From: Tracey Donahue <RBrancher2@aol.com>
Date: Sun, 15 Aug 1999
Subject: Part 1 of Sinop Memories...

As a lot of people had to, when it was first mentioned to me that I could go to Sinop, I told my detailer to let me call him back in an hour. I then went straight to a map to find out EXACTLY where Turkey was. Not having the greatest grasp of geography, I knew approximately where it was, but if I had had to name two of its neighboring countries, I couldn't have. And, although it didn't seem to have the greatest of neighbors, my wish was a hardship tour so I could have my 'pick' of duty stations afterwards, so, Sinop it was!

After reading some of the stories from the ones that were in Sinop in the 60's and 70's, I have to say that some things had changed by the time I got there in the summer of 1986, but others hadn't. I arrived in Istanbul scared out of my wits because, by some weird twist of fate, I had lost my wallet (which contained any and every piece of ID that I had) somewhere between NY's JFK airport and a stopover in Geneva. Since I was in civilian clothes, on a civilian flight, the only way to get into the country was to show my orders (vague as they were!) and my military ID. I had visions of being trapped in customs for a year or so until it was time to get me home! I considered trying to explain to the Customs people what had happened to me, but could just see me sitting/standing/who knew what for hours or days until things got straightened out. So, I braced myself for one of the hardest things I had had to do up to that point: I bluffed my way through customs. I had a purse and a backpack with me. I handed the Customs man my orders and looked at him. He asked me for my ID. 'Well, of course!' I said and I started looking. And I looked. And I looked. And I looked. After about the third or fourth time that I had emptied everything out of my purse and backpack, the man just sighed and said 'Go on! You'll find the military liaison over in that room.' <grin> He (I believe his name was Mr. Johnson) was quite amazed that I had made it through Customs, but didn't bother the Customs guy about it.

At that time, the plane at Sinop were making daily mail runs to Istanbul, but rarely took passengers. When people PCSed into Turkey, they had to wait in Istanbul until Monday. The base had a charter bus that left Sinop on Friday morning, taking all of the people whose time was up to Istanbul, and it returned to Sinop on Monday, taking all the people just coming in up to their new duty station. So, you had to hang out in Istanbul until Monday morning before finally making it to Sinop. The military had contracted for quite a few rooms in a hotel named The Kalyon and, while PCSing in or out, you had your room for free. They also made those rooms available at a small fee if you just wanted to visit Istanbul, so if you got a four day pass, the round trip on the bus to Istanbul was free and the hotel room was $20 a night and you had Saturday and Sunday free to sightsee in Istanbul.

Mr. Johnson gave all of us new arrivals the standard speech about life in Turkey and set us free. I had arrived in Istanbul on Saturday morning and had until Monday morning before the bus left. I had listened to Mr. Johnson and dressed conservatively (jeans and a button-up shirt that I made sure was buttoned all the way up) and decided to go out and look around. What Mr. Johnson had failed to tell us was that it was some sort of holiday and everyone and their brother (and cousins and aunts and uncles) were walking the streets of Istanbul and, it seemed to me, they were ALL staring at ME!! After about three checkovers of myself (Are my jeans zipped up? Are any buttons unbuttoned? WHAT?!?!) I finally noticed that no one (or, more to the point,) no woman was walking around by herself. <sigh> Okay, never mind, I'll just listen to my Walkman and try to ignore the fact that I seemed to be the main attraction for the moment.

So, I looked around for the Blue Mosque, saw the spires, and headed in that direction. I know all of you will be shocked to hear that, as I headed towards the break in a wall on my way to the mosque, a carpet seller stopped me. <grin> Ahmed was a nice enough younger guy and (shock again!) offered to show me some of the sights. He spoke very good English and was a great tour guide, showing me the exterior of the Blue Mosque, the German fountain, a building where Billy Hayes had spent part of his sentence, and the Topkapi. The Mosque and the Topkapi weren't open at the time, but that was okay. After taking me on his tour, he took me back to his shop, sent for some chay (my first experience!) and showed me some carpets. I was able to resist, and he walked me to my hotel.

