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REMEMBERING ANKARA
TSgt. Ollie F. Cook, USAF (Ret.) © 2003-2007
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At Wheelus Field (Tripoli, Libya)
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| I joined the USAF in 1947,
the year it was created as an independent service.I signed in to the 1603rd
ATW at Wheelus Air Field just outside of Tripoli, Libya in June 1954. Since
I had a flying AFSC, I was assigned as a Flight Engineer/Crew Chief on
the Gooney Bird (C-47) aircraft. At that time Wheelus was a MATS base but
was reassigned to USAFE later. Wheelus was later
to become headquarters for 17th Air Force. After being on flight status
for about 6 months, my flying slot on the UMD was lost and I ended up as
NCOIC of a Transient Alert crew (a crew consisted of about 6 men to park,
refuel, and take care of any maintenance problems on transient aircraft
passing through Wheelus). . A friend of mine (same rank and AFSC) had put
in for a transfer to England but when it came thru (Feb 55) it was to Turkey
and since his wife was in England, he didn't want to accept it so he ask
me if I wanted to go to Turkey and I said "yes" I would accept the assignment.
. So in March 55, I and another SSgt went to Ankara via Rome, Athens and
Izmir. |
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On to Rome
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| O/A 14 March we boarded a C-47 for the first
leg of the trip to Ankara. We landed at Valletta, Malta to off-load passengers.
Two hours later we took off for Rome and landed at Ciampino Airport where
we were to RON and leave the next day for Athens. At AF Ops we were told
to call in tomorrow morning to find out when our flight would leave for
Athens. We got a ride on an AF bus to one of the hotels downtown where
military personnel stayed when in Rome. |
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Our modern hotel in Rome
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| We checked in at the front desk thru a clerk
who didn’t speak much English and was assigned a room on the third floor,
he pointed to the elevator and said something we didn’t understand. We
had our duffle bags and B4 bags which had all of our belongings in them
so they were heavy. We thought the elevator was a little small (it was
designed to hold two people without baggage and started moving when the
door shut). Well, two big men with duffle bags and B4 bags squeezed into
that thing and shut the door. When we slowly got to the third floor and
tried to get out, the brake wouldn’t hold all that weight and before we
could get the door open and get out we started moving down below the floor
so we pushed the third floor button again and started moving up again,
the same thing happened. During this time, we could hear the clerk downstairs
going ballistic and hollowing something in Italian (I’m sure it wasn’t
very complimentary to our ancestors). We tried one more time and still
couldn’t get out of that thing, so we mustered up our courage and pushed
the first floor button and fell about one floor before the clutch/brake
took hold and slowed us down and gently stopped on the first floor. We
finally got out and our bags were carried up by a bellboy and we rode the
elevator laughing nervously all the way up. What with paying for the hotel
room, sightseeing, taxi fare, and food, it didn’t take us long to run out
of money. |
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Need money? Just ask the U.S. Army for
It
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| Since we had our pay records with us, we went
to Army Finance (which was in an office across town from where we were)
and got $75.00, half in Italian Lire. We still had some sightseeing to
do so the next morning when I called AF OPS at Ciampino I asked if we could
be bumped from the flight to Athens. The NCOIC said yes he could bump us
because they had a number of people to go to Athens but to call in the
next day, I said thanks and we would. We took in more of Rome, ran out
of money again, went back to Army Finance and got $75.00 more and the major
there told us that was all the money we could get while we were in Rome,
we said "Thank you, Sir" and left. |
| The next day I got us bumped again. Then the
next day after we paid for the hotel room we were broke again and since
the major said he wouldn’t let us have any more money, we decided we had
better get on to Athens. We caught the AF bus to the airport and checked
in with OPS, got on the manifest and sat down to wait until the flight
boarded thinking we could probably get some more money when we got to Athens.
