From: "ercgreen" ercgreen@yourinter.net
Subject: DAYS OF OUR LIVES #116
Date: Fri, 16 May 2003 09:04:17 -0400

MAIL-call - PRESERVING FORGOTTEN MEMORIES

This message is intended only for the use of the ASA TURKEY Veteran's named as recipients in the message. If you are not an intended recipient of this message, please notify the sender immediately and delete the material from any computer. Comments or submissions to the DAYS OF OUR LIVES are most welcome. I will respond to all e-mails and will assist whenever needed, but reserve the right to edit for content and clarity and welcome any errors that may appear herein. Whether you choose to share your BIO is a personal choice. However, information not shared is the same as information lost. Keep in mind that the Internet is a universe unto itself and is a dang near veritable hell-hole filled with scams, scam artists, frauds, thieves, and greedy people, etc. In the old days, back when mail crossed the country in days, identity theft still took place. Today, e-mail crosses the country at the speed of light. The crooks do too. How can one tell if incoming e-mail is legitimate. from these scam artists with yet another name? A couple of ways. Typically these outfits use a Yahoo,Hotmail, Juno, or some throwaway e-mail account. Identity theft cannot be prevented. It can happen to anyone regardless of internet usage. For the most part the Social Security Number, and credit card numbers are most vulnerable. It has been via www.switchboard,com that I've been able to contact the vast majority of the ASA Turkey veteran's. Also, the many search engines (eg: www.google.com) can dig deep for ASA units and personnel. Your privacy is extremely important. Therefore, if you wish not to receive future DAYS OF OUR LIVES, please send that request to ercgreen@yourinter.net. Thank you

GREEN, Elder RC (gH), DOB: 23AU36, RA13513638, E7, 982/98C, Det 27, 1-15MY61, Det 120, MY-JL65, Det 27, JN66-OC67 & Det 4-4, OC67-NO68, (Patty), 3094 Warren Rd., Indiana, PA 15701, 724-349-7395, ercgreen@yourinter.net

WATTS ON UR MIND?

Should we find ourselves in a state of apathy, think about the quote from Edmund Burke, "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."

DET 4 PATCH

Our man in Korea, Roger Glubka, informs that he can have 50 or 100 of the Det 4 embroidered patches made in 5 days. The cost per patch will be approximately $3.00. Therefore, if you want to order a patch - send me, (ercgreen@yourinter.net), an e-mail requesting the number of patches you want and then follow that up with the total cost to: 3094 Warren Rd., Indiana, PA 15701. I need to know how many of you ex-SINOPERS want to order the Det 4 patch NLT 30 May 2003. The Roger Glubka family will be departing Korea on 20 July 2003 for Ft. Bliss, TX.

The Corporal Al Cantrell attachment

CANTRELL, Alphieus (Al), DOB: 1926 RA CPL-SP2 Det 4, MY55-MY56, (Libby), 4340 Silverado Trl, Calistoga, CA 94515, 707-942-6642/8059 wineman0@aol.com. The attachment is a Turkish driver's license that the Turk Government issued to ALFIOS KENTRAL when he arrived in Ankara, Turkey. Because of a glitch in my system the attachment may not print the entire license, but it occupies a full page in the 2003 Memory Book. Al also sent a photo of CPL Glickstein (sp?) and it has been pasted into the Memory Book. On 10 May 2003 Al Cantrell called me and we talked for over an hour about his one year Tour of Duty at Sinop. He enjoyed that tour even though it was considered a hardship tour and his only tour with the ASA.

