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This page was updated: 01 JUNE 2008
Look for the RED highlights for recent additions.
( PINK highlights were added in MAY 2008).
This is a working page for information about the ETR Range Tracking Station #7, Grand Turk AAFB (GTK AUXILIARY AIR FORCE BASE), and I will be adding info received as time permits. You as a former Radio Corporation of America (RCA) or Pan American Airways (PAA) down range employee (rangerats) can share information with me. If you have info. about your time on Grand Turk AAFB please send it to me. (Other employeees who worked at the ETR Grand Turk base are also welcome to submit information).
Click on the yellow box below to go back to the main page of the Range Rat Introduction page where you will find information about downrange people, where they worked, where they are now, their email address (if they wanted it published), what stations/ships they worked on, and news about those who have died etc etc.
I now have a Range Rat Sign-in book, to be used exclusively by Range Rats (and their famlies) that you can leave a comment of your experience on the range, where you worked, etc, etc. (See the other entrys in this book for examples, if you leave a comment or message not relating to the range the entry will eventually be deleted, for instance a "Howdy" does not qualify as an entry!). You can give your email address (its not required but its requested) so that other range rats can contact you.
Please do NOT use my "GUEST BOOK" to sign in, that book is for collectors who visit my website, and that is why I made a seperate book for use by Range Rats, called the Range Rat Sign In Book.
Perhaps you are looking for someone who you used to work with that you lost contact with, you could include it in your message in the sign-in book, or better yet send me an email and I can include it on this page.
Range Rat Sign-in Book
If you worked on the Grand Turk AAF Base, I would like to hear from you.
Send Email to Joe
01 JUNE 2008, RANGE RAT JOE FRASKETI WORKING FOR A CHANGE.:
Click on above image for an expanded view
- This photo was in the uprange files, probably taken by an RCA photographer to show the various Grand Turk telemetry positions, when the files were being cleaned out years later, someone who knew this photo was of me send it back down range to me. This shows your webmaster testing the Ampex 7 track tape recorders, it looks like I am performing a drag test of the reels. I believe the photo was taken in the early 1960's as I recognize some of the Project Mercury equipment that is situated at the extreme left of the expanded view. The equipment in front of me was for additional testing of the Ampex recorders. In the expanded view at the extreme right was the patch board rack and directly behind me was the telemetry receivers and the Sanborn recorders. Behind me was the other part of the building which we shared with the communications receivers section.
25 MAY 2008: A PARTIAL LIST OF GTK BASE COMMANDERS:
- I went through my old downrange travel orders (yes, I am a packrat) and came up with these names below, the dates are from the travel orders, so they may have served earlier or longer than noted.
Maj. Charles C. Maddox, July 1958
Capt. Sheril D. Huff, Nov. 1958 - Mar 1959
Maj. T.A. Jankowski, Aug 1959 - Jun 1960
Capt. Alvin R. Garner, Aug 1960 - Nov 1960
Capt. Donald A. Kaehlert, May 1961 - Oct 1961
Capt John P. Portasik, Nov 1961 - Apr 1962
- I would like to add more names to this list, to make it more complete, if you can remember who the base cmdr was when you worked at the Grand Turk base, send me an email, with the years that you can remember.
12 JULY 2007, TWO GTK FRIENDS GET TOGETHER:
- When Don Halter signed the Range Rat Sign-In book on 03 May 06, he made a comment that he was looking for another down ranger, Hank Taylor, who was his best man when he got married. I knew both Don and Hank when I also worked at Grand Turk back in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Although Hank Taylor hadn't signed the
RR Sign-In Book, I did some super sluething on the internet and "found" Hank's current address and phone number, (Isn't the WWW great!) and passed this info. back to Don. Needless to say, these two old RR's got connected.
This past June (07) Don sent this email message: "I went to Fla. last week for a family reunion, and at the same time went up to Melbourne to visit with Hank Taylor. It turned out to be his 47th wedding anniversary so we went to dinner to celebrate his and mine at the same time, his was June 11 and mine was June 15th (44years). Had a great visit, and he said that he would sign the RR Sign-In Book, but I don't know if he will remember, but I will keep bugging him.
Had a great visit, and here is a picture of the two of us, I'm on the left, Hank is on the right."
05 MAY 2007: OLD PAN AM BASE TURNED INTO TOURIST ATTRACTION:
- Last year Dale Beadle of Louisville KY (who was a PAN AM Air Traffic Controller at Turk from 94-97) wrote and told me to check out the Margaritaville.com website. He said Jimmy Buffett and Carnival Cruise Line now have a huge facility on Grand Turk, where the old PA AM base was.
