Grandpa (Russell) Sly's misc. memories

GRANDPA'S STORIES

Last night (April 2006) dad/grandpa looked up different cities on the Google satellite map quest and showed me (Becky) different military bases where he and grandma had lived and other cities he flew to. Except for the stretch between New Delhi and Bangkok, he has flown all the way around the world!

Grandpa zoomed in on Adana, Turkey. Incerlik Air Force Base (where I was born) is still active:

 

Rubies in Bayrut 

"Let's see, how is that spelled. They spell it different. "B A Y R U T" (search) (Beirut)

A C-54 cargo plane flew weekly down to Beirut for a commissary/grocery run for fresh fruit and milk and eggs.

Military people loved to fly to the thriving tourist city Bayrut (aka Beirut) for fine dining and shopping. You could buy anything there! It was quite a smuggling operation really. No taxes or import fees. Grandpa had purchased a star ruby while at Agra, India where there were ruby mines on the way to visit the Taj Mahal. Then he went to well-known jeweler in Beirut, George Monsieur, a French name, but he was Lebanese. You'd get in the limousine, drive all over the back streets and get you confused and lost, then pull up to a house. A man would open the door just enough to show his face and speak with the driver, then motion to you to come in to the large residence. Inside was a large living room with several couches and other people waiting, looking at jewelry. George always sat behind his desk. He always sat there because he had drawers on both sides, all full of money of every currency in the world, and he could make change in any amount.

Grandpa asked if he could look at some rubies and George said of course and snapped his fingers and a man went and brought back several trays of rubies. Grandpa looked at them all and said no, these aren't what I'm looking for. So George snapped his fingers again and a man took away those trays and returned with more. Again Grandpa looked and searched through the rubies but couldn't find what he was looking for. George asked, "Well what do you have in mind? What are you looking for?" Grandpa pulled out the ruby he already had and explained he wanted to find one to match it and make a set of earrings. George said, "Well can I take a look at it. Oh, I know where you got this ruby. "From Agra, India."

"How did you know that?"

"Because that's the only place in the world where this kind of star rubies are mined." So George snapped his fingers again, and this time the man brought out trays of star rubies. They found some good matches and George agreed to make a set of earrings as well as a matching necklace for grandma.

I asked, "Where are the rubies now?" Grandpa replied, "You'll have to ask her!"

"We ate some really fancy meals there. There was really good food and a lot of French restaurants. You could buy leather or clothing, or a Mercedes or anything you wanted. We bought a leather footstool and some other stuff.

 Diving at 'Castle by the Sea

Grandma came in the den to see 'what's up' and said, "Where's the beach we always went to?" That must have been one of her favorite spots to visit in Turkey.

Grandpa followed the road through the south coast of Turkey and along the coastline to a beach. The Americans called the beach area 'Castle by the Sea." There used to be a Roman resort there, built out on a rocky shelf on the shore. That collapsed into the ocean, so there are Roman ruins about 30' under the water. You can see statues and Greek columns. "I have a bag of Roman coins! Some found while scuba diving. Some we bought from little Turkish boys. After a storm, it would wash up coins on the beach and the boys would find them to sell."

"Our diving group would use the expired one-man rafts used on single engine jets. The military didn't want them, but they were still good. So we'd use them. We put a couple of extra tanks in the raft, row out and anchor the raft above the ruins. We'd dive down till we ran out of air, then change tanks.

"One time I went fishing with a spear gun. That's something they like to do there. Well I saw this big sea grouper. "What's a grouper?" Becky asked. "It's a fish with a big mouth like this (making a 7" circle with his hands). The fish went under this big rock that had a cavern under it, so I got down there and waited for him to come out. I had to shoot into the hole and I got him. But he wouldn't come out! I was pulling on the rope, laying almost upside down to reach under this big rock. Well suddenly he comes charging out of there and towing me along the ocean bottom and I won't let go! I can't see anything because our speed flooded my mask. Finally he just stops! He just quits. So I clear my mask by blowing air into it and take this big fish up the raft and take him into shore. He was about 14 pounds. Everyone came to see and made a big fuss. They said it was one of the biggest fish of that kind anyone had ever gotten at that beach.

Another time we took the diving club out to certify for our 100-foot dive. The Mediterranean Ocean in that area is not very deep so we had to hire a Turkish fisherman to take us out several miles where he knew of a place 100 feet deep. I was one of the most experienced (but not very) so I went down first and waited at the bottom while everyone took turns going down the anchor rope and back up. The water was so cloudy you could only see about 6 feet.

So that was my adventure diving."

