While stationed in Greece with the United States Air Force, Floyd and I had an opportunity to go to Israel. However, I didn’t realize the obstacles we needed to overcome to make that dream a reality. (But God knew.) Finding a baby-sitter for our three young children, ages 6, 4, and 18 months, for our two-week vacation was the first challenge we faced, and, as far as I knew, the only obstacle in my path.
It was during my search for a sitter that a co-worker of Floyd’s was taking a sight-seeing trip to Egypt. To everyone’s horror, the commercial jet that she had boarded for Egypt was hijacked. Scarlet was a tall, American red-head, so everything about her stood out. Even in the passenger’s seat of the airliner, she sat almost a head taller than the other passengers. When the plane landed, the hijackers held the passengers as hostages and made certain demands. When the airport refused to meet their demands, they grabbed the first passenger that caught their attention – Scarlet. They executed her and threw her off the plane.
Now that I had a baby-sitter lined up, a week after Scarlet’s death, Major Bailey, the commander of Detachment 30 where Floyd was stationed, called Floyd to find out how we planned to get to Israel.
“We plan to take a military hop,” said Floyd. “But we’re meeting the tour group at Tel Aviv. So if we’re not able to catch a hop, I’ll purchase a couple of fairs and we’ll fly commercially.”
That didn’t set well with Major Bailey, especially after Scarlet’s plane was hijacked and she was murdered by the hijackers. So he told us that we couldn’t go. After all the trouble I had lining up a baby-sitter, Major Bailey didn’t want us to get on a commercial airplane. As far as he was concerned, a military hop was fine, but if we couldn’t catch a hop, he wanted us to come home. (A military hop is when a US service member is able to catch a ride on a military plane or a commercial airliner chartered for military use. At that time, they charged $10 per seat.)
Floyd said, “Are you cancelling my leave? Because that’s the only way you will keep us from making this trip.” Of course, Major Bailey had no justification for cancelling Floyd’s leave time. So he said, “Look at Marj’s passport. Is it not stamped ‘For use in conjunction with military orders only?'” Floyd had purchased his passport, whereas mine was issued by the military and should have had that stamp in it. It didn’t.
So despite Major Bailey’s concerns, we packed up and headed to the airport the next day. That’s when I learned that I was in Greece illegally and I couldn’t leave the country.
The children and I had arrived in Greece in March, 1985. The Greek government gave us six months to acquire Greek ID cards. Now it wasn’t our job to get them, but it was our job to apply for them. Our problem was that Floyd was stationed at a little site serviced by both US civil workers and the US military. They worked directly with the Greek nationals.
Floyd applied for our IDs at Helenicon Air Base, which serviced all US military personnel from the surrounding sites. The base said, “This isn’t our jurisdiction because you’re not stationed here. You have to go to the embassy.” So he went to the embassy. The embassy said, “You’re military. You get this done at the base.” And that buck had been passed back and forth for a year. Neither of them had wanted to accept responsibility for providing those cards in accordance with Greek law. And I couldn’t leave the country.
The Greeks were very willing to stamp Floyd’s passport and let him leave, but they wouldn’t stamp mine. Floyd patiently tried to explain to them why I didn’t have the ID card. They listened politely before reiterating the fact that I was in the country illegally and I couldn’t leave. They went round and round over the issue. Finally, Floyd stomped his foot, raised his voice and started yelling at them. I was shocked. I’d never seen him act that way before. The Greeks immediately backed down. They grabbed my passport…stamp, stamp, stamp…and I was through. They let me go and reminded me to get that ID card when I returned to the country. Isn’t God good?
We caught a military hop headed to Tel Aviv. As we boarded the plane, I looked at Floyd. He said, “When in Greece, do as the Greeks do. I felt like an idiot, but that’s how the Greeks always get their way. I can see it works very nicely.”