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TBILISI, Georgia, Aug. 14, 2008 – A U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster III transport jet departed Ramstein Air Base, Germany, and landed at Tbilisi International Airport here yesterday, delivering $1 million in humanitarian aid to reduce the suffering of the people of the former Soviet republic of Georgia. Air Force Staff Sgt. Chris Broegemueller, assigned to the 86th Airlift Wing's Contingency Response Group at Sembach Air Base, Germany, helps to push out the first of 16 pallets aboard a U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster III in Tbilisi, Georgia, Aug. 13, 2008. The humanitarian assistance delivery consisted of $1 million...

Something’s better than nothing but the disappointment is palpable: “Everyone was excited about Obama’s visit. It’s a shame.� After googling around for details about what happened, precisely, I think John McCormack at the Standard has it right. It wasn’t the absence of media that led Obama to cancel the trip, it was the fact that two of his top military advisors, most notably Ret. Gen. Gration, couldn’t go with him because they’re technically campaign personnel and DoD regs prohibit political campaigning at military bases. Why Obama simply didn’t leave the two of them behind and make the trip anyway, your...

NBC’s Jim Miklaszewski and Courtney Kube get the skinny on the abrupt cancellation of Barack Obama’s visit to Landstuhl and Ramstein yesterday. The campaign tried to excuse it by claiming that it wouldn’t be appropriate to visit while on a campaign-funded portion of his trip, but that wasn’t the real problem. When Obama found out he couldn’t use the visit as a photo op, he canceled: One military official who was working on the Obama visit said because political candidates are prohibited from using military installations as campaign backdrops, Obama’s representatives were told, “he could only bring two or three...

NBC’s Jim Miklaszewski and Courtney Kube get the skinny on the abrupt cancellation of Barack Obama’s visit to Landstuhl and Ramstein yesterday. The campaign tried to excuse it by claiming that it wouldn’t be appropriate to visit while on a campaign-funded portion of his trip, but that wasn’t the real problem. When Obama found out he couldn’t use the visit as a photo op, he canceled... In fact, those same rules applied for the CODEL trip to Iraq and Afghanistan. They serve to keep politicians from exploiting military facilities for political reasons, and to ensure that all visitors get treated...

German police were today searching for around 10 more members of a terror cell suspected of plotting major bomb attacks, after the arrest of three men and the seizure of explosives materials. Officials have said the three men already in custody - two German converts to Islam and a Turkish national - were planning attacks which could have proved more deadly than those in London or Madrid, with possible targets including US military bases, discos, pubs and Frankfurt's international airport. August Hanning, a senior interior ministry official who formerly headed Germany's foreign intelligence service (BND), said today that police were...

The three suspected terrorists seized Tuesday were planning huge bomb attacks on targets in Germany. The bombs they were planning to make would have had more explosive power than those used in the Madrid and London terror attacks. The scenarios which the highest representatives of the German security forces were describing on Wednesday morning were horrific: "Massive bomb attacks," simultaneous attacks using several car bombs and huge numbers of people killed right in the middle of Germany. Only a bold raid foiled the plans of the Islamist terrorists, according to statements made in Karlsruhe by German Federal Prosecutor Monika Harms...

Three terror suspects have been arrested in Germany. They are thought to have been plotting bomb attacks on Frankfurt Airport and the US military base at Ramstein. DDP The US air base at Ramstein was one of the possible targets of the three suspects. Three Islamist terror suspects have been arrested in Germany, under suspicion of plotting bomb attacks on Frankfurt Airport and the US military air base at Ramstein. The three men were arrested in Medebach-Oberschledorn in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia on Tuesday afternoon. Around 20 police were involved in the arrests, and there are reports that...

Three men have been arrested for planning attacks on Frankfurt's international airport and the U.S. military base in Ramstein, the German Defense Minister said Wednesday. "There was an imminent threat," Franz Josef Jung told Germany's ARD broadcaster. He declined to elaborate. Two of the suspects had German citizenship while the third was Pakistani, Germany's Sudwestrundfunk public broadcaster said. German federal prosecutors said they had arrested three suspected members of "an Islamic motivated terrorist organization." It was not immediately clear whether the three were suspected of having links to al Qaeda. Sudwestrundfunk said the men were arrested Tuesday evening and were...

KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany — Department of Defense Dependents Schools-Europe told administrators this week that schools will have to drop the word “American” from their official names. Also, any schools named after a person will have to be called by a moniker more reflective of its location. That means Ramstein American High School will simply be known as Ramstein High School. And David Glasgow Farragut High School in Rota, Spain, will take on the shorter name of Rota High School. The school in southern Spain is named for the U.S. Navy’s first admiral. School administrators were notified of the changes in a...

by Staff Sgt. Ryan Hansen 386th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs 8/15/2006 - SOUTHWEST ASIA (AFPN) -- It may be surprising to hear that the 386th Air Expeditionary Wing has a Vietnam era Purple Heart recipient working at the wing. It is even more surprising to hear that the combat veteran is actually a C-130 Hercules deployed from Ramstein Air Base, Germany. On the flight deck of aircraft 63-7865 is a plaque telling the story of one of the hardest working aircraft in the Air Force inventory. According to the certificate, on June 1, 1972, the aircraft was assigned to the 21st Tactical...

