European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - August 9, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Friday August 9, 1991 the stars and stripes c. Page 3tempo at in Ciurlik a slows a beat Pace slackers despite kurdish Relief Effort by Gary Miller Mediterranean Bureau in Ciurlik a Turkey a the persian Gulf War is Over and operation provide Comfort is in its second phase. Although in Ciurlik a Turkey 300 Miles from iraqis Northwest Border is As much a key player in the latest Effort As it was in the War the base is slowly returning to Normal. While the bases personnel and facilities still face the pressures of supporting a deluge of temporarily assigned troops work shifts Are gradually slowing the Pace. A we still have fighter aircraft Here providing air cover for the kurd in Northern Iraq making sure that iraqi forces done to attack them a said it. Col. Andy Denny the bases assistant Deputy commander for operations. A a the fighter aircraft Are keeping Supply fuel and transportation people Busy a said col. Michael Carr Deputy commander for resources. Supporting those fighters is one of incur like a current missions one of Many the base has fulfilled since the War began. Some of the bases other missions according to Carr include supporting two Forward positions handling incoming cargo for aircraft units and shipping broken aircraft parts. The Tempo at in Ciurlik began to quicken in july 1990 when members of . Air Force weapons training detachments arrived in Turkey for exercises a Normal part of the bases Mission. When Iraq invaded Kuwait however those service members and aircraft stayed and More units arrived for. Operation proven Force the title Given Turkey based participation in the War and the original provide Comfort. A before the War weapons training detachments with about 300 people came Here regularly and twice a year about 900 people would be Here for four to six weeks for exercises a Carr said. A a we be had from 2,000 to 5,500 troops Here for almost eight months except for a two week period Between the War and provide Comfort. Its been a logistics War a a logistics Triumph a Carr said. Many of the visitors have lived in incur like stent City which has become a fixture of the base. A we had 223 tents up during the War a said capt. Linda Thomas incur like a staff services officer. A now we have 310  a we have a pretty steady population now of about 1,500 people at the tent City. There a a couple Hundred troops who rotate through from Forward positions just to spend a few Days on base to shop at an Exchange use the Pool and things like that a Thomas said. To make the temporary troops As comfortable As possible base personnel have set up a recreation tent with Vars and a variety of games. They have also distributed fans refrigerators and foam pads. Tents with snack and beverage sales Are available As arc washers and dryers Thomas said i about 600 temporary duty personnel Are living in base billeting facilities bringing the total of temporary troops at in Ciurlik to about 2,100, Carr said. In Ciurlik a s Turkey Diyarbakir a .s.r. N \ v v Iran v a x v Cyprus Lebanon a it Iskend erupt \ Syria i Iraq Mediterranean sea. At f a Israel \ i a 1 i r r7sjof Baghdad Jordan Noo Miles .400 Kmap a amps a a there a no room at the inn a said capt. Judy Burk incur like a Public affairs officer. There Are so Many people packed into Bill Ting a rooms that a visiting colonel might have to share a room with one or two other colonels Burk  is there room on military flights to Turkey for space available travellers because of the vast numbers of temporary duty personnel on the Way Burk said. The personnel who passed through in Ciurlik during the past year left their families behind in Europe or the United states. Incur like a service members on the other hand were left behind by their families. All but a handful of the nearly 2,300 family members living at  accepted offers to evacuate to the United states. The first flight left Jan. 16, just hours before the allies first attack on Iraq. The families evacuation experiences were comparable to what would happen if the service members had transferred to Remote assignments said Ann Merritt an information and referral officer at the bases family support Center. One of Merritts colleagues experiences when he returned from the evacuation was typical of what families experienced. A the biggest problem was my wife getting us cd in turf and getting used to having us in the House again a said Venard goodly a dependent husband and assistant program director at the support Center. Even though families were permitted to return to in Ciurlik in april goodly and his two sons stayed with his parents in Louisiana until Early june when the boys were done with school. A was for me i  wait to get Back to in Ciurlik. I wanted to hear our two boys ask my wife to do something for them instead of asking me which they had been doing for months a goodly said. A a lot of family members got off their planes saw All these troops and wondered Why they were brought Back a Merritt said. A the Mission continued even though the families returned a Denny said. Many units Are working 12-hour shifts. Quot. A a we re struggling to keep morale High Quot Denny said a and so far its stayed High but its hard to find time to give people leave. Many people Are in a situation where they la lose some of their leave if they done to use it by oct. 1.