Thursday, December 28, 2000

By Terry Boyd
Turkey bureau

IZMIR, Turkey — You wanna talk mission essential? Army Lt. Col. Edward Milligan can tell you about mission essential. If he comes home from the commissary with the wrong brand of disposable diapers, his 2½-year-old daughter will not salute and go on.

"If she doesn’t like them, she’ll take ’em off," said Milligan, who’s attached to Joint Command Southeast, the NATO subregional command in Izmir.

For Europe-based troops, diapers, food and necessities are available at a number of places around base — or at another nearby base.

But in Izmir, there is no base for the Air Force support unit, the 425th Air Base Squadron — just a few buildings, including the main Akin Building, scattered around the heart of a huge city.

Izmir’s commissary and base exchange, housed in a vulnerable street-front building, closed shortly after the Oct. 12 bombing of the USS Cole.

Still, 77 days into Threat Condition Charlie, the 1,200 or so American military personnel in Izmir aren’t struggling to find familiar American foods, nor are toddlers going diaperless.

On Tuesday, Milligan walked through Izmir’s temporary commissary in the Akin Building while checking his post-Christmas shopping list with his wife via cell phone.

"I think [Izmir-based] people should count their blessings," he said of the temporary store, which opened Nov. 11.

Izmir’s temporary commissary, dubbed the "Akissary," is a history-making effort, the first field commissary set up to counter a terrorist threat, said Geri Young, public affairs officers at Defense Commissary Agency European Region headquarters in Kaiserslautern, Germany.

For DECA, Turkey is tough place to do business in the best of times, Young said. It’s "at the end of the pipeline," nearly a week’s drive for supply trucks from central distribution centers in Germany, she said.

In tough times, "you have to be very creative," Young said.

In 1998, DECA officials relocated the commissary at Incirlik Air Base after striking Turkish workers shut down the regular facility. DECA officials repeated the move after an earthquake a few weeks later.

In Europe, problems from mud slides in Germany to sagging floors in Shinnen, the Netherlands, have forced commissaries to relocate to tents. But DECA personnel take pride in staying open no matter what the obstacles, she said: "Whenever these things come along, you just do what’s necessary."

What was necessary in Izmir was first getting a kick-start from customers, said Ronald Vickerstaff, store administrator.

Vickerstaff credits Sgt. Major Marion White for calling him "and asking, ‘What could we do?’ That’s how it got started."

First, DECA officials had to find a place to use for a temporary store. Vickerstaff and store director Nejat Akin said they considered space at NATO’s garrison, but decided that it would be too difficult for non-NATO Americans to get on the high-security Turkish base.

Then, 425th commander Col. James Chamberlain signed off on a plan to use half of the Akin Restaurant space, only two blocks from the commissary.

So, Izmir’s 30-person crew – 25 locals and five U.S. employees – worked day and night to move everything needed from stock to loaner freezers and coolers from the Base Exchange and the Akin restaurant. Chamberlain had asked that DECA personnel open in two weeks, Akin said.

"We were ready in two days," he added.

Now, commissary staffers spend every day restocking the Akissary out of the main commissary — in addition to servicing the Department of Defense school, Akin restaurant, the NATO dining facility and 425th’s Child Development Center.

Finally, the Izmir staff takes special orders for the items they don’t have room for in the Akissary, filling them from the main building.

"They’re giving really, really personal service!" Young said.

The temporary store has been well received, to say the least, since it first opened, Vickerstaff and Akin said. It did $14,000 worth of business the first day, $8,000 the next, they said.

Heading into the Thanksgiving and the year-end holidays, the tiny makeshift operation sold between 400 and 500 turkeys, Vickerstaff said.

True, shopping on the economy in this modern city is not a huge problem. But many Americans — especially newcomers — just prefer the American meats, American diary products and American brands, said Akin and Vickerstaff.

Some products — like baby foods — aren’t widely available in Turkey, and other items — like disposable diapers — are much more expensive, Akin said.

As of December, there’s no end in sight for Threatcon Charlie or the Akissary.

"Right now, our people are giving 250 percent, working long hours and there’s no bitching and crying," Vickerstaff said. Akin said he and Vickerstaff often work 6:30 a.m. to 8 p.m., trying to perfect the make-shift system.

"But you know, the situation calls for that sometimes," Vickerstaff said.

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