Lynn's role in the 1980 coup d'état in Turkey

Email from Lynn Stout 6/19/2016

I got up and put on my U.S. Air Force uniform like always that warm September morning in downtown Adana, southeast Turkey, twenty-two miles from the Mediterranean Sea.

It was the 12th of September, 1980.  On the fourth floor, as I walked to one of my balconies to peer at the street and the orange groves bordering the Seyhan River, it seemed quieter than normal. I could actually hear birds singing in the last of the fragrant blossoms across Fuzuli Avenue.  

There was no clop clop of horse and wagon traffic on the usually busy boulevard running past my apartment building. My only means of communication was an AM radio, which usually had Turkish language morning chat and weather. Instead of the usual banter with a man and woman, there was an official-sounding announcement that seemed to repeat itself every minute or so. The radio voice sounded authoritative, even quite stern, so I attempted to translate what he was announcing using what rudimentary Turkish I had learned in my first twelve months in-country assigned to the Base Commander's office at Incirlik (In-jure-lik) Air Base, about nine miles to the east of the metropolis of Adana. I decided that something big had happened in the country, and that I should go to work as soon as possible, even though I saw no buses running. I decided to take off my uniform and put it into a handbag, and don civilian clothes. Taking my military I.D. And all the cash I had, I went down the slow Turkish elevator to the ground floor. The usual kapaci (kaw-paw-gee) man at the building's door was not on duty. All was silent as I ventured into the street.

In near silence, I began to walk toward the base. After a few minutes, I heard a vehicle in the distance behind me. I turned around and put out my hitch-hiking thumb. An old orange-in-color American Jeep slowed down and stopped. The driver, obviously an American, offered me a ride if I was headed toward the Air Base. I gladly accepted as I hopped in. The wind was warm in my hair as the topless jeep took off toward the Museum intersection where we turned left onto the Roman bridge and headed toward Incirlik village, a little community just outside the massive air base where G.I.'s often went to buy handmade rugs and copper. This time was different. There was no “Adali” bus that cost 40 cents to ride, but instead there were soldiers standing at the side of the highway. We came upon five road blocks in the nine miles to the base. At each stop we explained to the soldiers, most of whom were not educated and probably from small villages, that we were trying to get to work at Incirlik.

After an hour of talking our way through military vehicles and road blocks, we reached the gates of the base, only to find that no one was being let in or out of the base for the time being. Again, we talked to the guards, and to the guards' supervisors, and finally the gates were opened a few feet and we scurried into the relative safety of the base. It's important to note that the U.S. Forces there, mostly Air Force, were guests of the Turkish government, and that the real commander of the base was a Turkish General. It was an uneasy “truce” that we had with the Turks during those days, at a base where in 1960, Lieutenant Francis Gary Powers had taken off in his U-2 spy aircraft to photograph the Soviet Union from 70,000 feet.

This was during the Cold War, and Lt. Powers was shot down by the Russians. The episode brought the two countries to another armed stand-off which filled the American newspapers for many months.

After getting inside the base, I thanked my young civilian employee in the jeep, and walked toward the Base Commander's office near the main gate. When I arrived, there was only a “skeleton crew” at work. They were surprised to see me, and asked why someone who lived “downtown” was at work.

They told me that all military personnel who lived off the base were to stay in their homes and await further instructions. When I asked “why”, I was told that the Turkish military had taken over the government in a coup d' etat.

I was shocked, but then knew the reason for all the soldiers and road blocks. I was embarrassed and relieved to know that I'd made it, but got to thinking later that our notification pyramid was woefully inadequate. A few weeks after the thing “cooled off” and got back to normal, I asked the Base Commander if I could work on upgrading our pyramid alert chart, which we did. It included runners, radios, and any number of improvements. Now that we were ready, we didn't have to use it. And that's how September 12, 1980 was for me in Adana, Turkey.


The 12 September 1980 Turkish coup d'état, headed by Chief of the General Staff General Kenan Evren, was the third coup d'état in the history of the Republic, the previous having been the 1960 coup and the 1971 "Coup by Memorandum".

The 1970s in Turkey were marked by right-wing/left-wing armed conflicts, often at the scale of proxy wars between the United States and the Soviet Union, respectively. To create a pretext for a decisive intervention, the Turkish military allowed these conflicts in Turkey to escalate; some say they actively adopted a strategy of tension. The violence abruptly stopped afterwards, and the coup was welcomed by some for restoring order. In total, 50 people were executed, 500,000 were arrested and hundreds died in prison.
For the next three years the Turkish Armed Forces ruled the country through the National Security Council, before democracy was restored.

