SP4 Clifford "Skip" Robinson     July 1962 - September 1963

I was stationed with the 64th Engineer Battalion from July 1962 to September 1963.  At the time a tour of duty there was 12 months, but because I was so close to being discharged they kept me there until I was ready for discharge.

My MOS was 822 (Topographic Surveyor); I attained Spec 4; I was assigned as a classifier and was a member of Casino Camp.  When I first arrived at Casino they were working out of a hotel in Gharyan, but after about 2 weeks we moved to another location out in the middle of another 15’ quadrangle to the East of Gharyan.  I remember we were near a mountain by the name of “Ras Bashule” , which translated to “Tit Mountain”.  It had a Roman ruin on the top and it looked strikingly like a woman’s breast.  In fact whenever we went on a flight mission in the helicopter the pilot used that as a reference to return to the camp.

Occasionally we would come across a land feature that the local Arabs had a name for that was dirty or sexist.  We were later told to not put them on our named features because the compilers in the States were women and it was embarrassing to them.  Seemed odd because that was what the locals knew them as, and in my mind if I was out there using a map and inquiring I would want to know the locally known name?

For a short time when I first got to Casino there was an individual named George (can’t remember his last name) that had a parrot.  This parrot was really good at mimicking sounds.  It could make sounds like a cat, and it was really good at repeating short sayings.  At Wheelus, in the barracks, the Sergeant used to wake us in the morning with a whistle, and it was always early enough that it was still dark out.  I had heard that this parrot had learned how to mimic the whistle sound and had everyone in that barracks up and dressing at 2:00 am one day.

The Sergeant in charge of Casino at the time was Sergeant Roberts.  After we moved from Gharyan our camp was next to a road that could be utilized as a landing strip, but was just barely long enough to land a fixed wing.  Sergeant Roberts had been requested to lengthen it by removing some humpy areas on the South end of the strip.  He hired about 8 – 10 local Arabs to level out the area, and he failed to get their names.  When it came time to pay them, about double that number showed up, and he ended up having to pay all of them.

Some time later when we moved further South and the weather began getting much hotter Sgt. Roberts started rationing ice cubes (one per person each meal).  However, he kept a cooler with his (mixed) drink in his tent, and it was always well iced.  We were allowed to keep our beer in the refrigerator, though.  And we did consume a fair amount of beer.  As I recall, we could buy a case of beer for $3.00 and we would charge anyone that took a beer 15¢; which resulted in a profit of 60¢ per case.  We used that money to buy items for the camp.  I can remember we bought a phonograph, another refrigerator, and other things I can’t remember.  The money pot had about $900 in it when I left.  Someone or ones made out pretty good when the camp broke up.

One thing everyone learned fairly quickly was that when you are drinking a beer (or other beverage) you always kept your finger over the opening, otherwise flies would get in your drink.  It never ceased to amaze me that a person could travel out into the desert, tens of miles away from anything (no vegetation around or anything), stop for a moment, and in a matter of a few seconds flies would show up.

I remember two chopper pilots that came to our camp regularly, Captain Patton (who was later killed in a fixed wing in Iran) and Captain George (who made Major before I left).

Before we moved South into the stony desert one of the civilians (Percy Hargett) requested that I do a classification of the major infrastructures in the following towns: Gharyan, Yafran and Sabratah.  This entailed mapping out the water sources and water transportation, the power generators and all feeder lines, the communications (radio and telephone).  When classifying, anything major we pin-pricked the aerial photograph and took a picture of the item, and when the pictures were returned they were pasted on the back of the aerial photo.  While waiting for the pictures to be developed I turned the aerial photos into headquarters.  After getting the pictures I went to headquarters and requested the aerial photos so that I could paste them in proper order on the back.  I was asked if I had security clearance since they had been classified secret (which I did not have), and they would not let me have the aerial photos, even though I generated them.  I told them that they needed to paste the pictures on the back, and hoped they knew where they went.  Fortunately, I did have the pin-pricks and the pictures numbered.

Once when I was in Headquarters to get a flight physical we were returning to our camp in a fixed wing aircraft and on the way stopped at Climax Camp to deliver something.  There was a Chaplin there that wanted to return to Wheelus, and since I was the lowest ranking individual on the craft I was selected to stay at Climax until the next available transportation came available.  That evening a Ghibli blew in and lasted about 4 days.  The “great” thing about a Ghibli is that the temperatures remain very high day and night, and one always woke up with sand-piles in their eyes.  Incidentally, I could not pass the physical because of a hearing problem, I could not get paid (even though I wasn’t essential to the aircraft operation), and they still let me fly (Go figure!!!).  I opted to fly because I really enjoyed it. 

