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Kathy Miller Guerard
© 2007-2011 by Author
My father was assigned to TUSLOG Detachment 20 in Izmir from '57 to '61. He was USAF. I attended 7th,8th,9th, and 10th grades at the Izmir American Dependent School, which was housed in an old tobacco warehouse. I was a cheerleader my last year there and am in current contact with 6 of the 8 members of the cheerleading squad! Quite a feat considering it's been 37 years. My father is Harry F. Miller, Jr., who retired in 1972 as a full Colonel, with 31 years in the USAF. He was a captain when first assigned to Izmir. He made Major while we were there. I remember the party he and my Mom threw at the Officers Club to celebrate!
He was a pilot who flew General Allen, General Suarez, General Hollister, and General Harkins around besides other flying duties. He was also the Motor Pool Officer and, at various times, when staffing was tight, the Provost Marshall, the School Officer, and the Mortuary Officer! Never a dull moment.
We loved the 4 years we spent in Izmir. We had a summer house in Cesme to escape the heat in Izmir (Cesme is a popular summer-home location for the European crowd that belonged to the Bornova Golf Club, where my father was club champion a few times) but we also went to Nato Beach and Kusadasi.
Kusadasi is another area where Americans and Europeans had summer houses. I'm sure that anyone else stationed in Izmir from '57 to '61 would know us or of us, as I was one of five daughters, so my mother started the first Girl Scout Troop in Izmir, and she also sang in the choir for church. We were also rather notorious just because of five daughters!
The local newspaper (not the Stars and Stripes, but the paper put out by the local command) even featured us on the front page shortly after we arrived, showing us all at the base library checking out books because we were all great readers. (Our Mom taught us all to read by age 3 or 4, because it kept us quiet and in one place!). We have hundreds of slides and pictures of Izmir, Ephesus, Bergama, Cesma, etc. and many wonderful memories.
Of interest is the fact that General George S. Patton's daughter, Ruth Ellen Patton Totten, lived in Izmir too. She was married to an army officer (of course!) and they were stationed there in the late '50's as well. My mother knew her fairly well, as the Totten's had a daughter whom I believe was also active in Girl Scouts.
I don't remember what General Allen's first name was (see below, Ed.), I just know he had two daughters, Toni, who was 2 years older than I am; and Nikki who is my age. Nikki went to Izmir High School with us, but Toni went to a boarding school in Switzerland and was only in Izmir during the summer and long holidays. I remember the Allens raised Welsh Corgi dogs. What a strange thing to remember after all these years!
Editors note: From Air Force website, "...in July 1957 General Brooke Allen became commander of the Sixth Allied Tactical Air Force at Izmir, Turkey."
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