Merry Christmas & Other News

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM TURKEY! ! ! !

It has been over a month since I posted - so I have a lot of news. Things are slowly getting more organized at our house. We are having a big Christmas Eve party that's kind of forcing us to clean up quickly. 17 adults and 10 kids are coming...that we know of. Possibly as many as 15 more people. We didn't bring any Christmas decorations but the house actually looks pretty good. Pomegranate martinis will be the theme drink. We will take plenty of drinks...I mean pictures.

Speaking of pictures. Hopefully, soon I will be able to post more. We may not get Internet access at home for a while - if ever. But since the home computer is up, I will be trying to find time to put some pictures on disc and move them to the blog at the library. The only pictures I can access at the library are the ones that happen to be in our gmail. But it's been a while since I posted - so here are some photos from a trip we took in November to Anavarza castle within an hour of Incirlik. It's interesting to visit Turkish archaeological sites. There's no one around to say "...don't touch that." Most sites have never even been excavated, as is the case with this one. Now it may not look like we are high up in some of these photos so I downloaded this one below from off the net to show you how high up we climbed:

A quick description of Anzavara Castle from Mehmet Birbiri who writes a column called "Ask Mehmet" (clever ain't he) in the Incirlik newspaper:

"We have so many historical sites in our neighborhood, but very few know about Anavarza Castle, one of the most striking historic cities, which served as the capital of the kingdom of Armenia Minor for centuries. Anavarza was built by the Assyrians in the ninth century B.C. Built on a sheer rock ridge, Anavarza Castle is actually two structures; an outer fortification and an inner castle. Both overlook the ruins of a Roman city by the same name. Your first view of the castle may be daunting. While driving through the village by the castle, the structure can be seen at the top of the ridge several hundred feet above you. The castle can only be reached by climbing. What first appears to be a route fit only for a mountain goat quickly reveals itself to
be accessible because many steps were carved into the rocks. Still, it takes approximately 20 minutes to make the climb. Just a little way up the ridge you will see the ruin of an ancient amphitheater on your left. Climbing higher still, you see what looks a little like a street map. The actual city of Anavarza was swallowed by the great earthquake of 525 B.C. and has not been excavated to this day. What you are seeing are roofs of buildings and streets that outline a small city buried almost 10 feet below the ground. Once you are near the top of the outer castle wall, you will have a superb view of the countryside to the west. On a clear day
you can see several of the nearby towns and even Snake, Black, Tumlu and Kozan castles a few miles away. Reaching the top, you come to the main wall of the outer fortifications complete with intersecting rooms and underground chambers. For the more adventurous, try walking along the top of the wall. You can almost feel what it was like to be a sentry on that wall hundreds of years ago. This is also a great place for a picnic. As you look north from the main wall, you can see how the ridge narrows and rises with the main castle in the distance. Between you and the main castle are the ruins of an 11th century Armenian castle. Continuing up the gradual rise toward the castle, you will reach a dry moat leading to a tunnel-type building and another dry moat. Watch your guide carefully because he knows all the steps and handholds possible. You may tour and climb the castle by yourself or get one of the villagers who will ask you if you need a guide. If you decide to have a guide, ask how much it will cost before starting the tour. In every direction is a sheer drop of several hundred feet. My advice when visiting castles, ruins and ancient sites; either walk or look, but don’t do both at the same time. Around the right side of the second moat and through a tunnel is the main part of the castle. Fortified on the west and north ends, it is marked by two horseshoe like towers. This part of Anavarza is in relatively good condition. On your way down, the guide should take you along a slightly different route to show you the burial crypts."

Below, we are climbing to the top:

Below, you can see Karen and I having just completed the 15 minute climb up to the top of the mountain where the castle is. That's our friend Corina Gestring just entering the castle. Corina and her husband Ken were kind enough to let us go with them and get off base for a day. The guy is a local Turk. They try to tag along and get paid for being pseudo tour guides. Karen had just found out she was pregnant the day before this trip.

Below, preggo Karen looking fine at the top of the castle:

A black and white of Karen and I at the top:

Climbing inside a tower:

It's surprising to find sheep way up there when you get to the top. As you can see, they are very sure-footed and walk the stairs and edges without problems:

Baby news! We did have our first ultrasound and we were able to see an image of the baby and see the baby's heart beating. We still don't know the sex. We have another appointment on 7 January. We know we will be going to Landstuhl in Germany in mid June. I will try to get there in June as well. Karen is currently due 18 July. And the great news is Caroline Haley plans to try to come out and stay with Karen. Also, Karen's boss from Edward's NAF, Tom, has offered to put us up in his home in Germany and maybe even take us to Paris. Karen is excited.