Lynn's Travels ...

From: Lynn and Cindy Stout <lindycindy2004@yahoo.com>
Date: Thu, Jun 9, 2016 at 11:25 AM
Subject: Hands and Arms
To: Colleen Stout <colleenestout@gmail.com>

Dear Mom, You won't be seeing this for a few days, but I'm praying for you to do well in your surgery and the recovery.  You never know how these things will go, as everyone is different.  Still, I have faith that you'll be blessed to be healed.

I've been out gathering eggs

and using the weed-eater in the little 13-tree orchard in our backyard.  Two of the beagles are snoring next to me.  The sun is bright.  The hens are carrying around some dead sparrows as usual. The cherries are one day from being perfect for picking, and the sour cherries will be on in another week or so. It's been a practically perfect spring and early summer for plants.

I was thinking the other day about how much I love to travel.  I wrote down a few places I've been:  

1.  The beaches of Oahu. The beach on a military reservation, Bellows Air Force Station, was delightful 

2.  Going up the Eiffel Tower with a lot of Germans and Turks 

3.  Seeing the Floriade in The Netherlands 

4.  Crossing to Manhattan on the Staten Island Ferry and seeing the Statue of Liberty up close. 

5.  Picking wild flowers in the high Rocky Mountains and Utah's Uintas

6.  Swimming in the Black Sea and Med 

7.  Walking through Nottingham where some of my ancestors came from 

8.  Singing in the Georgia Dome in an international music competition 

9.  Standing under the Saint Louis Arch

10. Walking on Daytona Beach Florida

11. Enjoying the beaches of Southern California

12. Driving into Poland from The Czech Republic

13. Enjoying a week in Istanbul, Turkey

14. Gawking at the Parthenon in Athens

15.  Hearing a concert of the Great Organ and Mormon Tabernacle Choir in Salt Lake City, Utah

16.  Trying to find the mythical hole in the Grand Dike of the Netherlands

17. Visiting the Van Gogh Art Museum in Amsterdam

18. Being in The Garden of Gethsemane and the Garden Tomb in Jerusalem

19. Walking the top of Jerusalem's walls

20. Seeing the entire boot of Italy from the air

21. Eating from a vendor in Tel Aviv

22. Visiting Bethlehem, Jericho, Qumran, The Dead Sea, Western Wall of the Temple, Dome of the Rock

23. Enjoying huge swaths of Germany, Austria, France, and Italy

24. Serving a mission in Alberta and Saskatchewan Canada

25. Riding on the Puget Sound Ferry and seeing Seattle from the Space Needle

26. Visiting Tijuana, Ciudad Juarez, Guadalahara, Mazatlan, Puerto Vayarta, and Cabo San Lucas

27. Visiting the LDS "colonies" and birthplace of my grandmother in Chihuahua, Mexico

28. Seeing the ruins of two castles in Turkey built by the Crusaders

29. Visiting the home of King Midas, Gordion Turkey

30. Visiting the capital of the Hittite Empire in Turkey

31. Taking a bus from Istanbul Turkey to Vienna Austria, renting a car and seeing Czech Republic

32. Seeing Mersin, Adana, Gaziantep, Alanya, Tarsus, and hundreds of other Turkish cities

33. Hiking in Cappadoccia and ilara, where thousands of Christians hid in underground rock homes

34. Taking a ferry from Rotterdam to Kingston-Upon-Hull, England

35. Staying a week in Sheffield, England and seeing castles, churches, cemeteries, & the grave of "Little John"

36. Water skiing in Los Angeles Harbor with Wayne and family

37. Water skiing on Utah Lake and Deer Creek Reservoir with Wayne and family

38. Snorkeled in Hanama Bay, Oahu, Hawai'i and shopped in Honolulu

39. Visited Palmyra New York, Sharon, Vermont, Nauvoo, Carthage IL, Martin's Cove WY, and the Wagon Ruts Guernsey WY

40. Paddled canoes in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, Minnesota and Ontario

41. Spent a summer working in my Uncle's laundries, with my brother Kirtland, Thunder Bay, Ontario

42. Visited The Alamo, The Mississippi River, Home of Andrew Jackson, Home of Elvis Presley

43. Visited the geographical center of North America in North Dakota

44. Slept in Winnipeg, Manitoba and took a bus 500 miles to Thunder Bay, Ontario

