Syracuse University - Skytop USAF -  1962-1963

Memories of David Ullian Larson

Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York, is where I went for language training. The classes were held at Skytop situated at the foot of the ski lift hill near the Drumlins Golf Course.  

Here is a vintage aerial view of the school grounds as taken from the top of the ski hill.

Three of my buddies and I tried several times to take a toboggan down the ski hill near the barracks. We never made it. We always fell off on the way down. 

This nine month thirty-two semester credit,  Syracuse University series of courses in Russian Language, history, and culture, was taught by native Russia speakers. Infact they spoke very little English. Classes were taught in Russian. Even grammar analysis in Russian. Here are pictures of our faculty.

If anyone can make corrections and improvements, send me an email at dularson@bellsouth.net 

Here are eight pictures taken inside the building where we had classes. Give me a hand to identify these teachers and students. Send me an email and I will post the names as I get them.

Of course the spellings on these pictures are not correct. Corrections and improvements welcomed.

Mrs. Skroderens (the boss) and Mrs. Ubans


A typical classroom with a group of guys.


Mr. Gravchenko, Igor, Moses Tarasevitch


Mrs. Ubans (Mama)


Left, Middle Mr. Tarasevitch, Right Mrds. Orlova


Mrs. Garkhushka


Mrs. Ossipov with Kent cigarette. 
Pochemu vyi ne dali mne vashu domashnuyu rabotu.


Mrs. Eurmaluck

Sorry to say, I am missing a picture of the Xhorosho guy. He was an older fellow who looked Chinese but wasn't. He said Xhorosho over and over and over.

There are stories associated with each teacher. They will remain private. But I will gladly admit that these folks were dedicated. They had a difficult job to do. From the first day, we learned quite a bit of Russian Language in those nine months starting with nothing.

Classes were five days and homework was five nights per week. Homework was huge. Vocabulary and dictation practice seemed beyond anyone. Yet there were guys in the class who seemed to learn everything quickly. Not me. I attended many special sessions for extra help. Participation was voluntary. I have no specific memory of when or where these sessions were held. But I remember needing extra help. There were a hand full of guys that did not make it through the program. Here is the set of orders for guys in the class that I was a part of.  Luckily I made it to graduation.

We lived in Quonset huts without air conditioning and only minimal heat. My favorite past time was hitchhiking up to the Adirondacks and the Thousand Islands area. So on Fridays before it got too cold, I'd set out to see how far I could get. Then on Saturday, I'd hitchhike back. This was a way to see the sights. It's a good thing I never got stuck somewhere without a way back to the school That would have been bad.

Click HERE to read the account of another airman from the late fifties. Ever wonder about the missing barracks where only a concrete pad remained? Read about the fire that killed seven in 1958. Chilling.

The military aspects beyond uniforms was minimal. No parades. No formations. No curfew. No passes. Just plenty of opportunity to study and pass or not study and fail.

The cafeteria had good food. I liked the vanilla ice cream with cashew nuts. One scoop at a time was the rule. So I kept going back. If the line got long, I'd get mine and get back in line. Buy the time I got back to the guy with the scoop, my bowl was empty. A worker at the cafeteria tested positive for hepatitis. So while I wads there. I had to line up and get a shot in the butt. This wouldn't have been so bad. But we had to watch as the nurse jabbed the guy in front of us with a huge needle. I guess it went in a couple inches. Then I knew the event would be painful. It was. Had I not watched, it would have been just as painful.

I turned 20 while in Syracuse. John Dodge (my roommate) and I lit up to mark the occasion. I do not smoke and didn't then. That cigar in the picture was probably my last. Diarrhea just isn't fun. That's how that cigar affected me. Note the short timer calendar of days to go.

We may look back with fond memories on those days. But while I was living through them, the times were pitiful, mostly. Thank goodness for rose colored glasses. I must have gallons of the brain chemical which lets a person forget bad stuff that happens to them. 

While students at Syracuse, four of us would go up to the Adirondack mountains to hunt.  Phil Alman, Miles Baker , John Likeric, and David Larson.

