THIS IS A TRUE STORY……..
The plane was late to arrive in Europe. Crossing the Atlantic on
the over night flight is usually peaceful, but this time the cockpit had an
alarm - fire in the baggage compartment!
The 747 descended from cruising altitude of 30,000 ft to 7,000, we were
all assured that the fire would have been extinguished by dumping the CO2, and
we were being diverted to Shannon, Ireland and due there in several hours. With this information I said a prayer and
went back to sleep, only to be awakened as the plane touched down, the runway
lined with emergency vehicles and our plane was not allowed close to the
building, we all had to evacuate on the runway and be bussed in.
This delay caused me to miss my next flight
and I finally got into Istanbul
very late that night. The International Airport
is a number of kilometers out of town, so to get to the place where I would
normally stay, the Cinar Hotel, I had to hire a
taxi. Now most taxis are just people who
want a job and use their car to pick up riders.
It’s not an organized thing with the logo and a picture of the driver
posted. One never knows just which
“taxi” one is getting into.
It seemed to me that the route we took was not
quite the one I was accustomed to, it was midnight
and I was on a dirt road in the outback.
I noticed several men on the side of the road with shotguns. As my cab driver approached, he slowed
down. The driver was not only slowing
down, but pulling over to where the men were standing, and I noticed that he
had his hand on the driver side door and was beginning to open it. The men seemed to be at attention now, with
their guns in both hands, and watching our vehicle approach.
At this point I was sure something was about
to ‘go down’. Not even thinking about
being robbed, or that I was an American representing NATO at the time when
Turkey had just used NATO arms against the Greeks on Cyprus, or that there was
a strong Communist Party in Turkey and I represented the ultimate in
Anti-Communist Control, my very job was to gather information on the Soviet
Space program!
I thought about the razor sharp curved 3 inch
blade linoleum cutter I had in my pocket – and the training in an Okinawa
style of karate I had practiced during those long winter nights on a little Island
near Siberia. None of this was going to help against a
gun! One thing I knew was that their
guns were, in all probability, shotguns.
No one in Turkey,
other than the Police and the Military, owned a handgun or a rifle or a
communication type radio. And one thing
I know about shotguns is that if I can quickly put some distance between me and
the shooter, then there is a chance, and I always said that my best weapon is
my feet! Next to me on the seat was my
butt pack with some food and water, I grabbed it and began to open my door,
looking out into the darkness across what appeared to be an endless field. That was the ticket, if they miss with the
first few shots, they will never catch me!!
It was as if the proceedings were taking place
in slow motion, our vehicle left its straight line of travel, slowed, turning toward the men along the roadside. I could see the men now beginning to become
very much alert and MOVE! My driver
opened his door wider, now leaning out and down, his hands pulling on the
wheel, he hocked up a lugie and SPIT! That’s all he wanted to do is open his car
door and SPIT! Unfortunately for the
Shepard’s attending their sheep that night, standing peacefully on the road, my
driver almost RAN THEM OVER!
As my driver pulled his door shut, he turned
and seemed a bit puzzled as I slammed mine.
He said: “Cinar bir
kilometer, cok iyi!!” I said:
Yes, only 1 more kilometer to the Cinar hotel,
great short-cut!!
Don Erdeljac
March 2002