DM 357 — I Served Aboard This Ship Three Years Before the Tragedy > Likes and Comments

Three years before the tragedy that would later become the subject of my novel, I served aboard the Turkish destroyer TCG Muavenet.

At the time, I could not know what the future would bring. I simply knew the ship—her weapons systems, compartments, routines, and the everyday life of the men who served aboard her.

Then, on October 2, 1992, during a NATO exercise, Muavenet was struck by Sea Sparrow missiles fired from USS Saratoga.

Years later, I returned to the ship through research. I wanted to understand what I had not witnessed myself: what happened before the strike, during those critical moments, and in the hours and days that followed.

That research became DM 357, a historical novel shaped by documents, testimony, and something more personal—the memory of having once lived and served aboard the very ship at the center of the story.

For me, writing this book raised an unusual question:

What happens when a place from your own past becomes part of history?

Mehmet wrote: "Three years before the tragedy that would later become the subject of my novel, I served aboard the Turkish destroyer TCG Muavenet.

At the time, I could not know what the future would bring. I sim..."

nice