Why I have no photos of Saudi Arabia
In September of 1985 I got picked to go over to Saudi Arabia to augment some
squadron working out of Dhahran.
When I got the word, the Chief Master Sergeant who was our Operations
Superintendent, (CMSgt Breeze was his name by the way), got me in his office
and told me when I was going to be leaving and what I needed to take. He
asked me, "Are you planning on taking a camera over there?"
I said, "Well, yeah. I was going to."
Chief Breeze said, "You might want to leave it behind because there's this
word here that they had an incident with somebody trying to take a picture
near the flight line out there. The Saudi SP's freaked out and smashed
the camera."
"Oh. Hmmm. Okay. I'll leave it behind."
I was going to go over to Saudi Arabia from Tinker AFB Oklahoma.
The first thing they did with us was to get us all in a room for our "Arab
Culture Indoctrination" briefing.
So the first thing this guy stands up and asks, "Is there anybody here that
has a camera?"
I didn't raise my hand because I didn't bring mine.
The guy said, "Good. Because in the Arab culture they don't like westerners
taking pictures of their mosques and cultural buildings."
Hmmm. That wasn't the reason I heard but... Okay.
So I get on this C141 and we take this thirty six hour flight to Saudi Arabia. We refueled in the air off the coast of Spain, stayed for a few hours in Rein Mein, and finally got to Rihad.
At the air port in Rihad we had to go through customs. Depending on who you got for a customs agent decided whether or not you'd keep anything you might want to bring in.
Mostly there were there to confiscate bottles of liquor you might be packing in your suit case. (Who would do that? Oh, you'd be surprised.) And "filthy western porno". Things like Newsweek, Time, body building magazines, (they keep them for themselves for later.), and Bibles.
The basic rule they go by is, "Could I get my hand cut off if I had this in my possession? And "Does it show any skin at all?"
As we sat there in the international section waiting for our luggage to come off the plane and line up for customs, an American guy stood up, "Does anybody here have a camera?"
Some guy said he did. Big mistake.
"Well, you should've been briefed not to bring one. You'll have to surrender that up to the customs officials when you step up to the counter. The Saudi Arabians hate cameras. It's a sacrilege to Islam to have there pictures taken because they believe their souls get transferred to the film. Now, form a line beginning to the right."
(By the way... If you ever want to smuggle a Bible, bottle of liquor, or a camera into Saudi Arabia, just leave it in your carry-on bag. When I went to get my luggage and take it to the customs guys I was not able to go back to my seat where my carry-on bag was. Nobody ever searched it. Nobody ever asked for it. Nobody ever noticed it.)
Now, me and two other guys were going on to Dhahran but they couldn't get us on a plane out just yet so we had to stay at the Al Yamama, (No kidding. Real name.), hotel in Rihad over night.
The next day we went out to the flight line to get on a C-130 and off to Dharan.
The First Sergeant came out to pick us up. (In the coming months of the TDY I would figure him to have been one the most clueless human beings in the U.S. Air Force at that time. Another story perhaps.)
We were in the car going to the squadron when this guy says, "Any of you guys bring a camera?"
I'm like, "No! I did not bring a camera!"
Sheesh! By now I'm getting really tired of getting asked this.
He says, "Well good. 'Cause the Saudi's hate camera's as a plot of Israel and if they catch you takin' pictures they'll rip out the film and smash the camera and haul you off to 'Chop-chop Square' where you'll get your head cut off in public and blah... blah... blah..." (He continued all the way back to the squadron.)
So by now I'm tired and haven't had a shower for two days and I'm laughing about it. "What is up with this stupid camera thing? Some General must've mentioned in a staff meeting that, 'Maybe we should discourage folks from bringing their cameras to the base', and the whole thing just did an 'exploding cantalope' all over with people on witch hunts over cameras."
It was really funny. I must have been asked, literally, five times if I had a camera from South Carolina to the Persian Gulf.
What set these people off about this?
But I thought, "Well, at least I didn't really bring one and some where along the line say, 'Yes'. Man, these clowns would've dog piled on me long ago."
So... To end the story...
I get into my room, drop off my stuff and take a shower and I'm walking around the "compound" where they have us Americans staying, and there's these two Captains that notice me as a new guy and they say, "Hey. We're going shopping at the gold markets in Dammom. You want to go check it out?"
I say, "Sure." It's my first day in the Middle East. We go down there and check out the market place and there's Arabs trading and yelling and everybody's got a moustache and wearing a Pizza Hut table cloth and a fan belt, and all the women are desked out head to toe in black like "Cousin It".
And I'm checking all this out and I'm really kinda freaking because I'm in the Middle East and scared of terrorists and guess what I see?
Camera shops on every corner. And people snapping away pictures every where and even some tourists from Japan or Korea or somewhere and these Arabs are posing for pictures for these guys and letting people get on their camels and pose for pictures and this whole stupid thing about cameras was this gigantic lie that stupid Americans swallowed hook, line, and sinker.
So... I have no photos of my stay in Saudi Arabia. It's a shame.
So what have I learned? If you go to Saudi Arabia and they go off about how you're not supposed to have a camera, you tell them, "Camera? Me? No way. I heard the Koran says not to have one of them things."
But remember where to keep it?
In that carry on bag.
Keep reminding yourself you're smarter than they are cause it's true.