General Maurice A. Preston (second from right), USAFE command-in-chief, is met at the Sembach Operations area by Col. Jack R. Best, 601st Tactical Control Wing commander. General Preston visited Sembach last Friday as part of his last official tour of USAFE bases before turning over command to General Horace M. Wade. (USAFE Photo by A1C Gary L. Kennedy). Article and photo from the Sembach Times Newspaper 1968.

At the plane, 601st Security Police Sgts John D. Moore (left), and Julian A.B. Duran (right).

L-R

Sgt. John Moore, Sgt. Julian AB Duran, Sgt. Steve Turner

Sembach AB, Germany
Circa 1969

I would like to comment on a friend, a fellow USAF Security Police member, and one of the kids that I grew up with in the Air Force. I was stationed in Germany with Julian Ali Baba Duran (we never called him anything but Ali Baba), at Sembach AB.

Virtually every day, I either worked with Ali Baba, or planned social activities for the group of GI's that we hung out with. There were eight of us that were inseparable in Germany, and we felt like brothers. Traveling all the back roads of Germany, and dealing with all of the military issues that we were responsible for…was a pleasure (most of the time) because our small group of friends worked together in uniform, and played together in civvies. When I think back on the years we were all together in Germany, Ali Baba and I always seemed to be selected for duties requiring white boot laces, white gloves, white hats, and after a while Ali Baba, Steve Turner, and I….actually tried to hide whenever they were looking for people to dress in class A uniforms and meet a general on the flight line, or do flag details. Ali Baba and I were never able to hide well enough, so he and I, along with Steve Turner, were always caught to do the ceremonial details for our Squadron. We worked together so often we could know what each of us was doing, even if we closed our eyes. I loved working with Ali Baba, he was the sharpest dressed airman in our squadron, and we had to really work at doing what came naturally to him.

Each of us parted ways after we left Germany, and I always wondered what Ali Baba was doing. I thought he would stay in the USAF, but my choice was to change blue uniforms, for the uniform of the Spokane Police Department where I worked for the next 27 years.

Never was the friendship with Ali Baba far from my mind. I kept going online trying to find him, as did several of our other friends from Sembach Germany. I wanted Ali Baba to come to one of our reunions, so we could laugh about all the things we did as kids, in Germany.

When I found out that Ali Baba had passed, I was shocked, as were our USAF friends. Ali Baba was our brother, our friend, and he has been missed every day since we learned of his passing.

I have many, many photos of Ali Baba and our small group of friends that I would be happy to send to his family. I have no idea how to contact them, but if they ever see my post here, perhaps they can contact me. May God bless my friend Ali Baba Duran, and all of the members of his family. I never got to know Ali Baba's family, but they should know that he was loved by those of us who worked with him, and grew up together with him when we were kids in the USAF.

My contact info is as follows: John D. Moore, CPP, PO Box 18715, Spokane Washington 99228-0715 (509 993 4882 (mobile)) or office 509 327 5627. Email: [email protected] or [email protected].

23 May 2011