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In late 2007, I
received an e-mail from Omur, a gentleman in Bursa, Turkey, asking if I'd
like some photos of Sahintepe today. I accepted his gracious
offer.
The scenes should look quite
familiar to Det 150 alumni, but for those who may be lost, I added
some notes to help you find your way around the site
today.
If you look at the photo at the beginning of the
TUSLOG Det 150 pages here on the site, you'll see how this
scene looked when the diesel fuel tank was in place.

Until I saw these pictures, I had
forgotten how predominant the retaining walls were to the rest of
the site.
Here's where we used to
enter the Top of the Mountain Lounge, the theater and the dining
hall. While they've grown quite a
bit, these are the same trees seen in the black
and white "walking tour" photos.

You're standing in the
dining hall now, by where the wall existed between that room and the
site's base exchange.

Notice the floor tiles are
still in place, although a bit weathered by the elements. The
raised portion is where the dining hall's steam table stood.
The slight rise prevented kitchen spills from coming into the
dining area. Imagine how many GIs ate in this
dining hall in Sahintepe's over 30 years of operations? If the
walls could talk, the stories would be fascinating!

Are you lost? This is
the furnace and water heater room which adjoined the dining hall
kitchen and the laundry room. My friend Ray Margettin put in a
lot of hours keeping that furnace and water heater running when it
kept failing during the winter of '81-'82.
Finally, here's a view
every Det 150 alumnus should recognize. We're on the
volleyball court and looking back toward the dormitory.

The commander and and superintendent suites were
at the end of the building closest to you, followed by the Orderly
Room (or as I called it "the Command Section") and then the rest of
the dormitory rooms. In the distance you can see the kitchen's
chimney on the dining hall building.
Omur, the gentleman who
took these photos, wasn't able to get any from the radio building
level as there was a wild dog running around there. (That's no
surprise to me--we had the same problem in '81 and the Turkish
Commander sent his troops out with rifles to take care of about six
of them!)
A big Det 150
salute to Omur for providing these
pictures! |