Stories from TUSLOG DET. 3-2

Page 2

Goulon's History...Just The Facts

I had the misfortune to be stationed at Samsun twice. Actually, the first tour was voluntary; the second darned sure wasn't. I spent four years in Germany , 56-60, still couldn't make up my mind to re-up or get out, after having extended for one year in Germany . So I extended for another year and went 3-D to Sam, getting a SSgt stripe out of it, with fairly low TIG.

I got there in mid-summer of 60, and of course, Gulan (I believe that's the correct spelling, in Turkish) was one of the first things we were shown during our walk-around tour of the base.

His history, as I recall, goes like this: There was an Army Captain from Sinop, who came R&R to Samsun , went down town, and got quite drunk. He was stumbling around town and happened upon a Gypsy who had a trained dancing bear. The bear had a cub that he thought was cute as could be. The Army Captain, name of Elliot, bought the cub from the Gypsy, put it in a cab and returned to the site. He was staying in the officer's quarters and he took the cub in there. The story goes that he put the cub in the base commander's room, went to his own room and promptly passed out. The cub proceeded to get sick and mess up the CO's room very badly. The CO was not at all happy about this, and when he found out the story, told the Capt to get the Hell back to Sinop, and don't ever show up at Sam again. (Gulan's official name was Captain Elliot).

This all took place before I got there the first time, so it must have been in late 59, or very early 60. The cub had a ring through his nose, and when I got there, he was fastened by a chain with a snap hook on the end, to a telephone or light pole next to the Softball Field.

When he was still fairly small, the guys would load him on the shuttle truck, and take him down to the stretch of beach the AF rented for the troops. Gulan loved to swim in the surf, and the guys would grab a handful of fur and hold on. After a while, Gulan would get tired, and want to take a nap, so they'd snap a chain onto the ring in the shade of a small shack there on the beach. One time, one of the local Turk farmers decided to drive his Ox down across our stretch of beach to cool off in the water. When Gulan woke up and the Ox and the Bear spotted each other, they took off in opposite directions. Fortunately for the Ox, it wasn't tethered by a chain to a ring through its nose. Gulan was...... When he hit the end of the chain, he kept right on going and the ring tore out of the cartilage, between his nostrils. He kept on going, and went into the water. You can imagine how it felt to him to have salt water in that wound. It took about a dozen GIs to wrestle him onto the truck for the return trip to the base.

After that, and until the permanent cage was built for him, he had the chain around his neck. But that chafed the hair and skin so was only a temporary solution. You may recall two things about his appearance that this explains. First, the odd appearance to his nose, where the ring was torn out and, secondly, the different color hair around his neck where the chain had rubbed.

The only time in 25 years in the AF that I was thoroughly chewed out by a CO was when a guy named Jerry Mooney and I were called on the carpet for going over and feeding Gulan beer. He would have some bodacious hangovers, and would be, quite literally, as grouchy as a bear.  

Chuck Miller
MSgt, USAF (Ret)
Barksdale , TX
rancherchuck@ricc.net

Goulon Gets Revenge

Another interesting story about "Old Gu" was that he severely maimed an Askari (not sure about the proper spelling).

There was only one Turk that he could stand; that was an old geezer who would go into the cage with fresh straw, rake the old stuff out of the cinder block shelter at the back of the cage, and replace it with the fresh straw. He and Gulan got along fine, but he hated any other Turk (the smell, I think), and would get visibly agitated, when any Turk came near his cage.

I don't know if they still did when you were there, but in the Early 60's, the Askaris who guarded our antenna field, camped out in a large tent, behind the Motor Pool building, on the west side of the base. They would walk pretty close to Gulan's cage, en route to the antenna field and back. One particularly nasty one would not miss an opportunity to pester Gulan, by poking him with his rifle, or tossing a rock at him.

One time (and I witnessed this personally, much to my pleasure), Gulan more or less ignored the Turk Guard. That angered him, so he laid his rifle down and scampered up the side of the cage. Gulan tried to catch him, by climbing up after him, but the Turk would scamper out of reach. I guess Gulan finally realized he couldn't catch him, so he laid down on the cement floor and just watched the Askari. The Turk should have quit while he was ahead, but no-one ever gave them credit for too much cerebral power. He climbed up on top of the cage and was jumping up and down trying to further irritate Gulan.

