The Antebellum Margaret Mitchell’s novel “Gone With The Wind,” and the subsequent movie captured the soul of the American South before the “Antebellum,” the onslaught of the Civil War in the 1862. The Confederate Army sacrificed thousands of lives before the Union, under President Abraham Lincoln eventually swept the Old South away. Asmara, Ethiopia experienced a…
Month: May 2017
Massawa, Ethiopia | Down the Escarpment and Into the Kasbah (Part Two)
My excursion from Kagnew Station Asmara, Ethiopia down the mountain on the escarpment road had endured harrowing hairpin turns, misguided camels, and passenger Eric hurling fresh oranges at anything that moved, including baboons. However, negotiating the winding road was harmless compared to my initiation into Massawa’s strange inner sanctum… For the past few hours we sat at…
Massawa, Ethiopia | Down the Escarpment & Into the Kasbah (Part One)
All personnel assigned to Kagnew Station, Asmara, Ethiopia yearned for the adventure down the escarpment road to the port of Massawa on the Red Sea. However, the road was often closed to military personnel due to “Shifta” bandit or Eritrean Liberation Front separatist activity in the area. In the spring of 1971, the Kagnew brass had…
Once Upon a Time in Ethiopia (Part Two)
In 1971 Kagnew Station Asmara, Ethiopia thrived despite its location thousands of miles distant from other military posts overseas. Kagnew depended solely on the welcome of His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie who had ruled the country for forty-some years against much opposition both within the Ethiopia government and outside powers. Consequently, the military kept a low…
Once Upon a Time in Ethiopia (Part One)
In 1971, if I were to have written a fictional account of Kagnew Station, Asmara, Ethiopia it might have begun… “Once upon a time on an island above the clouds in a land far, far away…” After seven months into my assignment at the U.S. Army installation at Kagnew Station, Asmara, Ethiopia the rest of…
Foreign Service Messages 