Benghazi Journal: Taking in a movie in Benghazi

Benghazi Journal: Taking in a movie in Benghazi: Benghazi, Libya---1964 .....Two nights ago, we went to an American movie in the town’s movie theater. It had Arabic subtitles, and I thi...

Taking in a movie in Benghazi

Benghazi, Libya---1964

.....Two nights ago, we went to an American movie in the
town’s movie theater. It had Arabic subtitles, and I think we were
the only Westerners in the theater. All movies in Libya have an
intermission, and during that intermission there was a clip of the
radical Egyptian leader Gamal Abdul Nasser, making a fiery anti-
Western speech.
We’re leaning back, not paying any attention to the film clip
until we begin to hear shouting and cheers. Soon the place is
bedlam. Every person—but us—is standing—some on their seats—
chanting, yelling, and screaming at the top of their lungs.
We are in shock, and I take one look at Vertis, and whisper,
“We need to get out of here. Just follow me, and don’t run or act
as if you’re afraid. Smile and nod your head in a positive manner,
if you make eye contact.”
I stand up, and with Vertis hanging on my belt, I gently push
my way up an aisle full of shouting Libyans. I nod, smile, and
occasionally clap my hands seemingly in support of the speech. It
is the longest 20 yards I have ever walked, but we are not having
any problems leaving the theater. Several times, as the Libyan men
look at us, I shake my head vigorously, smile, and yell out, “Yes!”
in Arabic. That’s always enough to elicit a handshake and even a
couple of hugs.
I’m sure that if I understood what Nasser is saying, I would
be furious because he is known for his anti-Western rhetoric. We
make it to our car before either of us says a word. Finally, I smile
and say, “Damn, we missed the last half of the movie.”
Vertis gives me a shove and says, “Go on back and catch a
ride home. I’ll take the car.”
“Well, actually, it wasn’t that good of a movie,” I reply,
crawling behind the wheel.

Benghazi Journal: Benghazi Journal---coming soon

Benghazi Journal: Benghazi Journal---coming soon: Coming Soon! Benghazi Journal Benghazi, Libya, June 1st, 1964   In the spring of 1964 I took a transfer from Exxon USA to Esso Li...

Benghazi Journal---coming soon

Coming Soon!

Benghazi Journal

Benghazi, Libya, June 1st, 1964

 In the spring of 1964 I took a transfer from Exxon USA to Esso Libya. My new position was to work as a well-site geologist, assigned to the Benghazi, Libya office. When my wife, Vertis, and I moved to Benghazi, we were only two years out of college, and neither of us had ever traveled or lived outside of the southwestern United States. Our time spent in Libya was immediately prior to the overthrow of King Idris’s monarchy by Colonel Omar Gadhafi. The impending coup was evident to us as we interacted with Libyans on a daily basis, and observed the unrest in the country. Before we left Benghazi there were riots in the street, and one night we were caught up in a wild, screaming demonstration in a movie theater. I managed to push my way through the crowd, and pull Vertis out of the theater unscathed.  We lived on the economy. Our next door neighbors were the English Consulate’s daughter and across the street lived an Iranian family. Trying to communicate with our family back home, other than letter writing, was almost impossible. My job required me to fly 150 to 250 miles every two weeks into the Libyan Sahara Desert and spend sometimes as long as three weeks on a drilling rig before returning to Benghazi.  I was one of several geologists who were responsible for determining if oil was present as the wells were drilled.  During one of my many drives across the road-less desert, I became lost in a sandstorm for the better part of a day and night, and a few weeks later, I was on a drilling rig when the well blew-out. For a short time it scattered everyone, and there were some very anxious moments before the crew got it under control. I also supervised the testing of a giant discovery oil well, which later produced over 10,000 barrels of oil a day. But the highlight or maybe the lowlight of my time in Libya happened in mid-July during the last month of my two year assignment.  I traveled over 800 miles southeast of Benghazi to a remote French drilling rig near the Algerian border. It was located in the Red Sand Desert of Libya where, because the red sand traps solar heat, a world record temperature of 138 degrees had been recorded very near where the well was located. When we flew down from Tripoli in an old DC-3 to the location and tried to find the drilling rig, we encountered a huge sandstorm. After circling in the sandstorm for several hours---which was living hell---we, tried to return to Tripoli. As we approached the runway we had to make an emergency landing. We ran out of gasoline as we landed. The next morning the sandstorm had abated, and we flew down to the rig, and twenty-three days later, I finally flew back to Benghazi. During my time in the desert, I dodged some of the three million land mines left over from World War II, traveled cross-country to the home of the World War two British Long Rang Desert Group’s wartime camp at Kufura Oasis, and journeyed farther south to the Lady be Good, an American B-24 bomber, which because of a navigation error, had landed deep in the desert. The remains of the crew were found in 1959. They died trying to walk out of the desert. Vertis and I made friends with a number of Libyans, and interacted and worked with others during the two years we lived in Benghazi. This book is an account of those two years. It is a window into how life was in Libya before Gadhafi, and before the more recent revolution sent a once peaceful country spiraling into chaos.  

