More Sinop Photos from Ron Knief

"These guys were hired by the Sinop Chamber of Commerce. Their job was to drive any 058s back onto the plane."

"Here's the first try at our getting to Ankara. The guys are really dejected. We had been there for a couple of hours and then had to get back in the truck and draw out our bedding etc, make up beds for the night etc and wait until the next day."

"This was our second try to get out of Sinop, the weather had kept them (two flew up) grounded in Ankara."

"This is the landing of one of the two planes that took us back to Ankara. Note the landing field. It was my intent to get the mud into the picture also. Really amazing that they could land and take off in that stuff."

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. 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. One guy went back to the motor pool and got an "iki bechuke" (a 2« 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!

You can e-mail Ron at -ronknief@sbcglobal.net