This is the photograph of the second course for Teleprinter Operators and Message Centre Chiefs to be run at the Muhabere Okulu (Signals School) at Mamak, Ankara, Turkey. Also in the photograph are the Cadre. It is so long ago that I hardly remember the names of them.
In the middle row are a Yedek Subay (?), Orhan Hataysal (Intepreter), Jemal Shenkartal (forgive my spelling), Major Bernard Pig (later changing is name to Ashmore), Major (Bin Bashi) Isener, Captain (Yusbasi) Mehmet Caner, Mr. Clarke (An American), My Technical Support member of the Cadre.
In the bottom row are from the right, Capt Ozel (wearing my cap), Bashgedikli (?) another Tech Support man. Sorry, but I cannot remember the remainder.
You might have observed that this group of Senior Non Commisioned Officers are a little younger than the first course. When we were trying to establish a time scale for the various parts of the course, we had to take into account things like one's dexterity. We think we got it right in the end. These men finished each module of the course exactly on time and reached a very high level of competence. It was a great pleasure to have been responsible for their training.
One thing that I learned during this experience was that the Turkish Army is very disciplined. That proved a little of a problem during the first course but we overcame that with the second and subsequent courses by letting the intepreters take a greater role in the instructing. It was our intention to have people trained as instructors as well as everything else. Quite a task.
To this day I remember with gratitude the help given me by those around me at that time.
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