My name is William P. (Bill) Watson and I was at Sinop Tuslog Det 4 from Aug. 1960 to Aug. 1961.
I flew from NYC on MATS to Frankfurt, Germany with an unscheduled stop at Shannon Airport due to engine trouble.
MATS had to bring another plane from Germany to finish the trip.

I was with J. B. Springer and another fellow from California whose name I can't remember. After three days in Frankfurt (thanks to a friend in personell that cut our orders) we flew PamAm Flight One through Munich to Istanbul and on the Ankara.
After a night or two in a hotel in Ankara we flew to the "hill" on an L-20 with CWO Kitchersed (sp).

After walking guard for a few days we were assigned to ops and I was an 059. After a couple of months on the floor I was accepted to Ops Clerk with Capt Gerald M. Dirkx and Capt Louis Hazel and SFC Ingrassia (sp).  

One of my best memories was of The Great Boar Hunt of 1961.Ken Chittem, Joe De Antonio, Fred Jackson, Dick Swanson, "Teach" Schroeder, Mike Redding and myself (Bill Watson) organized a Boar Hunt. We took along our Turk interpreter and he hired several mountain hunters to guide us.
The problems began when De Antonio placed a perfect group (of two) in the head of a farmers cow with his 30.06. The only way we got back to our truck was by giving the Turks all the lira we had, several valuable hunting knifes and some zippo lighters. The farmers insisted that we keep the cow so we loaded it on our 3/4 truck and drove to the "Hill". Later we gave it the house boys to take home to their families.  

The other fond memory is the day an order came in from Headquarters Europe authorizing R & R for the troops on the "Hill" It was in error and meant for one the bases that had an 18 month tour, but as Ops clerk I immediately had "Teach" Schroeder and Dick Swanson fill out the paper work and I placed it on Capt Dirkx's desk for signature.
When he saw it his comment was, "I don't know how you pulled this off", but he signed it and the next day the three of us boarded the Black Sea steamer for Istanbul and three great days at the Istanbul Hilton Hotel.
Upon our return we discovered that a message had come in the day we left stating the original order was in error.
As of that time we were the only troopers to get R & R off the "HIll".  

I found your site by accident and truly enjoyed seeing all of the names, photos and comments from other ASA members.   When I left the "Hill" I returned to Michigan to get married and my wife and I set out for Virginia and Vint Hill Farms Station. Our son, Scott, was born in Warrington, Va in 1962 just before the missle crisis in Cuba and I was discharged in Nov. 1962  

I understand that Ken Chittem passed in 2004 from cancer and Dick Swanson who remained a close friend here in Michigan until his death about 1997 from MS at age 57. If any of the others from 1960-61 read this please get in touch.

My email address is: billstonepony@charter.net. 
We live in Traverse City, Michigan 49684. (231) 946-0495 (home) (231) 313-7540 (cell)  

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I will have to dig thru the boxes, but will try to send some pictures of the "hill" in the near future.

 

Copyright © William P. Watson, 2008. All Rights Reserved.

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