CHAPTER THIRTEEN : 1978 – 1979
Let's Talk Turkey
So now I have had TWO assignments in America actually, one accompanied to Montana and another remote (or so they said) to Alaska. Clearly, it was time to head back overseas. All this according to people I didn't even know, have never seen or met. But all of us military people have that experience. I wanted to return to Iceland to Keflavik and I made those feelings known in telexes, telephone calls, the official questionnaire forms, whenever and however possible.
Of course, the request was ignored, we've all been there a time or two, and in no time at all I had my assignment, to Incirlik, AB in Turkey, about twelve miles from the city of Adana in the southern part of the country.
I left Washington's Dulles airport one evening aboard a Pan American 747 that was to take us to Rome, Italy after a brief stop at JFK, New York.
This particular plane I noted as a pilot was rattling and shaking as we were in our take-off roll down the runway and even in flight. It just didn't feel right.
Well, call it what you like, but when we landed in New York, the captain came on the intercom and said there would be a slight delay while they got us another airplane for the oversea, overnight, flight to Rome. All I can remember thinking was, good call Captain.
To this day, none of us aboard know what or even if there was a problem with the airplane but I'd bet lunch there was. About two hours in JFK and we board another 747 and we were off to Rome. The flight was smooth. We landed in Rome about 10:00 AM in the morning, Rome time and deplaned from the tarmac to the terminal.
They had just had the massacre several weeks before at this Rome airport and as we walked along the area alongside the terminal building to the entrance, about every 20 yards there was an armed guard with an automatic weapon at the ready. Comforting I thought. Another two hours there and we are at the gate boarding this time a Pan AM 707 that will take us to Istanbul, Turkey. From there well take a Turkish plane THY Airlines at the time, now Turkish Airlines to Adana, airport. When we arrived in Istanbul, it was quite a nice modern and spacious terminal. Frankly I wasn't expecting that it would be. We were directed to another section of the terminal we were in that we were told was the domestic terminal for THY Airlines.
We went down a set of stairs into what I can only describe was a filthy, rather small, one or two counter area. The difference in the two places was like night and day.
I remember seeing, of all things, a bride, still in her wedding gown and I never forgot the sight of the bottom two inches of that gown. It was a brownish-black with whatever was being picked up off the floor by the dress.
I say that because that was then. Today, Turkish Airlines, which we all knew then as THY, (they hate you) airlines has the reputation of being one of the best airlines in the world. with incredible service, great aircraft, a complete turnaround The comparison from then to now I feel is an absolute essential part of what can happen when one puts their mind to making anything better.
I was like, 20 feet from the counter when a cardboard sign went up that announced the next flight to Adana. I sprang to the counter, suitcase and all and was told by the clerk that the plane was full.
There were only 20 of us wanting to go and they were all behind me. A brief, I think dressing down between a "representative" that was with us in the terminal and the check-in clerk and suddenly we were all in line again to check-in for the flight.
We went out of the terminal to the tarmac headed for the plane, a 727 this time, and there are all our bags in a group maybe 100 feet from the plane. We are told that we must claim our bag there and give it to a baggage handler and they will load it on the airplane. I later found out, what the reason tor this was. Supposedly, and it made good sense to be honest, back then, without all the electronic scanning, devices of today, that you had to do this in case there was some explosive device in your luggage. The idea was that if there was and went off in flight, sure they' might lose the plane most likely, but they would know whose ever bag it was, was also aboard the plane. Primitive even back then, but they were right, it would be effective. Suicide bombers had not yet been invented.
Arriving at the base, getting quarters, settled and visiting my new radio and television station was the first priority in basically that order.
But as always, no matter where you go in the world in the military, there is also an incoming briefing, by several officials, military and civilian to introduce you to everything from base policies to in-country rules, laws and regulations. They are always helpful and most places, very necessary and useful.
In Turkey, the government at the time was at odds with the US Congress. Apparently, they were promised a package of assistance, money, equipment, etcetera and all that had been delivered when I was there, were excuses as to why there was a holdup on the promises made.
So while I was assigned on this tour, there was a bit of retaliation such as we could get first class letters but no packages and other minor things.
An interesting aspect of this assignment was that the Air Base was retained as Turkish property under their jurisdiction, NOT the US Government. That meant that the local police could come on the base at any time to do inspections for any reason. So the briefings we had were very important to remember. For one, drugs, including marijuana, use could, be punishable by the death penalty. Smuggling could bring life imprisonment.
There was also this thing called a "bayonami." This was a list you had to fill out and turn in to the local government officials. Anything of ANY REAL VALUE. For example, a car or anything that required electric power or plugged in was placed on the list. Most of us didn't have a car, but we all had electronic items. They were allowed in to the country but were put on this list.
When you were leaving the base for another assignment, out came list from an inspector and everything that was on the incoming list, had to be checked off as leaving with you. If the two lists didn't match perfectly from the arrival to the departure, fines or confiscation was the order of the day.
