Our Tour in Turkey

Keith & Katie 1995 - 1997:

Turkey was one of the most exciting countries Katie has ever visited. This would make her 3rd and Keith's 2nd - as far as military tours. They found out of the tour in December 1994 and were completely excited. Five months to plan and they were on their way.

The first part of the plan was to find a place to store their `94 Canary Yellow Mustang GT (5-speed of course) and Keith's CBR 600 (motorcycle). Their timing was impeccable. They left the day after the bombing in Oklahoma City, on their way to Oklahoma to store the CBR at Keith's brother's house. They traveled through tornado warnings/watches outside of Nashville. Keith on the CBR and Katie following close behind. They finally made it into Oklahoma (long trip due to the rain) and parked and pickled (removed all fluids) the CBR.

They then traveled to Oklahoma City to visit Keith's Aunt. They went downtown and saw the devastation. Although life was going on and cars were driving about, around the perimeter - you if a pin dropped the sound from it would have been deafening.
Keith and Katie then left Oklahoma City, via their GT onward to California. The GT was eventually parked at Katie's sister's house in Fremont, but they traveled and visited many relatives and friends.

Keith and Katie then flew to North Carolina, where they visited with Katie's brother and father. After that visit, they returned to Georgia and packed up for their trip.

Upon arriving in Turkey, on base no less, they were exhausted. The flight was LONG and Turkey was HOT. They were greeted by Katie's sponsor and taken to temporary lodging. After orientation and signing in, Keith and Katie found an apartment just outside the base. Right across the heavily guarded fence from the Commissary. For the most part, Keith and Katie walked everywhere they had to go, except for trying to carry groceries back from the commissary - they called a taxi - and it cost less than $1 to get home, but they always tipped the drivers well.

Keith and Katie also received bad news within 2 weeks of arriving. The first was that Keith's Uncle Vic had passed. Keith took the news as well as could be expected. The second was their GT was involved in a gang shooting and the back windshield was shattered. Keith and Katie didn't really care, they were more concerned about her sister and the family (who were fine).

Keith was able to walk to work. As for Katie, she worked so far away from the main part of base, walked would not have been the best thing to do, although, she did rollerblade one day, and walked a couple of other days, from work back to main base. After a while, when she worked her 12 hour mids, she would go to a friends house on base and crash there until it was time to go to work again. She got better sleep and it wasn't so far to travel.

Keith and Katie did a lot of traveling during their time in Turkey. They learned about the culture, the underground cities - where the Christian hid when they were under attack and being oppressed, and the food. The biggest thing Katie learned was that her system could not handle it and not to eat it. There were a couple of things she could eat - ekmek (flat bread) and shephard salad.

While in Turkey, Keith was sent on temporary duty assignment to get training. Some in Germany, some in Mississippi. Those assignments were at the beginning of their tour, so Keith stocked up on items they would need and didn't expire any time soon. Keith was in a wonderful work center. He earned quite a few awards while there and was recognized many times for making improvement suggestions to the base. Katie's work center was decent. She was in the job she loved, working on the equipment she loved. She was one of the main trainers in the office. Toward the end of their tour in Turkey, Katie was sent on a temporary duty assignment to Cyprus, where she found out that she was pregnant with their first child. She pretty much knew because she was sick on the plane ride there, and NEVER gets sick on planes. She learned a lot about the history of Cyprus on that assignment.

It wasn't all work and no play for the Duggers. They did a lot of traveling. They even took time off when Keith's Aunt Cleo and her friend Vi left their tour group in Istanbul to visit Incirlik/Adana. Katie wrote down a lot of history from that trip and they have a lot of pictures to share.

Stay tuned to for the information and pictures.