Go to www.al-cantrell.com for a view of his family. Al's military career spanned 24 years (1944-1968). He enlisted in the US Navy in 1944 and served 8 years with duty at The Great Lakes, Newport, Rhode Island, and at sea on the USS Bremerton and USS Piedmont (a Destroyer) as a Motor Machinist Mate 3rd Class and in charge of the diesel repair. In 1954 he enlisted in the US Army and was assigned to Fort Leonard Wood as a Corporal and worked in the Motor Pool there until receiving orders for duty with the 9488th at Sinop, Turkey in May 1955. The unit later was given the 23rd Detached Unit designation. He arrived in Ankara and after a few days was directed to to take a taxi for the 166 mile trip to Samsum. Al stayed at Samsun for about 5 days before the 104 mile trip to Sinop in the front seat of a 2 1/2 ton. At Samsun the sleeping quarters were in a big dormatory type house with about 4-6 other GI's and slept on folding cots. Al had been briefed about the billeting situation at Sinop and upon his arrival was assigned to one of the houses that had been rented for the living quarters for the dozen or so men that were there. Al's house had a small kitchen, a bomb sight room and two bedrooms on the first floor on the outskirts of Sinop. The bomb sight room consisted of a shower that hung over the 'bomb sight' and they had to watch where they stepped!! The landlady's name was Fatma (sp?) who had a attractive daughter that caused the GI's to think wild thought's, but they knew not to get involved! His roommate was a GI named Glickstein (sp?). He's forgotten the names of the other two GI's who were housed in that house, but thinks that they were operators who always kept their room padlocked. Glickstein was notorious for doing all the wrong things.
Once he let a jeep get away on the 'hill' and it tumbled to the bottom and was useless thereafter.

Not too long after Al Cantrell's arrival the Sinop Palas Hotel was rented to billet those assigned to Det 4 and he was one of the dozen or so GI's that were moved into it. His room was on the second floor and faced the Black Sea. There were no barracks or facilities on the hill. Nothing, but one sheet metal lean-to shack that was used by the operators. Cpl Cantrell replaced a GI named Antonovich (sp?) as the vehicle and diesel mechanic for Det 4. Shortly after Cantrell's arrival he and two others erected a 20 X 40 lean-to shack not far from the operator shack on the 'hill'. This shack was erected to house two 2 1/2 ton trucks and had two stalls for the generators. The vehicles assigned to Det 4 were two 2 1/2's, a Dodge weapons carrier and two jeeps. The vehicles, for the most part, were kept and maintained in the parking lot of the Sinop post office. There was no vehicle or diesel maintenance records when he got there and none when he rotated to Fort Jackson, SC. Al's paperwork on the vehicles consisted of tablet records that often got lost. Everyone was required to do the first echelon maintainence after each use. Al remembers the Sinop physician, Dr. Nejat, quite well. While repairing a diesel fuel pump on the 'hill' that was out of time - it exploded and sprayed acid on Cantrell's face. He was taken to the Sinop hospital where Dr. Nejat treated him for about two weeks. . One of the most remembered happenings that he recalls is the time that Wallace Lonsway and Ali Bas, the hotel cook, were out in a truck (icky pachuk) getting supplies, etc. They encountered a mudslide and the truck got buried up to the windows of the cab. Ali Bas went for help and returned with 'hired' offendums to dig the truck out. It was a useless maneuver. Ali then went for and returned with some 35 additional Turks and 6 water buffalo's, each with wooden yokes and harness. About 10 hours had passed when Al Cantrell arrived with another 2 1/2 ton, but the situation required the water Buffalo's to do the pulling. While the Turks were busy digging the mud away from the stuck truck - they noticed that Ali Bas had a live and squaking chicken that he had stolen or borrowed during the last of his two ventures to find help.. While the Turks were hooking up for the pull - Ali Bas built a fire, boiled water and then boiled the chicken for a meal. Without too much difficulty the horned water buffalo's pulled the truck out of the mudslide. The truck started, but wouldn't move after being pulled out. Al had to climb underneath and clean out the mud and gravel that had gotten into the clutch area. More later!