I had an electric window fan. It had to be listed. One day it fell on the floor when I opened the window and a blade broke. Of course it was useless at that point, but I had to take it with me when my tour was over.
I had a rather unique part time job as a club bartender while I was there. It was unique because these positions were all assigned to Turkish nationals. I became friends with a lot of nationals on the base and their union said I was allowed to tend bar filling in for those that were on vacations in spring, summer and fall.
Fact is we hung out together a lot and it really helped me with a lot of things from buying souvenirs to ship home like rugs and meerschaum pipes and other things unique to the country and simply not available anywhere else in the world. There were also a couple of interesting, almost humorous things I clearly remember about this tour.
One of the most interesting was when the elected Miss America visited the base in that year toward the end of her reign.
When she was on the base, I got the nod to be one of her escorts.
The interesting, not funny almost humorous department was when a C-141 military cargo plane pilot mistook the local Adana airport for the runway at the base about 20 miles away.
One of the controller's latter told me, he called the tower at the base and announced they were on final approach for the runway. The tower responded that they were not. The pilot then announced he had just touched down. Sure enough, he'd touched down but it was at the commercial airport at ADANA in the city. The plane was almost immediately surrounded by Turkish police.
I never heard what actually happened to the pilots or the plane but I mention it because it did happen and was actually another part in a way of the next little story.
I had mentioned before that packages for military personnel were indefinitely held up due to the little tit for tat feud the government at the time was having with the US Congress.
As mentioned earlier, it was all over promised benefits package, never acted on.
Well, parked on the base tarmac near a maintenance hangar was a giant C-5 cargo plane, the biggest in the Air Force inventory. It was in need of a new engine and engine parts. But, they could not get the needed parts through as an actual delivery. All airplanes that would come and go from Incirlik Air Base and even those on temporary duty there were allowed on 30 days to be stationed there. Odd by any standards, but the rule and a fact none the less.
There was a rule that could have been invoked by the Turkish nation that said any aircraft that was on Turkish property, and that remember included the base, for more than 30 days, (all aircraft were transitory) could and probably would be declared the property of the Turkish government.
The plane with a broken engine obviously couldn't fly. At about the 27th day, trying to get the parts and engine needed to avoid this problematic rule, a young airman (I was told) came up with an absolutely brilliant solution. Several hydraulic jacks were placed under the airplane to lift the landing gear off the ground. The gear was then retracted and technically the huge plane was airborne. All it had to be was temporarily airborne or transit and the rule no longer applied. It worked.
Maybe some of you remember the book and later the made for TV movie "Midnight Express." This true story was about three civilian college student tourists, two women and one man on tour in Turkey.
Now the story goes that they were being given a ride for whatever reason in country by a fourth person with a van. Turkish police stopped them, the van was searched and the driver fled. The three passengers were arrested by the police for drug possession when they were found in the van they were traveling.
The drugs apparently were not theirs, but It made no difference.
They were convicted and sent to the Adana prison, I believe initially for life. The prison was not too far from the base. When I got there and the book came out about the story and later the movie, both were banned in the country, so I found out after the fact. That fact was that when I was in the USA on my leave in the middle of my tour, I found paperback copy of the book and put it in my luggage when I returned to my assignment at Incirlik. I simply had not finished reading it so brought it back with me, being Interested in this story. I volunteered with a team of three others to visit the prison, hopefully meet these three. That's what we did and we'd bring them a few boxes of food, newspapers, magazines and often cigarettes etc. from the base. That was allowed.
The US State Department had been trying to secure their release, but was not terribly successful at least not for the first few years. Actually, these efforts went on for six years, starting long before my assignment there.
Inside the Adana prison, reminded me of that terminal in the domestic area of the Istanbul airport almost a year before. But prison conditions I actually saw, were much worse.
One of the women prisoners we went to see was pregnant. Of course nobody knew why or how. It was eye opening to say the very least and if anyone needed a reason to pay attention to and make sure to follow all the laws of the country, that was the motivating reason.
In fact, I remarked in a group base meeting once that all young assignees to Incirlik should take a mandated tour of the prison. That would clearly drive home any message about lawbreaking. To my knowledge it was never adopted.
There was a nice golf course we played a few times right on the base. In the summer however it was humid and in the upper 80's far too many days for my liking certainly.
Turkish military soldiers were people you had to have the greatest respect for as a determined, well trained fighting force. They were subjected to all sorts of "training" scenarios.
As we went from shot to shot and hole to hole we saw many of them standing in the hot sun either at attention in many cases or as they say parade rest (not much different in this case) in military terms, wearing heavy winter pea coats as we called them.
All in all, I'd have to say that while I'd rather have been in Iceland without the drills, processed food we had to endure, gas mask training and all of that, on a scale of one to ten, I'd honestly have to give it a six as a tour and a place to be on an assignment. Certainly it was a bare knuckles learning experience.
Soon enough, the tour was over and I received an assignment to the Strategic Air Command headquarters, in Bellevue, Nebraska, near Omaha. That is next.