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Incirlik Air Base
37°00'N 35°26'E
Close to many of the world’s potential trouble
spots—Iraq, Armenia and Iran to name a few—Incirlik Air Base is an
important base in NATO’s Southern Region. As a prime staging location,
Incirlik offers a 10,000-foot main runway and 9,000-foot alternate runway,
both sitting amidst 57 hardened aircraft shelters. It also serves as a
regional storage center for war reserve materiels — supplies and equipment
used in combat operations.
Prior to September 11, 2001 the base’s human element
included nearly 1,400 US Air Force military members, more than 670 US and
Turkish civilian employees, more than 2,000 family members, nearly 900
Turkish maintenance contractors, and approximately 1,700 people deployed
to support ONW.
As of late 2002 it appears that there are roughly 4,000
personnel stationed at Incirlik with less than half being assigned to ONW.
Reports indicate that the breakdown of the coalition effort is that there
1,161 US, 215 British, 41 Turkish personnel at the facility.
Incirlik Air Base is located about 7.5 miles east of
Adana. Adana, with a population of over one million, is the fourth largest
city in Turkey, and is the heart of a rich agricultural region.
Approximately one and one-half hour’s drive to the west are beautiful
Mediterranean beaches with good hotels. The Adana environs are rich in
historical sites, and there are frequent sightseeing trips sponsored by
various base groups.
Incirlik has a Base Exchange, commissary, food court,
furniture store, hospital, dental clinic, and chapel. Pentagon Federal
Credit Union provides a full range of services EXCEPT for cash
transactions. The military finance office is available for check cashing
and exchanging currency. Teachers should maintain a stateside checking
account.
Civilians who arrived prior to fall 1999 were allowed to
maintain off-base quarters. Base officials encourage all civilians to live
on base, and many have volunteered to do so. Unfurnished housing off base
is usually very adequate in size. Most school personnel live in relatively
new high-rises. Loaner kits (beds, stove, pots and pans, and other basic
items) are available for 90 days from the military. Appliances can be
borrowed long-term. Personnel should bring all other household items.
The climate has four distinct seasons: the winter months
are cool and rainy; spring is sunny and humid; summer is hot and humid;
and the fall is moderately hot and humid.
"Tornado Town" sprung up in 1991 as home to Joint Task
Force Proven Force personnel. Renamed "Hodja Village," the tents housed
members deployed to Combined Task Force Northern Watch.
Immediately following the war, Incirlik proved
invaluable during Operation Provide Comfort when it served as the hub of
humanitarian relief efforts destined for Kurdish refugees in northern
Iraq. Thousands of tons of supplies flowed through the base on their way
to the refugees.
On Oct. 1, 1993, the 39 TACG became the 39th Wing,
bringing it on line with reconfiguration of the Air Force. The change
reflected the unit’s growing mission of support for munitions storage
sites and other US Air Force activities.
Major repair and replacement of the runway and taxiways
came to completion in January 1995.
In January 1997, Operation Provide Comfort changed to
Operation Northern Watch to more accurately describe the ongoing mission
of enforcing the no-fly zone over northern Iraq.
Incirlik is located in the southeastern part of Turkey,
located only a few minutes east of Adana, Turkey's fourth largest city. It
is located 35 miles from the Mediterranean Sea. The area just off base is
called Incirlik (pronounced Injurlik) Village. Expect to find cows, goats,
and sheep crossing roads and streets. Hearing drums and gunshots
(celebrating) during some of the Turkish holidays is not uncommon. There
are many small shops, fresh fruit and vegetable markets, small
restaurants, and a bakery or two that strictly sell Turkish bread. Area
specialties include copper and brass, carpets, and jewelry. There are auto
parts and paint shops in the village as well. In everything, please be
careful where you shop. Look around first and compare prices and quality.
You can purchase most of the basics of survival on the local economy.
There are approzimately 15,000 people living in the Village, sometimes
called the "Alley."
The overview of the Adana community (10-12 miles away)
is generally a more modern, city-life type community. Many shops, as well
as Pizza Hut and McDonalds are located in one large mall. There is also a
Burger King in Adana. Because housing is not available at this time for
Department of Defense Civilians and DoDDs teachers, as well as
contractors, many American families choose to live in this community
because of the new, larger apartments. See related subjects on Housing.
There are two shopping centers, the METRO and Carrefour (opened winter
1997), similar to SAM'S in the States, although goods sold there are
mostly Turkish.
History
Incirlik in Turkish literally means place of the fig or
fig orchard, which is what comprised a major portion of the base until
1951. Then, bulldozers and road graders cleared much of the land to make
way for the runway and support facilities of a new airfield.
