Combined celebrations bring nations together at Incirlik

by Senior Airman Chase Hedrick
39th Air Base Wing Public Affairs

4/21/2014 - INCIRLIK AIR BASE, Turkey -- If April showers bring May flowers then Turkish and American citizens who attended the first ever joint Spring Fling and Children's Day event April 19, at Arkadash Park should be looking forward to a colorful month.

The joint Turkish air force and United States Air force event brought in attendees of multiple nationalities determined to have a good time despite the light rain that that persisted throughout the day. Organizers from both nations filled the park with foods, games and stage performances that cemented the cohesion of the previously separate celebrations.

Incirlik AB has long held a Spring Fling festival near the Turkish children's day holiday of April 23 of each year, said Mary Wall, 39th Force Support Squadron community services flight chief. In the interest of partnership the idea to combine the celebrations was brought up a couple of years ago, but hadn't worked until this year, she said.

"For a lot of different reasons we weren't able to do the festivals on the same day, but we were able to do it on the same weekends," said Wall. "Then this year we started asking the Turkish air force back in January if they would like to participate with us on the same day this year. When we got a response it just started rolling from there."

The top ranking officers on Incirlik from each nation, Turkish air force Air Pilot Brig. General Serdar Gulbas, 10th Tanker Base commander and U.S. Air Force Col. Craig Wills, 39th Air Base Wing commander, led the event's welcome ceremony together.

"Ladies and gentlemen, and ladies and gentlemen of the future, we really appreciate you coming out for today's joint ceremony with 10th Tanker Base children's day festivities and 39th Air Base Wing Spring Fling festivities," said Gulbas. "Last year we had those celebrations separately and we got wet. This year with the hope we would not get wet again we held our celebrations jointly. We still got wet, but we are lucky we didn't get that much rain this year."

Wills added his thoughts on the event including his hopes the day would provide attendees the opportunity to get to know each other outside of the working environment. More such opportunities may also be coming up according one member of the 39th FSS .

"We're also looking forward to the World's Faire Day on May 17," said Barbara Stewart, 39th FSS deputy commander. "We're trying to do something with the four corners of the world by asking the Dutch, Germans, Turks and all of the heritage committees to be a part of this and give everyone a chance to show their culture in a little bit of a different fashion."

As the many nationalities and cultures on and near Incirlik AB continue to interact hopefully the weather will hold, but if not Team Incirlik now knows nature can't rain on its parades.