One more Konya/NATO story

NOTE: "talking about the fellow I met in Konya brought something else to mind, so here it is.

The flight deck of the E-3 NATO Airborne Early Warning Aircraft has an extra position called the Fifth Seat. This is where a fortunate volunteer gets to sit, watch the actions of the flight crew, and keep looking in all direction for an approaching object that the various forms of radar missed.  It's particularly important on take-offs and landings, when there can be all manner of small objects capably of reducing the aircraft into a mammoth paperweight. Mostly, it's a chance to get up where the best view on the aircraft lives.

One day, I was Fifth Seat from our Main Operating Base at Geilenkirchen to our Forward Operating Base at Konya. We had a Canadian Major aboard as Second Officer who had never flown into Konya. Naturally, he wanted to take the aircraft in to demonstrate his prowess. Just as naturally, the Pilot, who was a Turkish Lieutenant Colonel, was having none of it.Somewhere during the flight, the Canadian decided it was all because he was a "Bible-believing born-again Christian" and the "Mohammadin" didn't want to "be shown up by a member of the superior faith." The pilot had to pull rank in order to bring the Canadian back into line.

So we are cleared to land at Konya, The Pilot turns on final, levels the aircraft, briefly removes his hands from the controls, says a quiet prayer placing himself, his crew, and the aircraft within the protection of his G-D, places his hands back on the controls, and completes the landing. And the Canadian? Mr. Born Again, with the "In Case of Rapture, this (whatever) will be unmanned" on his car, his motorcycle, his guitar case, his computer, and his desk? The guy who preaches at a little congregation off-base? He goes totally batbarf. He's screaming about how he's going to report the pilot for reckless flying, and how he's never flying with another "Crazy Mohammadin" again, and similar wonderful things.  The FOB Commander comes on board, talks to all parties, ascertains that the Canadian was clearly in the wrong, but sees no reason why he, a Christian, should apologize to a Godless Heathen. That's what he said, yes he did. I didn't know (until recently) that people still used that kind of language. In rapid succession (and by rapid, we're talking a matter of a very few hours), phone calls are made to Geilenkirchen, a replacement Second Officer is dispatched on the next outbound aircraft, the young Major gets a bus ticket to Ankara, where a commercial airline ticket will be waiting. By the time he gets back to his squadron, he has orders for another assignment, and the Commander of the Canadian Contingent is explaining how it would be a very good idea to seek success in another line of work.

In a quarter century of travels for the USAF, I found a lot of people who lived their faith without having to think about it. I also found a lot of people who were happy to tall you about the depth and sincerity of their chumship with G-d. These were never the same people.