ASAE > Sinop DF Point Site > History & Memories

Ron Knief's TDY trip to Sinop

   I was assigned to a DF team, which was tasked with keeping all the DF sites in Europe in tune. That included the R-390 receivers and all the ancillary equipment that went into a DF site.

   In October of 1959 I was sent to Sinop Turkey to Det 4 for a 30 day TDY for a once a year tune up of the site there. I was stationed in Frankfurt with HQ USASAE at a depot in the park just below the I.G. Farben building. Sinop is located in the center of Turkey right on the Black Sea approximately 100-150 miles south of the Crimean Peninsula in Russia, now the Ukraine.

   The DF team consisted of myself Edwin Lamb (team leader), Donald Tuinstra and Ron Brown. We flew Pan American first class on a DC-7 from Frankfurt to Istanbul via Vienna.

   We flew in the rear of the plane which was the first class section in those days on prop planes (DC-7). The "cuisine" was by Maxim's Restaurant of Paris and we had our choice of three different entrees and numerous excellent wines. We ate so damned much I had lifted the back of the team leader's jacket to loosen his shoulder holster (we were in civvies). Well, a stewardess saw the weapon and reported it to the Captain. He came back and asked why we were armed. We showed him a copy of our orders which were issued by NATO/U.S. Army and were printed in both English and French. It authorized us to carry arms as we were carrying classified material. The Captain just shrugged and thanked us. The Stews were impressed and waited on us hand and foot for the rest of the trip much to our delight
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   Behind every other pillar in the Arrival Hall it seemed there was a guy with a handlebar moustache and a rain coat peeking around the pillar casing the arrivals. We were buzzed enough that we would wave and yell "Mar habba abi!" (I never did know how to spell it) and the guy would duck back behind the pillar for a minute or so and then slowly start to peek around it again, it was hilarious!

   We stayed at the Sahra (sp?) hotel in Ankara which meant Sahara and the place crawled with cockroaches. These cockroaches were voracious I remember and they bit! We woke up with bites that I was pretty sure came from them. It is, of course, possible that they weren't cockroaches but they sure as hell looked like them. They crawled all over the toilet and it took a vigorous banging of the lid and seat to clear the area for a sit down.

   I went to an indoor bazaar in Ankara to buy the obligatory Turkish Wedding ring (I think they were called). I wandered into a jewelry store to buy some of them. I asked the owner if he spoke English. He responded by hurrying out of the store and began rushing around the bazaar yelling in a loud voice. I thought "I'm not sticking around here!" I figured he was going to accuse me of doing something. I walked rapidly out of the store to the other side of the bazaar and tried to look nonchalant. A very well dressed Turk in a tailored business suit walked up to me and asked if I had been in the jewelry store. I figured what the hell no sense denying it as I was the only foreigner in the bazaar. He told me that the owner was shouting for anyone who knew English to translate for him. We went back to the bazaar and the guy translated for me and I ended up buying several rings which I still have (I've never had any unfaithful wives [or any wives at all for that matter]). I asked the guy if I could buy him a cup of coffee or tea and he accepted. Turned out he was a Captain in the Turkish Air Force - flew spotter aircraft for the Artillery. He had got his wings at Fort Rucker Alabama and loved America and all the women he had met there. He looked like an Italian movie star so I imagine he had plenty. I spent a good afternoon wandering around Ankara and sitting in an outdoor cafe. That night I invited him to the EM/NCO Club in Ankara and when I went to sign him in I was told in a quiet voice that they didn't want Turks in there. I got a bit upset and insisted. We finally sat down and spent a bit of time in there and then left.

   I think he was impressed that I had done that for him and gave me the personal home telephone number of the Turkish Secret Police head in Istanbul if I ever got in any trouble while I was in Turkey. I still have it just in case any Turks come looking for me.

   We went to a theater in down town Ankara one afternoon to see the belly dancers. We sat in the balcony as it was more expensive and you stayed out of the "arena" that was the ground floor. The chairs were screwed to a wooden strip which in turn was screwed to the floor. Some Turks alongside of us decided that they weren't close enough as the railing was obscuring their view, so they pulled the chairs up out of the floor and dragged them closer to the rail. We needed no prompting to do the same. There was a real rabble down there and when the dancer got to really gyrating to the wailing music they would start getting a bit wild. A dancer stood on two chairs and bent over backward to pick up a handkerchief sticking out of a water glass standing on the floor between the chairs. This sent the rabble into such a dither that they started to fight. This brought the gendarmes (or whatever they were called) into the building and they literally ran on top of the people hitting them on the head with clubs as they were so packed together there was no aisles or spaces between the seats. We decided discretion was the better part of valor and hastily departed by the back stairs before they decided they might as well beat on American heads than Turkish ones!

