Loomis, Steven, IC3

I took a two year contract in Saudi Arabia with Lockheed. I was hired through Lockheed Aircraft Service Co., in Ontario California. Lockheed Aircraft International, A.G., LAIAG, was incorporated in Geneva Switzerland. The A.G. is the Swiss equivalent of Inc. located at LAIAG, 7 Rue Cornavin, 1201 Geneva Switzerland.

My Navy background of serving incountry Viet-Nam had a lot to do with my being picked for this assignment. I was 27 and one of the youngest members of the team. Most likely the youngest of the Americans which only made up a quarter of the staff of the technical college we ran.

As most of you know, Lockheed was often considered a member of the "Company". You never knew who you might be talking to. As a photographer I got a couple of very interesting assignments with men in black suits.

Saudi was a place where you learned to make your own wine and beer. Come to think of it, it was bacon that really got us in trouble.

In Jeddah a butcher named Leb Joe used to make beef taste just like ham. Like corned beef, but different. It sold like hot cakes and fried up real tasty. Where there's a will there's a way. Not everything tastes just like chicken. And I consider that a good thing.

But then... they thought Hass El Blad was an Arab camera. LOL


Speaking of jokes... "it's a-comin"

Three strangers strike up a conversation in the passenger lounge in Bozeman, Montana, while waiting for their respective flights...

One is an American Indian passing through from Lame Deer, another is a Cowboy on his way to Billings for a livestock show, and the third passenger is a fundamentalist Arab student, newly arrived at Montana State University from the Middle East.

Their discussion drifts to their diverse cultures. Soon, the two Westerners learn that the Arab is a devout, radical Muslim and the conversation falls into an uneasy lull.

The cowboy leans back in his chair, crosses his boots on a magazine table, tips his big sweat-stained hat forward over his face, and lights a cigarette. The wind outside is blowing tumbleweeds around, and the old windsock is flapping; but still no plane comes.

Finally, the American Indian clears his throat and softly he speaks: 'At one time here... my people were many... but sadly, now we are few.'

The Muslim student raises an eyebrow and leans forward, 'Once my people were few,' he sneers, 'and now we are many. Why do you suppose that is?'

The cowboy removes his cigarette from his mouth and from the darkness beneath his Stetson says in a smooth drawl . . .

'I reckon that's 'cause we ain't played Cowboys and Muslims yet, but I do believe...it's a-comin.'


Religion, Vietnam and Saudi Arabia:

When I was in Viet-Nam I had a Chinese Counterpart. He was born in China and his parents brought him, as a child, south to escape the Communist and the hopeful safety of Viet-Nam. A plan which failed, in so much as safety (or escaping the wrath of communisum). While there, I was surrounded by a multitude of religions, but I was only concerned with my own. As a former alter boy I found my own belief to be absurd, illogical and hypercritical at best. I found that logic and the infinity of time as space more appealing. Life became more precious and death more final. I stepped away from a theroetical god and the taunt of an afterlife. I have never looked back.

Years later I was again surrounded by a foreign religion, this time Islam, and I was more than physically surrounded. It smothered the life out of everything. They, the Moslems of Saudi Arabia, were obsessed 24 hours a day with what I precieved to be a threat, their religous belief.

In book stores, maps and globes had to have Israel scratched or cut out. That way it didn't exist. Their hatred of the Jews was (is) an obsession, of which I can cite several military near disasters that only the State Department could verify. I knew then, as most of you know now, the next big war will be due to, and along religious lines. The joke for me, as an atheist is, no god exists, and that religions hatred and distrust are man-made for war's sake.

I'm not here to sell my "opinion", I simply pointed out in my first statement that fighting over whose religion is right is stupid at best. In the next decade I predict a million people will pay for this error.

OK, lighten up - -

1977, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. I was on a two-year contract while we were building a technical school to teach the Saudi's Air Traffic Control. Most of the instructors were ex-Vietnam retired USAF aircraft traffic controllers. We waited several weeks for one of the team to show up, come to find out, he wouldn't fly. He came from the states via Malta on board a ship. I still think that story is funny.