European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - August 9, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Friday August 9, 1991 the stars and stripes a Page 3tempo at in Ciurlik a slows a beat Pace slackers despite kurdish Relief Effort by Gary ill Jer 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 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 Quot 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 Are washers and dryers Thomas said. 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 a .s.r.a Turkey  it Skende rur Syria 1 Iraq a. Cyprus a it it Lebanon of w a Quot Baghdad a Jordan Mediterranean sea i a a a. % 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 billeting a rooms that a visiting colonel might hive to share a room with one or two other colonels Burk said. Neither 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 in Ciurlik 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 used to us 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. 4 a the Mission continued even though the families returned a Denny said. Many units Are working 12-hour shifts. A a we re struggling to keep morale High a 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  lose some of their leave if they done to use it by oct. 1.�?� to help people adjust to the new situation Merritts 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 ave Mything at the commissary 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 Sec 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. Pennic 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 base a when the crisis first began people living on the Economy were told to find friends living in base housing who would take them in if families were evacuated and service members were restricted to the base. A of course none of us thought it would actually happen but it did a Showbridge said. A friends really 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. A 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  do experiments in space travel space Center Houston a an Atlantis astronaut squirmed into a big vacuum sack thursday morning in an Experiment aimed at easing the lightheadedness Many space travellers experience on their return to Earth. G. David Low climbed into the collapsible Container which was then sealed around his Waist. Pressure in the device was gradually lowered to Force fluids from the upper body to his legs As he sat on a tractor Type seat. Pilot Michael Baker also was scheduled to take a four hour turn in the Container thursday the seventh Day of the shuttles nine Day Mission. Both Low and Baker also spent some time in the device on sunday. Astronauts in space experience a shift of body fluids to the upper body. The shift is dramatically reversed during the return to Earth causing some astronauts to feel lightheaded. Scientists believe that sitting in the Container along with drinking More water and taking Salt tablets will help astronauts readjust to Gravity when they return to Earth. Such experiments Are part of nasal a Effort to prepare for even longer shuttle missions and someday Long stays aboard a . Space station. Low and Atlantis commander John Blaha have been running on a Treadmill nearly every Day of the Mission to see if space aerobics also helps in making the transition from weightlessness to Gravity. The Experiment on the shuttles mid deck began after Mission control gave the Crew a country Western Wake up Call with the song Cowboy in a Conti Ncneal suit. The five astronauts have been awakened about an hour earlier each Day to adjust their body clocks slowly for sunday mornings Landing in Florida. The other Crew members planned to spend the Day working on other experiments. Astronaut Shannon Lucid also tried to Salvage an air Force photography Experiment by trying to fit a borrowed Lens adaptor on a camera Assembly. The adapter that normally fits the Assembly was inadvertently left behind. The astronauts Hope to provide Star wars researchers with photos of shuttle exhaust plumes Jet firings and the glow that forms around the orbiter when atomic oxygen strikes the ship. The astronauts put a $120 million communications satellite in orbit last Friday several hours after Blastoff their primary goal of the Mission