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STORIES/TEXT/NARRATIVES Only
Contributed
By - John Duhaime
View
John's Photos
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Recieved
4/10/06 - Posted 4/10/06
View Photos
on John's Photos Page and Galleries Pages
This is a story about a hunting trip we took
in the middle of winter to an isolated area
of Eastern Turkey not far from a town called
Erzurum. A couple guys from the Trabzon site
and myself decided to go hunting for Wild
Boar (Dolmoose) sp. We were able to obtain
rifles from the site and a weapons carrier
for the trip into the mountains. This was
in the middle of winter and we had no heater
in the truck It sure was cold but as you can
see by the accompanying photos we had hooded
parkers that we took with us. We had to go
over one pass which was pretty high. We had
arrived at a small village on our journey
and stopped and asked in broken Turkish
where we could find some wild boar. We had
to show them our rifles and they took a
bullet and stuck it down the front of the
barrel. I guess they were checking the
gauge. Anyway, one man (a farmer I think)
said there were many where he lived and led
us up a mountain to where he lived. This was
a dirt floor room and he graciously got some
goat cheese and bread his wife had made and
offered it to us. We ate some of it and the
bread was very gritty like there was a lot
of sand mixed in. We could hardly believe
what this guy had done for us. We did
venture out from his farm house and saw
where the Wild Boar had dug through the snow
looking for potatoes or turnips. We never
did see any wild boar but did shot a coyote.
We left him some of our C Rations that we
had with us and got back to the village. I
did met a young fellow who spoke a little
and I found out he collected stamps. Being a
stamp collector myself, I began sending him
stamps that I had and for about two years
did so and as I recall, he sure was happy
about it.
On our return to Trabzon we almost did
not make it over the mountain pass because
it had snowed the night before. Even in four
wheel drive the truck almost did not make
the crest of the mountain pass. But we did
make it back to Trabzon and told everyone
about our experience. And that it was. I
will not forget the amount of snow we
encountered and the cold.
I hope some
of you can relate to this and perhaps you
did the same thing at a later time when
things were better.
PS. All these photos were taken in March
of 1959 in the rugged mountains of Eastern
Turkey.
March 17, 2006:
OK to POST:
Hi Smokey. This photo was taken in June
of 1959 and is a picture of the openiong of
the new BX on Trabzon. The names I have on
the back of the photo are Major McCall,
Captain Duff, and the BX manager Chris.
Perhaps someone may recall these
folks. I hope you can open the photo.
Regards, John
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Hi Smokey. Me again from Florida. Here
are three more photos. One of Trabzon from
Boztepe, one of the guys I shared a house
with downtown and the new barracks under
construction at Trabzon in 1959.
Regards, John
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Hi again Bill,
I found a couple more photos from Trabzon. Top
photo is of the harbor with the Black boat
docked. Second photo is of our maid that we
had. Her name was Figgi and she was 42. Third
photo shows some of the guys who were there in
1959. We were playing cards in our house
downtown before the barracks was opened.
Hope you can open the
picture.
Regards, John
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More Pictures, Bill,
Picture one is me on
the way down the hill to Trabzon. That path is
what we went to town on. Even at night. Picture
two is one of our Turkish guards. Picture three
was the famous Monastery. Picture four is of a
store in downtown Trabzon.
Hope you can open.
Regards, John
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March 15, 2006:
OK to POST:
Hello Smokey. I am the
guy who put a posting on the Turkish website who
was stationed at Trabzon in 1958/59.
I thought I would share a story with you from
the olden days. I do have a few stories I can
pass on as time and space permit.
Story one: My name is John Duhaime, a Radio
Maintenance 30454 guy and I was stationed at
Trabzon in 1958 shortly before the C-130 got
shot down as he strayed across the border.
I had been
stationed in Grunstadt, Germany with the 6910th
RGM and was selected to go to Turkey but had to
go to a school in England first (4 week school
at South Reislip). It was a new teletype
communication system they were to install at
Karamusel. The school went ok and I departed
Germany on my way to Turkey via France and
Athens, Greece. Once I arrived at Karamusel the
NCOIC asked me if I would go to one of our
remotes sites. Huh, asked me ?...told me I would
be going to a site called Det 3-1. This was in
early September 1958. The mode of transportation
at that time was boat. We called them the Black
boat and the White boat. As I recall the Black
boat got to Trabzon on a Tuesday and the White
boat Thursdays. Our mail when we got it came by
boat. In any event, I left Istanbul on the Black
boat and was the only American on the boat. As I
recall we stopped in Zongoldok, Sinop, Samsun
and perhaps a couple of other small stops.
People jumped on and off the boat like cattle
and I was amazed no one got killed.
Upon my arrival at
the port someone met me and got me settled in
the main Hotel downtown on the square. A few
days after my arrival I recall a Protestant
Chaplin Captain had come in and stayed in my
room. Seems like his name Chaplin Blasdale or
something like that. The first night was an
experience. We had been talking before we shut
the lights off and about 15 minutes after lights
out I started scratching my legs and asked the
Chaplin if he was scratching too. We turned the
lights on and lo and behold there were bed bugs
crawling up the walls on both sides of the room.
We then got up and investigated and found that
one corner of my bed had a colony of bed bugs on
it. I mean a bunch of bugs. We had to change
rooms for the night and the next morning
obtained some DDT (now banned) and put the
powder on those critters. We did kill them all
and stayed in that room another week or so. I
then moved into a house on Icki Sokak (second
street) not too far from the PX/club and admin
area.
I moved into a four
bedroom house with a radio operator, an ecm guy
and a ssgt radio maintenance guy. I was put on
shift as one radio maintenance guy that each
shift had. More stories about some of the
maintenance experiences later.
I do remember most
of my tour there. I did get stationed again in
Turkey about ten years later but that time was
in Izmir with NATO.
I do have some photos from that time and will
scan them and send them to you. The above was
just one of many short stories that I have. It
looks like you have put a lot of time and effort
into your new website. Really looks good and
hopefully you will get many replies from the
guys who were stationed at Trabzon.
Regards for now from Niceville, Florida,
John Duhaime
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