The United States Engineering Group began construction
of a 10,000-foot runway at a new base 7 miles east of Adana, and
approximately 250 miles southeast of Ankara, Turkey, in the spring of
1951. While work on the runway progressed, an American company, Metcalfe,
Hamilton, and Grove, built base facilities and infrastructure under
contract.
The United States Air Force (USAF) initially planned to
use the base as an emergency staging and recovery site for medium and
heavy bombers. Since Turkey shared 360 miles of common border with Soviet
territory, Strategic Air Command (SAC) planners considered it an important
location. The years to follow would prove the value of Incirlik's location
not only in countering the Soviet threat, but also in responding to crises
in the Middle East.
The Turkish Air Force desired to operate a jet
instrument and gunnery school at the base. Turkey entered the North
Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1952 and required American
assistance to ensure its military equipment and facilities met NATO
standards. The Turkish General Staff (TGS) spent months negotiating an
agreement with the USAF concerning joint use of the base, which both
parties eventually signed on 6 December 1954. Several weeks later, on 21
February 1955, the base received its first official name, Adana Air Base
(AB).
Also in 1954, United States Air Forces in Europe (USAFE)
activated the 7216th Air Base Squadron at Wheelus Field, Libya, to operate
Adana AB. However, due to agreements with the Turkish government, American
military units in Turkey adopted a cover plan to conceal their
designations and missions. Hence, under the Turkey Cover Plan the 7216th
was Detachment 10, The United States Logistics Group (Det 10, TUSLOG). In
May 1954, the 7216th Air Base Squadron at Wheelus Field, Libya, began
transferring people and equipment to Adana Air Base. Adana AB later became
known as Incirlik Common Defense Installation. The 7216 ABS, at that time
part of the United States Logistics Group, maintained the installation’s
airfield for a wartime role while making it available as a peacetime
training site for rotational air units. An early focus of operations
included numerous mobility exercises. Later that year 3 officers and 17
airmen from the 7216th, along with 6 communications specialists, arrived
at Adana to prepare for the landing of the main body of the unit. In
February 1955, SAC conducted a small exercise requiring the men at Adana
to refuel B-47s and KC-97s. Shortly after this exercise, the remainder of
the 7216th arrived on C-119s from Wheelus.
In mid-1954, when the airfield was nearing completion,
USAF planners began to explore other uses for the base in addition to the
original wartime mission of bomber support. They added the following
missions: peacetime support of all USAF activities in southern Turkey,
tactical aircraft operations, and accommodating airlift missions destined
for the Middle East. The base also supported several unique assignments.
In the summer of 1958, the 7216 ABS met its first test
when a crisis in Lebanon focused world attention on the Middle East.
During the height of activities, 147 aircraft and crews sat on Incirlik’s
tarmac. The majority were C-124s and C-130s involved movement and
logistics support of an Army battalion into Lebanon. Four F-100s flew
nonstop from the United States to Incirlik and were combat ready minutes
after arrival. After the Lebanon Crisis, TAC deployed F-100 fighter
squadrons on 100-day rotations to Incirlik from the US.
U-2 operations complex near completion
As balloon missions terminated, the base commander
received notification that another tenant unit, Detachment 10-10 under the
Turkey Cover Plan, would soon arrive. The new operation, Project TL-10,
prompted another flurry of construction. However, the extremely sensitive
nature of the mission dictated the construction of a secure compound
within the base, which did not yet have a perimeter fence. President
Dwight D. Eisenhower had recently authorized Operation OVERFLIGHT --
covert reconnaissance missions over the Soviet Union. The Soviets had
flatly rejected his Open Skies plan, which would have allowed aircraft
from both countries to openly overfly each other's territory. Very few
people at Adana knew the true mission of Project TL-10.
Members of the unit, innocuously designated 2nd Weather
Reconnaissance Squadron (Provisional), began to arrive in August 1956. The
Air Force provided the squadron commander and logistical support, while
the Central Intelligence Agency provided the operations officer, pilots,
and mission planners. The unit's mission, contrary to its name, had
nothing to do with weather. It flew U-2 aircraft at extremely high
altitudes to gather photographic imagery and electronic signals for
intelligence purposes. The main target of these flights was the Soviet
Union.
The American intelligence community would come to rely
on this information to assess Soviet technological advances. However, the
Soviet Union was not the sole objective of the operation. For instance, in
September 1956, Francis Gary Powers flew over the eastern Mediterranean to
determine the position of British and French warships poised to assist
Israel's invasion of Egypt after Egyptian forces seized the Suez Canal.
Other flights followed to gather data on military activity during crises
involving Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, and Yemen.
By late 1957, Adana AB had become the main U-2 operating
location, having absorbed the resources of a unit in Germany. One of the
tasks the unit performed involved flying over missile sites in the Soviet
Union from forward operating locations at Lahore and Peshawar in Pakistan.