About 20 minutes before flight time, we were called to the OPS desk and
the NCOIC told us he had to bump us from the flight. We said "No! that
can’t happen, we’re out of money and have no food or a place to stay".
but he said, "Sorry bout that! that's the way the mop flops, come back
tomorrow and see if you can get a seat." |
| It just so happened there was a civilian standing
at the counter and heard the whole thing. He said it looked like we had
a problem and we agreed with him. He said he was with the American Embassy
and could give us a ride back to town and we could go to Army Finance and
get some money, so we told him what the major had told us. He said he could
take care of that little problem, so we rode with him in the Embassy limo
to the Embassy and he took us to the Air Force Attache (a bird colonel)
and told him our tale of woe including what the major at Army Finance had
said. He said, no sweat! and told this MSgt to type up a MPO for $75.00
each and he would sign it. When the sergeant returned with the signed MPO
we told him the finance office would be closed by the time we got there
by taxi so he picked up the phone and told whoever answered the phone at
the finance office that he was sending two AF sergeants over with a MPO
and to stay open and wait for them and hung up, told us to get going. So
we took a taxi across town hoping the office would be open as we didn’t
even have the money to pay the taxi driver. When we got there, who was
waiting for us but the major that had told us he would not give us anymore
money (he had to honor the MPO) and he recognized us but didn’t say a word
as he counted out $75.00 each and we signed for it and when I asked him
to exchange half for Lire, I thought he would explode as he counted it
out. |
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Flying on to Ankara
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| Anyway, we got out of Rome the next day and spent
the next night in Athens, went sightseeing there for a day and went on
to Izmir, went thru Turkish customs and had to declare all the gold (rings
and watches, etc.) and money. We were told we could not take out of the
country more than we had when we came in. After a couple of hours we continued
on to Ankara. While flying over the mountains to Ankara we went thru a
grand daddy of a snow storm which made the three Turkish Army officers
we had on board nearly use the burp bags and they were quite nervous. As
we were about to touch down at Etimesgut Air Field
(Turkish
Air Force) in Ankara the pilot gunned the engines, banked to the right
so sharply the wing almost touched the ground and went around. That did
it! the three Turkish officers used the burp bags that time. As we went
around, everyone on the aircraft seemed to look at me for an explaination
of what had happened, I guess it was because I was the only one of the
15 or so in the passenger compartment wearing wings on my uniform. We found
out later that a Turkish gas truck started across the runway just as we
were about to land and we had to go around to miss it. Pretty scary! We
finally made it to Ankara after a journey of several days. |
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Reporting In at 7206 ABRON, Ankara
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On 1 Apr 54, HQ USAFE activated the 7206th Air
Base Squadron as host unit at Athenai Airfield which was shared with Athenai
International Air Port at Athens, Greece. ( Athenai Airfield was renamed
Hellenikon Air Base 25 Feb 76 and closed 28 Jun 91). The unit was upgraded
to an Air Base Group on 15 May 55. The 7206th relinquished command of JAMMAT
TUSLOG Det #1 (our Detachment) at Ankara, Turkey on this same date to the
7217th Air Base Group which was activated at Ankara and assumed command.
I still have
orders dated 25 July
1955 showing all 42 of us relieved from assignment in the 7206th ABRON
(headquarters in Athens) and reassigned to the 7217th ABRON, duty station,
JAMMAT TUSLOG Det #1, Ankara, Turkey with no funds or travel involved.
We were the first unit to be given a cover designation--the US Logistics
Group-- as perscribed by US European Command. I can recall a 3 story building
w/basement on Ataturk Blvd. It was being remodeled for the 7217th ABRON
& ABGRP. In fact, I pulled CQ in the building. There was no electricity
and I had no flashlight. There was a field phone connected to an office
three buildings away in which there was nobody and to make matters worse,
there was no locks on the doors. I remember it was a very long night. |
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Briefing by CO
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As we stepped off the aircraft we immediately
reported to the CO of the detachment (Major Abdulha, an Arab/American)
and were briefed by him.
