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Stan (Chet) Hood sends this photo along, but doesn't know who these characters are from 1960-61. Let's have some names! See Chet's stories, and more photos, over at the stories page. They're new.

Nothing better than a new photo of Goulan. This one's from Rodrigo Benavides, who ran the gym in 1967-68. Thanks!
Ain't he cute!

I got some new photos from Bob Cathers, who was one of the early folks assigned to Samsun. He was there from December, 1957 to December, 1958, when he was transferred to Germany. He doesn't have any photos of the base at the time, but some good ones of Samsun, where everyone lived on the economy until the barracks were built.

Here's the train coming into Samsun, down by the Black Sea. This road has been much improved
since then.

I heard from John Furgiuele in an email today. The guy in the carriage is Chuck Salter, a
203 from the early days. Apparently, he didn't listen to the advice not to drink the water
in Samsun, and got a trip to the hospital with jaundice.

Here's a likely looking group of guys from the period. The man in the center is SSGT Kenny
Hovis, and the man to his left is Joe Caron. From Bill Dover, I got more names. Left to right,
#2 Bill Driskill, Kenny Hovis, Joe Caron, and Bill Dover on the right. Thanks, Bill! Hovis went to OCS
and retired as a major. Bill Driskill worked for Bell Helicoper, and passed away last year.

This smiling A2C is Frank Wilson, Bob thinks, a roommate in the off base housing.

And here's Bob Cathers himself, with the house dog Ruff. Didn't everyone look young
back then? Of course, I haven't aged a bit...

Not to leave anything out, but everyone remembers these fine sanitary appliances, right?

I just heard from Bob Heenan, 1967-68. He was a C Trick guy, and has two photos of C Trick, the first taken in October, 1967, and the second taken in June, 1968. Lots of names here, so see if you recognize anyone:

Left to Right -- Front row, Weaver, Casey, Mathena, Lomuscio, unk, Tom Branson, Saboski, Wilbur Conder, unk, Johnson

Second Row -- Sands, Williams, Enatsky, Starzyk, unk, Seay, Bob Heenan, unk, Dennis Hall, Hein, Kadlec

Third Row -- Leaumant, Cox, Petroff, Duane Kimbrow, Pflaum, Focht, McNelly, Porada, Nather, Patton, Berry, Kelly

Fourth Row -- Wright, Howarth, Bridgens, IM, Brandel, Jaohnson, Smith, Wolf, Gensel, Geibel

Second Row --- Matthew, Mathena, unk, Bob Heenan, Duane Kimbrow, unk, unk, unk, Enatsky, unk

Bruce Chamberlain wrote to me and sent along a story and some photos. Here they are. If you knew Bruce, and would like to get in touch, just email me, and I'll forward your message to him:

Hi! My name is Bruce Chamberlain and I was stationed in Samsun from 1962-63. I worked up the hill on the GLR-1 system, I think, Baker trick. I played on the base Basketball team and traveled to Sinop once. I also remember the Cuban crisis and the Kennedy assassination. I think I still have a shot of the flag at half staff. I also recall the three escape routes out of the country and the M -1's we were issued. Frankly, we had no shot at getting out of there!

I also remember the night one of the guys got drunk and was towed by the truck as his foot got stuck. I volunteered to hold him for a spinal tap by a Turkish Doctor. He was squirming while the needle was in and I was afraid he would really cause more damage! I played so much pinochle while there that I never really played cards again.

I do see Ken Schmohe sometime as he is living in Boulder ,Co. He has much more info than I do on others that were there at that time. There are many memories I have of that time and I think of some of the guys who I never saw again. I would like to hear from any of them. You can give them my address if they ask. I did go to Athens on leave and my buddy and I ran out of money, mostly to hookers. Luckily we ran into one of our guys returning from the states who was able to get money from his orders. We hopped a C130 to an air base in southern Turkey where we bought plastic gas cans filled them with kool aid and also made peanut butter sandwiches. Then we hopped a Turkish bus that thankfully got us back to Samsun on time!!!

Flags at half mast for John Fitzgerald Kennedy.
Is that a Renault and a Volkswagen?

I've recently heard from Al Schneider, who was there in 1959-60. He adds some photos from that era, and very nice ones, too. Thanks Al!

This long view really shows the way the site looked back then, with the backdrop of the
Black Sea to set it off. A real flashback for the guys who were at Sam early on.

One of the Askari perimeter guards from 59-60. These soldiers always seemed very
shy to me, although they were really happy when one of us took a photo of them. I remember
printing some photos for one of these soldiers to give to his family.

Who can forget the statue of Kemal Atatürk in the main square in downtown Samsun? His
work led to the change to Turkey being a secular nation, rather than an Islamic nation. I
bet everyone who was there has a version of this photo.

The next two photos come from Jerry Miller, Able Trick, 66-68. He's also supplied some names for other photos, which I'll add in the appropriate places. Thanks, Jerry!

Here's Jerry, standing outside the Dorm 4 sign. As I remember, that was the Able Trick dorm.