Work is a whirlwind. There are only five mental health techs here including me. I will lose 3 of them between Feb and June with three new ones coming in. Wes Williams is leaving us for Canon Air Force Base (AFB) in New Mexico. His replacement will be Jennifer Hoag from Korea. Then we lose Seana Creech who is getting out. Her replacement will be Kanisha Carson from The Azores. I was Kanisha's supervisor back at Sheppard in 1999 and look forward to seeing her again. Then we lose Joe Thompson to Eilson in Alaska and gain a SrA Thompson from Ramstein in Germany. A Thompson for a Thompson! We also found out last week that our Mental Health Officer-In-Charge (OIC), Captain Edwards, has been promoted to Major. In 2006 she was passed over for promotion but they left one of her performance evaluations out - so she appealed the decision and just found out the Air force agreed and her promotion actually took effect Dec 1st but she is waiting for Congress to take some sort of action before she can wear the rank. And our Psychologist, Captain Henry, recently completed a short humanitarian assignment to The Congo. Our group is a GREAT bunch of people and it is going to be hard seeing us all get broken up.

What's on the way for 2008? More baby news! And hopefully more frequesnt postings. I also have to study for a big CLEP test, complete the Master Sergeant correspondence course, gain 30 online CEUs for my 08 CADAC recertification (drug counseling stuff), and hopefully start on the accounting degree. Once we actually get settled after the baby, we will have less than a year left at Incirlik.

And here is the big teaser for 08. I have a GREAT idea for another blog. It's a unique one. Stay tuned.

NOTE ON THE PICTURES: double click on a picture to get a better view!

Karen Dwyer is Pregnant !

Surprise! How's that for news out of Turkey? Karen was feeling a little off about a week ago. Then she felt queasy. So she took a home EPT test and we had two positives. This past Tuesday she completed a test at the Med Group and that confirmed it. Our first appointment is tomorrow, on Monday. We have talked to a lot of you on the phone. If we haven't, it's simply because we keep running out of time.

In the middle of all of this, our property was finally delivered...on the wrong day. It was supposed to be scheduled for 10 Oct. Then we were told it would be late and they finally scheduled for 12 Nov. That was rescheduled to 14 Nov and that was rescheduled to 15 Nov. So of course on 14 Nov, while I was at work and Karen was getting ready for work, one day before they were supposed to be there - they showed up at our door. The only problem was we had a house full of furniture with all of our stuff in it. "No problem Abla...," they told Karen. They then proceeded to throw all the temporary furniture into the car port while Karen to scrambled to get everything we owned out of the drawers. Clothes were flung, cats were flying, Turks were gobbling - it was chaos. But now our stuff is here....and Karen is pregnant. Yeah. We are very happy.

Names? How does Mehmet Dwyer sound? Sort of a tribute to our Turkish hosts? No, how about Dasher Dwyer since we like Christmas so much? That would be Dancer Dwyer if it is a female. Thanks to Ryan Smyth for the Dasher inspiration. But I think my neighbor here at Incirlik, Wes Williams, has come up with the ultimate male name - Darth Victorious Dwyer! OK, all kidding aside we are leaning towards Noah James for a boy and Katie for a female.

More news to come.

Our Property Has Arrived....NOT ! ! !

So we received a call from TMO (Transportation Management Office) saying your stuff arrived in Adana and we will have it delivered to Incirlik on Monday the 12th. Well all right! We were truly excited. Especially since they are more than 30 days late from the 10 October promised delivery date. But then they called back an hour later, "The Turkish Air Force won't let any carriers on base on Monday or Tuesday. We will have to reschedule for Wednesday the 14th." OK, so we'll just deal with it. Then they called back an hour after that, "The Turkish carrier has no availability on the 14th so we have to cancel and reschedule for the 15th." So perhaps we'll get it then. Oh, they also want to verify that I own a motorcycle. I told them, "No, but if you deliver one I am going to keep it." So we should get our stuff on the 15th...or at least we should get someone's stuff.

Karen started a part time job at the base library and I will start teaching guitar at the end of November.