MANAMA, Bahrain - U.S. military medical personnel, either on standby or already aboard ships, will act as first responders in the assisted departure of American citizens from Lebanon. One U.S. Navy physician and two corpsmen from Expeditionary Medical Facility (EMF) Kuwait, are aboard the civilian cruise vessel Orient Queen as it ferries passengers to the safety of Lanarca, Cyprus, said Capt. Vernon Morgan, force surgeon at U.S. Naval Forces Central Command in Bahrain. The U.S. Air Force has also stationed one physician and two medics at the entry points where American citizens are arriving in Cyprus. A 23-member Air Force...

RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany - Smiling broadly, journalist Jill Carroll arrived Saturday under U.S. military protection in Germany, the first stop on her return to the United States after 82 days in captivity in Iraq. 28-year-old U.S. journalist Jill Carroll, left, is welcomed by Base Commander, Col. Kurt Lohide after she landed at the U.S. Airbase in Ramstein, southwestern Germany, Saturday, April 1, 2006. Carroll was a hostage in Iraq for 82 days and was released last Thursday. (AP Photo/Michael Probst) Gone was the Islamic headscarf and dress robe she had worn as a hostage. Instead she was wearing jeans,...

RAMSTEIN, Germany — Saturday’s anti-war protest outside Ramstein Air Base was notable for what did not happen. Cindy Sheehan, the mother of a U.S. soldier killed in Iraq and the woman who protested last summer outside President Bush’s ranch, did not attend, even though weeks ago she was scheduled to participate in the event. Also, only about 30 protesters marched with crosses and rainbow peace flags from the town of Landstuhl to outside Ramstein Air Base. Protest organizers originally estimated as many as 500 participants.

RAMSTEIN, Germany — Cindy Sheehan says she will not be near Ramstein Air Base or participate in a protest march from Landstuhl to Ramstein on Saturday if she goes through with a planned trip to Europe. Sheehan, the mother of a soldier killed in Iraq and the woman who protested the war last summer outside President Bush’s ranch in Texas, said in an e-mail Wednesday to Stars and Stripes that “everything is up in the air at this point.” Sheehan is due to arrive in Frankfurt on Thursday. Despite uncertainty clouding Sheehan’s visit, protesters and counterprotesters still plan to gather...

RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany (USAFENS) – Ramstein Airmen deployed to Iraq for five months to train Iraqis to fly and maintain C-130 aircraft; standing up the first Iraqi airlift squadron under the country’s new regime. A Ramstein pilot, navigator and enlisted maintainers deployed from August of 2005 through January to train their Iraqi counterparts to fly and maintain the Iraqi 23rd Squadron’s three C-130 Es on Ali Base, Iraq. “This was the world’s toughest training environment,” said Capt. Jeremy Smith, 37th Airlift Squadron navigator. “We were teaching Iraqis to fly in a hostile environment with a language and culture barrier.”...

10/25/2005 - ABOVE IRAQ (AFPN) -- Tuskegee Airman Col. Richard Toliver (left) chats with Maj. (Dr.) Vanessa Williams as their C-17 Globemaster III makes its final approach to Balad Air Base, Iraq. Five of the original Tuskegee Airmen -- the first African-American aviators of World War II -- are visiting the 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing at Balad. The unit is a descendant of the "Red Tail Angels" of the Tuskegee Airmen's 332nd Fighter Group. (U.S. Air Force photo by Capt. Andra Higgs)

KIGALI, Rwanda (AFPN) -- Up and down a dusty grass and dirt soccer field, children chased a well-worn semblance of a ball. The ball more closely resembled a plastic bag wrapped in twine. The players stopped only to wave hello to the U.S. Airmen entering the airfield of Kigali International Airport. The students are from Nonko Primary School of Kigali-Kanombe, Rwanda, and thanks to the Airmen, they now own 20 new soccer balls, nets for their goal posts, toys and school supplies. The Airmen, from the 86th Air Expeditionary Group, Ramstein Air Base, Germany, first got the idea to buy...

MILAN, June 25 -- For 19 American intelligence operatives assigned to apprehend a radical Islamic preacher in Milan two years ago, the mission was equal parts James Bond and taxpayer-financed Italian holiday, according to an Italian investigation of the man's disappearance. The Americans stayed at some of the finest hotels in Milan, sometimes for as long as six weeks, ringing up tabs of as much as $500 a day on Diners Club accounts created to match their recently forged identities, according to Italian court documents and other records. Then, after abducting their target and flying him to Cairo under the...

RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany - First lady Laura Bush on Tuesday thanked U.S. soldiers for giving up their safety and the comforts of home to fight for democracy in Iraq and Afghanistan. -snip- Mrs. Bush, who also visited about 20 wounded soldiers at nearby Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, flew to Germany a day ahead of the president, who was attending meetings with NATO leaders in Brussels, Belgium. Ramstein Air Base has been heavily used in support of post-Sept. 11 U.S. military campaigns. -snip- The president also is scheduled to visit the 1st Armored Division in Wiesbaden, including some of the...

