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Tent city is home away from home for more than a decade

Released: Feb. 27, 2003

By Staff Sgt. Les Waters
Combined Task Force, Combined Information Bureau

INCIRLIK AIR BASE, TURKEY (ACCNS) -- Nearly every deployed location has a tent city known as "home" to the military members deployed there.

For the deployed airmen who've cycled through here for the past 12 years helping to enforce the no-fly zone over northern Iraq, home has been Hodja Village.

"This is unique to have a tent city on a main base for so many years," said Capt. Willie Rudd, Jr., the Combined Task Force tent city chief of services. "People are always surprised when they get here and see how nice these accommodations are."

Named after a Turkish philosopher from 1200 A.D., Hodja Village is one of the oldest tent cities in the U.S. military and has many services to make "field conditions" more bearable.

"As soon as I arrived at Incirlik, I went to the morale tent at Hodja Village to call home and talk to my husband and daughter," said Staff Sgt. Cindy Compoc, the Operation Northern Watch law office manager.

Morale call phone booths and computer terminals in the morale tent provide service to the more than the 1,000 troops who make up the U.S. part of ONW.

"You can always tell when a group of people have arrived, because the waiting list is extremely long and the morale tent is completely full," said Chief Master Sgt. Howard Caplan, the Hodja Village noncommissioned officer-in-charge.

While troops wait for an open phone booth, they can take advantage of the other services available in the morale tent.

"There is a mini post office, an ATM machine, a couple dozen computers with Internet access," Sergeant Caplan said. "We also have a room set up with Playstations and another room with a big screen TV in it that plays movies 24 hours a day, seven days a week."

Videos and DVDscan be checked out at the morale tent. Each lodging tent has a TV and VCR, and some tents have DVD players or game consoles purchased by current residents or left behind by previous tent dwellers. There are several rooms partitioned off to allow for privacy and a common area in each tent.

"I am extremely pleased with the conditions," said Tech. Sgt. Barbara Bonnette, ONW contracting NCOIC. "We each have separate rooms; the bathrooms and showers are hardened and have doors. I've been in much worse and expected this to be similar."

For something to do after work, soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen can gather and socialize at the Village Pub, located in a Clam Shell hangar.

"I ensure there are other activities available for the pub customers to do, in addition to the usual," Sergeant Caplan said. "I work with the base club to offer free food three times a week. We also have four pool tables, foosball, darts, ping pong and CDs to listen and dance to."

The morale tent loans out loans out equipment for outdoor activities, such as golf, horse shoes and tennis. Deployed troops can also sign up for ski trips and excursions to Cappadocia, Istanbul and Castle by the Sea, as well as other locations in Turkey.