Click on this link to go directly to the Margaritaville Grand Turk page: It's a direct link to the Grand Turk pages and can be found here. When you get there, at the bottom of the page click on the line that says "Check out the Grand Turk’s Photo Gallery"
- Grand Turk was never like this when I worked there in 1958-63, I much prefer it the old way! It now looks like something out of Hollywood.
11 FEB. 2007, DOWN RANGE FACTS GLEENED FROM THE SIGN-IN BOOK OR FROM EMAILS:
- Charlie Zoranski commented that he was the last Base Manager on Grand Turk and Russ Reed was the first Grand Turk Base Manager! Charlie was also Base Manager at Antigua during the 70’s & early 80’s besides being BOM twice at Grand Turk.
05 NOV 2006, "BASE OPERATIONS MANAGER for PAA at GRAND TURK - TOM ELDER:
I knew Tom during the early 60s when I worked at Grand Turk. You probably knew him from there or from another island as he worked at quite a few stations. Grand Turk was his first assignment down range. Did you know he wrote a book called "Travels and Explorations, a trilogy about Travel, Hypnosis and Anomalies" which was published in paperback in 2002? One section of the book is devoted to his work with Pan American Airways and also the down range islands, with seperate sections for Grand Turk, Eleuthera, Antigua and Ascension. The back cover of the book reads:
"This is an autobiography of a more than ordinary man who lived in extraordinary times. When World War II began and Africa was threatened, the U.S. did not have adequate air bases to fly both personnel and supplies to the African front. Tom was one of many men who were sent to construct the needed air bases.
Tom worked for a number of years for Pan American World Airways. His background in psychology lent itself to a life-long interest in the field of hypnosis and its use in teaching and in behavior modification as well as its production of interesting anomalies. His Pan Am assignments included assignments to South America where Tom learned to speak fluent Spanish.
Tom worked on America's Space Program for Pan Am on some of the islands used as tracking stations by the U.S. Air Force. He met many of America's original astronauts.
He traveled widely and often and each trip brought on its own adventures of discovery and increased Tom's interest in history.
Now married and retired, Tom still pursues his interest in the use of hypnosis in teaching and in behavior modification. He has been a licensed practitioner for many years."
Unfortunately, a few years later, Tom died in March 2004, just a few months after Down Ranger Larry Wenger and his wife Alice went to visit with him. While they were there they picked up a copy of his book for me which he graciously signed "To my good friend Joe, With best wishes, Tom Elder"
One interesting point about the book is that it is written with the help of Dwight A. Collier, another downranger, who most of us know him as "Speedy". While the book does not list Speedy on the front or back cover, he is listed on the title pages inside, and there is one page about his interesting background.
I think you will find Tom's book interesting to read and it is still available at Amazon.com so click here.
26 OCT 2006, SEEBEE CONSTRUCTION WORKER AT GRAND TURK 1958 :
- Jim Regan ( njseabee7@aol.com ) from Toms River,New Jersey wrote: "I was stationed on Turks with Mobile Construction Batallion Seven (US Navy Sea Bees) from about March of 1958 for 14 months. We are the group that built the entire Naval Facility at
the other end of the Island from the RCA/PAA site. We also built a base on San Sal, and a Coast Guard LORAN station on South Caicos.
- Jim wanted to share this interesting story that happened while he was at GTK. He said: "It was about one of our walk-in reefers at the SeaBee base. Evidently there was something wrong with the motor on the compressor that interfered with your tracking of the missiles fired downrange, and they notified us every time there was to be a launch, so we could shut down that reefer until the missile had splashed down."
- Jim asked if I knew a guy named Curry, that worked at the Grand Turk base? Curry lived with his family with Rev. David H.K. Sherif & his wife & son." Can't say that I do remember anyone by that name. Does anyone remember Curry and the Reverend? No doubt Jim visited the Conch Club while he was on Turk, so maybe someone out there knew him too. It's always good to hear from anyone who helped construct the bases on the range islands, even tho they weren't range rats. Its good to give credit to the Sea Bees for all the construction work they did on the islands.