For every mission that penetrated Soviet airspace, there was at least one
surveillance flight along the border to divert Soviet air defense
attention from the intruder. These diversionary flights typically departed
Adana AB traveling over Van (in eastern Turkey), Iran, and the southern
Caspian Sea to the Pakistan-Afghanistan border; they returned along a
similar route. These periphery missions usually collected communications
and electronic signals instead of photographic imagery.
The U-2 operation continued at the base (renamed
Incirlik AB on 28 February 1958) for several years in the utmost secrecy,
until 1 May 1960. On that morning Gary Powers, then a veteran of 27
missions, took off from Peshawar destined for Bødo, Norway. He was to
overfly and photograph two major intercontinental ballistic missile test
sites in the Soviet Union en route, one at Sverdlovsk, the other at
Plesetsk. Heavy antiaircraft missile concentrations guarded both sites.
Powers took off on time, as did the diversionary flight
from Incirlik, and the mission continued as planned until he reached
Sverdlovsk. While on the photo run at 67,000 feet, the Soviets launched a
volley of 14 SA-2 surface-to-air missiles at Powers' aircraft. Although
the SA-2s could not achieve the same altitude as the U-2, the aircraft
disintegrated in the shock waves caused by the exploding missiles. Soviet
authorities subsequently arrested Powers after he successfully ejected
from the plane, and held him on espionage charges for nearly 2 years. The
Turkish, Pakistani, and Norwegian governments claimed to have no knowledge
of the American U-2 overflights, and shortly afterwards all U-2s and
support personnel quietly returned to the United States.
For a brief period, from May 1964 through August 1965,
F-105s deployed instead, but the F-100 rotations continued until 1970. In
1966, the responsibility for sending rotational fighter squadrons changed
from stateside fighter wings to the 401st Tactical Fighter Wing at
Torrejon AB, Spain. TAC transferred the 401st Tactical Fighter Wing (TFW)
to USAFE in April 1966, and with that the responsibility to deploy fighter
squadrons to Incirlik became USAFE's. The 401 TFW and its F-100s had
recently moved from England AFB, Louisiana, to Torrejon AB, Spain, and
also assumed alert duty at Aviano AB, Italy. These rotational squadrons
supported NATO plans and forces.
The 401st's arrival in Europe was part of an effort to
bring units with combat history into the theater. As part of that same
effort, USAFE inactivated the 7216th (by now an Air Base Group) and
activated the 39th Tactical Group at Incirlik in its place on 1 April
1966. The 39th continued as Det 10, TUSLOG, under the Turkey Cover Plan.
The 7216 ABS at Incirlik changed its name in 1966 to the
39th Tactical Group. However, because of agreements with the Government of
Turkey, the unit didn’t use the new designation openly until 1983. The
newly reorganized group went through another test when an earthquake
devasted large mountainous regions of Eastern Turkey. Within 24 hours, the
39 TACG and the Incirlik hospital combined resources to send a completely
air-transportable field hospital, equipped with portable X-ray units,
surgical and laboratory facilities, to the stricken area. US and Turkish
officials praised the humanitarian work of Incirlik units. Early in its
operational history, Incirlik became a support base for training fighter
aircrews on a rotational basis.
The last F-100s departed Incirlik in January 1970 when
F-4s from units in Germany relieved them for approximately 6 months.
During the break, the 401st converted to F-4s, then resumed rotations in
July. The flying mission at Incirlik further diversified in 1970 as a
result of a coup in Libya the previous year that brought Muammar Qaddafi
to power. After successfully overthrowing the King of Libya, the
Revolutionary Command Council asked the US to remove its forces.
Loss of a training range in Libya seriously impaired
USAFE's ability to train its aircrews in weapons delivery tactics. As a
result, the command negotiated with several NATO nations to open new
ranges or to expand existing ones. The Turkish Air Force agreed to allow
USAFE to improve facilities at its air-to-ground range at Konya, providing
a suitable training area for the squadrons deployed to Incirlik. These
units also conducted training at Incirlik's offshore air-to-air range.
The Konya air-to-ground range, located 150 miles
northwest of Incirlik, allowed deployed crews to practice a variety of
weapons delivery techniques, chemical warfare defense, and specialized
low-level navigation. Conversely, Incirlik's air-to-air range, 30 miles
south of the base in the northeastern Mediterranean, provided weapons
training detachments (WTD) the ability to fly at supersonic speeds while
practicing basic fighter maneuvers, air combat tactics, and intercept
missions. Throughout the 1970s (except during the Cyprus Crisis) and
1980s, many types of aircraft, including F-4s, F-111s, F-15s, F-16s, and
A-10s deployed to Incirlik to take advantage of this unique training
opportunity, sometimes combining the use of both ranges during particular
missions.
