experience. (Ed.
Note -- Maybe that's why Det 150's motto was "Proud to be on
top!")
Check your
maps, they list Sahin Tepesi as about 3000 ft.
elevation.. Would that be meters? (Ed.
note -- our maps when I was there said 2,915feet, which would be
about 971 meters)
I am an environmental scientist at
White Sands Missile Range, NM spent most of my career as a
Forester, USFS. Live on the side of a huge mountain, now,
rather than on top!
Suggest you include
Sahin Tepesi and DET
150 as a keywords for search engines.
(Ed. note -- done!)
Last names of some that come
to mind (approx spelling)
Rearden, Lampe, Gillee, Shaw,
Marciani, Frolich, Dorn, Pittman, Terry,
Sandspree...
Anything I can do to help with this effort,
let me know.
Russ
Russ also provided two pictures which show the "steps" at
Sahintepe -- all 126 of them! -- before they were covered with the
sheet metal and fiberglass enclosure present when I arrived in
1981.
That's the back door to the dining hall's kitchen that's standing
open. The Radio Building is the red building at the top of the
hill.
I guess I wasn't the only person who took pictures out of our
trucks when we were driving around Turkey. Russ sent
this picture he took as one of the Det 150 trucks proceeded through
the city of Gemlik on its way to the site.
Russ sent this info along about how he took these pictures:
I took about 50 photos around the site and in Turkey in 1968,
using an old Rolicord twin lens reflex my Dad bought shortly
before WWII. The originals are large-format slides, about 4
times the
surface area of a 35 mm slide.
On the Interesting Stories page you'll find
some notes about the "30-G" radio designator for Sahintepe.
Russ tells us of another designator:
For your info, I do not recall the 30 G
designation being used by our comm technicians while I was
there. Sahin Tepesi was then abbreviated as TKG
(Turkey/Karamursel/Gemlik).
Thanks, Russ, for sharing your pictures and
stories with everyone!
-- Pat aka
Bluejeans
All pictures on this page
copyrighted 1968-2002 David R. Koch
All rights
reserved.
 | 