Best image yet of the lower ops camel. That sucker was mean! Here's Jerry Miller's tale:

One night my buddy and I were on burn detail. Did you ever have to do that? There was a little building right behind the ops building down the hill. You had to go out and put all the burn bags in the furnace. Well, late one night my buddy and I had the job. We had a whole bunch of burn bags sitting outside the building. The wind was blowing something fierce. So pretty soon, we look outside and the camel is eating the burn bags! So here is secret stuff blowing all over the place in the middle of the night. So we chased the camel away, recovered everything, and went back to work. We brought all the burn bags inside the furnace room. Not long afterwards, we look up and the camel is trying to get in the burn room! There was a shovel in there. I took that shovel and knocked the crap out of the camel, hit him right across the nose. Wow, what a night!

I've just gotten a bunch of new photos of Samsun and the base from Dan Tydings (Baker Trick 8/61-11/62) and John Finnegan (Equipment Maintenance 1967-68). Both have sent some great shots, and I'll start with the Dan Tydings photos, which are official USAF photos of the base. Dan has written descriptions for each of the photos, and I'm posting them as he sent them. Thanks Dan and John!

AFEES building contained the exchange, snack bar, Barber Shop (Barber was a Turk - believe named George), and Class VI store (yeah no base would be a base without a Class VI). Exchange was run by a Turk (cannot remember his name) and three Turk girls). Later in the tour, the AFEES had another area, someplace around Base Supply, where they sold juices, pop, and cases of snack food.

Air Police Ops had to have come after I left. When I was there, the Air Police Ops (if you can call it that) was in the guard shack at the entrance to the old ops area. You can still see it in some of the photos. They later, in my tour got a room inside the Hq building. When I got there the senior cop was a A1C (believe the name was Anthony Ferra [my spelling is way off]. In addition, an A2C Dom Azzoro was there along with an A3C with a last name of Skonski. We later got a MSgt Ray O McClure who arrived at Samsun from Dow AFB, Maine. If I am correct he and his family ran a speed shop (cars) there.

BEMO, Transportation, and Supply were all there when I arrived and when I departed. Only thing I remember about Transportation is that they ran the base shuttle to downtown Samsun. Ran all the way down to an area known as Area 59 (No flying saucers - just the area that a lot of civilians and GIs/w wives lived. We had one true bus and the remaining shuttles were 2 !/2s with a large box on the back which contained seats.

The dining hall. There was a company that managed the base civil functions. I believe that it was called "The Tumpane Company". Now they managed the chow hall. With the exception of milk, the place was pretty good. They had several German cooks and they supervised the Turks that worked there. The served four meals a day. Mid rats covered both the shift going on mids and getting off mids. If you were getting off mids, you had a meal, made a break for the club before it closed, grabbed a couple of beers and hit the midnight movie. I have been to a lot of places that worse. The food, for the most part was very good.

The CE Office and Fire Department. That was there during my tour. When I was initially assigned to Sam, I was waiting on my clearance. Worked at a Main Gate guard with the Turk Askers. Lost half the base power one night - was a short in an exposed power line - while I was "Protecting The Masses" I ran over to where the smoke was coming from. Turks appeared that they were going to hit it with water. Fire Chief later jumped my ass for interfering with his fireman. Base gave me an award. Go figure.

The chapel and theater. The first chapel that I can remember being built was between the Gym and the AFEES building. There were two parts to the chapel building. Front part was the chapel and the back part was the APO. The new chapel bldg and theater had to have come sometime after November 1962.

The Hq building. Has not changed since the time that I was there. It was next to the club. Small field separated them. Contained Finance, Pers, Commanders Office, First Sergeants Office, Chaplin's Office and so on. Reported in there and received our Samsun Brief down at the club. Out Commander when I got there was a LtCol Herbert Dolph (sp). He was a good commander. If you kept your nose clean and did you job, you never saw him. We were at a isolated site, he knew it and really helped make the place tolerable. Have no idea what happened to him. He left before I did and his replacement made you appreciate him more.

I heard from Commander Dolph's son in email. Here's what he had to say:

I found your TUSLOG site totally by accident when doing a casual Google search for references to my name. I noticed the kind comments about my dad in a set of Samsun photos which I believe were sent in by Dan Tydings. My father was the base commander during '61-'62. After that tour he came here to the Security Service HQ in San Antonio, where he retired in '66. Dad passed away in 1979 after a life long love affair with Camel straights. I doubt anyone could remember him without one and possibly some after hours Jim Beam. It was nice to know that he was well thought of while he was there.

Best,Herb Dolph (Jr)

Gym and the Book Store: Straight out the gym doors and across the street was the club. The gym was that, plus the theater, and stage for USO shows. We had one in the time that I was there. Had two shows a day (early evening and mids). Mids show was different in that after the feature started, those that wanted to smoke opened the lobby doors, took their chairs and sat out there. In addition, would hit the club right after mid rats and grab a couple of soft drinks or beers and once the main feature started, you moved out into the lobby and had a smoke and a drink.. The Book Store: did not have one while I was there. The Stars and Stripes was free and you found copies in the mail room, snack bar, and club.