Hi to The Haley's

Don't have a lot of time this week. Just wanted to say hi to Don & Donna, Matthew, and Caroline Haley. Don has been kind enough to print out some of these post and take them over to Papa Kuhns for us. Don, just wanted to let you know to look at the comments as well. looks like my mother is calling Jim to task on that last post.

Hopefully our stuff will be here by mid November we are now hearing.

Turkish, Armenian, and American Politics

If you have watched any news recently I am sure you have seen what passes for media now days refer to "The Armenian Genocide" resolution. This is a resolution in Congress that would acknowledge the death of Armenians around and after WWI as an act of genocide. You may have even seen reference to Turkey limiting access to Incirlik Air Base or kicking the Americans out of Incirlik if America allows the resolution out of committee. So let me say here and now that I don't believe this will happen. Has anyone been paying attention to the Democratically controlled Congress at all? Nancy Pelosi hasn't gotten one piece of legislation through Congress. Not one! Who is everyone kidding? Not that it matters anyway. Democrats such as Dick Murtha and others have already withdrawn their support commenting that (paraphrase), "...no one really knew what this resolution was all about." Now, I could point out that it seems silly to think that some of us are paid $0 by the US government and could tell you more about the political and strategic history of this issue than Mr. Murtha, Pelosi or their supporters - yet they are paid over $100,000 a year to know such things and still don't understand the most basic concepts of the region...oh wait, I just did point that out. The issue is not if someone believes genocide happened or not. For me, the issue is Congress has things it should be doing other than spending time attempting to sabotage over 100 years of diplomatic efforts and cultural influence just to analyze one of hundreds (if not thousands) of events of history to decide if they were genocide or not. It doesn't matter. It's history. It has also really bothered me that both sides seem to now be talking about how the whole issue could harm the troops in Iraq. This is true, but it is short-sighted to not be aware of how it would effect the thousands of Americans at Incirlik, Izmihir, Ankara, and Istanbul. Military members could literally loose every possession they own if forced to leave without notice. But it's especially short-sighted to be unaware of how such an event would affect NATO, the EU, the IMF, or the future of secular governments in the Muslim world. Anyway, mark my word, Nancy Pelosi hasn't passed one of her agenda items and this won't pass either.

What else is new? I now have signed a contract to start a second job at Incirlik as a guitar instructor! My coworker and next-door neighbor Wes is the current guitar instructor. I should be replacing him as he gets ready to return to the states. I'm a little nervous but looking forward to getting paid to do something I truly love. I haven't been able to do that since I drove the Zamboni or when I worked in radio. It should only be two nights a week for 2-3 hours.

Karen and I have been hanging low in the last two weeks or so. We keep busy on base walking. But money is going to be a little tight as we await the 09 raise, and MSgt pay raise. Still no car or household goods yet. The car has actually arrived in port. I'm hoping household goods will arrive in late October or at least by mid-November.

Also, it appears as if some of this blog's fans (there are at least three besides my mother) have been complaining about my spelling! Remember, I only have one hour to get this in before they kick me off the computer. Once it's done - it's done and in the history books. So please forgive the spelling. Actually, today I did try to go back and correct a few that I missed.....just for my father-in-law, Jim Kuhns ! So hopefully my editor sitting there on West Avenue J-10 in Lancaster, California...will find it in his hart to furgiv my speelings.

A couple of photos I was able to pull out of our g-mail and place on the library computer. On the upper left is one of the Chuck Norris photos we had taken. We have one other that isn't quite so blurry. On the upper right is Karen and I at the Iftar dinner during Ramazon. Bottom left is the tea man at the Iftar dinner (27 Oct edit - OK evidently my page displays differently after I create it, so the order of the pics may be different than described but you can figure out who is who):

Mt. Nemrut, Chuck Norris, and Iftar

So much continues to happen. It's difficult to capture it all when I only have one or two hours a weekend to access to a computer I can post on. We continue to struggle with having a limited amount of clothing and personal belongings but still seem to find ways to find cool things to do and places to go. Let's start with Chuck Norris.