  A Narrow Escape M

One time a 3-Star General needed to be picked up at Erzurm Air Base which, had 8,000 foot mountains all around it and there was only one way in. It was in kind of a bowl surrounded by mountains. There was a cloud cover that day. That area had no radio-navigational aids so navigating these mountains was extremely difficult just using a map, especially trying to maneuver in a huge 4-engine airplane. But we had to go in for this important General. Looking at the map we could tell we had to follow a valley between these high mountains, which ended in a box canyon. At the end of the valley it would be necessary to make a sharp turn into a very narrow canyon, if we could find the opening before we ran into the mountains blocking us right ahead!

A major was my co-pilot, and he was a good navigator. We were looking at the map and trying to figure out what we needed to do. I decided to increase my airspeed to the maximum, and if we couldn't find the narrow canyon, I'd try to pull the big airplane up into a steep climb - trading airspeed for altitude and that should allow us to clear the mountains if we could not find the turn into the canyon,. We flew along, looking, and suddenly the major shouts there is it! So I try to turn this big plane - which is not made for making these kinds of maneuvers. We barely got that plane turned and skidded into the canyon. I tell you that was a narrow squeak! We just had a few feet past the wing tips.

The General was surprised to see us and said, "I didn't think you would be coming!" He couldn't believe they would try to fly in for him in those weather conditions. "Well, we did. (Some pilot!!) We picked him up and when we took off we just circled tightly around the field while climbing to a safe altitude in the clouds before heading for home."

A note here - that airfield had 14 large potholes in the pavement about 6 to 8 inches deep with a little red flag on a wire sticking up to mark the hole. We had to zigzag on landing and take off to avoid them. I flew into this place many times and one day I hit one of these potholes with the nose wheel. I thought it was going to come up through the floor, but it didn't break anything. The Turks never did fix those holes.)

Another note - there was just a narrow runway and no taxiways or parking ramp. In order to turn the airplane around they would get some Turkish soldiers to push the airplane by hand backward and forward until we got it turned around for takeoff.

 

Russian Radios 

When grandpa flew one trip from Peshawar, Pakistan to Teheran, Iran, he had some trouble. It was the Cold War and the Soviets would try to decoy our airplanes across their borders and then shoot us down. There is a large span of desert in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iran where there were few radio navigation aids. We had radar but it was no help over a featureless desert. We had a navigator with a sextant but in the day time there are no stars, so we relied on our flight planning which was time, distance, speed and heading. We were following this procedure when we began to pick up an ADF radio beacon signal that had the correct morse code identifier but showed that we needed to turn 20 degrees north. I reviewed our maps and decided not to follow that signal. After a while we got closer to Teheran and got another ADF signal on the same frequency with the same identifier and the needle didn't know which way to point. As we got still closer we began to receive a VOR signal at Teheran. The VOR is a shorter range but very accurate signal and impossible to copy. It showed we were on course.

Had we made that 20 degree turn we would have crossed into Soviet Airspace with disastrous results. The Lord was watching over us that day.

 

College Days ¯

Band

I got music scholarships to both BYU and University of Utah. For one semester only. I was in the marching band, the concert band, and symphonic orchestra. Sometimes we'd get a group of players together for a dance and make $5 or so. The heavy music schedule became too much and I had to drop out of much of it to keep up in academic classes. I changed majors from engineering to psychology after returning from my mission (The Gulf States Mission which was Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi). I got my degree in psychology and a minor in Air Science. The ROTC program had a flight instruction program which allowed me to get my private pilot's license at the expense of the Air Force. This was really a big deal for me because I could never have afforded the training otherwise.

The marching band traveled quite a bit - to Colorado & Wyoming. BYU would reserve most of the train for the team, cheerleaders and supporters, including two club cars on the train. One (train) car was a club car set up with tables and chairs instead of the bench seats. We'd push all the furniture to one end and the band would play and we'd have a dance almost all night long. It was pretty tricky sometimes, to stay on your feet while lurching along the tracks.

Jobs

I worked all kinds of jobs. One was for students who wanted to take accordion lessons. I just administered the music tests, to determine if they could keep rhythm, tell one note from another, etc. I also worked selling memberships to an automobile service club like AAA. I worked for BYU as a file clerk in the purchasing dept. and as a ticket taker at ball games.

 

Food

I always lived off campus in an apartment. I started out with roommates and we did our own cooking. Our parents would pack food for us every time we went home for a break. Bottled peaches, even bottled meat. Frozen meat wrapped in newspaper (deer we had hunted or our beef and butchered ourselves). Sometimes (three times) I would shoot a deer and we would have it cut and wrapped and put in the freezer plant in Provo. That really helped with the food bills.

Transportation

I did not have a car during freshman year but did have one in other years. This was very handy one time because the girl who was the secretary of the ROTC (Carol Nyman) said she and her roommates wanted to see a movie that was only playing at an outdoor theater (for automobiles) and could I take them in the car to see it. I said yes if you and your roommates will cook a dinner for me and my roommate and we will bring the trout. Well, they did and we did and I got to meet Geniel Ashcraft who I later married. Our first real date was an airplane ride!