   It took us several days to get out of Ankara as weather was a problem in the Sinop area. We finally got out of the Ankara airport after several days and flew in two L-20s which were a very powerful 5 place plane with a radial engine. They practically jumped off the ground with the light load we had. The pilots were a major in our plane and a young second louie in the other. The 2nd lt. flew all over the place like a kid on the way to the Black Sea whereas our pilot scanned the sky constantly and looked bored.

   I remember we were hauled up to the site in an ambulance which, I was told, with its all wheel drive was one of the better vehicles for navigating the mud at the field and up to the hill, even better than a deuce and a half. We were quartered in Janeway huts which looked a bit like Conestoga wagons with the semicircular ribs and canvas stretched over them. They were on a concrete base and had four single bunks around a single pot bellied stove with four naked bulbs, one over each bunk. They were rather cozy, I thought. At the time I always slept on my stomach until I discovered the cloud of white powder that arose when the mattress was slapped. It was saturated with DDT. I was told the officers quarters were alive with bed bugs purportedly brought back from Ankara on their trips. The enlisted men were not afforded the luxury of either the trips or the privilege of bringing back the bed bugs. There was some bitterness at this perceived inequity. I slept on my back after that. Diarrhea was pervasive and nearly everyone had it. We didn't come down with it until just before our return to Frankfurt after 30 days there. I recall guys walking along the board sidewalks on their way to the OPS and suddenly breaking into a desperate run only to stop and walk disgustedly back to the barracks to change their clothes and shower. I was told it was the only excuse that was tolerated when you were late - that you had shit in your pants. From what I heard the Army sent a team of medicos out from Walter Reed Hospital in DC with the intention of finding the source of the diarrhea and they couldn't find the cause. At that time at least, Det 4 grew its own vegetables and the water was carefully controlled to prevent infections from that source but it appears to have been all for naught. We were always out at the DF site which was at the far end of the old volcano that formed the hill as that was where the site would have an uninterrupted (by interference from the OPS bldg.) "electronic" view to the East and north.

   One of the first nights I was there I went into the EM club and was very surprised at how nice it was. In very short order a fight started and punches were being thrown, chairs swung and a hellacious fight was going on. I watched out to make sure that I didn't get involved of course. Then something really caught my attention. I was the only one watching the fight! Everyone else was staring at the back of the bar with bored expressions or were continuing their conversations as if nothing had happened. It was a nearly nightly event. Rumor had it that they found a dead Russian frog man who they think alighted from a sub to reconnoiter the base. He was found dead with a slit throat. It was assumed that thought the villagers had got him.

   My impression of the Turks was that they hated everyone, but hated Americans less than other people. I was also told that the year before the Russians would send MIGs in a "strafing" runs with their gun cameras running to take pictures of the antennas to ascertain the direction they were pointed in and from the size and shape of the antennas determine the frequency and purpose of them. Then they figured the State Department got to the Turks and there were daily (for awhile) Turk F-86s performing gunnery practice high over the base. Not sure if this story was apocryphal or not. The Turks were the guards at the gates to the site. They were usually armed with what I figured were old Lee-Enfield bolt actions that stood slightly taller than the guards. Their uniforms looked like they were made out of felt.

   The movie theater consisted of 2 dozen or so seats and a white sheet for the screen. It was free and as such had to have a recruiting trailer shown before every film. Everyone brought a six pack in from the nearby EM Club. As the recruiting film was being shown someone would say "hate" then two people would say "hate." Then 3, then 4 and pretty soon the entire theater would be chanting "hate hate hate". Empty beer cans would be thrown at the screen (sheet) which would flap and allow the can to sail on through. It was pretty funny. As soon as the recruiting film was over there would be the pop and hiss of opening cans and everyone would settle down and enjoy the main feature.

   There was a boat with a troupe of entertainers that originated in Istanbul and made stops along the Black Sea at all the major towns to give performances, one of its stops being Sinop. The entertainment consisted mainly of belly dancers accompanied by the obligatory wailing group of musicians. Well we decided we had to see it and after getting pretty well lubricated at the EM Club we set out that night for the large tent where the entertainment was held. They had portable generators to provide the light in the tent but outside there were large flaming torches set here and there. The latrine was a very large pit dug into the ground perhaps 10-12 feet across. Well we had to make numerous stops as the beer was going through us about that time. As we teetered on the edge of the pit relieving ourselves, Ed Lamb stood on the edge of that pit with God knows what all was in the bottom of it and started to lose his balance. He was flailing his arms wildly trying to avoid falling into it. He was silhouetted against some of the flaming torches and the sight of him windmilling his arms and rocking back and forth was too much for me, I was so broken up with laughter I couldn't do a thing to help him and just doubled up with laughter. He didn't fall in which was no doubt a blessing as he would have had to travel back to the base with us regardless of his condition.