I'm not going to make this a day-by-day account of my time in Sinop, so I'll start talking about the general conditions now. At the time that I was stationed there, there were approximately 350 Americans stationed on the base, with between 50 and 60 of them being females. The Navy contingent consisted of approximately 70 sailors, with maybe 10 females maximum. The Navy E-6 and below all lived in one barracks with the first floor consisting of the Navy 'quarterdeck', the Navy bar (The Gundeck) and rooms for the E-6's (one to a room.) The second floor was for E-5's and below, two to a room. That made it so the females' rooms were at one end of the hall, the males' at the other. It made for some interesting times, I can tell you. The Navy barracks (which was the only blue building on the Hill so it was very easy to find. The story *I* heard was that our command got together and bought the paint down in town <light blue with dark blue trim> and painted the whole thing while the commander of the base was on leave and when he returned, it was a 'done deal', but I'm not sure of the truth of that story.) was on the side of the base that it was basically 'face on' to Sinop. Looking out the windows of the Gundeck, you could see the lights of Sinop clearly, and it made for a very nice view if you lived on the right side. (It seems like most of the pictures I've seen of Sinop from the hill were taken at or near where the Navy barracks were.)

One thing that I, as a female, noticed that the men probably didn't was the contradictions between how women were supposedly seen by the 'average' Turk and how women (at least myself) were generally treated. I had been prepared to be treated as 'less than equal' when I went to Turkey, but, luckily, I was surprised. My first week in Sinop I was taken to dinner at Ali Bas' restaurant by Glen, a friend of a woman I was stationed with in Misawa, Japan. I noticed I was one of only two women in the restaurant (the other was a Turkish woman who didn't take her eyes off her plate the entire time she was there) and seemed to attract a bit of attention. After dinner was over, we took a taxi back to the dock area where Glen said there was a beer garden that some of the other Navy folks were going to be. We walked up to the beer garden and you could hear lots of conversation but, as soon as we walked through the gate, silence (except for the Navy folks over in the corner.) I looked around and pretty quickly noticed I was the only female in the place. We went to the group of sailors, settled down and ordered a beer. After a couple of beers, it was time for me to go to the restroom. I got directions and headed up the stairs. At the top of the stairs, there was a short hallway with two doors at the end. Probably four or five Turks were lined up in front of each door. I got behind one of the Turks and figured I would wait my turn but after just a minute or so, one of the waiters came running up the stairs, yelled a few things in Turkish and 'ushered' me into one of the restrooms. After doing what needed to be done, I rejoined the guys, drank a bit more, and had to go to the restroom again. I headed up the stairs but didn't get more than halfway up them when the same gentleman stopped me and handed me a key. They had locked one of the restrooms so that I had exclusive use of it. And that seemed to set the tone for the rest of my stay in Turkey. There were times when some of the Turks would seem to have the 'wrong idea' about me just because I was an American female (offers to go to Southern Turkey on holiday were pretty commonplace) but, on the whole, I was never treated with anything but respect the whole time I was there. I made a few friends downtown (I always stopped by and had chay or lunch with Ahmet the carpet seller whenever I was downtown) and Najoti, a Turk who worked in Ops with us, and his family were frequent visitors to the Navy barracks and always included in our holiday parties.

I've read people's memories of donar kabob, and beynami (which caused me to carry out of the country a hairdryer, curling iron and Walkman that had long since bitten the dust), and ekmek and raki (which we have two bottles of REAL Turkish raki in our freezer right now!) and ditch monsters (we still had at least one attack of the ditch monsters every weekend even in the 80's) and the askers and Abi watch and it's amazing that not very much changed over the years. And did all of your stories bring back the memories!

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Copyright © Tracey Donahue, 1999. All Rights Reserved.