MAIL CALL

BERLIN, Franz, DOB: 1939, RA17534092, E5, 98J, Det 4, 4-1 & 4-4, 62, (Peg), 300 Arundel Beach Rd., Saverna Park, MD 21146, 410-544-4833, warbi@mailstation.com Howdy!! I spent some time in Turkey in 1962. I have made room reservation for the 2003 reunion. Please add me to the attending list. C U Franz (;~)

BRAMAN, Brian, DOB 1946, RA16849252, E3-E5, 05K, Det 4, NO66-DE67, (Peggy), 317 Tilden Commons Ln., Braintree, MA 02184, 781-356-4925, bbraman@beld.net (cable). Was able to contact Brian Braman with the help of Dick Schoeninger. Brian flew into Ankara via PAN AM and then spent about 10 hours on a stinky Turkish bus for the ride to Sinop. Brian was a member of the Det 4 Post 66-67 Basketball team that participated in a month long MSC tournaments at Samsun, Incirlik, Athens and Bad Aibling and provided him the opportunity to see Europe without too much expense. The tour at Sinop was a great experience that he fondly remembers. Some of the friends that he remembers are:

Dick Schoeninger, Charlie Tucker, 058 from NY; Biff Ohara, Dick Durban, Paul Browning, Red Bowden and Buck Sgt Hudson. After Sinop was sent to Okinawa for the rest of his enlistment. Went to and graduated with a business degree from Central Michigan University. Worked in Sales and later received a PhD in philosophy and has been a Professor at Boston College University since 1989.

CODINHA, Paul P., E3, 722, Det 4, 58-59, 70 Friend St., Gloucester MA 01930, 978-283-8886, ppcodinha@aol.com " First Elements into Bangkok--5th RRU"

By Paul P. Codinha

(Extracted from Codinha's entry on Bill Simons website)

I was in the first group of men sent into Bangkok with the 5th RRU (Provisional) in September 1959. To me, it all happened by accident. My tour of duty was from July 1957 to July 1960. Having just come back from Tuslog Det. 4, Sinop, Turkey, I was assigned to Camp Walters, Mineral Wells, Texas about 75 miles west of Ft. Worth/Dallas. I was assigned to the 316th USASA Bn.

My MOS was that of a cryptographer, and I thought I was going to stay at Camp Walters, Texas until my enlistment was up. After all, they can’t send you overseas twice during a three-year tour. Want to bet? They sent me to Bangkok on TDY, and that’s how they got around it.

37 men were transferred from various ASA bases in the states to Two Rock Ranch Station, Petaluma, California and on to the Philippine Islands under Special Orders dated September 15, 1959. From this group, a handful went on to Bangkok. Included in this group were the following men:

MSgt Vernon S. McGee; SFC John W. Robinson; SFC William L. Batchelor; SFC Edward H. Jackson; Sgt William H. Arrington; Sgt James F. Keenann; SP4 Kenneth W. Canton; SP4 Walter H. ("Mike") Tipert; SP4 Samuel J. Parker; and myself, PFC Paul P. Codinha. We were the ones who went over to Bangkok from the PI during the first wave. As I recall, we went over in about two groups, one group arriving about a day or so before the other. We were met in Bangkok by U. S. Ambassador U. Alex Johnson, who came to our house to greet us. The people were very gracious to us, and you could walk down the streets of Bangkok without worry-ing. Major Ladd from Hawaii was the OIC. We traveled to work by VW buses with Thai drivers while the compound was being built. We really had an enjoyable stay there, even though we worked out of two-and-one-half ton trucks. The EM were housed together; the NCOs were lodged in another house; and the OIC had his own house. We wore civilian clothes and received per diem in addition to our regular pay. We had special Thai badges in addition to our own, which provided diplomatic immunity. All in all, it was a wonderful tour of duty that I will always remember. I would be interested in hearing from any of the fellows who may have served with me at the 5th RRU in Bangkok.

GLUBKA, Roger A (Butch) DOB: 19MY44 E1-E3-E1 72B Det 27, FE64-JL65, (CW3 Michelle), PSC 303, BX 25 APO AP 96204-0025 (Korea), glubkar@kornet.net MSG Eberly (ret), Received the patch today. I'll see the vendor tomorrow night and will get back to Elder. I don't know why this one looks different then the attachment he sent me? I'll get it back to you as soon as possible. Thanks again! Roger Glubka SFC (ret), 72B (tape ape) comm center 2/64-7/65, Det. 27

GROLEMUND, Larry, DOB: 6SE42, RA12664615, E3-E4, 059, Det 4, 63-64, PO Box 7306, Wesley Chapel, FL 33544, 813 293-9543, lag7100@hotmail.com. Elder: Here is my current info. I was in Sinop in 63-64 and then went to Co. B 320th USASA BN. in Bad Aibling, Germany. I will send more info later. Best to you and I really like what you have done with DOOL.