I talked to Walter Reed people today--they're swamped with supplies, including phone cards, "til June," one told me.   But they're desperate at Ramstein.  Per below. _____________________________________________________________________ From: Lori Noyes Sent: Monday, November 22, 2004 12:28 AM Subject: Request for Help for our wounded troops at LRMC Dear CAP Friends:  I am writing is to tell you about a project the Ramstein Cadet Squadron at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, is starting. The Landstuhl Regional Medical Center (LRMC) here in Germany got an influx of about 500 wounded troops from Iraq last week and more arrive almost daily. They arrive straight from...

STUTTGART, Germany (AP) - The U.S. military will keep a significant troop presence in Germany and even expand some bases, a senior U.S. commander said Thursday, despite the planned withdrawal of two Cold War-era divisions over the next decade. Air Force Gen. Charles F. Wald, deputy head of the U.S. military's European Command, also said major Air Force installations in Germany would be untouched by the troop realignment plans that President Bush announced Monday. Wald said a new, mobile brigade using lighter Stryker armored vehicles would be added, and major headquarters would also stay. ``The real issue is not the...

RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany — Air Force computer gurus are entrenched in a cyber war against themselves. Just as Air Force pilots fly mock dogfights during their exercises, so too do network security experts battle imaginary foes to train for the real world. This week, nine Air Force major commands and two Air Force agencies are engaged in Exercise Black Demon to root out insidious computer hackers who would seek to destroy the Air Force’s operations with but a few keystrokes. “Just like our pilots and air crews want to gain air and space superiority, we want to gain network...

Mon November 3, 2003 02:39 PM ET By Erik Kirschbaum BERLIN (Reuters) - The U.S. military said Monday it was sticking to a policy forbidding television camera crews and photographers from filming coffins of soldiers killed in Iraq at a U.S. air base in southwestern Germany. Officials at Ramstein, a major U.S. air base which serves as a transfer point, had allowed media access in the past to honor guard ceremonies and transfers of American-flag covered coffins onto U.S.-bound military transport planes. But rules banning coverage were strictly enforced just before the Iraq war began. While U.S. officials say the...

Wald Says Changed World Drives EUCOM Transformation By Gerry J. GilmoreAmerican Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, Aug. 6, 2003 – In 1987 more than 300,000 U.S. troops were stationed throughout Europe primarily to prevent a Soviet invasion, U.S. European Command's deputy commander noted here Aug. 5. Yet, today, just 106,000 American troops serve within EUCOM's area of operations, Air Force Gen. Chuck F. Wald pointed out during a Pentagon roundtable meeting with DoD military and civilian reporters. Although the Cold War became a relic of history with the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall and the demise of the Soviet...

July 12, 2003 U.S. Could Close All but One German Base By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Filed at 6:41 p.m. ET BERLIN (AP) -- Every U.S. military base in Germany except one supporting operations in Afghanistan and Iraq could be closed in a potential reorganization of American forces, the top U.S. commander in Europe said in an interview published Saturday. The bulk of about 115,000 U.S. military personnel stationed in Europe are in Germany, prompting analysts to forecast that thousands will leave once Pentagon planners decide how to adapt structures left over from the Cold War to new tasks such as...

Sent: Monday, April 28, 2003 9:47 AM Subject: FW: Soldier to Soldier A little background - The German Army is at Gates of all military installations in Germany providing entry control on a 24 X 7 basis to relieve US Forces that are in middle east. A different perspective on our German allies. Our governments may be at odds over Iraq Policy - but Military understands Military As usual I was running late. So, you can imagine my frustration level as approached the main gate of Ramstein Air Base only to find traffic backed up! Nearing the checkpoint I realized...

Sunday, 30 March 2003 As usual I was running late. So, you can imagine my frustration level as I approached the main gate of Ramstein Air Base only to find traffic backed up! Nearing the checkpoint I realized that not only was there a long line of cars, but traffic had come to a complete stop as a result of all, entrance gates being closed. Over the past 18-months, there have been many opportunities to practice our patience as we have had to "hurry up and wait" as a result of heightened security. While we realize the necessity, it's still...

Received this in an email today, folks. Thought many of you might appreciate it. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ If you have worn the uniform this one will get you!!! A little background - The German Army is at Gates of all military installations in Germany providing entry control on a 24 X 7 basis to relieve US Forces that are in middle east.. A different perspective on our German allies. Our governments may be at odds over Iraq Policy - but Military understands Military Here are our Allies! Sunday, 30 March 2003 As usual I was running late. So, you can imagine my...

LANDSTUHL, Germany - Eight more U.S. soldiers wounded in battle in Iraq arrived Sunday in Germany for treatment at a military hospital, a military spokesman said. The soldiers arrived at the Ramstein Air Base aboard a C-141 transport plane, along with one civilian wounded in battle and 11 soldiers suffering from non-combat-related injuries. All were taken to the nearby Landstuhl Regional Medical Center and were in a stable condition, said Capt. Norris Jones, a spokesman for the U.S. European Command. The three Army soldiers and five Marines brought to around 50 the number of military personnel transported to Landstuhl so...