Does anyone know whatever happened to Det 150's American flag?  

For those who weren't there at the time in 1981 and 1982, the US forces were only allowed to fly the US flag on weekends, Federal holidays and Turkish holidays.  The flagpoles were located at a side door of the dormitory with the American flag flying on the pole between the doorway and the Orderly Room (aka "Command Section") window. 

As you might imagine, the cotton flag we flew outdoors took quite a beating from the weather on top of that mountain.  One week as I walked back inside with the flag, I noticed it was starting to wear and asked the supply NCO, a guy named Alan Ralph (if I remember right), if he could order one.  Alan ordered one, but told me it would probably take forever since we were at the very end of the Air Force's supply chain.  I wasn't surprised by this considering we were 150 miles further out that the airfields the Military Airlift Command would use for our resupply. 

Rather than get discouraged by the dismal supply picture, I tried to scrounge a plain old "all purpose" nylon flag from the Incirlik Air Base mortuary office, but no, they could not spare even a single one.  Having previously served as a Mortuary Affairs Administrator at Langley AFB just a couple of years earlier, I wondered, "I wonder how many flags they have for mass casualties?"  (I always had two to three dozen flags on hand in my Mortuary Affairs kit, still in their cardboard boxes as they came from Base Supply.) 

Feeling a bit discouraged, I vented to the site commander, Captain Sam Edgar, who smiled when I said we should get a flag that flew over the US Capitol in Washington DC as it would probably come in faster.  Captain Edgar said if I could find out how much it cost, he'd pay for it.  Since this was back in pre-historic days (read:  "pre-Internet"), it took me a few weeks to get the address for the Architect of the Capitol in Washington DC and the price of a flag.  I wrote a nice letter which the commander signed and attached to a check for the flag's cost.  Out it went in one of our mail pouches, DC-bound!

Fast forward about eight weeks and we're sorting the twice-weekly mailrun's inbound mail on the Commander's table.  A flat box about 10 X 12 had fallen out of the mail pouch when we dumped it out.  The Commander looked at it and grinned, then opened it.  Inside was a letter, a certificate and a somewhat brand new flag in a plastic bag.  The Architect of the Capitol had passed our letter to Senator Patrick Moynihan of New York because we had an APO New York mailing address.  The senator arranged for the flag to be flown and sent it to us with a nice letter and the Architect's certificate documenting the "flown date".

Captain Edgar arranged for some Turkish craftsman to build a velvet-lined wooden flag case complete with a full glass front. The medic (I think it was "Doc" Feaster) created a diorama sort of view by suspending the flag inside the case using sutures attached to the velvet.   The letter and certificate were encased in wooden frames, also made in Gemlik, on a custom order.  The entire display was mounted on the wall opposite the Orderly Room.  We may not have replaced the outdoor flag yet, but we were definitely "flying" one inside 24 hours a day! 

When the Turkish soldiers saw this display, they asked if we would frame a Turkish flag that had come from Ataturk’s tomb.  We told them, "Sure, you get the flag and a letter that says it flew there and we'll get a case built for it."  I half-expected to see the Turkish military cut all sorts of red tape to get the flag post-haste, but I was there until August of 1982 and no one ever brought me a Turkish flag or a letter for framing.    That's too bad as I thought they would have looked great hanging across the hall from each other.

So, the question of the day is:

Where's Det 150's flag?

If we could find that flag, it would make a great contribution to the National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio.  I've tried to find a copy of the contract or records on Sahintepe's demolition, but no one seems to know who would have copies.  Let me know if you have it or know where this flag ended up when the site closed.