Where is incirlik air base

The Cs, based out of Charleston, rotated in and out every two weeks or so. Although initially the mission supported Operation Iraqi Freedom, it has the ability to expand to support Operation Enduring Freedom, which includes Afghanistan.

The flight to Afghanistan takes only about 8 hr. It's primarily general cargo. It is for sustaining operations in Iraq -- things like lubrication oil, parts for different things and a lot of add-on armor -- things people need to keep their mission going.

And while the cargo flying out of Incirlik kept the mission going, it also meant an increase of the support systems for the people who work on and with the aircraft stationed here, as well as an increase in aircrews and maintainers supporting the new operation. The aircrews are at Incirlink e for around two weeks at a time, and maintainers for anywhere between 30 and days.

More people on base means there is more workload to support. Several 39th Services Squadron programs expanded to handle the extra workload. Most personnel are housed in main base lodging with a few in Turkish air force lodging. When those places are filled the remaining people are lodged in Tin City. Tin City is an area of prefabricated buildings that can hold a great number of people should the need arise.

Incirlik is located in the southeastern part of Turkey, located only a few minutes east of Adana, Turkey's fourth largest city.

It is located 35 miles from the Mediterranean Sea. The area just off base is called Incirlik pronounced Injurlik Village. Expect to find cows, goats, and sheep crossing roads and streets.

Hearing drums and gunshots celebrating during some of the Turkish holidays is not uncommon. There are many small shops, fresh fruit and vegetable markets, small restaurants, and a bakery or two that strictly sell Turkish bread. Area specialties include copper and brass, carpets, and jewelry. There are auto parts and paint shops in the village as well. In everything, please be careful where you shop. Look around first and compare prices and quality.

You can purchase most of the basics of survival on the local economy. There are approzimately 15, people living in the Village, sometimes called the "Alley. Many shops, as well as Pizza Hut and McDonalds are located in one large mall. It is also around 50 km from the Mediterranean Sea, close to the Middle East. The population is mostly American — over troops.

However, the base also hosts a few hundred British and Turkish soldiers. The place has two runways. One is 3 km long, while the secondary one is about 2.

In free translation, the Turkish name refers to a place covered with fig trees. Most Americans have a hard time reading it, especially since they are not familiarized with the Turkish phonetics. That is when the decision to build it was taken. However, the construction was delayed due to World War II. The actual construction began in Its initial purpose was to host the medium and advanced bombers. The hosting also included maintenance and repair operations.

The first name was Adana Air Base and was given in During the height of activities, aircraft and crews sat on Incirlik's tarmac. The majority were Cs and Cs involved movement and logistics support of an Army battalion into Lebanon.

Four Fs flew nonstop from the United States to Incirlik and were combat ready minutes after arrival. U-2 operations complex near completion As balloon missions terminated, the base commander received notification that another tenant unit, Detachment under the Turkey Cover Plan, would soon arrive. The new operation, Project TL, prompted another flurry of construction. However, the extremely sensitive nature of the mission dictated the construction of a secure compound within the base, which did not yet have a perimeter fence.

President Dwight D. The Soviets had flatly rejected his Open Skies plan, which would have allowed aircraft from both countries to openly overfly each other's territory.

Very few people at Adana knew the true mission of Project TL Members of the unit, innocuously designated 2nd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron Provisional , began to arrive in August The Air Force provided the squadron commander and logistical support, while the Central Intelligence Agency provided the operations officer, pilots, and mission planners.

The unit's mission, contrary to its name, had nothing to do with weather. It flew U-2 aircraft at extremely high altitudes to gather photographic imagery and electronic signals for intelligence purposes. The main target of these flights was the Soviet Union. The American intelligence community would come to rely on this information to assess Soviet technological advances.

However, the Soviet Union was not the sole objective of the operation. For instance, in September , Francis Gary Powers flew over the eastern Mediterranean to determine the position of British and French warships poised to assist Israel's invasion of Egypt after Egyptian forces seized the Suez Canal.

Other flights followed to gather data on military activity during crises involving Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, and Yemen. By late , Adana AB had become the main U-2 operating location, having absorbed the resources of a unit in Germany.

One of the tasks the unit performed involved flying over missile sites in the Soviet Union from forward operating locations at Lahore and Peshawar in Pakistan. For every mission that penetrated Soviet airspace, there was at least one surveillance flight along the border to divert Soviet air defense attention from the intruder.

These diversionary flights typically departed Adana AB traveling over Van in eastern Turkey , Iran, and the southern Caspian Sea to the Pakistan-Afghanistan border; they returned along a similar route. These periphery missions usually collected communications and electronic signals instead of photographic imagery.

The U-2 operation continued at the base renamed Incirlik AB on 28 February for several years in the utmost secrecy, until 1 May He was to overfly and photograph two major intercontinental ballistic missile test sites in the Soviet Union en route, one at Sverdlovsk, the other at Plesetsk. Heavy antiaircraft missile concentrations guarded both sites. It was mostly like a bristle in the Russian ribs.

At the same time, the location was appropriate to deal with the crisis from the Middle East too, in countries like Israel or Lebanon. At that time, Turkey decided to avoid being seen as just another country obeying the Americans. The government decided to shut down all the American bases in Turkey and turn them into Turkish military bases.

All the non-NATO responsibilities were shut down though. Other than that, the base was involved in humanitarian acts as well. The recent earthquake that struck South Asia is just one of the samples.

Besides, it played a role in the Iraq invasion as well. All the troops deployed to Incirlik Air Base will be hosted on base for safety reasons. Turkey is not considered to be a safe country by the US government, mostly because of the large Muslim communities. The place has houses, therefore the space is limited. Most troops are hosted automatically, without any applications or anything alike. Buying a Home?