Ground Power and Laundry: Ground power was there when I was there. It put out a stable 115 volts at 60 Hz. The laundry was not build when I was there. You did your own laundry (each barracks had a laundry in the "H" part of the barracks. In the laundry room were two to three house boys who did ironing and a house boy who shined shoes. This service was covered by "Houseboy Dues" ($3.00 per month) and they covered the houseboys in all the dorms, the Turk CE guys that did "Weeds and Seeds: and the Turks in the Chow Hall who picked up plates and washed dishes. That deal was a dream. Everybody got paid in "cash" and at the end of the month, the First Sergeant had a desk next to the pay line where he collected the "House Boy dues"

Pump Station, Chiller Plant, and PMEL: I imagine that the Pump Station was there; however, cannot say the same for the rest of the buildings. Matter of fact I do not remember if these building were are the Main Base or up the hill.

Old Ops and Ant Field: At the end of the road, you will notice a small white shack. That was the Air Police Control Point for access into the compound. After you got into the compound there was a building with two very large radomes and on large radome on the right side of the compound (facing from the Main Base). That place was FLR-3. It was maintained by GE and operated by us. Nice place to be. GE troops were pretty good and kept the place running. Also in that building was the Photo Lab. Toward the end of my tour I worked in that building. Strange thing about that building is that we used to get all sorts of tours (congressmen on fact-finding tours). They brought them to FLR-3 as we had all sorts of O-Scopes of different colors. You would have thought that you were in a space ship. If you were sitting the alert console and fell asleep, GE would come by with a capacitor and light you up. The other side of the compound was the regular ops. They later had small kitchen put in there. Chow Hall used to bring us desert (swing shift). The new guys that were assigned at the regular ops would get sent over to FLR-3 to pick up a "Bottle of 50KC tone". That adventure was kind of initiation as was looking for the key to the basement of ops.

Older Dorm: We had five of them. This was Dorm 4. Matter of fact, if I remember correctly this corner of that dorm was the Library. Dorm 5 was for NCO's and it also contained the clinic. We had two Medic's there. One of the medics name was "Scroggins". He worked as a cook at the club. I used to go hunting birds around the base. Would clean them and he would cook them. In the center of each dorm was the latrine and laundry room. As I mentioned before, each dorm had three houseboys assigned. Their job was to iron clothes for the guys. You had to wash your own clothes and they would iron them. There was a 4th houseboy that would go from dorm to dorm, shining shoes. A tailor shop was in the middle of one of the dorms. You could drop clothes off for dry cleaning. And the local AFRTS radio station was also in one of the dorms. Had my "Hours of Glory" working that. It was a very low power station as the Turkish Government did not appreciate competing with their stations. Still it reached the town on many occasions and we would get phone calls from the kids in Sam, requesting specific songs. Tequila was a very big song at the time. I wanted to crush the record. There were two men to a room.

Library and Office: This was built after I left. Do not know what office they are referring to. However, the library used to be in Dorm 5. They knocked a couple of walls down and converted 2 or 3 rooms into the library.

Motor Pool and shops. They were there when I was there. Nothing changed there. Again, I remember those crazy 2 1/2 s that they converted into busses. Necessity is the mother of invention.

New Style Dorm: Hey, would have expected a three story dorm. Again, this was something built after I left.

And here are the photos from John Finnegan (Equipment Maintenance 1967-68). Turns out that John and I met at one point. He hung out in that back room keeping all the electronics running. They had a horrible large coffee pot back in there, and I used to drop in. He also knew how to set up television reception, in case any of you remember that. Descriptions here are my words (George Campbell).

Here's another shot of the antenna domes, from a perspective most of us didn't see.

The guy on the left is John Finnegan, who provided these photos, next to Tom Claudy. 1968. Thanks, John!

At the Samsun Airport. Now, I'm not sure, but these guys look happy enough to be heading home.

The Catholic church in Samsun was popular with many folks. Father Germano Bernadini officiated there, and was an auxiliary base chaplain at TUSLOG Det. 3-2 as well.

I love having these shots from the club, since they show people. If you're in this photo, please let me know and identify yourself. I'll add your name to this caption. This shot is from September, 1968.

Well, now...this is embarrassing. I'm guessing this guy won't be telling us who he is. Boy, were we desperate!

Here are some more of the kids who hung out just outside the base fence, hoping for a treat from one of us.

Here's a typical Samsun street scene. I'm sure I was on this street at some point, but can't remember its name.

The bus...always the bus. This likely looking group is off to work, though. I don't remember going into Samsun in uniform. Why are these men smiling?

Here's a likely looking bunch outside the antenna farm. If you see yourself, let me know and I'll post names. We have names! Far left is Msgt. Alderman. News to him is Bill Goulart. John Finnegan is on the far right. Immortalize yourself....send in your name or someone else's.

Here's a shot of the NCO club in September, 1968. Again, please let me know if you're in this shot.

Another beach photo. What a happy bunch of folks, eh? Names? Well John Finnegan, our photographer is under the umbrella, holding a beer on the other guy's head.

TUSLOG Det. 3-2 Photos

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