Benghazi Journal: The Lady Be Good

Benghazi Journal: The Lady Be Good: From the Benghazi Journal....... In a little over an hour and a half, I top a little rise and there, sitting in front of a big sand dune,...

The Lady Be Good

From the Benghazi Journal.......

In a little over an hour and a half, I top a little rise and there, sitting in front of a big sand dune, is one of the strangest sights I have ever seen. An American B-24, World War II bomber is sitting beside a low sand dune, looking as if it has just landed.

            At first, I can’t see any damage to the plane, but as I get closer, I note a bent landing gear and broken propellers. I pull up to the side of the plane, where the side door is open, and crawl into the cargo bay. The plane, which looks intact from the outside, is completely stripped of anything that can be unbolted or pried off—completely gutted. I guess the exterior riveting that holds the metal to the plane’s frame is too tough for the desert Bedouins to handle.

            Well, after a few minutes of walking around the plane, I finally climb into the cockpit and sit imagining what an American pilot would have thought when he landed here. It must have been a relief to at least be on the ground in one piece, but considering the crews’ fate a fatal crash landing might have been better.

            I’ve seen all there is to see and I have just climbed out of the cockpit and I’m walking over to where I parked my Land Rover. As I stand beside my Land Rover, I think about what the men who survived that landing faced when they scrambled out of the plane. Kufra, the nearest oasis, is some 100 kilometers [MS1] away—an easy drive for me, since I can drive across the hard-pack of the desert at 80 KMPH. But trying to walk that distance, in a blazing, summer sun, is impossible.

            In 1959, they found the remains of the crew. None survived the attempt to walk out of the desert. I want to take a souvenir from the plane, but everything that can be removed already been  taken.

---

 [MS1]or you could do km, as you've done earlier

A Smackover Dog in Libya

Benghazi Journal: Benghazi Journal: Benghazi for beginners: Benghazi Journal: Benghazi for beginners : Two green, inexperienced Americans taking their first flight to of all place, Benghazi, Libya. Ri...

Benghazi Journal

A Smackover dog in Libya---actually his name is Ben----for Benghazi. Richard, Vertis, and Ben are touring the old city of Cyrene.

Benghazi Journal: Benghazi for beginners

Benghazi Journal: Benghazi for beginners: Two green, inexperienced Americans taking their first flight to of all place, Benghazi, Libya. Riots in the street, roaring sandstorms, ...

Benghazi for beginners

Two green, inexperienced Americans taking their first flight to of all place, Benghazi, Libya. Riots in the street, roaring sandstorms, and screaming crowds of Libyans. Landing on one wheel on a windswept runway after being in the red sand desert for 23 days. Listening to President Kennedy’s funeral via short wave radio and candle light. Driving for hours across a trackless desert to see the Lady Be Good a WW II B-24 bomber that was lost in the desert, and then becoming lost!