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First, the SOFA with the Turks held that if any American
broke any Turkish laws and was arrested, you might as well write home and
tell Ma to sell the outhouse because the Turks had your butt.
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Second, since there was no base, we lived on the
local economy and had to find an apartment or room & board for ourselves.
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Third, our duty as aircraft maintenance personnel
(5 or 6 of us) was to maintain the detachment's L-20 aircraft and turn
around the daily C-47 from Athens (weekends excepted). I was ranking NCO
so I was the line chief and flight chief and since I had a flying AFSC
I was also the flight engineer on the L-20.
After the briefing and a welcome aboard, we were
on our own. |
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Our outfit
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| Our detachment space consisted of 2 or 3 Quonset
huts on the Turkish Air Field, but we needed more room. During that period
of time, the only way you could fly commercial to the interior of Turkey
from the outside was to fly to Istanbul and take a Turkish airline to the
interior, e.g. Ankara. It seems that the US Government, Turkish Government,
and Pan American Airways got together and built a new airport in the mountains
about 10 or 15 miles from Ankara called Esenboa. PANAM could then fly direct
to Ankara. The airport was finished but the Turkish Government was dragging
its feet on opening it, so they (the powers that be) used us to force the
Turks to open the new airport. |
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Not so routine opening of the new facility
:-)
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| We received orders to move to the new airport
and start operations to turn around our daily flight from Athens (I don't
know if the orders came from JAMMAT HQ or Washington). So we loaded all
our furniture and equipment on 2 1/2 ton trucks and started out. We were
stopped by the Ankara police and the Turkish Army at the city limits and
told to turn around and go back, which we did. Major Abdulha reported the
turn-a-round to HQ. (I believe one of the the reasons he was CO was because
he could speak Turkish). We tried again the next day and the same thing
happened. On the third day we started out, our orders were not to stop
at the roadblock and just keep driving. We had 3 trucks, 2 staff cars and
2 jeeps led by Major Abdulha but when we got to the place we had been stopped
twice before, neither the police nor army was there to stop us so we went
on and opened the airport. In hindsight, the major may have known they
would not be there and that was the reason he told us to keep driving.
It was pretty tense awhile for us but things worked out and we moved to
a beautiful airport and opened it to air traffic. |
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Our L-20 pilot
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| It was my understanding that Second Lieutenant
Delbert M. Thomas had been a F-86 Sabre Jet pilot training to go to Korea
when the armistice was signed. So he ended up being was sent to our detachment
to fly the L-20 which was a station "hack" to ferry men and supplies from
one base to another. One could imagine the let down of being assigned to
fly an aircraft with a top speed of 163 mph after flying a fighter aircraft
with a top speed 685 mph. This was the situation the good lieutenant found
himself in and he tried to make the best of it, but at times he did rack
that poor L-20 around like it was a fighter. Like the time he buzzed JAMMAT
HQ which then was in a large stone building situated on a hill near the
end of Ataturk Blvd. He pulled out of a dive that pulled so many "Gs" that
out popped both plexiglas panels in the top of the cockpit. They came fluttering
down and landed on the grass. He was dating a colonel’s daughter and knew
she was there that day and naturally wanted to impress her. Well, he impressed
her AND the colonel AND the general and everyone else who ran outside to
see what was going on. The general picked up the panels and sent them back
to the airfield with a "mandatory" invitation for the lieutenant to see
the general in his office ASAP. Lieutenant Thomas went to see the general
and got a royal butt-chewing. Back at the airfield we re-installed the
panels. He was the only pilot the detachment had so I’m sure that is why
he was not grounded. It was exciting flying with Lt. Thomas re-supplying
radar sites and other fun things. |
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The Lieutenant Gives Me The Stick :)
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| Lieutenant Thomas was a real party animal and
a real nice guy. He had been partying the night before and hadn't gotten
much sleep that night. I was flying with him the next day to Eskisehir,
a base about a hundred miles west of Ankara. After take-off and a climb
out to about 7000 ft. he decided to take a nap. He set the throttle and
told me the heading to keep and gave me the controls and proceeded to go
to sleep. The L-20 had a single control wheel which could be used by either
person in the cockpit by pulling a pin at the bottom of the control column
and pivoting it to either seat. After about 15 minutes, I noticed that
if we stayed at the altitude we were flying , we could hit a mountain up
ahead. No problem. I adjusted my elevator trim and applied a little power
and I climbed about 500 ft. But when I tried to level out, the A/C just
kept slowly climbing. I pushed on the wheel but the plane kept climbing.