Well, as luck would have it, his foot slipped, and his entire leg went down between the angle iron bars, into the cage. Gulan was up in a flash, climbed his tree, leaned out, took the Turk's foot in his mouth, and swung outwards, putting his entire weight on the Turks leg - and crotch....................

Gulan couldn't hold on, 'cause he hardly had any teeth left, as you probably recall, and he slipped off to the floor of the cage. The Turk on top the cage was screaming like crazy. He got his leg out, rolled to the edge of the cage and dropped to the ground. The rest of the Turks hauled him away, back to the tent. I don't believe that we ever saw that particular Turk again, and none of the rest of them ever bothered Gulan again.

I went over to the cage, after the Turks left, and  I swear Gulan had a smirk on his face. I gave his ears a good scratching, and he seemed as happy as any time I ever saw him.

He was quite the character.

Chuck Miller
MSgt, USAF (Ret)
Barksdale , TX
rancherchuck@ricc.net 

One Very Sick Call Story

As everyone remembers, TUSLOG Det. 3-2 didn't have a resident doctor. There was an English-speaking Turkish MD who would show up if needed, but most of the time we made do with a medic, who was available for Sick Call during the day. That worked OK most of the time, and he'd give you whatever pills you needed to get rid of the Turkey Trots or other minor ailments.

Sometimes, though, that wasn't enough. A guy on Able Trick had been feeling sick, vomiting and had a painful abdomen. He went to Sick Call, and the medic checked him out and sent him back to the barracks. This was while Able trick had mids, so none of us knew what was going on.

I had cut out early from the shift since my console wasn't up during mids, and went into the barracks. As I was walking down the hall, I heard moaning coming from one of the rooms, and it sounded bad. I went in and my fellow trick member was pale as a ghost, sweating from a high fever, and moaning uncontrollably, with his knees raised. I asked what was wrong and he said his belly felt like it was on fire.

I didn't have any medical training, but from my reading it sounded like appendicitis, at best, or a ruptured appendix with peritonitis, at worst. I ran to the barracks where the medic lived and pounded on his door until he woke up. I told him there was a really, really sick guy in my barracks and that he'd better get over there. He swore at me, but grabbed his pants and I took him to my barracks and to the sick guy.

He told the guy to come into Sick Call the next morning, after looking at him for a few seconds. I followed the medic out into the hall and gave him a royal chewing out, but the medic just cussed me out and went back to his barracks. So, what was an A1C to do? I thought for a few minutes, then went to find the First Sergeant. He was none too happy about being awakened, but listened to my story and went with me to see the guy. I told him what I thought was wrong and he allowed as how the kid was pretty damn sick.

I said that if it was a ruptured appendix, it wouldn't wait until morning or for the Turkish doc to show up. He thought for a few minutes, then agreed with me. He took off for the Officer's Quarters and roused the Base Commander, who showed up a few minutes later in the barracks.

"Where the hell's the medic?" he roared at the First Sgt., who ran to fetch him. He showed up, and the Base Commander asked him what he thought was wrong with the kid. "Just a bellyache," the medic said, but the Commander wasn't having any of it.

He called for a medical evacuation flight, which arrived a couple of hours later to take the kid to Ankara. Turned out it was a ruptured appendix and peritonitis, and the airman barely survived. He never returned to Samsun, but we found out later that the airman's father had some influence in some way, and he did not take kindly to what had happened.

We never found out exactly what happened, but a while after the incident, both the medic and the Base Commander were no longer at Samsun. I could never see that the Commander was at fault, but I guess the buck stopped at his office.

George Campbell -- Able Trick 67-68

Tales from Dog Trick 1960-61

In the Dog Trick barracks the head house abi was nicknamed "Satchel Ass" because the crotch of his pants was always down between his knees. He said he had lived in the US in a place called Pittsburgh , Chicago . We knew that some GI had fed him this line about the place. He liked our days off because of the continuous card games that went on in the day room. There was always plenty of beer and food that he and the other abis would get there share. The card games went around the clock on days off. We played poker, and double deck pinochle. Guys would play until they passed out. 

During Dog Trick work shifts, there were a few of us that wrote a daily news letter. It contained humorous stories and articles, both fact and fiction, about life at Samsun and in Turkey . We wrote columns about the adventures of the First Sgt. Name Withheld, and some of the officers and NCOs. It was harmless humor and a lot of fun.