We also liked to drive around and look for something to do that was exciting. In winter at Lake Ontario in Oswego, New York, we ventured out on the ice flows. These photographs reflect our youthful ignorance. If anyone had fallen through the ice, they'd probably still be there. The rope was a nice touch, though. We did not venture out when the wave action was huge. 

Once, on a Saturday morning, looking for something to do, I went down to the farm day labor office. Eventually a stake bed truck drove up. The driver said he needed twenty pickers. I followed the crown. We went out to Baldwinsville. The guy had a strawberry farm. So I picked strawberries all morning until the job was done. The woman next to me had long skinny fingers. She could coax those strawberries off a plant faster than anyone else. One minute we would be next to one another and the next she would be a way down the row. We were paid by the number of boxes we picked. She was paid probably five times what I was paid. I thought and still think that is a great method of payment. 

To this day I remember more Russian than I do remember German even though I lived in Germany and have been back as a tourist probably fifteen times on vacation since 1966.

On occasion I have been able to meet and exchange a few words and phrases with Russian speakers, Infact the other day my wife and I had lunch at a small restaurant in our own little town. The waitress seemed like she had a Russian accent. So I asked where she was from. Riga, she said. She was Lithuanian but could speak Russian, seemingly wit ease. I managed to get off a few words and phrases. She was polite and said I did well. Well at least she ran across one American who knew something beyond da and nyet.

My experience finding golf balls came in handy at Skytop. I often went behind the campus to Drumlins Golf Course. I found the most balls in a small pond. It was just the right depth to allow me to bend over and feel the bottom for balls. The first several times I went through the pond looking for balls, I pulled out bottles, branches, and other stuff that got in the way. Then eventually I could find the balls quickly. And I found quite a few. I did this at night in the dark. The sound of sprinklers still reminds me of looking for golf balls.

Here's some background on the Defense Language Institute Programs:

 The Defense Language Institute traces its roots to the eve of America’s entry into World War II, when the U.S. Army established a secret school at the Presidio of San Francisco to teach the Japanese language. Classes began November 1, 1941, with four instructors and 60 students in an abandoned airplane hangar at Crissy Field. The students were mostly second-generation Japanese-Americans (Nisei) from the West Coast. Nisei Hall is named in honor of these earliest students, whose heroism is portrayed in the Institute’s Yankee Samurai exhibit. The headquarters building and academic library bear the names of our first commandant, Colonel Kai E. Rasmussen, and the director of academic training, John F. Aiso.

During the war the Military Intelligence Service Language School (MISLS), as it came to be called, grew dramatically. When Japanese-Americans on the West Coast were moved into internment camps in 1942, the school moved to temporary quarters at Camp Savage, Minnesota. By 1944 the school had outgrown these facilities and moved to nearby Fort Snelling. More than 6,000 graduates served throughout the Pacific Theater during the war and the subsequent occupation of Japan. Three academic buildings are named for Nisei graduates who fell in action: George Nakamura, Frank Hachiya, and Y. “Terry” Mizutari.

In 1946 the school moved to the historic Presidio of Monterey. By that time little remained of the original Spanish presidio, which had been established in 1770 to protect the San Carlos Borromeo Mission in Carmel. The city of Monterey had grown up near the mission and presidio to become the capital of the Spanish (later Mexican) province of Alta California. Commodore Sloat captured the town during the War with Mexico in 1846. Following the Spanish-American War the U.S. Army rebuilt the post, beginning in 1902, and after World War I it became the home of the 11th Cavalry. Nobel laureate John Steinbeck captures the spirit of Monterey during this period in his novels Tortilla Flat (1935) and Cannery Row (1945).

At the Presidio of Monterey, the renamed Army Language School expanded rapidly in 1947–48 to meet the requirements of America’s global commitments during the Cold War. Instructors, including native speakers of more than thirty languages and dialects, were recruited from all over the world. Russian became the largest language program, followed by Chinese, Korean, and German. After the Korean War (1950–53), the school developed a national reputation for excellence in foreign language education. The Army Language School led the way with the audio-lingual method and the application of educational technology such as the language laboratory.

