Zweibruecken-USAF Germany

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/ [login to see] 57526468/
The front gate. Portals of yesteryear. This is the front gate of the defunct Zweibruecken AB. Gone are the salutes, cards and the throaty F-4s, . Vestiges of a distant past. For us older Veterans the sights, sounds and the savory tastes of Cheeseburgers made in the Base Operation Building.

I got my fax charts and analyzed each level, (Temperatures, Moisture and Jet Streams SFC, 850mb, 700mb, 500mb and 300 and 250mb levels. Steps to the Tropopause and the windy cold air that subsided down into the airmass.

Gone are the sanguine dreams that were Etch-a-Schetzs in place of passwords and Al Gore's internet. Gone is the Wall of Germany and gone are the Corridors, where pilots were guided to Berlin.

Gone are the pithy aircraft fixed on cement blocks. Sealed memories and reused parking lots and WWII aircraft. Looking at the old foundations, shorn monuments creepy paths. You can hardly remember, but you can imagine contrails by Monsanto and the talk of UFOs projected by old Sgts and Airmen alike.

We had the Ohio Players singing (Roller Coaster) and (Fire). We had 38 Special as well at the NCO club. Much is is missing of those things and mostly it was and is me.

Those were our own Halcyon Days and part of what is missing, is me. At one time the 86th TFW was composed of the 512th and 526th Squadrons.

At Ramstein, I remember the Base Ops Building, the Old Base weather station (Detachment 2nd, 31 Weather Squadron)and the Control Tower. Entering the gate was a flight pad, where we had about 10 or so UH-1's. We had T-37s and T-38s. From time to time, the C-9 Nightengale.


*Flying Hospital of sorts*. The MAC birds were separate and was a staging point so to speak. C-130s, C-141s and C-5s.

Aside from Ramstein and Zweibrucken were Bitburg, Spangdahlem , Hahn AB and Sembach. I travelled to each of those bases. I went to London, England, Paris, France. I rode the Eiffel Tower and visited the Benelux.

I lost a few friends along the way. From cancer to ALS. A Hodge Podge of misty memories and melancholy. There is no Genie to rekindle. No ruby slippers. In our dreams we do visit. LTC Stephen F. @lt col burn