Newcomers Briefing

On Tuesday of this past week, JB and I attended a "Newcomers Briefing." I'm not sure if this was meant to be an oxymoron, but it sure felt far from brief to me.

Every Tuesday they have a bunch of newbies and their dependents sit in a lecture hall. (JB was one of only three officers there -- which I am learning to tell just by looking at uniforms. The rest were enlisted, and due to the absence of spouses with them, I imagine they came to Turkey solo.) Then, various people from all over Base stopped into our lecture hall and filled us in on everything we needed to know and whole lot more I'm not sure we did.

While some (okay most) it was quite superfulous, there was also a lot of very great information. Some things I learned (and please note that I am including things that are public knowledge that could be found elsewhere on the Internet) includes:

• There are about 4500 Americans on this Base. That includes about 150 officers (JB) and nearly 1500 enlisted. Many of those stationed here choose to come "unaccompanied." This means they travel without their families. In addition many do not have a family to travel with. However, there are about 1000 dependents here (spouses and children.) If there are only 150 officers, and many are unmarried or come unaccompanied, you can see that the officer spouse portion of those here is very small. Normally, a natural division is created in relationships between enlisted and officers. However, because the Base is so small, those divisions are not inforced. For instance, on many Bases, there is an "Officer's Club" and an "Enlisted Club." Here, it is a mixed club. Normally, an officer's family would not invite an enlisted family over for dinner unless you knew each other well outside service. Here, I don't think any of the same rules apply.
• This is a Turkish Base. We are guests here. However, we outnumber our hosts. There are only about 700 Turkish military personnel on this Base. All Turkish men must serve time in the military.
• There are more Greek ruins in Turkey then there are in Greece.
• If you get in a car accident off of Base, it will be your fault. It just will be. We have a phone number we can call to get a translator on the phone. The "JAG" (military lawyers) also came and talked to us about how to assure we are being represented off-Base fairly, but in the end, be ready. (Tante Jan, I saw your comment about this! It's the same here!)
• We have a Base curfew of midnight. If we are going to be out overnight, we have to get permission from JB's commanders.
• This is Base is incredibly important to our country mainly because of its location. We are 60 miles from Syria for example. In 1955 Turkey joined NATO, and the U.S. became a presence here. 46% of all cargo going in and out of Iraq and Afghanistan comes thru here. We are also (and this is public knowledge available on Wikipedia) supposedly housers of some major, hefty duty weapons.
• This Base is very small. It is like a very small town in the U.S. You will continue to run into people you know. I am quickly seeing that that is true. You see the same people over and over and again.
• We can hear the call to prayer here if we are outside. Five times a day. I am still learning the times it occurs. Ramadan began yesterday. This means that Muslims are fasting during daylight hours. It is considered rude to eat in front of someone of Muslim faith during this time. Eating and drinking should be reserved for private during this time. However, overall, Turkey is a very secular state. It's sort of like saying America is all Christian. We know this is far from true. While everyone here is Muslim by birth, many are not practicing or devout.
• The military has a stinkin' lot of acronyms. Just when I figure one out, I'm lost on another.
• There is a lot of confusion as to what is required. Just one example. One guy got up and told people under 22 they must have a stamp on their license. The next guy got up and said that they shouldn't have the stamp and to see him if they did. There is so much to wade through. JB and I found out that we have to become residents to get a permanent gatepass. Up until this point, we had no idea this rule existed.
• Black market is a huge problem here -- an attempt to avoid the Turkish goverment tax that is imposed on all items. We receive our items duty free on Base. We may not give anything to any Turks we meet. This is a very strict rule. We are even rationed gas, coffee, and tobacco products to prevent problems in this regard. I was also told we can be limited in the grocery store on buying more than two items. I don't think this is very stringent being as milk is only sold by the half gallon here so we have to buy 3-4 whole milk half gallons each time we go in. Also any electronics that we came into the country with must leave the country with us. If the boys stick a piece of toast into the toaster and break it, we've got to keep it until we get back to the U.S. at which time we can dump it.
• The reason that people are generally not deployed from this Base is because they consider people who are here "Deployed in Place." In other words, it is a deployment that you can bring your family to.
• There is currently no specific threat against Americans in Turkey. However, we are supposed to have a bag packed and ready to go in the case of a Base evacuation. Family members have been evacuated from this Base two times in the last ten years so the possibility is real.
• The most common type of crime off of Base is petty theft.
• Insulting the Turkish flag, Ataturk (their "George Washington" if you will), or the Turkish Nation is icnredibly frowned upon. These items are incredibly revered in this culture. It is also innapropriate to discuss bad service in a place of business. To "chew" a business owner out is something you just do not do.
• Alcohol content in drinks is not regulated. A beer may easily have 2-3x the alcohol content off-Base as it does in a beer you bought at the gas sation.
• Do not go into any "nightclubs" (not that we would) and order any food or drink without first asking to see a menu. It is a common scam to offer someone a drink in a place like this and then the person finds out it was a $2,000 drink or a $5,000 plate of fries. Seriously!
• Driving in Turkey (off-Base) is way better than our previous experiences in Nigeria. However, it is not to the scale of Europe in any regard. It is basically anyone for themself. Horns are used readily (without threat of bodily harm as you may face in South Florida.) There are some basic rules of the road, but they aren't enforced much at all. We learned this at the parking lot of the mall in Adana. No one parked in the lines so it was just finding a spot, forget about markings.
• We are told to avoid talk of religion, politics, and war with Turkish people.