MEMORIES OF TRIPOLI II
1948-1951
By Bob Dyberg
The present day events in Tripoli, Libya bring back many memories
from when I was stationed with the Air Rescue Squadron at Wheelus
Field, Tripoli in 1948-51. The Air Rescue Service was activated in
March 1946 from the many rescue units remaining with the Numbered Air
Forces at the end of WWII. The first ARS units activated overseas were
located at Harmon Field, Labrador; Lajes Airfield in the Azore Islands;
Wheelus Field inTripoli; and Dharan, Saudi Arabia. I reported to Wheelus
Field in November 1948.
Wheelus Field was being reactivated from WWII care status. The base
didn’t have a perimeter fence and the Arabs were “stealing us blind”,
aircraft engines, oil drums, 26 foot airborne lifeboat used on a rescue
SB-17, and anything else not tied down. They had also stolen all the
clothing from an Airmen’s Barracks during the night while the airmen
were sleeping.
Wheelus was a USAF MATS base (Military Air Transport Service) supporting
MATS airlift operations throughout Africa, the Middle East and Southern
Europe. The base was assigned one Air Transport Squadron (C-54s), an Air
Rescue Squadron (SB-17s), an Air Weather Station and supporting base
units. The base was very austere with less than 80 officers assigned, no
dependent housing, no commissary and only a small Base Exchange.
Dependents were not authorized until April 1949, when married personnel
were required to find their own living quarters among the native
population in downtown Tripoli.
I rented a two bedroom apartment in downtown Tripoli. Winter evenings
were very cool and apartments were not heated. In addition, the city
electric power plant was shut down daily from midnight to 6 A.M. daily
to conserve energy. Prior to departing the U.S. my wife,, Jake shipped a
kerosene refrigerator, gasoline washing machine, and kerosene room
heaters to Tripoli to take care of us spoiled Americans.
Jake, and our son Mike (22months), joined me on Mother’s Day in May 49.
We spent our first night at the apartment, and because I only had one
case of U.S. Army C rations in the apartment, we had breakfast at an
Italian restaurant on the plaza across from the Fort made famous by the
U.S. Marine Hymn “to the shores of Tripoli”. The plaza was soon filling
up with hundreds of chanting and demonstrating Arabs, so we immediately
“high tailed it” to Wheelus where we were restricted to the base for two
weeks. “Welcome to Tripoli”.
Because of security concerns, most apartments were located on the second
floor of buildings. Some apartments like ours had a laundry room and
clothes lines on the roof. For added security, cut glass and barbed wire
were imbedded in the surrounding roof parapet. But that did not preclude
the Arabs from using fish casting rods, casting from a roofs across the
street and snaring drying clothing from the clothes lines.
One of our couples returned to their ground floor apartment from a
Saturday night party at the Wheelus Officer’s Club and found that all of
their possessions had been “cleaned out” except for boxy furniture. The
thieves had removed several large sandstone blocks from the apartment
wall after “whittling away” the cement from between the blocks.
Italy had wrested control of Libya from the Turkish empire in 19ll.
Mussolini moved into Libya in the 1930s establishing farming communes.
When WWII ended in 1945, Libya was turned over to Great Britain for
administration under the authority of the United Nations until a King
could be elected by the people. We Americans were free to travel
anywhere within Libya without restraint. In spite of the security
problems, we had a relatively normal life using common sense and basic
precautions.
Conditions at Tripoli were not all bad. It was a major north African
port with a pleasant Mediterranean climate barring an occasional sand
storm with dust and dirt climbing to 10,000 feet. Tripoli was a fairly
modern city with a rich history from ancient times. The ruins of two
Roman cities, Leptus Magnus and Sabratha were located nearby.
A large, impressive plaza with statuary was located next to the Tripoli
Fort. The ancient city of Tripoli (Veccio) was also located next to the
Fort. Veccio consisted of a warren of small covered pathways and alleys
housing small primitive shops and living areas.
The British operated a modern hotel, the Uaadan (Waddan) downtown.
Cocktails were 15 cents and steak dinners were 85 cents. Formal wear was
required evenings in the dining room.