The 1970s were a turbulent time for Incirlik. On 20 July
1974, Turkey invaded Cyprus after a Greek coup overthrew the island's
president. After a month-long campaign that captured 40 percent of the
island, Turkey announced a cease-fire. In 1975, just as the base was
beginning to see new building projects and expanding activities on base,
the conflict in Cyprus brought construction to a halt. In mid-1975, the
Turkish government announced that all US bases would close and transfer
control to the Turkish military. This action was in response to an arms
embargo Congress imposed on Turkey for using US-supplied equipment during
the invasion. What particularly irked Congress was that Turkey flew
US-made fighters from Incirlik during the operation. Only Incirlik AB and
Izmir AS remained open due to their NATO missions, but all other non-NATO
activities at these locations ceased.
Congress lifted the embargo in September 1978 and
restored military assistance to Turkey. Consequently, Turkey lifted
restrictions on activities at Incirlik and Izmir, and allowed the
resumption of US military operations at Sinop, Kargarburun, Belbasi, and
Pirinclik.
In 1979, the base’s name became Incirlik Installation in
accordance with the Defense and Economic Cooperation Agreement between the
US and Turkey.
Operations returned to normal after the US and Turkey
signed a Defense and Economic Cooperation Agreement (DECA) on 29 March
1980. After signing the DECA, USAFE initiated the Turkey Catch-up plan to
improve quality of life conditions. One of the major projects was the
completion of a new base housing complex, although other facilities also
received refurbishment.
Since 1981, construction continued as the base upgraded
or replaced old facilities. New hardened aircraft shelters, dormitories,
commissary, schools, a headquarters building, lodging, and base hospital
were some of the larger projects. Throughout the remainder of the decade,
the base continued its Cold War mission of hosting rotational squadrons.
Incirlik’s support activities changed only slightly when the 401st
transitioned to the F-16 later.
However, in January 1989 massive political changes in
Eastern Europe began that would end 45 years of Soviet domination. One of
the most visible signs predicting the end of the Cold War was the German
Democratic Republic's opening the Berlin Wall in November. The collapse of
the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact brought euphoria to the West, but also
forced nations to ponder the future role of NATO. Meanwhile, Iraqi
aggression in Kuwait brought increased activity to Incirlik once again.
Instead of focusing on a possible confrontation in Europe, the base turned
its attention to events in Southwest Asia.
With the invasion of Kuwait by neighboring Iraq in
August 1990, Incirlik’s role in the Middle East again took on great
significance. As Iraq’s occupation of Kuwait continued into 1991, Incirlik
welcomed units from around the world; and from every service. Units
deployed in direct support of Operation Desert Shield and later, Operation
Desert Storm.
Incirlik was USAFE's only strike base for Desert Storm.
The idea of launching strikes from Incirlik against Iraq actually came
from junior staff officers at Ramstein. As good planners are wont to do
they were playing "what if 's" in September of 1990 when one of them came
up with the idea of using us as a strike base. This was an obvious
political impossibility as it was widely known that the Turks would never
allow the launching of strikes against Iraq from their soil. Nevertheless
the planners sketched out a basic plan which involved using only USAFE
assets. As part of this process the base Ops people were asked for inputs.
Specifically they were asked what the absolute maximum number of aircraft
was which could be handled on the base. After careful consideration and a
lot of scrutiny, it was estimated that the maximum number would be about
95 fighters.
Of course this was pie-in-the-sky because it was thought
that the Turks would never approve of Incirlik being a strike base. This
was the conventional wisdom throughout USAFE during the build up prior to
the war. Up through the start of the war Headquarters EUCOM gave Incirlik
less than a one percent chance of being a strike base.
The operation sent Incirlik into high gear with F-111s,
F-16s, F-15s, tanker aircraft, and many others units taking the base from
its peacetime posture to the pinnacle of preparedness for war. The Gulf
War began Jan. 16, 1991, with thousands of sorties flown against Iraq and
occupied Kuwait out of bases controlled by US Central Command and its
coalition partners. Aircraft deployed here, under the European Command
began flying missions into Iraq on Jan. 17, 1991. It was months before
military members saw a return to somewhat normal operations. In all,
Incirlik launched exactly 100 strike packages or gorillas; flew over 4,600
combat sorties, totalling 14,000 combat hours; dropped over 3,000 tons of
ordnance on enemy targets; and pumped nearly 30 million pounds of fuel.
Incirlik F15's shot down four Iraqi fighters in air to air engagements.
Incirlik sustained not a single combat loss. Incirlik did lose one F-l5
during the war but it went down enroute to the target while it was still
in Turkey. Incirlik accounted for nearly five percent of the combat
missions in Operation Desert Storm.
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