I began to feel fear creep up my spine so I woke the lieutenant. He got
me out of the mess when he re-adjusted the elevator trim for level flight
which I had forgot to do. Well, it was my first time flying a L-20!! The
rest of the flight was uneventful and we returned to Ankara that day. |
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Sharing The Runway With Cows
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| Another time, we were flying to a remote radar
site (I forgot where) and the procedure was to buzz the site to let the
guys know we were there and were going to land. There was a grass strip
next to a few buildings that made up the site. The buzzing also alerted
the guys that we had spotted cows on the runway. They would jump in a jeep
and chase them away so we could land safely. Well, on this one day as we
were lined up with the runway, we could see that our point of landing would
be ahead of where the cows were. Just as we passed over them, one of them
must have panicked because she started running toward us. Lieutenant Thomas
couldn’t see her because she was coming up under our right side but I saw
her out of the corner of my eye and yelled for him to go around. We circled
while the guys on the ground chased them farther away this time and then
we landed safely. We completed our mission, ate lunch with the site crew,
and returned to Ankara. |
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The big weekend - what to do?
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| It was the 4th of July week-end. We had Sat.,
Sun., & Mon. off, but Ankara had lost it’s luster, we had seen Ataturk’s
tomb, the old city, and other sights, been frog hunting so it seemed we
had nothing to do. Having just been paid, we had a little money so about
2000 hrs. Fri. night we decided to go to Istanbul. First we called the
Turkish Air Line, nothing out until the next day. Next we called the train
depot, nothing out until the next day, and a Turkish bus was out of the
question, so what to do? I had a brain storm! lets go by taxi! good idea,
only 220 miles northwest over the mountains, so we called a taxi to come
to the apartment. When he got there we approached him about how many Lira
to take us to Istanbul, after he did a double take and in broken English
confirmed we said Istanbul he started figuring and came up with a figure,
too much! figure again, still too much, more figuring and finally came
up with a figure we could live with and we said O.K. (I have forgotten
how much). He said he had to go back to the garage and fill up with gas
so while he was gone we got our AWOL bags packed and waited. He soon returned
in a ‘52 4-door Chevy and about 2230 hrs we started out on our great journey. |
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Driving to Istanbul - not quite the Oh
My God Highway in Colorado
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| Since we had never been out of the city, we didn’t
know that once you left the city limits the paved roads ended and it was
gravel and dirt roads, but we found out ALL THE WAY TO ISTANBUL! Daylight
comes early in Turkey, so about 0400 hrs. it was just turning light as
we topped a rise on the side of a mountain when we saw an old man waving
a stick at us, the driver didn’t know whether to stop or not (kidnappings
had taken place in the area before, a fact we didn’t know until later)
so as we passed him he shouted something that made the driver quickly stop,
slam it in reverse and started backing up to where the old man was. About
that time the whole side of the mountain exploded and rock and dirt rained
down on us. Rocks dented the car and cracked the windshield, we thought;
this is it! we’ve bought the farm. It seemed they were blasting the side
of the mountain with dynamite to make the road wider. We had to wait while
a bulldozer pushed a path through from the other side before we could go
on. The rest of the way was uneventful (thank goodness, as that little
episode was enuff). We finally made it into the Asian side and took the
ferry over to the European side. We had heard that Conrad Hilton was having
the grand opening of the Istanbul Hilton Hotel that week-end so we told
the driver to take us there. We drove up in front of this luxury hotel
with wrinkled, dusty suits and needing a shave, paid the driver the rest
of his money and dismissed him, walked in to the beautiful lobby and asked
for a room. The clerk asked if we had reservations, we said no, we had
just arrived from Ankara, he said sorry, but just the first five floors
were finished and they had been booked for months. So we had to find another
taxi and another hotel, I think we stayed at the Hotel Tivoli, anyway we
could sit at a table on an outside balcony in Europe having a drink and
look across Bosporus Strait into Asia. |
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Going back home to Ankara
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| After seeing some of the sights in Istanbul,
we decided to find a way back to Ankara. We went to the train station to
see what the schedule was and got right on a train leaving that afternoon.
