Not too long
after my first re-enlistment in the fall of 1961 the word came that my long
period at Shaw AFB as one of TAC's "gnat trained killers" (TAC was famous
for bases in bug-country) was coming to an end. Our next posting was
to be Wheelus AFB in Tripoli, Libya. When I got the word I had to
consult an atlas to determine exactly where the hell that was.
Libya at that
time was still a monarchy under Sayyid Muhammad Idris bin Muhammad al-Mahdi
as-Senussi, or King Idris as we knew him. Oil had been discovered but
serious production was still in the future and outside of the major cities
of Tripoli & Benghazi Libya was a fairly primitive place.
Wheelus AFB, in
addition to being a useful staging point for US and NATO activities in the
central Mediterranean & further south in Africa, boasted a large
air-to-ground desert gunnery range with excellent flying weather most of the
year. Fighter & fighter-bomber outfits from Europe would rotate down
for bombing & gunnery practice on a regular basis.
Not having the
rank to rate government housing we had to rent an apartment off-base, which
entailed a major culture shock adjustment for D, who had never before been
out-of-country. It all worked out though and we enjoyed our four years
there.
The Libya
assignment also provided the opportunity to make another life-altering move.
I had been working in the communications shop a few months when my boss came
in and asked if anyone knew anything about television. He informed us
that our outfit had just assumed responsibility for maintenance of the
radio/TV station on base and he needed a volunteer to fill a vacancy.
No one else displayed any interest and I was getting bored with fixing the
same sort of stuff day after day, so I told him sure, I know TV theory and I
can handle that.
What at that
moment I had viewed as just a fun diversion turned out to be one of the best
moves of my working career. Except for a year or so in an aerial
reconnaissance assignment (which was sort-of TV I guess) I spent the rest of
my productive life working in television, and it was good to me.
Click the
thumbnails for full-size pictures.
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Our Apartment, Tripoli
Camels were a frequent sight on the dirt street outside out gate. |
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Our Apartment, Tripoli
Our digs were the brown compound, left foreground. After a year or so we
moved to a somewhat nicer place on a paved street. |
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Apartment Interior
Things were basic, but comfortable. No air conditioning, but the thick
limestone block walls moderated the desert heat. |
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"Yard" of our Tripoli Apartment
The neighborhood kids were fascinated by the little wading pool. All living
quarters in Libya were either totally enclosed Arab compound style or fenced off
like ours.. |
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A New Wilson Arrives
It didn't take long after D's arrival for things to happen. |
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Ground Radio Shop, Wheelus
This was the somewhat boring radio repair shop where I worked before making
the move to the TV station. Unlike the more, shall we say, active life
with TAC, this pretty much like washing dishes. I could fix the stuff in my
sleep. |
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JW at "work"
I had just arrived in Libya when this was taken and already I don't look too
excited. |
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Street Scene, Tripoli
On the right side, note the meat market with meat hanging free. It was
covered with flies, but the butcher would spray it with a Flit gun, producing a
deluge of dying flies and clearing space to whack off a chunk of meat. |
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The Harbor, Tripoli
The downtown harbor area was actually quite attractive. This is looking from
the old fort eastward. |
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Street Scene, Tripoli
Probably hasn't changed much in 40 years. |
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Main Gate, Wheelus AFB
About a year after we arrived, a new divided roadway was completed from the
city out to the base. It was a major improvement in commiting! |
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Flagpole & AFRTS Station
The propeller mounted on the flagpole base is from the "Lady Be Good", a
bomber which crashed deep in the desert during WW-II. The crew had bailed out
over desert, thinking they were still over the Mediterranean and subsequently
died while trying to walk out. |
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AFRTS Station, Tripoli
We had an AM radio station on the air from 6 AM to midnight, and TV from
around 4 PM to midnight, with expanded schedule on the weekends. Basic, but it
was all there was and served its purpose. |
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Woman's Day Show
D had an afternoon show called "Woman's Day" that she hosted in rotation with
two other wives. Filling the time was sometimes a challange but they did well. |
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The Story Princess
D also did a kids' show where she was "The Story Princess" and read stories
to kids. Simple, but it worked.
(OOPS! Wrong assignment...this was 5 years later at Wakkanai Japan! But she's
a sexy broad so I'll leave it in.) |
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Kids Time
OK, our locally produced programming was not network quality but we tried! |
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Social Gathering of the Ladies
Like all overseas bases in the more (ahem) exotic locales, social life pretty
much revolved around fellow GI families. |
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J, D, & the Lightners
Allen Lightner was the US Ambassador at the time. Although I sometimes fixed
radio gear at the Embassy we wern't normally in the same orbit with the
diplomatic gang. This was a rare social occasion. |
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Enjoying the Med
The base had a stretch of beachfront that was popular with families. |
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Lady of Garian, Libya
In WW-II the Germans had a POW camp at Garian, some distance inland from
Tripoli, and the prisoners occupied their time painting various female forms.
Popular myth held this was a concealed escape map, but it was actually just an
expression of what they thought about most! |
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Reclining Lady, Garian
This is the largest of the Garian paintings and her reclining figure forms a
general outline of the Med coastline, with the major cities marked. The pictures
were poorly protected and I suspect they may no longer exist. |
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Desert Town
Settlements outside of Tripoli were pretty basic. |
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Leptis Magna
Two old Roman towns, Sabratha and Leptis Magna, were reminders of the time
when it was the "grainery of the empire". Presumably this was before George Bush
created global warming and trashed North Africa. |
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Not a Dune Buggy
One thing Libya has is sand. This was the result of an ill-advised attempt to
take a shortcut. |
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Easter at the TV Station
Most of the family social activities were on the base, as our downtown digs
were not exactly condusive to such things. |
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