Most of the local Arabs always treated me quite well.  Frequently, they would invite my interpreter and myself in for Shahi, and if they were eating to join them.  Always ate out of a common bowl (only with the right hand), and when you were offered the third Shahi it was time to leave.  When I would pick up locals to guide us I would always stop and let them pray when necessary.  And in the evening they always prepared Shahi.  When we were way to the South in the stony desert Bedouins would occasionally stop in and meet with the Arab members in our camp, and sometimes invite me to join in the meal with them.

When we would go away from the camp on a work mission it would usually be for a week.  And occasionally if the individual working the flight strip next to yours was also out on a work mission in the same general area we would plan to meet somewhere in the overlap area of the photos during the evening.

We had a 16mm projector in the camp, and every now and then the Headquarters would send a movie out for us to watch.  On one occasion the light that generated the sound burned out and we didn’t have a spare in camp.  We showed the movie anyway, and each person would ad-lib with the characters.  It was more like a comedy, because we got to laughing so hard.  The movie Hatari with John Wayne and Red Buttons capturing animals for zoos came out while we were there.  Someone in the camp got a bright idea that we could make a bench for the fender of a truck, and we could try to capture a Gazelle with a pole and rope.  It was a lot of fun, but the Gazelles’ were too crafty for us.

I wasn’t happy when I got drafted into the military, but I couldn’t have been more pleased to end up in a unit that was conducting such a rewarding mission.  I have stayed in touch with my tent mate (John Weyland Raasch) since we were both discharged from the service.

Pete Peterson, Christian Meyers and John Wanamaker

Can't remember his name but we called him Peewee.

Me with my interpreter Khalifa at an Oasis.  The other individual was a goat herder that was there.

Carl Nagode and John Wanamaker

One of our camps from the air.

Our makeshift shower

This is me with our mascot Leon

Steve Bergren, John Raasch, Pete Peterson and Me

Sunset at our camp near Ghadamis

Wash day for someone.  On a nice summer day they would dry in about 15 minutes.

About 2 or 3 weeks after I was assigned to Clipper Camp, then located in Gharyan (sp?),  John Wanamaker and I were riding with this individual.  He was from New York (Brooklyn I believe) and had never driven a vehicle until he got in the service.  (He) Said there never was a need to in New York City.  We were coming down an incline and he was making a left hand turn and began to skid sideways.  He didn't know how to correct his skid and we hit a large boulder alongside the road.  We were traveling about 35 or 40 MPH and rolled 3/4 of the way over.  There were two local Arabs in the back of the truck plus a 55 gallon barrel of gasoline. The two Arabs jumped when we started to roll and were not injured.  When we came to rest all I could think about was the barrel of fuel, and my adrenalan was so high I was able to push through the canvas and get out of the back.  Wanamaker was okay, but when we asked this individual how he was all he could say is "I can't move."  That was frightening, until we discovered his head was stuck between the door and the steering wheel.  When we got him out the top of his ear was nearly severed, which we bandaged with the bottom of his T-shirt.  He then wanted me to take a picture of him by the truck.

This photo is of an individual that was at Clipper Camp for a while. One day I was bored so I made a slingshot out of some old boot laces, made a target and went out and started throwing rocks at it.  In about a half hour others started to come out with slingshots they made and joined me. I can't remember this individuals name.

This third picture is of an individual at Climax Camp.  I took this while I was stranded there after being replaced on the aircraft when the Chaplin wanted to return to Wheelus.

These next two pictures are of John Wanamaker and Weyland Raasch on a couple camels we came across.  Our interpreter showed us how to round them up and get them to lay down so they could be mounted.

This next one is of a Roman ruin near one of our camp sites.  And the following two are of another ruin in one of the strips I was working on.

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This picture is of John Weyland Raasch sitting in a seat we had mounted on one of the truck fenders.  The movie 'Hatari', with John Wayne and Red Buttons had come out about this group of men who captured animals for zoos. They had a vehicle with a bench on the fender where a person would ride with a long pole with a rope lasso attached and they could run alongside the animal and put the loop over their head.  It looked neat, so we had to try it on some gazelle.  We did capture a couple gazelle, but it wasn't as easy as they showed it to be.