We were sitting in the club car having a drink when this guy speaking good
English asked us if we wanted to go up to the engine. He said he was a
railroad official, so we followed him to the cab. He introduced us to the
engineer who even allowed us to drive the train for awhile, which was very
interesting. In fact the whole trip was very interesting. |
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ID cards, paperwork, etc, etc
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| While I was there we were issued a "Red
Book" which was a 2 1/2" X 4" book issued by the Turkish General Staff,
Aid Liasion Bureau. It was a Military pass for JAMMAT personnel printed
in Turkish and English and stated that "1. This Military Pass is to be
used as an identification card when dealing with Turkish authorities. 2.
It is to certify that the owner is a member of JAMMAT, and that he or she
is working with the Turkish Ministry of Defence. 3. This Pass does not
authorise the owner to enter forbidden zones unless proper clearance is
obtained and such permission is properly entered and indorsed on the pages
set forth for this purpose. 4. Any Military owner of this Pass is privileged
to receive a % 50 reduction on rail road fares provided the owner is on
Official Leave. 5. Call 25535 (TGS, Aid Liasion Bureau) when necessary
". There was a commissary at JAMMAT HQ but certain items were rationed
(coffee, tea, cocoa, sugar, and whiskey/beer for which we were issued an
European Exchange System Ration Card). I still have a ration
card and a library card. |
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Tragedy brings me back to Texas early
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| The Lieutenant and I had orders
to fly to Athens to coordinate traffic matters and to pick up maintenance
records. When we arrived in Athens we were to leave our L-20 there and
proceed by train to Milan, Italy to pick up another L-20 and fly it back
to Ankara. Our departrure from Ankara had been delayed because of a maintenance
problem with the detachment's L-20. We were to leave the next day but that
night at approximately 2300 hours, there was a knock on my apartment door.
I looked through the peep-hole and saw my CO and another officer I didn't
know standing there. I let them in and the CO said he had some bad news
for me. They had received a TWX from AF HQ stating that my mother had died
and that I was granted a 30 day emergency leave effective the next day
and since I didn't have enough time to return to my overseas duty station,
I would be re-assigned to the base nearest my home which was Carswell AFB,
Ft. Worth, Texas (which was my home). The CO said my orders were being
cut that night and would be ready by 0700. There was an Embassy flight
due in the next morning (which I knew about as I and my crew was supposed
to turn it around when it arrived) and for me to get all my belongings
together and a staff car would pick me up with my
orders and take me to the airport. The next morning the detachment
adjutant picked me up and drove me to the airport and I left Ankara about
1030 hours and headed for Athens. I was able to keep my red book as I only
cleared Turkish customs to leave. I spent that night in Athens and then
went on to Tripoli where I was held up 3 days by a hurricane that was hitting
the east coast of the USA. I missed my mothers funeral due to that hurricane
but finally made it home to my wife and three daughters who met me at Love
Field in Dallas. |
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