45. Bought 120 pounds of honey from the Hutterite villages (like Amish) in North Dakota

46. Been in 47 of the 50 states (not Rhode Island, Connecticut, or Alaska)

47. Been in five Canadian provinces

48. Been in Death Valley and The Dead Sea, both hundreds of feet below Sea Level

49. Visited the Redwoods of California,

been on top of the World Trade Center Building 2 and Empire State Building

50. Hiked Timpanogas Peak in Utah County three times

51. Visited the Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida

52. Been in the beginning of a tornado in North Dakota

53. Taken Turkish trains and buses all over Turkey

54. Twice rented cars to see Europe

55. Been to the leaning tower at Pisa, Italy and had pizza twice in that country

56. Walked around Florence, Italy, and saw the statue, Michelangelo's "David"

57. Seen the Rhine, the Rhone, the Danube, the Arno, the Tigres, the Euphrates rivers

58. Swam in the Columbia River twice

59. Dived into Lake Couere d' Alene with family, and picked huckleberries same day

60. Driven on the first 60 miles of the Alaskan-Canadian Highway starting at Dawson, Creek, B.C.

61. Taken military flights from Turkey to Ireland then Nebraska, Hill AFB Utah,to California, Batman Turkey to Ankara, Turkey

62. Taken military flights from California to Hawai'i and return, from Baltimore to Germany, From Germany to San Diego

63. Taken military flights from Adana Turkey to Weisbaden, Germany and return, and from Athens, Greece to Incirlik AB, Turkey

64. Taken military flights from Incirlik AB, Turkey to Tel Aviv, Israel, from Tel Aviv to Incirlik AB, Turkey

65. Taken military flight from Incirlik AB, Turkey to Rhein Main AB, Germany and return

66. Driven almost all of Route 66 in the USA

67. Toured once with BYU bands to Southern Utah, Nevada, and Southern California

68. Toured once with BYU Young Ambassadors to Idaho, Oregon, and Washington

69. Played clarinet in the LDS Tabernacle in Salt Lake City, with the Utah All-State Band

70. Sang at the University of Utah with the Orem High School A'Capella Choir

71. Walked down New Orleans' Bourbon Street one year after Hurricane Katrina with Cindy and our beagle Petunia

72. Basic Air Force Training in San Antonio's Lackland Air Force Base. Spent an afternoon on the famous "Riverwalk"

73. Spent a few months in Biloxi, Mississippi 2 years after Hurricane Camille devastated that city

74. Visited the Cyclorama and Stone Mountain in Atlanta, Georgia

75. Saved a boy's life while swimming at Panama Beach, Florida

76. Marched with Orem High School Band four times in the Days of '47 Parade in Salt Lake City, Utah

77. Marched with Orem High School Band four times in the Provo Freedom Festival Grand Parade, Provo, Utah

78. Played Baritone Saxophone in a high school dance band

79. Played in the State Championship High School Football game, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah

80. Was in High School Mile Relay team, won region title

81. Delivered ski lift equipment twice, from Salt Lake City, Utah to Lake Placid, New York

82. Spent an afternoon and overnight swimming at Crystal Beach, Ontario, across the border from Buffalo, New York

83. Traveled on a bus with my family, my LDS branch, and Elder Dallin Oaks from Incirlik AB, Turkey, to Tarsus, Turkey and Return

84. Met Elder Perry and his wife at the airport in Frankfurt, Germany

85. Helped Elder Marvin J. Ashton with his hat at BYU graduation before grand march of candidates

86. Many trips from Utah to California and Arizona with my family as a youth.

Thinking of you.

Love, Lynn D.

Father - Howard John Engh

Glorious name,

Father.

Hallowed

Revered.

Heavenly or earthly

Endowded with celestial promise

My Father.

Howard

High Priest of the Lord

Worlds without end

Beloved.

Seeker after truth

A candle of the Lord

My Father.

Written for his 65th birthday
June 8, 1969

Memorial Day

Spencer and kids went to see Grandpa Owen Stouts grave site on May 29th, 2016

McConkie updates

Richard and Marijke McConkie with first baby Redd Fielding McConkie, born April 8, 2016 in Washington DC.