MAU, Norman R E2-E4 Det 27, JA65-JN66, (Theresa), 11225 Broad Green Dr., Potomac, MD.20854, 301-983-8469, maun@hotmail.com & maun@yahoo.com ER, I will add Andy Pate to the list of distribution. I was thinking of our conversation last Friday regarding the golf outing. When you visit Seven Springs please ask the golf how he would would want the golf outing to be handled. Whether he wants someone to present him with a list of golfers, or can he set out some tee times and the members can call or contact the pro to reserve the tee time themselves. The later would be preferable from my point of view. The golf pro does Tee times administration every day of the year so it should be easy for him. Regards,

MIDTAUNE, Ted B E4 058 Det 27, 24OC62-64, (Merry), 3859 Santa Clara Way, Livermore, CA 94550, 925-443-325?, tbmidtaunce@earthlink.net. Hey, Green Hornet. Just a short note to let you know that I have a new e-mail address. This retirement is great! Highly recommended! Will be talking to you.

PATE, Andy DOB: 1944, RA19790128, E3-E5, 982, Det 27, SE64-NO67, 10224 Parkwood Dr., #6, Cupertino, CA 95014, 408-667-1259, wthesiger@yahoo.com. Elder; Thanks for the contact and I really enjoy reading the DOOL web site. I was stationed at Det 27 from Sept 64 to Nov 67. I have been told that that is longer than any other GI served at Manzarali at that time. I beat Gary Stolp by one month, as far as I know. How that came about is a tribute to the ASA. Twice, my orders were "lost" by the Personnel Section at Det 27, once for helicopter pilot school and once for Vietnam. I was so angry, I threatened to complain to the I.G. They said that if I liked, I could stay in Turkey for the full term of my 4 year enlistment and just drop the matter. So it happened. I made some really good friends in Turkey, especially Turkish friends. We remain in close contact till this day. Because of these friends, my years in Turkey were some of the most pleasant in my life. About 3 months into my assigment to Det 27, I decided the tour was really going to drag if I did not get out and explore Turkey. I started by buying a season pass to the state symphony. For $3.50 I sat right behind the Turkish President and one of the original founders of the Turkish Republic, Ismet Inonu. I quickly made friends with some Turkish University students from the U. of Ankara political science faculty. that became my key to deeply entering Turkish culture and society. I also met a really nice Turkish girl whom I dated for two years and whose family was very nice to me. She is a doctor in Albany, NY the last I knew. I enjoyed my work and friends at Manzarali Station, but the great experiences I had off post were really the most important to me. All of that and the army paid me. What a deal. I recently enjoyed talking to Hank Tolbert, one of my favorite people. We reminisced about some of the crazy things we did jerking some Russians' chains in Ankara. Nothing serious, would have only gotten us a couple of years in the slammer. By the way, Manzarali literally translates to "the views" from Turkish. It is the plural of the word manzara...view. I will certainly get Andy Anderson's information for you as soon as I can. He owns a really successful plumbing business in Palo Alto, California. After my ASA tur I attended and graduated from the University of California at Sanoma and then joined the Lockheed Aerospace Security Force and retired as Lieutenant with 30 years on the job. All the best, Andy Pate.

