Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Merhaba Turkey: American Military in Turkey

I accidentally found a web site dedicated to the US military personnel served in Turkey: Merhaba Turkey: "These are the stories of those whose lives changed while serving in the American Military in Turkey". Basically it lists the names of service men, where and when did they serve in Turkey and their memories. I like the site very much! For example, read the following interesting anecdote of SSGT Steve Slezak who served in Diyarbakir in 1970/1:

"I went to work at the radio station for my shift, as usual, which
went into the night hours. Sirens going off, and a call from the Air
Police informed me that the base was under attack from Kurdish
bandits...the guys who looked like they were right out of a grade-B
Arabian movie. They had come down in force, to steal copper out of the
radar emplacements (from what I was told). The copper was sold
downtown."

Plus, Lt. Neil S. Reyer, USAF wrote an article on the "Kordon Hotel" he helped to launch in Izmir in 1966: Izmir's Kordon Hotel - The Beginnings, A2/C Lewis B. Culkin Jr, USAF shared his memories of Trabzon in 1958/9 and A/2C Charles Sibert, USAF submitted a lenghty article on Incirlik Air Base, Adana detailing his service there between March 29, 1958 - January 10, 1960 with a lot of photos. Note that Mr Sibert is looking for Seyit Demirel, Turkish Air Force from Izmir who was sent to Dreux Air Base, France in 1960 for radio training.

I think the photos of this site is very interesting: there are many photographs of Turkey shot between 1950s-70s.