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2-01: You would find yourself hundreds of not thousands of years in the past once out of Izmir’s city limits. This photo was shot through our car's window showing one member of a camel caravan riding along the highway. We rode in Plymouth Valiants having reliable “slant-6 engines” at the time. Often times the caravans would simply travel across the land, impervious to directions taken by the paved roads. You would see people in these caravans walking or riding camels, donkeys, etc. wearing the colorful costumes of years ago. One caravan included a bear! (GSmith, Dev. Date: Mar ‘62, Slide05)

2-02: I learned to drink tea in Turkey. As the majority of Turkey's citizenry is Muslim, alcohol was not openly or publicly available. Even so…Izmir’s nightclubs certainly had a decent selection of booze regardless. In other words, there was not a bar or liquor store located on every street corner in every village as you will find in some places in the States. Instead, you would find a tea house, usually only one in any small village, with some of the best tea I've ever had. My driver would pull in to a little village along the way (this photo showing one more modern than most), many having only mud streets and no electricity. We would sit and chat while drinking tea in a tea house that surely must have been centuries old. There was something to that environment that was simple, low stress, and often missed through the years by me during my compliance with serving in the military, working in the aerospace industry, hectic schedules, education, and not much time to oneself. (GSmith, Dev Date: Oct 1961, Slide12)

2-03: There were various obstacles to overcome along the way to and from the site. This photo was taken on a return trip to a site...it was a long trip to make in one day, from the site to the RIM to pick up or drop off parts, documents, grab some lunch, etc., then back to the site. You can see the long shadows in the photo depicting the time of day, late in the afternoon or early evening. One of our I&C team members, Kline I believe his name was, chose to drive to and from the site in his private Fiat sports car. He ran into and killed a sheep one day. A few days later the shepherd of that flock arrived at the site wanting compensation for the killed sheep. As I recall, payment was due the shepherd not only for the killed sheep, but for generation of sheep that was lost as a result! (GSmith, Dev Date: Oct 1961, Slide29)

2-04: As a general rule, we were transported to and from the site with the services of a Turkish driver, and did not drive ourselves. Our vehicles were generally Plymouth Valiants or Dodge Power Wagons, complete with two-way radio communications. If a Turkish driver was involved in an accident, then supposedly the team member occupants of the vehicle weren't liable. In this way we were protected from getting into serious (and long term) trouble with the Turkish government. My driver was an older guy, really nice to work with. I'm sure he kept me out of trouble as we visited the various villages along the way. This photo shows one of many not uncommon accidents one would encounter along the roads to the various remote missile sites.  (GSmith, Dev Date: Oct 1961, Slide17)

2-05: You never knew what might be around the next bend in the road. Again, these types of accidents were common place, and scenes that required one to maintain vigilance along the way.  (GSmith, Dev Date: Feb 1962, Slide09)

2-06: While traveling in a Plymouth Valiant was a bit more comfortable and cushioned as compared to traveling in one of our Dodge Power Wagons, the ride was still more noticeably rough in some spots along the way than others. One of my passengers took this shot of me holding on to keep from bumping my head on the roof of the car as we traveled along a rather rough road. (GSmith, Dev Date: Feb 1962)

2-07: Desolate travel along some stretches of road. Here we are traveling along a newly-built road carved out of and through the mountains on the way to one of the remote sites. No asphalt here...just rocks. Again, you can see that it's late in the day which corresponded and the end of another long trip to and from the RIM located at Çigli AFB, Turkey. (GSmith, Dev Date: Feb 1962, Slide19)

2-08: In spite of the remoteness of the area, there was a lot of beautiful country to be seen along the way to and from the sites. Here's a photo of one such scene, possibly on the way to LP3, of what apparently is part of the Turkish coastline along the Aegean Sea. (GSmith, Dev Date: Oct 1961, Slide36)