SCHOENINGER, Richard E., (Dick), DOB 1944, RA13873725, E3-E5, 058, Det 4, MY66-AP67, (Danielle), 313 Swedesford Rd., Malvern, PA 19355, 610-640-0976. dschoeninger@msn.com - Hi Elder: It was nice to speak to you the other night. As you requested, the following is my account of my time in the ASA, specifically in Sinop, Turkey. I was smarter than my contemporaries were. I found a way to beat the draft. I enlisted in the ASA. I was so smart; in fact, that I served four years instead of those other dimwits whom neither went in the service or were out in 2. Ah, the impetuousness of youth. I enlisted in Philadelphia, PA on August 6, 1965. I took the "I state your name" oath at 401 N. Broad Street in the company of 300 other idiots on their way to Fun Travel and Adventure. I took a bus to Ft. Dix. I remember seeing a sign that stated "Welcome to the United State Army". I thought that was pretty nice, until I realized that was for PR purpose only. During the 8 plus a zero week I spent there I learned the meaning of an Army welcome. I enlisted to become an 058. It seemed that the Army had identified that I had a hidden talent for dits and daahs. To my amazement, I really did! In my class at Ft. Devens, I was accelerated twice and was given several 3 day passes for being AOG. Big deal, I didn’t have any place to go or any money even if I did. When I went in the service, I was paid $78/month as an E-1. I believe those wages were just slightly higher than in the Civil War. As dit training concluded 6 months later, and can still remember the day they announced where everyone was going to be assigned. 80% of the guys were sent to Nam. When the sergeant said, "Schoeninger-Sinop, Turkey". What the ??? Where’s that? One trainer told me that it was so remote they are still trying to invent the wheel. But the real hardship is …....No women. 11 months and 10 days. I guess you could say it was good news and bad news.....I took the Pan Am flight from New York not realizing that bathing in jet fumes was considered a good thing. (Jet fumes were a precursor to flying home). I arrived in Turkey some 18 hours and a few new hemorrhoids later. The sights that amazed me upon my arrival, in a new culture, were of soldiers with weapons in the airport and with men holding hands on the street. The cars were old and the taxi drivers drove like maniacs. I can still imagine the smell of cigarette smoke from the Turkish tobacco and the rank smell of the streets. All of the Turks had dark hair and mustaches. I clean- and with blond hair, stood out like a sore digit. The Turks seemed really intense and stared at you like they did not appreciate the U.S. Army being there. Imagine that!.......After a couple of days in Ankara I took the THY (Fly and Die with THY) flight to Samsun and the bouncy deuce and a half ride into Sinop. I now have greater patience for my kids when they ask "are we there yet?". I started my short-timers calendar that day......I planned my quest to get off the rock the day I got there. I wanted to see as much of Europe and anywhere else that I could. I tried to get on the tennis team, which had a TDY match in Ankara, but I was still to yenni. I quickly discovered the NCO club and spent my 21^st birthday there getting getting hammered on rum and coke (a drink that now disgusts me) and listening to the Mama’s and Papa’s (Monday/Monday). The NCO club was definitely the vortex of off duty activity. …Cheap drinks, slot machines, music, camaraderie-what more could you ask for? Women you say? No way!! We did have irregular visits from some belly dancers that, due to their corpulence, could not do the dance of the 7 veils unless they had at least 20 extras to hide their mass. The really nice part about being ASA and in Turkey is that we didn’t ever have KP (unless the Turks went on strike), we had shoe shine boys, rare inspections, no PT, and our house boy (now know as house person I suppose) did the clean up. I shared a barracks room with Lloyd Trivett, who was from somewhere in the South and introduced me to country music and one other guy named Art. Art was really into the Turks, so I called him Art-a-turk............I loved playing basketball and was on a team called the Alkies. No explanation needed why. We were undefeated in the intramural season and received trophies to prove it. Some of the team members were, Brian Braman, Denny Naughton, Bob O’Hara, Ed Twadell,and Jim Hudson. We also formed a post basketball team that took an infamous 30-day all expense paid trip to Samsun, Athens, Greece and to Bad Aibling, Germany.......We lost every game we played - kind of a good thing because it freed us up to see the sights. That whole trip is a story in itself. I would love to hear from anyone who was on those teams. I also traveled for a week to Athens as R&R with Jim Swinehart. It was a super experience. I was very lucky. I made E-5 in 18 months and made the most of my circumstances. For those of you 05H20's who are nostalgic for some dits, I found a web site that will download Morse software. Even after 30 years of not taking code, I was still able to do about 22 wpm. Do a search on Morse code and you will find the site eventually. My daughter got a Turkish puzzle ring for Christmas (not from me). Does that bring back memories? I spent many hours during mid shifts taking these rings apart and putting them back together.