I saw the pictures of the 60/61 softball team and Goulon that Dave Matteson sent in. I am sure that I am in one of those pictures somewhere. I played right field most of the time. We had a shortstop that was from Boston ( I don't remember his name) and had been on a Red Sox farm team. He would warm up his arm by throwing strikes to home plate from the center field fence. When we would warm up for games we would tell the opposing teams (Sinop, Trabzon ) that he was the second string player and that the first string player was used only if the games got tight. I would like to think it gave us a psychological edge. Something worked because we won a lot of games. Of course it helped to have a couple of good pitchers. Funny thing is that the older I get, the better ballplayer I remember being.

Marty Mintz, Dog Trick, 60-61

The Good, The Bad, The Extremely Ugly

One of the treats enjoyed by everyone at TUSLOG Det. 3-2 was the base theater, which was open even on the midnight shift for those of us working the rotation. As I mentioned before, I had obtained a military driver's license, so I had the fortunate duty to take any guys who didn't have active consoles during mids to the movies. Of course, I always stayed and watched them too.

One of my favorites, was "The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly," the spaghetti western starring a young Clint Eastwood. As luck would have it, they showed the film over, and over, and over again, so I guess I, along with all the other Able Trick guys, probably saw the thing at least four times. Towards the end, everyone in the theater started counting the number of people Clint killed as the movie progressed. The whole theater would yell out the current count as still another bad guy bit the proverbial dust.

Every bad movie made by Hollywood in those years found its way to the base theater, and we watched 'em all!

George Campbell -- Able Trick, 67-68

THE ROAD TO SAMSUN

This is not the script of another Hope /Crosby Rode To, movie, but the saga of how a young boy from Brooklyn got to Samsun Turkey.

My first assignment out of Basic Training in 1957, was to 97th Bomb Wing, (SAC), A&E squadron, Biggs AFB in El Paso Texas. I was trained for Communication/Navigation equipment repair on B-47s. Also got to work on B-36s. This was exciting stuff for a 17 year old airman. I got on the base baseball team and made some good friends. The officers and NCO were mostly WW2 and Korean War combat vets and were good guys. El Paso was a nice city, and Juarez was fun. The winters were mild, spring and fall warm and summers hot but ok. Life was good for me, too good.

The Air Force Gods looked down and decided that a happy airman was a crime against nature that needed to be fixed.

Next assignment was to the 42nd Bomb Wing, (SAC) A&E squadron, Loring AFB Limestone Maine. Cold spring and fall, 2 days of summer and brutally cold winters. Frequently the nearby town of Caribou Maine is reported as the coldest place in the country both, summer and winter. Worked on B52Gs. Exciting work but colder then a well diggers … Wind chill factors in winter below -40 deg. No basesball, cold and unhappy. Frequently volunteered for KP and floor waxing to get off the flight line. As we all know, floor waxing was a 24/7 job.

The Air Force Gods looked down and decided that natural order of things had been restored.

I befriended an S/Sgt who worked in the Orderly Room. One day he found an announcement calling for volunteers in my AFSC for 12 month remote, hardship assignment in something called a Radio Squadron Mobile. WOW!! To my mind nothing could be more of a hardship than I already was in. The B-52s I was working on were as mobile as anything in the AF, so this assignment was very appealing.

I applied and was accepted for the reassignment. That's when I found out the assignment was in Samsun, Turkey. I immediately had visions of Harem girls and flying carpets. As an added bonus, I would complete the one year assignment 3 months before my enlistment was up and get a 3 month early out. Things were starting to look good again.

My travel from Maine to Samsun, Turkey was full of adventure and the subject of another missive.

The first thing I did when I got to the site at Samsun was look for the runway and airplanes. After all, this was an RSM, and in the AF mobile meant airplanes. Why else would they want Aircraft Radio fixers here ? This was really confusing. During my first day of worked in Ops, I learned that the radios were really not mobile, and that my AFSC was easily cross trained into the new job. I quickly became interested and excited about the new job. I decided that the work was as important, if not more so, then the other assignments I had.

As you all know, the weather was mild year around, and there was an active special services group (one S/Sgt). Lots of sports, cheap drinks in the Airmens Club, and pretty good chow in the Mess Hall. I got to play softball on the Dog Trick team and the Det 3-2 team. I met some very interesting people and was able to do some travel. My only disappointment was in the Harem Girls. There could have been more of them. However, I was amazed at how much better they looked as time went on.

Life became good again. The AF Gods must have been on coffee break during that year. Because this turned out to be the best year of my AF enlistment.

Marty Mintz, Dog Trick, 60-61