Our Air Rescue unit was kept busy providing search and rescue missions
for missing and distressed aircraft over the Mediterranean Sea and North
African countries. Due to the large area that we covered, it was
necessary to conduct operations from advance bases closer to incident
sites such as Casablanca, Algiers, Oran, Tunis, and Rabat, Morocco.
Living standards at those military facilities we used were influence by
the French, which left much to be desired. Our mattresses were stuffed
with insect infested straw, and for convenience we were provided an 8
inch hole in the concrete floor with raised concrete footsteps on both
sides. Your learned to carry your own paper.
For large search and rescue operations, we were often assisted by the
ARS squadron stationed at Weisbaden, Germany, and by other U.S. military
aircraft based in Europe. In turn, we assisted the Weisbaden squadron.
In 1950 when a U.S. Navy R4D (electronic surveillance) aircraft was shot
down by the Russians over the eastern Baltic Sea. We along with several
U.S. military aircraft, conducted search operations from Copenhagen,
Denmark. Taking off before daybreak and landing after dark, we searched
for five days over stormy seas in heavy rain and 500 foot ceilings. My
search area was in the far eastern Baltic off the coast of Latvia. On
occasion, we encountered Russian patrol planes or navy war ships but
they did not bother us. Unfortunately our search for survivors of the
Navy plane was not successful, however, an oil soaked life raft
penetrated with bullet holes was discovered and a landing gear buoyed
by air in the tires surfaced later.
One of my jobs as squadron Operation Officer was to train and exercise a
Land Rescue Team to be used in case of an airplane disaster that could
be reached over land This included equipping, field training exercises,
communications testing, terrain familiarization, land navigation and
familiarization with the terrain, weather, and local people.
Our first field trip was across open desert country traveling 150 miles
due South from Tripoli through the coastal foothills, gravelly desert
and then circumnavigating large sand dunes. In flying over the area,
large truck and tank tracks left over from WWII could be still be seen
for miles in every direction On the ground, you could also see stacks of
land mines remaining from WWII. These mines were being removed by the
British due to the high number of traveling Arabs and camel caravans
being blown up while crossing abandoned mine fields. Prior to any field
training exercise we picked up maps of known land mines from the
British.
Our first stops after leaving Tripoli was at the tiny village of Mizda.
After the customary two shots of hot, syrup like tea with the “Mayor” we
discussed the local terrain and the location of local mine fields along
our proposed route. Prior to leaving, the Mayor asked, and we agreed, to
take a local tribesman with us as our route would take us very close to
his village. He was introduced to us as Chief Hussene Shaban.
Two hours after leaving Mizda and travelling on rocks, gravel and sand
terrain, we encounter large sand dunes and stopped to figure our best
coarse around the dunes. While stopped, Chief Shaban got out of the
truck, raced 45 degrees to the right, picked up a flat stone, studied
the underside, raced 90 degrees to the left and repeated the process
with another flat stone. He then motioned to us the proper direction of
travel. We followed his advice and were soon circumnavigating the sand
dunes.
Later that day when we camped, our guest continued on to his village.
Prior to leaving, he indicated that he wanted to treat us to a “couis
couis” dinner when we arrived at his village. The next morning at 5 A.M.
we awoke and found our guest waiting for us. He was sitting on a
beautiful, white Arab horse, with a tooled leather saddle, beautiful
colored blankets, and attractive silver fittings.
After friendly greetings, he led us along the trail to his village The
men of his village were lined up shoulder to shoulder along the trail to
honor and welcome us. His village consisted of three white domed
buildings and we were invited to sit on the floor in an assembly room
occupied by a few of the senior staff. Arab attendants served us
with the normal hot, syrup like tea, followed by cuish cuish and large
joints of greasy meat joints. It didn’t taste too bad but every once in
awhile we had to pull a long, coarse animal hair from our mouth.