Here are a few remembrances of my days at Sinop:

1. The landscape was most picturesque and everyone looked forward to seeing the plane fly over as we then looked forward to the MAIL CALL - looking in your box and seeing a letter was an upper.

2. Mid flicks and really weak movies-(Frank Avalon and Annette)

3. Turkish puzzle rings.

4. Sail boat and beer trips on the Black Sea.

5. Unbelievable vistas of the Sinop Isthmus.

6. Turkish cigarettes. I never got used to the smell

7. Sinop City –The Yenni hotel, turkish music, old structures and ancient customs.

8. Great Friends

9. The gym was a great way to spend time.

10. Counting the days and coming up with answers to the question; How short are you? So short that I ____.No women ..did I say that?

Elder, thanks for effort you have made to bring back the memories of our time in Turkey. I really enjoy your newsletter.

SIMONS, Bill, E3-E4 058 DE59-DE60, (Patricia Anne), 155 Newbolds Corner Rd., Southampton, NJ 08088, billsimons@yahoo.com. - Joe Howard, Det 4, 62-63 (jhoward@bluenet.net) has a special small film scanner that scans color 35mm slides (Mounted only) or color 35mm negatives (In strips,do not cut apart) and has offered to scan them onto a CD-R or CD-W for anyone who is interested. For those interested - send email to "billsimons@tuslogdet4.com" and he'll provide additional details and Joe's home address and phone number.

STALLINGS, Connie L American Embassy - FRIEND OF MANY FROM DET 27, 349 E 50th St., NYC., 212-752-9047, cstallings@worldpress.org. Hi Elder, Making my way through the old DOOLs, I noticed somebody wanted to know Dr. Derby's first name. In case nobody has supplied it, it was Jim, and his wife's, Sue. Thoroughly nice people. I went to Goreme with them, Della and Jerry Gibbs and daughter, and Nancy and B (Wallace B.) Millner. Post-Ankara, for a while I was in touch with the Millners. They were living in Richmond, Virginia and had two boys. One thing I'll always remember about the Millners' was that, disliking the presence in their Ankara apartment of a bidet in the bathroom, they had filled it with topsoil and planted ivy in it. I was glad to see that Joyce Wilkinson Colvard got in touch with you.
I send my best wishes, Connie Stallings

TEAKERT, Terrance D., (Terry), PFC-CPL, 058, Det 4, AP56-57, (Janet), 804 S. Franklin St., Bunker Hill, IL 62014, 618-585-3063, janett@lcls.org. On Wednesday, April 30, you sent me a report of many of the individuals who served in Turkey during the early days of the U.S. base. Since my husband was there in early fifties, I printed your report and gave it to him (which he enjoyed). Did you receive an email message from me indicating that we would like to receive more updates? Sometimes we have problem with our email here at school; therefore, it's difficult for me to know when the message is actually sent. Thus far, we haven't received any more reports from you. Please put me on your list if you plan to continue to send out your messages. School ends June 5, so I won't be able to receive any more reports after June 3 or 4. We then pack up and go to WY where Terry works at a camp-ground for the summer. I'll be in touch next fall.Thank you, Janet Teakert

TOLBERT, Henry H., (Hank), E6, 98CRU, Det 27 & 4-4, MR65-JL68, (Juanita), 4555 Ashmore Cir NE, Marietta, GA 30066, 770-926-1565, tolbert9@aol.com. Hello, Elder. I got the surprise of my life a few weeks ago as I received a call from ol' Manzarali Istasyonu compatriot Andy Pate. Andy is a retiree from Lockheed Aerospace Security living in the Silicon Valley area of California. It was a treat to relive some of our exploits at Site 23, including some things we would rather forget. Andy's e-mail is wthesiger@yahoo.com [W. Thesiger is one of his favorite authors!] and his phone number is 408-667-1259.

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