Albert Story Narrative Chapter 10

Out of Turkey

By the time the buses had arrived to pick us up and take us to the train station we had said our good byes and given away all our extra civilian clothes. We departed some time about mid-morning. The Turkish flags still waved from practically every building in sight. Of course, we weren’t thinking about Turkish flags. Getting back to HALPRO was the chief concern. I barely remember getting on the train. I do remember that we had a car all to ourselves. We quickly got settled in and were on our way. We traveled over the very same tracks that Bobbie Albertson had looked at so often on the map and wondered how far we would get if we tried to hike out on foot. We had thought about it often but always concluded it was impractical. For most of the day the train passed through the Anatolian Plateau Region, mostly barren of trees. It is somewhat reminiscent of the Palouse Prairie of Eastern Washington. By late afternoon we were surprised to see something we had not seen since leaving Florida, pine trees. Finally night came on and early next morning we arrived at the train station at Aleppo, Syria.

Three British Lorries were waiting for us at Aleppo. We hopped aboard these trucks and began the long journey from Aleppo to Haifa, which at the time was in Palestine. There was no Israel then. About the only thing I remember about this part of the trip was the view out the back of the lorry of mile after mile of barren hillsides marked with gravestones. It gave one the impression that people had been living and dying there for a very long time. We passed through Beirut and finally made our way to the airfield at Haifa. There we found a DC-3 military passenger plane waiting to fly us to Cairo.  We landed at Cairo and were quickly taken by bus to our barracks. We were all half starved by this time. Since it was between meals, all that was available was bread and butter. This we ate ravenously. Back at the barracks someone announced that military uniforms could by picked up at the supply building. When they heard this, several of our people dashed out of the barracks and ran to the supply building. The sergeant who had made this announcement was quite amused. He said he had never seen people so anxious to get into uniform. It was usually the other way around.

After we were back in uniform, we all were assembled for some sort of briefing and were told that we had a choice of returning home or of rejoining our unit which had now become the First Provisional Bomber Group. I elected to rejoin our unit. Later we were all assembled at the airstrip where we were photographed with a B-24 as a backdrop. It was at this photo session that Lieutenant Wicklund came by to see us. He was in Cairo and had heard that we were all released from Turkey. There he advised me to take the opportunity to return home. He said that most of the people flying at the front, given the chance, would elect to go home. So on his advice, I went back and said I had changed my mind. I still credit Lt. Wicklund with probably saving my life.

Later that day we were given passes to go into Cairo. While there we decided to visit the great pyramids. Three of us, Pearce, Albertson and I decided to climb to the top. We were surprised to discover that the stones making up the structure were cubes of about four- and- a half -feet on a side. This made climbing very difficult but we managed it. We stood for a long while on top enjoying the view. Later we entered the tomb with a guide leading the way. After this, we went down where an enterprising Egyptian had camels for rent. He also had a camera and offered, for a price, to take our pictures while we were astride the camels and mail them to us at home. I’m still waiting for those pictures. We probably were not the first tourists ripped off by him. Later when we returned to the base I saw atop the flagpole a sight I hadn’t seen for almost a year. There was the United States Flag standing against the blue sky. For most of the past year I had seen only Turkish flags. It was not until then that I realized how beautiful our flag is. Shortly after this, I was on my way home.