Karen and I got to shake Chuck Norris' hand and have our picture taken with him. Chuck had been in Iraq visiting the troops and came through Incirlik on the way back to Germany. He was very nice. We were at work in the 39th Medical group and they said Chuck Norris will be coming into the lobby around lunch time. I called Karen and she came up with the camera. There were only about 100 of us in the lobby when he came in. Chuck said he had been wanting to go back to Iraq and thank the troops again but he wanted to do a less formal tour and be able to go into work areas and shake every one's hand. So he said (paraphrase), "...so I only have a limited amount of time but I wanted everyone to know I am grateful for your service, we are thinking of you back home, we pray for you - and I hope to be able to shake each of your hands and you can get a picture if you want to. " They tried to make sure the Americans got to Chuck before the local Turks but I had to laugh when I saw our Med Group shoeshine guy, Jaf, third in line to get his picture with Chuck Norris. Chuck did serve in the Air Force and spent time at March Air Force Base. There is a whole cult thing that has built up around "how bad" or "how tough" Chuck Norris is. For example, "In fine print on the last page of the Guinness Book of World Records it notes that all world records are held by Chuck Norris, and those listed in the book are simply the closest anyone has ever gotten. " My favorite is, "Chuck Norris is so bad that at night the Boogie Man checks his closet for Chuck Norris." We did get one closeup shot of Chuck and somebody took a shot of Karen and I with some of my coworkers and Chuck. We hope to post if we ever get our computer and personal belongings.

As far as personal belongings we are now hearing that could be into November. We will be living out of our suitcases for three months!

Then came Mt Nemrut in the land referred to historically as Commagene; a spectacular must-do experience if you visit Turkey. We went on a Dulmus (small Turkish minibus) with a group of about ten and a tour guide. It was about a five hour drive east. Going east is interesting because a large part of south eastern Turkey is off limits to us due to instability with terrorism, Kurdish nationalists, and the PKK party. I noticed we seemed to be about 90 kilometers west of Diyarbikir, which is off limits. So it was cool to be going right up to that limit. What I like about Mt. Nemrut is that it corrects the idea people have that this continual east/west Asian/Europe conflict is a new idea. The statues at the top of Mt. Nemrut were built by King Antiochus I Theos of Commagene around 62 BC. I think part of what he saw himself as was someone who was able to bring together eastern and western ideas in peace. Ironically, Turkey still finds itself trying to fill the same role today. Here is the Wikipedia explanation: " Nemrut or Nemrud (Turkish: Nemrut Dağ or Nemrut Dağı, Kurdish: Çiyayê Nemrûd, Armenian: Նեմրութ Սար) is a 2,134 meters (7000 ft.) high mountain in eastern Turkey, 40km north of Kahta, near Adıyaman. At the top of Mt. Nemrut, King Antiochus I Theos of Commagene built his tomb-sanctuary along with huge statues (8-9 meters high) of himself, two lions and two eagles, and various Greek and Persian gods such as Hercules, Zeus-Oromasdes (associated with the Persian god Ahura Mazda), Tyche, and Apollo-Mithras in 62 BC. These statues were once seated, with names of each god inscribed on them. The heads of the statues are scattered throughout the site; the pattern of damage to the heads (notably to noses) suggests iconoclasm. There are stone slabs, with bas-relief figures on them, that are thought to have formed a large frieze. These stones display the ancestors of Antiochus, who were Macedonians and Persians both. This tomb contains stone carvings of gods, such as the head of an eagle. The same statues and ancestors found throughout the site can also be found on the tumulus at the site, which is 49 meters tall and 152 meters in diameter. The statues have the likeness of Greek facial features, in conjunction with Persian clothing and hairstyling. The western terrace contains a large slab with a lion, showing the arrangement of stars and the planets Jupiter, Mercury and Mars on July 7 62 BC, the possible time when construction began on this monument. The eastern portion is well preserved, being composed of several layers of rock, and there is evidence of a walled passageway linking the eastern and western terraces, from a path below at the foot of Mount Nemrut. Possible uses for this site might have included religious ceremonies, due to the astronomical and religious nature of the monument.
The arrangement of such statues is known by the term hierothesion. Similar arrangements have been found at Arsameia on Nymphaios at the hierothesion of the father of Antiochus, Mithridates I Callinicus. This tomb was excavated in 1881 by Karl Sester, an engineer from Germany. Subsequent excavations have failed to reveal the tomb of Antiochus. However, this is still believed to be the site of his burial. In 1987, Mt. Nemrut was made a World heritage site by UNESCO. Tourists typically visit Nemrut during June through August. The nearby town of Adıyaman is a popular place for car and bus trips to the site, and one can also travel by helicopter. The statues have not been restored to their original position, although this would not be difficult to do."

