39th FSS prepares Incirlik for blowout bash

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman William A. O'Brien
  • 39th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
INCIRLIK AIR BASE, Turkey --  In a location where very few off-base venues will offer any sort of celebration to commemorate the Fourth of July, the 39th Force Support Squadron put together an event to help Team Incirlik celebrate American Independence while stationed in Turkey.

"At all the bases overseas these events are very important," said Pat Curran, Incirlik Community Center director. "You don't have a lot of American things happening outside the gate so anything we can do to bring people home, a sense of being in America, a sense of feeling that patriotism that everybody else is feeling back in the states on the 4th of July, that's very, very important."

The event is slated to kick off at 3:30 p.m. in Arkadas Park, and will include a strongman competition in the parking lot near Arkadas Park, food, music, a concert by the Incirlik "U got talent" show winners and contestants from American Idol. The event closes with a fireworks demonstration planned to start at 9 p.m.

Planning an event like this can take more time and effort at Incirlik because of certain host-country regulations.

"One of the things that we have to do that's unique is we have to get not only Turkish Air Force approval, we also have to get the local municipality approval and route it through the Turkish Air Force," said Mark Sullivan, 39th FSS services flight chief. "Then of course there has to be a risk assessment that we send up to our wing commander and our safety office that in turn has to go up to (U.S. Air Forces in Europe). There are probably a few more wickets that we have to negotiate here than you typically would."

One of the first things the services flight began planning was the firework demonstration. After finding a company that could produce them, they selected a safe location where they could be detonated. They also had to get a permit to get the fireworks onto the base.

"With the fireworks display that even presents a greater challenge because now we're bringing explosives onto a military installation," said Sullivan. "Of course there's a lot of preplanning that goes into that. Of course we're (in line) with the folks from Turkish Air Force and our base wing safety (office) and all those steps we have to kind of take side by side to make sure all the coordination is done correctly so that we can make sure they can get access to the base and do the show."

Though the fireworks took a great deal of planning, it wasn't the only thing that required the team's attention. Several months ago Curran said he found out that the Idols World Tour would be visiting Incirlik July 4. He saw this as an opportunity to not only provide the base with entertainment, but to also showcase Team Incirlik's talent.

"We're doing our own idols program with this particular tour, so we're getting to showcase some of our top talent here on Incirlik. Talking to them this morning, they're very excited to have the opportunity to perform in front of the Idols and in front of the community," said Curran.

"We're expecting a really spectacular show this year. We're pretty excited about it," said Sullivan.

"We're looking at 1,200 to 1,500 people out there at Arkadas Park during the peak time," added Curran.

For more information about the Independence Day celebration, call the Community Center at DSN 676-6966. To sign up for the Strongman Competition, call the base Fitness Center at DSN 676-6086.