Posted on 10/09/2005 5:11:33 PM PDT by Sub-Driver
I spent a total of seven years at Rhein-Main and Weisbaden/Lindsay AS (USAFE Hdqs a mere 17 Km down the road). The flying assignments were great and the communities wondeful to live in. Choosing among the WAC Circle Army PX, the Rhein-Main or Weisbaden Air Force exchanges for shopping was a pleasny dilemma and the officers' club at the vonSteuben Hotel downtown had the best restaurant of any club anywhere. And don't forget Frascate Italian restaurant near the vonSteuben, it provided a culinary diversion with the best Italian fare outside the home country. Being there during the late 1950s and after a 1960s side visit to SEA and our party down there, central Germany was a preferred venue for 25% of a career; sorry to see it disappear.
Was stationed at NAF Lajes Field Azores in 1976-1978.
When I was at Pirmasens near K-town in 56-57, I really liked the people, much more so than the French (not saying much I realize) and some of the other European nationalities I came into contact with.
Was always surprised (didn't take much to surprise me at 17-18 years old) that so many German ex-POWs had fond memories of POW camps in the US. Seemed every second cab driver was trying to get a visa to America.
Hi..You had good assignment. We flew McGuire, Gander, Prestwick, Rhein Mein routinely. We had all Navy pilots and crew but flew AF planes R6D's. Our Squadron Vr-3 was assigned to MATs and we ended up with special missions everywhere, too many to bore you with. I was a loadmaster and during my time, truly had a unique opportunity to see the world. Rhein Main was one of my favorite destinations ( the beer was great and we found found out how valuable a silver dollar could be:) LOL... ) Tell me some stories..Thanks
But we've opened so many new ones! Who would have ever thought that we would be operating out of old Soviet Nuke Bomber bases like Karshi-Khanabad or from the old Soviet bases in Afghanistan like Bagram?
We had many runs to Lajes/Torejone/Wheelus. Funny.. When we routed through Azores, we always bought tons of Rose Mateus (.85/bottle) and those gallon straw covered jugs of wine we called Portugese Pig Piss .50/gallon. Our crews were popular at home base. Early-Mid 60's. Navy MATS is gone but the memories aren't. Glad to hear any stories.Thanks
I was in Rhein Main for 78/79...and often thought it was the second best tour of my 22 years. So much to do, and you could never be bored. So much rich history, and its a sad day to see it closed.
I remember that Mateus wine, as well as that other stuff.
There was a bar in town (Praia da Vitoria) called Cafe Acores (aka George the Crook's) that was popular. Lots of
parties in that place.
When I was enroute to Lajes, our plane got diverted (due to a windstorm at Lajes), we flew to Torrejon (stayed for a few hours) and then on to Rhein-Main. Stayed there for a couple of days. I remember Rhein-Main was across from the
commercial airport Frankfurt-Main.
LOL..We were allowed to bring in something like $100 worth of duty free goods each month. Everyone bought the max of Mateus at about .85/bottle and our 8-10 crew would return almost 1000 bottles.
Mateus was 3.00 in states at that time. Thanks for the comments. Where were you stationed?
Naval Air Facility (ASCOMM), we worked with the P-3 Orions.
Lajes was a fuel stop for us so we never stayed long. Our squadron was somewhat unique (VR-3 and VR-6) in that many of the pilots were former ex white hats from WW2 and assignment to VR-3 was considered gravy duty because of the unique assignments we were given.. The AF flew the the milk runs. We rotated Navy personnel from Quonset Point to Christchurch, New Zealand twice a year for Antartica duty, one of the more interesting assignments. I was very fortunate for the duty I had. Crossed the Atlantic 55 times and Pacific 18 times to the most amazing places a young person could imagine then.
After the Status of Forces Treaty became effective the German customs officers consistently tried to catch us on our return to collect duty. To prevent that unhappy event, we'd taxi to a remote and restricted area of the base and, with the greased assistance of the security guys, off-load the, now, untaxed contraband and everyone, except the German customs office, was happy. This was a three or four times a year venture into the realm of quasi-smuggling. For stupid captains it was fun.
LOL..Great story. I thought I was the only one who was young and foolish! We had plenty of room on the R6's to store our "souvenirs". I read a story once of a Navy Captain or Admiral who was caught with a plane load of Rose Mateus from Portugal. That's plane load as in C118. This was after my service. We had some interesting assignments. Our squadron was tapped to deliver the Special Forces to Saigon in 62 when Kennedy issued the order. We arrived at Fort Watchuka (sp) and had to estimate the weight of these guys and all there equipment with fuel to Sacramento. Wartime gross was not to exceed 112,000 lbs if I recall. The plane captain said let's go. We barely made it off the ground and it took about 40 minutes to reach 5000'. We probably weighed 150,000. We made a few adjustments to cross the pond. R6 was a great ride. Never down except when we were in great places. Those red lights always came on when we were about to depart and because we had AF planes, and were Navy crew, the AF had to send personnel to wherever we were to repair. LOL. That always took days.
Thanks--it's the stuff reunions are made of----
What does Germany do with all the post/bases when they close? The housing, schools, etc.?
LOL!
FYI.
"Nostalgia aside, we should have been out of Germany, and all of Europe for that matter, about 10 years ago."
Although I think we should have drastically scaled back a lot of bases i do think it is vital to have some airbases and support in Europe for long distance/long term military engagements.
I spent a summer at Spang as a DOD contractor and had a great time for being in the middle of no where. The roar of F-4's and F-15's between Spang and Bitburg made the place lively during the day. Spang didn't have much of a town nearby, so you had to go to Bitburg for good food. Although the Hotel I lived at had a really great restaurant. Most of the woman in the area were big farms girls although I did meet a few angels over there. Bitburg Pils beer was awesome, I'd drink again if I ever got back over there. Me and my dad split a Bitburg beer in the states and the distillation process ruined it. I was there in 85 when the dollar was real strong so drinking good German wine was about$2.00 a bottle.
I really enjoyed the way the crazy Germans would pass on hills and curves way out in the country since they didn't expect oncoming traffic. It slowed my driving way down after being forced way out into a field a few times to avoid death.
Schwaebisch Hall memories for me.
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