Spencer & Emily McConkie graduation SCO Southern School Optometry in Memphis, Tennessee - May 6, 2016

Sam & Codi McConkie graduation University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Utah - May 6, 2016

March 8, 1962

March 8, 1962

Dear Norma,

It's now 1:20 p.m.  Owen went into surgery at 11:00 and no word yet.  LaVere Terry checked for me a few minutes ago and said he wasn't in the recovery room yet so the operation is still on.  We never did find out how long these usually take but I know Daddy's took several hours and I guess this could. It's been a real worry thus far and I suppose it will be so for a few days yet.  The pain will be quite severe bytonight.  I've heard of many, many such operations tho (gastric resection) and they have all been very successful so we do hope for the best.  He;s having 70% of his stomach removed.  He was admitted yesterday at 3:00 and felt in good spirits then but when I came to see him at 9:00 this morning he was quite miserable with a stomach pump tube going up through his nose and down to his stomach.  His nose and throat were so sore he could hardly stand it.  It was awfully hard on me to see him suffer and know the worse was yet to come.

An hour or so ago Molly came - stopped by on her way home from the dentist and visited with me here in the lobby.  I was so glad to see her - just the comfort I needed.  I felt as though I'd been crying for days. I have a cold to top it off so don't feel too marvelous myself.

Dr. J. Russell Smith is the surgeon (Dr. Nimer is his Internist) and tho he's a gruff old top sergeant, he's supposed to be top notch and I guess that's what counts now.  Owen had wanted Dr. Eddie Barr but he moved to some small town in California leaving Poppin, Reese and Dixon as the other possibilities.  I'm glad that we can get all of this taken care of now before time for me to go to the hospital.  I have 2 1/2 months more to go and sometimes that seems forever but again it seems all too soon.  Naturally there are hundreds of things I'd like to do before then - foremost being finishing the basement, but there's not much I can do about that;  Guess you heard I re-did my bedroom recently and that really gave me a lift.  I painted the walls (2 coats too) pale aqua, the chests chocolate brown - my old bed too, and then we bought a beautiful new maple bed and nightstand, plus box springs.  It really looks lovely.  I re-hung the brown plaid drapes and the off-white spread looks just fine.  I plan to put off-white cafe curtains in there too.  We also bought a louvered double door for the living room/kitchen which I'm painting - (varnishing).  It looks very nice and works smoothly.  I also painted another chest of drawers and the bunk beds so next on my list is the girls's room.  We put our old bed and a crib in there for Shauna, Kari and Andrea so there are 5 now in the boys room.  I put new fiberglass curtains in there, (white, brown and orange) and a mirror.  We're having a combination flour bin/sewing table made for the utility room which should be finished soon (by a student at the Y).  It has a white Formica top and two bins for white and brown flour.  Material possessions don't really count for much in a health crisis tho.  In fact it seems all rather hollow at the moment.

It's now noon Friday and the worst is over (I guess) - for me at least.  The operation lasted 4 hours and was successful tho long.  The  Dr. said there were some complications due to adhesion of the scar tissue - there was plenty of that from past hemorrhaging.  I finally got in to see him at 4:00 and stayed until 6:00 so I was up there 9 hours altogether.  It was awful seeing him suffer so though and I wished a thousand times I could take over for him.  He kept asking for sedation the pain was so unbearable but they wouldn't and he was wide awake for an eternity it seemed.  His should hurt a great deal with sympathetic pains that radiated there.

I went up this morning but it hurts him to talk - or breath - so I didn't stay long.  Hope the pain will subside soon.  We hear lots of encouraging stories about the eventual outcome of this type of operation so we are hopeful.  These next few days will be the hardest.

I should go again soon but I wanted to get this off now.  If you see Nola before I write tell her that we received her package yesterday and thanks so very much.  I'm going to wear the smock now.

Love to all,  Colleen

P.S.  I kept forgetting to find your address so this is getting off late.  Meanwhile Owen is still a very sick man and most miserable.  I thot he'd be feeling better by now but if it isn't one thing it's another. He has 102 degree temperature and feels rotten - tubes still in all over and still feeding him intravenously.  He doesn't want visitors yet (can hardly talk or swallow), and just feels sick everywhere.  It's a worry.  Wonder if all gastric resections are this bad?  Hope tings are better soon.  Love to all.