Replying to a message of Ross Cassell to Jeff Binkley:

 RC> Werent you stationed on a NATO or other US Military base in Turkey
 RC> during the Cold War?

He may have been.  The 'Cold War' ran from about 1950 until 1990 - one
could say that it's still in progress.

There were many 'garden spots' in Turkey where US personnel were assigned.
I don't happen to know of any that the Navy had and managed to avoid being
sent to any that the AF had (in fact I managed to avoid *all* assignments to
Europe - I had my retirement papers in and *approved* when an assignment
floated in for Heraklion, Greece, my impending retirement scotched that.

Shortly before I started my terminal leave (burning off the last of one's accrued
leave prior to separation or retirement) I received a letter instructing me to
report for promotion testing on December 9th (my retirement was effective at
0001 hrs on December 1st).  Of course I declined to test as I would be a
civilian at the time.  Didn't matter, I got the usual blizzard of letters telling
me I wouldn't be eligible for promotion yatta yatta yatta (I got a similar
blizzard when I declined to test for a promotion cycle that would have ended
before I was eligible for promotion).  Facts and logic don't sway bureaucrats,
neither does reality.

--- FleetStreet 1.19+