Rich Swearingen, Sinop 1958-1959
From: "Rich Swearingen" rrswear@comcast.net
Subject: memories of Sinop
Date: Mon, 2 Jun 2008 14:53:15 -0700
I saw your photo of the Southwind crew while surfing the net. The photo really brought back memories. I was also a member of the Southwind team and was trained on the system in Mt View, CA.Here are a couple of photos (I colorized), Bill.
1.) Me and Turkish solider during my stay there between 58-59.
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Me and the famous historical site that anyone who served on the rock will remember.
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I was stationed at TUSLOG Det 4 from 1958 to 1959. It was quite an experience that I'll remember for the rest of my life.
Here is a picture of the site looking toward the operations area.
Note the James way huts; we were billeted in them for 6 months while the one story wooded barracks were being built.
This is a photo of our equipment being caravanned overland to Sinop by Turkish drivers, accompanied by the Lt. and the rest of us on our way to set-up shop on the Rock.
Road to SinopI have a lot of "old" memories of the site:
All of our water was hauled up via truck. Each man had a personal water jar which our houseboy kept filled; except when the weather was bad and the water truck couldn't make the trip due to muddy unsafe roads - there were no paved roads anywhere except downtown Sinop.The houseboy kept our water jugs clean by sloshing around a handful of dirt/gravel mixed with a little water to rid the vessel of calcium and other mineral deposits - no running water.
Water when available, for the shower building was gravity fed via a water tank on the roof.
Manhattan Style Crystal Water Jar/Carafe Anchor Hocking personal water jar.
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Attached is a photo you can add if you like, that I'll bet most Sinopers will remember. Most every time we walked to town to escape the boredom of the Rock or to get some decent chow, small children would run out to beg for goodies.
I remember a funny story that only folks stationed in Turkey will appreciate. While watching a movie in the small darkened building they called a theater the credits began to roll. One of the featured actresses name scrolled up; her name was Betty E. Box. Now anyone who has served a little time in Sinop will learn that "E" in Turkish means "Good". Therefore moments after the name came up spontaneous laughter rang out which perked up everyone's day?
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From: "Rich Swearingen" rrswear@comcast.net
Subject: Sinop memories
Date: Fri, 4 Jul 2008 15:46:32 -0700
First is a picture I got from another Sinoper, It was taken while I was stationed at Det 4.
’58-’59. I’m forth from left, standing. I think he picture is of most of the Southwind crew.
We trained on the system in Mt View CA. The system consisted of 2 gutted and then
refurbished 584 Radar vans that the system had been integrated into and other assorted
equipment. Then some of us Army folks went along with the air crew in three C-130 aircraft when they flew it all the way to Ankara Turkey.
Our journey began at Travis AFB in California, then on to Charleston, SC AFB,
then to Bermuda, The Azores, Madrid Spain, and finally Ankara. I think it took a total of
about 36 hours flying most of the way at around 15,000 feet without oxygen. Of course we
could still breathe but it dried us out pretty good, we all had headaches from the experience.
Second picture is taken in town, we would go into the restaurant kitchen and point to what we wanted to eat. As I recall, I never had a bad meal there. However, everything was cooked in mutton fat. Once you got over that, the food was very good. They warned us to stay away from fresh vegetables but it never seemed to bother me. My guess is the water they washed things in wasn’t the cleanest or treated very well.
Third photo, sometimes we would wander down to the water front and check out the fishing boats or just do some general sightseeing looking for something different to do with our time away from duties.
Fourth picture - I like of fishing nets drying in the sun. Looking back I guess there were a lot of varied sights that some of us wouldn’t see again in our life times. I turned 21 on the Rock and now looking back some 50 years later their were many fond memories associated with my experiences in Turkey, even though, initially I thought I’d been posted to another planet.