I had a camera with me, and knowing that the Arabs considered the camera
“taboo” due to their belief that it was looking down into their soul, I
asked if I could take photos. After a brief discussion with his staff,
the Chief okayed the taking of photos and I took several of Hussene and
his staff. I estimated Hussene’s age to be 40 years. He was a
fairly handsome Arab with a neatly combed beard and pleasant smile.
Later, we said our “farewells”, and In leaving the village, Chief Shaban
lead us on his horse for two miles along the trail to the “out skirts”
of his village property. Back at Wheelus, I developed and printed the
film from the camera, made a small parachute, and dropped the package
over chief Shaban’s village on a local training flight.
On another field trip, our Team traveled 300 miles to the Southwest of
Tripoli to an area bordering Tunisia. We traveled over a variety of
terrain from gravel, to sand dunes, areas of large boulders, and areas
of decomposed granite that were firm enough on which a heavy airplane
could be landed. Periodically we checked communications with our
home base and checked our map position with a navigators sextant. On the
second day one of our SB-17s rendezvoused with our team using signal
mirrors and radio communications,. They parachuted simulated survival
equipment and supplies to a drop target we had laid out to check
accuracy of their drops. To our surprise, the third rescue bundle
contained a case of beer packed in “dry ice”. We considered that
an emergency sustenance package.
The third night we made camp in a large abandoned Turkish stone fort
constructed on a hill ages ago when the Turkish Ottoman Empire
controlled most of the North African coast, as the Roman Legions did
before them. About 5 A.M. in the morning, we were awakened by the roar
of several vehicles and barking dogs. We were subsequently rounded up by
a contingent of French/Tunesian Foreign Legion personnel and taken to
their outpost a few miles away and across the border in Tunisia. After
questioning for a couple of hours by the Post Commander, they
reluctantly released us.
When we returned to Wheelus Field, we learned that the Tunisian
government had made a diplomatic complaint to the British and U.S. State
Department accusing us of spying. The British were incensed and later
cleared us and the U.S. of all charges. The British admitted that they
had previously invited the Tunisians to assist them in monitoring the
remote area where we were captured. Several years later, a major oil
field was discovered in the area near out campsite. It was suspected
that there had been prior evidence of oil in that area and that was the
reason for the spying accusation.
In the spring of 1951, an election was held in Libya and King Idris was
voted into office. There was great “fanfare” in preparing for his
arrival in Tripoli. Hundreds of dump trucks spread sand on the
triple-wide Lungamari Boulevard running along the sea wall through
downtown Tripoli. Purpose of the sand was to accommodate the unshod
horses of the many tribesmen expected from the desert area.
One evening prior to the King’s arrival, my wife and I were taking an
evening stroll in downtown Tripoli along Lungamari Boulevard when an
Arab in long flowing white robes walking with a group of Arabs toward
us, jumped out and grabbed me in a series of hugs. Startled, it took me
a few moments to realize that it was my friend Huzzene Shaban with a
group of his tribesmen. We had an exciting exchange of unintelligible
words in which Huzzene Shaban indicated they were in town to greet the
new incoming King. He also said that he had received the photos I sent
and expressed his thanks..
A few days later on the day of King’s arrival, both sides of
Lungamari Boulevard were jammed with people, three and four deep along
the curb sides. My wife and I had joined the crowd and were the only
non-natives there. While it didn’t happen in our area, nor did we see it
happen, two attempts were made to kill the King by rolling hand grenades
under his car as it passed. For whatever reason, the grenades didn’t
stop under the car but rolled to the far curb on the other side where
several people were killed.
Shortly thereafter, In June 195l, it was time for us to rotate back to
the United States. We bid all of our friends “Good Bye”, packed our bags
and were soon on our way back to the U.S. on a MATS C-74 (forerunner to
the C-124) All in all, our tour in Tripoli was a wonderful experience
and we have cherished the memories of the many good friends from Tripoli
that we have seen and been in contact with over the past 60 years.
Note: King Idris ruled Libya until 1969 when he was overthrown in a coup
by Lt. Col. Muamma Kaddafi, age 27. This brings us to our present
day conflict in Tripoli. Maybe, it is time to bring the U.S.
Marines back “to the shores of Tripoli”?