My mother cried when my family first arrived at Williams Air Force Base outside of Phoenix in 1980. We had left the beautiful and lush coast of southern Turkey to a place that is,
“Brown, dead, and dry.” In her words.
We were underwhelmed by the landscape and overwhelmed by the oven-hot heat, even though we drove through the nighttime desert during a magnificent meteor shower with massive stars due to the lack of built-up areas and light. So, Karen arrived at a dry, desert military facility at a different time and place because her father was assigned there. She learned to appreciate the subtle beauty and desert flora and fauna while trying to grow up. The juxtaposition of her religious-based schooling and the apocalyptic work her parents supported was familiar to me. So many things were similar to the lives of many kids whose parents are government or military workers. Getting a different perspective and seeing how she became part of the mission, later appreciating her history and how it affected her, was like looking back into my past and reexperiencing all the good and bad moments and wanting to do it again.
