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Gerald Steck
© 2003-2015 by Author
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I was stationed in Eskisehir as a Munitions Officer from June 1968 through June 1969, although the primary duty of most officers was "alert duty officer", which was actually kind of fun once you got the routine figured out I did go TDY to Erhac early on in my tour. I was there in July/August of 1968. Seems that they had failed a NATO readiness inspection and were "decertified" because they did not have enough qualified "Emergency Action Officers". Since I was brand-new at Tuslog Det 100/Eskisehir, and there were a couple of qualified EAOs who had been there for a while, I was "selected" to go TDY to Erhac as soon as I was certified as an EAO. Guess the new kid on the block got the short stick.
Erhac was interesting, but since I was pretty new to the whole TUSLOG munitions sujpport operation, and had not really been in the country that long, it was all eye opening to me. I do remember that I never did get off base all the time I was at Erhac.
Quite a difference when I got back to Eskisehir, as the officers were authorized to live off base and the city of well over 100,000 (as I recall) had some pretty nice "basic" hotels. We lived in the Buyuk Hotel in Downtown Eskisehir for the first 6/7 months I was there but then we managed to rent an apartment that was big enough for all the officers. It was quite interesting living right in the heart of the city. It was also kind of nice as the Turkish military had somehow gotten possession of a first class hotel right in the heart of the city and they had a pretty nice Officer's Club which was available to us Americans.
The Eskisehir commander during my tour was Lt. Col. Herman Sick. His last name was quite offensive to the Turks and he was known as, and wore a name tag identifying him as, Col. Herman. [Note from Ed.: The Turkish word, "Sik", means "Fuck" in English. I can see why the Lt. Col.'s name tag read "Col. Herman"!]
Our det dog was Moose. There was another dog there at the same time but I can't remember his name.
The Porsuk River ran behind the det compound and flooded our volleyball courts and picnic area in the spring.
We had a "graveyard" outside the maintenance building with the headstones for every crew. Always thought that I might be able to get a picture of that; however, with the shutting down of TUSLOG, I doubt that will ever happen.
Some names I recall: SSgt Collister (EOD), SMSgt Renn (WPNS Maint), and a great guy who ran the NCO club, Lt. Pollard (a personnel officer who didn't get a security clearance for the first six months he was there - he hearly died when he found out what we did), SSgt LaVecque (spelling) (WPNS Maint).
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