The U.S. Air Force met most of its foreign language training requirements in the 1950s through contract programs at universities such as Yale, Cornell, Indiana, and Syracuse. The U.S. Navy taught foreign languages at the Naval Intelligence School in Washington, D.C. In 1963, to promote efficiency and economy, these programs were consolidated into the Defense Foreign Language Program. A new headquarters, the Defense Language Institute (DLI), was established in Washington, D.C., and the former Army Language School commandant, Colonel James L. Collins, Jr., became the Institute’s first director. The Army Language School became the DLI West Coast Branch, and the foreign language department at the Naval Intelligence School became the DLI East Coast Branch. The contract programs were gradually phased out. The DLI also took over the English Language School at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, which became the DLI English Language Center (DLIELC).

During the peak of American involvement in Vietnam (1965–73), the DLI stepped up the pace of language training. While regular language training continued unabated, more than 20,000 service personnel studied Vietnamese through the DLI’s programs, many taking a special eight-week military adviser “survival” course. From 1966 to 1973, the Institute also operated a Vietnamese branch using contract instructors at Biggs Air Force Base near Fort Bliss, Texas (DLI Support Command, later renamed the DLI Southwest Branch). Dozens of the DLI’s graduates gave their lives during the war. Four student dormitories today bear the names of graduates who died in that conflict: Chief Petty Officer Frank W. Bomar († 1970), Sergeant First Class Alfred H. Combs († 1965), Marine Gunnery Sergeant George P. Kendall, Jr.(† 1968), and Staff Sergeant Herbert Smith, Jr. († 1965).

In the 1970s the Institute’s headquarters and all resident language training were consolidated at the West Coast Branch and renamed the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center (DLIFLC). (The Institute continues to operate a small contract foreign language training program in Washington, D.C.) With the advent of the All-Volunteer Forces and the opening of most specialties to women, the character of the student population underwent a gradual change. In 1973, the newly formed U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) assumed administrative control, and in 1976, all English language training operations were returned to the U.S. Air Force, which operates DLIELC to this day.

Since the end of the Vietnam War, the Institute has experienced an exciting period of growth and change. The DLIFLC won academic accreditation in 1979, and in 1981 the position of Academic Dean (later called Provost) was reestablished. A joint-service General Officer Steering Committee was established in 1981 to advise on all aspects of the Defense Foreign Language Program. This function is now performed by the Defense Foreign Language Program Policy Committee. In the early 1980s, a rise in student input forced the Institute to open two temporary branches: a branch for Air Force enlisted students of Russian at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas (1981–1987), and another for Army enlisted students of Russian, German, Korean, and Spanish at the Presidio of San Francisco (1982–1988). The increase in student input also resulted in an extensive facilities expansion program on the Presidio. Support to command language programs worldwide grew, with greater availability of programs such as Gateway and Headstart.

Numerous academic changes have been made as well. More instructors have been recruited, new instructional materials and tests have been written, and a comprehensive academic master plan has been developed. Teaching methodology has become more and more proficiency-oriented, team teaching has been implemented, and the average staffing ratio has been increased to two instructors per ten-student section. A new rank-in-person personnel system for the faculty is being prepared for introduction in Fiscal Year 1996.

In recent years, the Institute has taken on challenging new missions, including support for arms control treaty verification, the War on Drugs, Operation Desert Storm, and Operation Restore Hope. In the spring of 1993, the Base Realignment and Closure Commission rejected suggestions that the Institute be moved or closed, and recommended that its mission be continued at the present location. An agreement with Monterey Peninsula College was signed in early 1994, allowing as many as 27 credit hours earned in any of the DLIFLC’s Basic Programs to be counted toward an Associate of Arts degree.

The DLIFLC has established itself as a national pacesetter in foreign language education, resident and nonresident, using cutting-edge educational technology such as computers, interactive video, and video tele-training to train and support military linguists. In the years ahead, the Institute will continue to provide top-quality language instruction to support critical national requirements.