To give you an idea of how high up Mt. Nemrut is look at the highest point in this photo and that is where we went to. It is the peak that seems to come to a point:

I believe we stayed in Kahta were I took a couple of great photos of the local children playing underneath our window. We also saw a very old Roman bridge and several other sites of extreme interest. I just don't have time to go into all of them in detail. Mt Nemrut is 7,000 feet high. It can be a little scary going up some of the roads when they turn to gravel or dirt with no guard rail...but an unforgettable experience. It's hard to imagine people building these statues and a tumulus over 2,000 years ago at the top of this mountain:

The pictures are all borrowed off the internet as we still can't post ours.

We also found the nicer more progressive part of Adana when we went to the Iftar at Park Zirve. An Iftar is a large community dinner held during Ramazon at the end of the day's fast. Park Zirve, overlooks the lake at Adana and is truly one of the nicest restaurants I have been in. We ate outside and were entertained by Whirling Dervishes. I had hoped to put a nice pic of Park Zirve but I couldn't find one. Their web site is: http://www.parkzirve.com/ . And if you are wondering what a whirling dervish is here is a pic:

There is so much more to write, but I am out of time. Karen will probably be trying to return to work as cost are more than we thought they would be. I am playing in a fall softball league. And Karen is going to go back to Park Zirve this week for another Iftar with just the ladies.

Intersting Turkish Facts

Yes, it is true we now have a house. It also true that we may have to wait until the end of October before our household goods and car are here with us at Incirlik. So, we are comfortable - but we only have our suitcases, assorted dishes, and our papazon chair with us. Loaner furniture is provided but it is very small and cheap. Thus, the term "stick furniture." Karen and I barely fit on the same bed and the blankets we were given are only 5 feet long. We did manage to carpet the entire place for $300. I guess just a year ago the going price was $200. You can see how hard the US dollar is getting hit in Europe. Once we get our furniture things should really settle into a routine...and then we will have 19 months left before they pick it up again!

Computer access is still difficult to come by. It will probably be November before we can post any pictures. The only reason I have time to access the computer today is because they decided to shut the power off on base for 12 hours today. The Community Activity Center has a generator so here we are.

Ramadan, or Ramazon as the Turks pronounce it, started on Monday. I was awoken around 2am to the sound of drums being played through The Incirlik Village loudspeaker. The loudspeaker lives up to it's name. The drums are a reminder to everyone to get up and eat so they are prepared for the 12 hour fast. During fasting times the people have nothing to eat or drink - not even water. I have been reading a lot about Turkish history, the government, and modern Turkey. I read Ataturk: The biography of the Founder of Modern Turkey and The Turks Today, both by Andrew Mango. I also read a book about the last coup in 1980. Some interesting things about turkey you may not have known:
- The Turks are considered to have immigrated from somewhere in Mongolia
- Turkey is among several nations to have emerged from the former Ottoman Empire
- The Ottoman Empire included present day Turkey, Syria, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Libya, etc
- Ataturk described Islam as a "superfluous strategic necessity"
- Ataturk admired western culture, especially German and French
- Ataturk mandated the wearing of European style hats in the 1920s/1930s
- Turkish government is mandated to be secular by design
- Turkey was able to remain neutral in WWII
- Turkey rescued many persecuted Jewish professionals from Germany
- The modern Turkish alphabet was created just 80 years ago and is ingeniously simple
- The Turkish military has overthrown the government 4 times since WWII
- The current Turkish President is a former Islamic scholar and not viewed well by Kemalists
- Kemalists are those that ascribe to Ataturk's original nationalist, statist, and secular goals
- Ataturk's born name is Mustafa Kemal
- A few weeks ago The Turkish High Command refused to salute the new Turkish President
- Turkey is the most strategically important piece of NATO; literally the "tip of the spear"
- Turkey is the bridge between Europe and Asia.
- Turkey has the second largest Armed Forces in NATO after the USA
- Turkey is the home of the fabulous Efes Beer product

And one local note: Incirlik is pronounced "injure-lick." The "c" in Turkish is pronounced with as a "j" like in the word "injure" or "gist." Apparently, Americans kept using the Turkish spelling which looks like " iNCiRLiK." So we started pronouncing the c as an "s" sound. Properly it is "injure-lick," which means a holder of figs or an area of figs.