   We got down to town several times a week and always ended up at just about the only place there was to drink. The beer was in brown bottles, no label and didn't have any carbonation in it. It costs the equivalent of 10 cents. It was pretty good considering, but then what GI wouldn't drink anything that had alcohol if it was the only beverage available. One night we decided we wanted champagne!! The owner was delighted and ran across the street to the liquor store, returning and flourishing the bottle around for all to see, holding it high. I guess he wanted to show the rest of the rabble what sophisticated customers he had. A bottle cost about a quarter and to use that trite old phrase "you get what you pay for." this restaurant was about the only place for the resident NATO liaison people that were there at the time. I never met them but there was an Englishman, and Italian and a German who were attached to the site. Under terms of the Status of Forces Agreement they weren't allowed to use the site mess and ate at this restaurant. There was usually a carcass hanging on the wall from some animal either sheep goat or the occasional cow. It was shimmering with blue flies. One of the guys from the site that had the nickname "The Animal" claimed that the NATO guys would just point at the carcass when they were ordering then turn their heads away as a slab was hacked off and thrown into a greasy frying pan to cook. The site mess had an Italian cook and Turk KPs. The food was excellent I thought, especially the spaghetti made according to the recipe of Northern Italy where he was from. What was so "offputting" was the Turks scratching their groins with one hand and ladling the food with the other, then occasionally switching hands. They itched because they shaved their groins.

   There was a guy who hung a bra over his bunk and put his cigarettes/matches in one cup and an ash tray in the other. He laid in his bunk smoking and stared at it for hours. The Russians had installed a 100,000 watt beacon across the Black Sea on the Crimean Peninsula in hopes of luring our L-20s across the pond in inclement weather. Our beacon was 1,000 watts. I talked to guys that had arrived in foggy weather and had the planes go out over the Black Sea and then slowly come down to the surface to get under the fog and then fly in toward the beach. One guy claimed the wheels occasionally hit the waves. One day an American cruiser appeared off the site and made radio contact with the commander of the base before turning and making a courtesy call in Sevastopol in the Crimea, Russia. It was the first call at a Russian port by the US Navy since the second world war. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me.

   The DF site was on a promontory a mile or less away from the main station and overlooked the Black Sea from a height of around 900 feet. This was primarily to prevent interference from the radiation around the main site from various transmitters and other equipment. A vehicle was always used for transport from the site to the post. If memory serves me correctly there were only two men on a shift. A "target transmitter" was used to calibrate the DF equipment. It was only 1 or 2 watts in strength and would be located at exactly 360° and the other cardinal points of the compass to ensure the directions reported by the site were accurate. One of the local maintenance men said that they once took a target transmitter and made a "ground plane" for it to get the best ground they could and then touched the antenna with their fingers to send Morse code out. The whole thing was prearranged with some friends on duty back in Frankfurt and they picked up the very faint signals from this little transmitter.

   I remember that I told some of the young guys that were stationed there (I was an old 23) that the Greeks occupied the hill several thousand years before and the hill was honey combed with defensive tunnels built by the Greeks. I'm not sure where I got the information from. I discovered an iron rod sticking out of the ground and got everyone's interest up as to what it might be attached to. You could rattle it around from whatever it was attached to. One guy went back to the motor pool and got an "iki bechuk" (a 2½ ton truck or to use the parlance of the time a deuce and a half) with a winch on the front. He came back with it and I remember the entire front end of the truck bounced up and down as he gunned the motor and finally broke the cable without budging the rod. He wrapped the winch up carefully in the tarp that it came with, effectively hiding the broken winch and took it back to the motor pool. Thank God we never had a war and had to depend on some of that equipment!

   We had to go to the air "field" (and it really was a muddy field) several times before the plane actually arrived as the weather had been bad in Ankara and the teletype line was down as it frequently was. When we finally got off the ground on the way home, we had to dodge hawks with a couple of wild maneuvers as we climbed. The mud was so heavy on the landing field that the pilot locked the brakes and revved the engine to bring the power up before releasing the brakes. Most of the air was let out of the tires to enable them to roll over the mud a bit better. We nearly leaped off the ground when the brakes were released. It was a pretty powerful plane this time I got in the second louie's plane and had a great ride on the way back. When he saw me taking a picture of the second plane, he asked if I wanted a better view. We then dove down and under the other plane coming up on the other side of it. It was a bit thrilling to say the least. I imagine they got pretty bored flying that route over and over. Twenty four hours after leaving Sinop the diarrhea went away.