Air Force years

I graduated in December and went on active duty in the USAF to Williams AFB near Mesa, Arizona for pilot training. Geniel joined me a few months later and we were there a year. After graduating from pilot training my first assignment was to RAF Sculthorpe air base in England. My assignment was to fly tanker aircraft.  They were converted B-50 bombers.  They had the bombing racks and equipment removed and fuel tanks were installed in the bomb bays.  The airplane had four huge propeller engines and also two jet engines.  We would take off with several tanker aircraft and fly a holding pattern over the North Sea where we would connect with fighter aircraft from Nato bases all over Europe.  We would refuel them in the air (one tanker could do three at one time trailing a hose from each wing tip and one from the tail) The fighters would then fly in mass formation to the Soviet border and that would force the soviets to scramble their fighters in response.  Our radar planes would monitor and record their response capabilities.  That was the game we played in the Cold War.

 We were there one year and Jeff was born there. We then transferred to Incirlik Air Base in Adana, Turkey. We had purchased a Volkswagon beetle car in England for $1200 new.  We loaded all our stuff(all my flying gear plus a lot of baby stuff) into and on top of the car.  I had removed the rear seat and made a platform  back there that made a fairly roomy area for baby jeff to occupy.  We drove the car to the south coast of England ar Southampton where the car was put on an air ferry plane.  We sat in seats in the back and flew across the channel to Ostend Belgium where the car was unloaded and we continued on our way across Europe.  We drove through Belgium, France, Switzerland, Germany, and Italy.  We boarded an ocean ferry at Brindisi (Italy is shaped like a boot and Brindisi is at the heel) We saw lots of sights on that trip across Europe.  We were overnight on the ocean ferry ship to a place called Igumentsia in Northern Greece where the car was unloaded and we drove across the mountains of northern Greece to cross the border in to Turkey.  We then drove to the crossing of the Bosferas at Instanbul where we boarded another ferry.  Then we drove the length of Turkey to the south coast at Adana where Incirlik Air Base was located.  We took two weeks to make the trip from England to Turkey and looking back we should have taken two months - but we were on the military's schedule. We were there 1 ½ years and Becky was born there. The above flying  events occurred whilethere in the middle east. Geniel was able to travel with me on short trips to Athen, Greece, Beirut, and the Holy Land.  It was a great experience. 

We returned to the USA and stationed at Wichita Falls, Texas where I was an instructor in the C-54 aircraft. I received my discharge there and went to work as a Pilot for Continental Airlines in Hermosa Beach California where Carolyn was born.  While there I joined the USAF Reserve at March AFB, Calif. where I flew the C97 aircraft which was a search and rescue mission.

Airline years

I got laid off at Continental and went to work for Northwest Airlines in Minneapolis Minnesota. We spent one year there (including a freezing winter) and transferred to Seattle area. We lived in Auburn, Washington where Vivian was born. We then purchased 10 acres in the country and built a home where we raised our family.

 

 While working as a pilot for Northwest Airlines I was based at Minneapolis, Seattle and Los Angeles.  I flew the Boeing 707, 727, DC-10, and the 747 aircraft.  I became a captain about 5 years before I retired.  I had to retire early at age 55 instead of the the normal age 60 because of the arthritis in my knees.  I had three arthroscopic surgeries on each knee over a period of time but finnally got to the point where I could no longer continue in the airline job.  I flew about one third of my carrer domestic in the United States and two thirds flying to the Pacific and Far East.  I became quite familiar with many cities in that part of the world including Tokyo, Osaka, Seoul, airbases in Korea and Japan, Hong Kong, Manila, kao Shung, Okinawa, Guam, Singapore, Kula Lumpor, Taipai, Bankok, Shangi, Bejing, and a little bit in Vietnam because we carried troops in and out of there. I was based in Seattle most of the time but frequently got transferred to Minneapolis and so I would commute to work,  the same thing when based in Los Angeles.

We moved to Spanish Fork Utah in 1990 to a 3 acre property and then built another house in Elk Ridge in 1999.

Retirement years

I have built two airplanes - the first was an Avid Flyer which is similar to a Piper cub with a metal frame and covered with fabric.  It had folding wings and could be towed down the highway.  The second was an RV6A which was all metal and very fast.  Both had side by side seats.  The RV6A could go 200mph and we made several trips to visit our daughter Becky and family in Ephrata, Wa.

I have always enjoyed the outdoors and camping and we did a lot of that as a family and even now in my 70's I still like to go hunting, exploring, jeeping etc.

We love living in Elk Ridge and enjoy being with the kids and grandkids who are close by.