22 MAY 2006 (WHO CAN REMEMBER......
THE TOMBSTONE AT GRAND TURK TELEMETRY?):
Another early Grand Turk RR now found...... Don Halter made an entry in the Range-Rat sign in book on 03 May 06, and inquired about another RR by the name of Henry "Hank" Taylor and wanted to know his whereabouts as Hank was best man at his wedding. Well I knew both Don and Hank from my late 1950's Grand Turk days, and with a little computer sleuthing I was able to locate Hank who is still living in Indialantic FL and so Don was able to make contact with him. So far Hank has not yet signed the Range Rat book, but maybe after this entry he will.
Now about the tombstone... When I arrived at Grand Turk in 1958 my two bosses at telemetry were Bud Hollenbeck (Manager) and Hank Taylor (Chief Technician). One day while I was checking out the telemetry grounds I found an unusual tombstone under the wooden tower that held one of the telemetry antennas.
Evidently someone thought a lot of my two bosses to make this tombstone for Bud and Hank...
Can anyone provide any additional info. on this tombstone?
10 MAY 2006 (GRAND TURK HISTORY):
In an email from Fred Perkins last year, he wrote: "I was thinking about when you and I were on GTK in the 58-60 timeframe. I remember doing the "Turk Times" newsletter there. Aided and abetted by Bert Berthelsen, he of the different colored socks. I remember signing up to go on the Mercury program, which had a tracking station in Zanzibar, where they spoke Swahili, and Bert was teaching us a class in Swahili. RCA wound up not getting the contract for the land stations, and I wound up working on the USNS Coastal Sentry, the Indian Ocean Ship of Project Mercury. Those were indeed fun times Joe."
Well this is one email I overlooked answering when received, so I will answer it here since other Range Rats might find my reply of interest:
Fred: Since I am a packrat from way back I went thru my storage boxes and located some of the "Turk Times" newsletters, including the first one issued. The first issue is mimeographed and wouldnt take a good scan but here is the front page of Volume 1, No. 7 from 31 Oct 1959. The front page contains 3 articles:
1. Article about the Garden Club activities of Bob Husby, Dave Atha and Bob Ellis, (all of PanAm Supply), and Red Richards of Plant Maintenance. The Base Commander Maj. Ted Jankowski was also mentioned.
2. Article about former BOM Rawleigh Tremain who designed new Turks and Caicos postage stamps for the islands new constitution of July 4, 1959.
3. Article about a 5 foot shark killed by skin divers: Jack Little, Ron Ramey, Bob Rouse, Walt Bloomquist and Al Fraga.
How many of these names do you remember?
If you know where these RR's are please let me know,
and why not contact them and tell them about my Range Rat Info. Page?
To read the front page of this copy of the "Turk Times" Vol.1, No.7
click here.
REMEMBERING FATHER AND SON WORKING ON RANGE AT THE SAME TIME (this bit of info. added Jan 08, 2006):
- How many people remember old timer Ralph N. Cron, who worked in RCA/Timing at Grand Turk, and before that at St. Lucia (I knew him at both stations 1956-70's). Ralph also worked on the USNS Coastal Crusader (see his picture on the "Range Rat Ships Page", its a group picture added 03 May 2007).
Did you know that his son also worked on the range at the same time, I dont recall the son's name but he was a Cron, and pretty much looked like his father, with the red hair and freckles except he was a lot thinner. Does anyone know the son's name and his present location? Here is a space envelope prepared by and signed by Ralph for the Apollo 13 flight at Grand Turk:
Ralph Cron serviced collectors envelopes for the Apollo flights when he was stationed there, the above one is with a special design.
Does anyone know of other range rat families that worked on the range at the same time, that they would like to report? Like father/son, mother/daugher, husband/wife, cousins, twins, etc. (Course in my days on the range there weren't many females working the range, like there is today, so I only know of the two Cron's personally).
Range Rats Friends that I have contacted by email long before I started this Range Rat Information Page, plus a few I've added since then, (Grand Turk is listed here, please note that this list may now be incomplete):
- GTK - Grand Turk
- Glenn Brown
- Marvin "MO" Calvert
- Dwight "Speedy" Collier
- Jay Grimes
- Chuck Hewett
- Larry Wenger
- Dave Thompson
POSTAGE STAMPS ABOUT THE RANGE
The left stamp issued by the USA on the day Astronaut John Glenn
successfully splashed down in Grand Turk waters.
The middle stamp issued by the Bahama Islands shows a radar antenna. Grand Bahama Island, Station No. 3, had a radar station.
the right stamp issued by the Dominican Republic shows the Mercury capsule orbiting earth. There was a tracking station (No. 8) in the Dominican Republic, at Sabana de la Mar, in 1956, however (DOM) closed in 1957 long before the Mercury flights of 1960-63.
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