�?� to help people adjust to the new situation Merritt s office has established a support group for returning dependents. A a it a a place for people to share experiences and solutions and realize that the feelings they re. Experiencing Arentt unique a Merritt said. A the base is like a Small town. Then All of a sudden its overrun with All these troops and people have to wait in lines which they re not use to a Merritt said. Its incur like a Small town attitude that has changed the most for sgt. Stephen White a Security policeman. A wherever you went you saw people you knew. Now its More like a big City. There a a lot of people you done to know and uniforms you done to  the big City crowds have meant shortages. A a there a a shortage of clothes at the by and a shortage of everything at the commissar a said Jeremy hash. To give everyone Access to what was available the Exchange and commissary were open seven Days a week until the last week of july. During the same period the Post office stayed open All Day saturday rather than close at noon. A whenever you see anything new at the by you run Over and put it on layaway a said. Hash an 18-year-old family member. The shortage that worried staff sgt. Pennie Showbridge most happened in june. A the base ran out of Beer. That bothered me a lot a Showbridge said. Despite that deprivation and others the logistics technician said she believes the influx of troops has had a positive Impact on incur like a personnel. A the permanent party has come a lot closer together a she said. A when the War started we All had to move Back on the  when the crisis first began people living on the Economy were told to find friends living in base housing  would take them in if families were evacuated and service members were restricted to the base. A of course none of us though tit would actually happen but it did a Showbridge said. A friends really 1 became friends  Showbridge and other service members living off base were allowed to return to their Homes in april. Her 12-hour shifts ended in late july something that happened for people at Many other units throughout the base. Transportation and some Supply personnel Are also now working fewer hours Carr said. They have gone from working 12 hours a Day seven Days a week to working 10-hour shifts six Days a week. The kurd have returned to Iraq but the coalitions efforts to protect them continue which Means Allied fighter aircraft Are still operating out of in Ciurlik. When the air bases role in the Iraq crisis will end is the big question Denny said. A right now there a no end in  claims to have kidnapped Frenchman Beirut Lebanon apr an underground group claimed it kidnapped a Frenchman in Lebanon thursday and said he would be killed if any other Western hostages Are freed. There was no Independent confirmation of the claim which came hours after another extremist group the pro iranian islamic jihad released briton John Mccarthy the first Western hostage to be freed in nearly a year. A Man who said he represented the underground group organization for the defense of the prisoners rights claimed it had kidnapped Jerome Ley Raud. The caller identified Peyraud As a French intelligence officer a who oper ated under the cover of a humanitarian organization claiming to help the  a Paris based medical group doctors of the world said it had a 25-year-old representative in Beirut Lebanon with the same name but it did no to know if he had been kidnapped. French defense minister Pierre Joyc said in a television interview that there was no French agent with that name. The French government did not immediately confirm that any kidnapping had taken place. The organization for the defense of the prisoners rights was heard of for the first time on wednesday. It claimed responsibility for a rocket propelled grenade attack on a . Office in Beirut and said that attack was a warning against any unconditional release of Western hostages. Mccarthy was carrying a message to . Secretary general Javier Perez de Cuellar which Mccarthy indicated called for an Exchange of Western hostages and Arab prisoners held by Israel and its Allied militia in Southern Lebanon. Israel indicated it was ready to make such an Exchange. The claim of a new abduction thursday was made in a Telephone Call to a Western news Agency in Beirut. A we hereby declare that he will be executed the moment another hostage is released a the caller said. A doctors of the world official in Paris said the group had no news of a kidnapping but that Peyraud had been in Lebanon since. May working on a project to restore Public hospitals following Lebanon a 16-year civil War. A i deny that he is an agent of the secret services a said Michel Brugiere the humanitarian groups director of Niedzi Cal missions. In the Telephone Call to the news Agency the caller was asked whether the Frenchman was kidnapped in Lebanon. The caller said