On Sunday after noon, June 14th, Bob Erem and his wife Fran came North from Maryland to visit their son who lives here in Southern New Jersey. Since they were only about 45 minutes away, he and Fran came over to visit with us for an hour or so.
Bob brought along his huge Sinop photo album and we had a great time reliving the past and remembering what the base, the town and the people were like back in 1959-1960.
You can email Bob at rje@erols.com.
Bob Van Erem at Det. 4, 1959-1960 Date:Mon, 10 Aug 1998 22:11:35-0400 FROM: Robert Van Erem <rje@erols.com> SUBJECT: SinopI am originally from Green Bay, Wisconsin. I enlisted in December 1958 and was recruited by the ASA when I took the entrance exams in Milwaukee.
December 1958 to March 1959 basic training at Fort Leonardwood, MO.
March 1959 to April 1959 at Fort Devens, MA.
May 1959 to September 1959 Electronic Training at Fort Monmouth, NJ.
September 1959 to October 1959 at Fort Devens, waiting to get orders for first tour.
October 1959 to October 1960 at Sinop, Turkey, TUSLOG DET. 4.
November 1960 to March 1962 in Germany, first at KASSEL, with the 77th unit and we built the site up north in DAHME, then married my fiance, from New Jersey who came to Germany to get married in November of 1961, when I found out I had gotten extended indefinitely because of the Berlin crisis. After we were married I was stationed at Offenbach, near Frankfurt.I stopped in Germany on the way to Turkey and had a good time right away. Several of use went down town the first night to sample some of that good German beer. I knew right then that I wanted to make Germany my choice for the second tour after Turkey. We then went on to Ankara and I thought there could not be any place worse then that, but then I got to Sinop and by golly it was worse.
But actually it wasn't all-bad, I did meet a lot of good guys and had some fun.
Ferm, Ikelberger, Roger Strefling, Adams, Seabolt and Bob Halloween Party - 1959 Fourth of July Picnic - 1960 We flew the small plane, I think it was the L10 which carried the mail to Sinop on the way up. And of course the pilots get bored so they make it interesting by seeing how close to the mountains they can fly. We landed in Sinop and found we were given the privilege to live in the Quonset (Jamesway) hut. Boy, that was what I call friendly living.
I am looking through my picture album as I write this to help with the memory, which is by now pretty poor. I remember a snowstorm in January of 1960, which was unusual for Sinop. I recall a fellow named J.B. Reeves III who was from South Carolina and had never seen that much snow before. But since I was from Green Bay I thought it was just flurries.
I have a picture of the post office on base, APO 133.
They were building the new barracks at that time and there was a lot of mud and trenches all over the place. The fellows who would go drinking at the EMC at night and couldn't navigate to well coming back to the huts would fall into these quite often.
I spent a lot of time down town in Sinop. In the summer it was really pretty nice. We would go to the U.S.O. Beach and take the U.S. Army Chris Craft out and do some water skiing. Some of the guys also had a small sailboat, which was fun to go out in. Jim Donnelly, Operman and some other guys and I would rent horses from the local Turks and ride them in the country trails and along the beach.
There was a big 4th of July party in the ball field that year. I think the NCO Club offered free beer, and we drank 110 cases. They brought the the slot machines out there and it was lots of fun.
I remember one time we made an ice cream run from Sinop to Samsun and back. That was some trip, but we did manage to bring back ice cream that was only a little soft. That was when we found out the Air Force in Samsun had managed to get a bowling ally that was suppose to have gone to Sinop.
The Turkish Navy put into port at Sinop in the summer time. We went on several of the boats, which were mostly throw aways from the U.S. Navy. In fact we talked with one of the officers on a submarine who never made a dive unless they really had to.
I spent a lot of time in the photo lab at Sinop, developed my own pictures and a enjoyed the company of several other guys who were doing their own pictures.
I have a complete set of the postcard cartoons that were sold by someone on the base.
My MOS was 204.
A few of the names I do remember are: J.B. Reeves III , Jim Donnelly, Paul Krause, Andre, Ikelberger (Ike) , Roger Strefling and Don Ackerman .
Also some other names I see on the pictures are Dicker, Ferm, Riley, Lowe, Stevenson, Opperman, Adames, Seabolt, Hinkley, Doss, and Long.
I would like to hear from anyone who was stationed in the same places around the same time. My e-mail is rje@erols.com
Bob Van Erem
