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I was at Ciğli for 2.5 years. My family, wife and children, were with me during my assignment to Turkey. (I was supposed to go on an accompanied tour to Iran when my orders were changed. I receved a telegram from the USAF on New Years Day, 1965, changing my assignment from Iran to Turkey.) At the time, Turkey was a 30 month tour rather then a 36 month or 24 month tour. I haven't a clue why that is but I didn't argue. Anyway I was with TUSLOG Det 11 at Ciğli AB from January 1965 to 1967. The fact that TUSLOG Det 11 was originally the 7231st Combat Support Group and that in April 1966, Det 11 became the 41st Combat Support Squadron is news to me. As for as I know and remember, TUSLOG Det 11 was always TUSLOG Det 11. I don't remember it's other designation now but I do remember that it was **** Communications Sq. I am aware that Det 11 moved to downtown Izmir sometime in the 70's.
A lot has happened since my assignment to Turkey so I've forgotten a few of the details. From Turkey I was originally assigned to Aviano AB, Italy, but then the powers-that-be found out that the person handling assignments at Cigli AB at Headquarters TUSLOG, Ankara, was giving most of the best assignments to his friends in Det 11 and, I suppose, other units as well. Anyway, I ended up going to Altus AFB, OK, with the family, where I applied for Warrant Officer with the US Army and was accepted. The phone call I received was a total shock since I really thought I blew the WO assignment board which I met at Ft. Sill, OK. Although when I sent in my paper work, including my resume, which I had no idea how to write and had to get some help, my requested 3 assignments (with the Army of course) was Vietnam, Vietnam, Vietnam. Not that I actually wanted to go to Vietnam but I figured I was going to go so why not get it over with.
Then I received another message from the Army giving me the cost code in order to purchase uniforms at Ft. Sill Quartermaster Store. To my shock, I realized that I really had no idea what to purchase, e.g cap and collar insignia which is different from a commissioned officer, so I simply got hold of the "manager" (an E7) but as it turned out, he didn't have any idea either. We finally resorted to looking everything up in the Army Uniforms Manual. As it turned out, when I finally was Discharged from the AF on January 19th and sworn into the US Army on 20 January 1969, I received orders assigning me to Fort Hood, Texas. I was only there for about 10 months when I received orders to Project 404, in Laos, where I was assigned as an "adviser" to the Lao Army.
At the time of my assignment, Project 404 was a Top Secret program since no US military was supposed to be in Laos. (It has since been declassified). When my tour was up I was originally assigned to the 34th Signal Battalion in Heidelberg, Germany; however; while waiting for transportation and assignment verification at the 21st Personnel Battalion, I was called and informed that my assignment had been changed to the 201st Signal Company, located in Hoechst, Germany, a few miles outside of Frankfurt. When I had received my orders to the 34th Signal Battalion, just about everone in Laos told me I was lucky to be going to that unit and not the 32nd Signal Battalion. (The 201st Signal Company is an independent company but is co-located with the 32nd Signal Battalion and provides signal support to them every time they go to the field, which is constant. When my tour in Germany was over (which I and my family loved), I was assigned to a Special Operations unit at McDill AFB, in Tampa, Florida, but as soon as they found out I was retiring in about 6-7 months after my arrival there, they nixed me and I was reassigned to Ft. Benning, GA.
Well, I think I got a little carried away with all this. As I said I'll try to come up with something in writing about my time with TUSLOG 11 at Ciƃli AB. When I do I'll email it to you, or fax if you have one.
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