Hello Pam

Hi, Ed. When I returned to Laughlin with Danny and shot that video, I had not been there in 45 years. My wife and I were actually on a trip to the Houston area for me to attend my 50th (+1 because of COVID....I was a 1970 grad) high school reunion. We made plans to visit Danny and Anna in San Antonio and all of us would go out to Del Rio and visit Laughlin. We stayed on base in Lodging there. We are still in contact today with Fred Schumann, Winston Singleton, and Sam Candelaria from that time period, the mid 1970s. I remember MSgts Barrus and Lowe (Barrus convinced me to put in for instructor duty at Chanute). I also remember MSgt. Walker, the cigar smoking dispatcher at the FLSS. Green 5 was our truck. After 5.5 years teaching at Chanute, I spent my last year in the active duty AF at Tyndall AFB, FL working on J-75s out of the F-106 aircraft. I got my A&P while at Tyndall and left the active duty AF in the summer of 1982. I moved to Plantation Florida after being accepted for employment at AeroThrust Corporation in Miami. That company was overhauling JT8D commercial engines. In 1986 I joined AFRES, but not at Homestead AFB. I joined the 315th Airlift Wing (classic associate) at Charleston, SC and was with them for 21 years....retiring in Jan 2008 from AFRES. I put in 14 years on C-141s there and a solid 10 years on C-17s (all flight line on C-17s). I got activated for the gulf wars and spent 2 years on active duty at Charleston.....being deployed to Rhein Main AB, Germany for 3.5 months (and left there just 2 months before the base closed and was handed back to the Germans so that they could build Terminal 3 at the Frankfurt Flughafen). I also made a short trip to Bagram AB, Afghanistan, but that is a whole different story. What is funny is that in AFRES I was always a technician while in commercial aviation I was always in management, the best of both worlds. I started making trips to Europe for the 315th starting in 1987, mostly to Germany, but also to Spain and the UK. My youngest son, born at Chanute in 1980, joined the AF in 2001. He was an ELEN specialist. His first assignment was Charleston AFB and he was stationed there for 15 years before going PCS to Elmendorf AFB, Alaska. We worked out of the same Aircraft Maintenance Unit, he on the active duty side and me as a traditional reservist. I would see him every month for 6 years when I came up from Miami via C-141s and later C-17s. For a time he flew C-17s as a flying crew chief. He retired from the AF in September 2021. He and his family still live in Alaska. My last 12 years in commercial aviation were spent at F.J. Turbine Power ,Inc. located in Hialeah, FL. That company overhauled JT8Ds, JT8D-200s, and CFM56 engines. I retired from FJTP at the end of December, 2020. I had enlisted in the USAF in October 1970. My wife and I reside in Pembroke Pines in South Florida in a home we have lived in for almost 26 years. So, it looks as though we have both had interesting careers. Best of luck to you, and if you want, you can send me a friends request via Facebook where there is a lot more info, particularly about our world travels.

Yes Sir, during my career in the Navy I served aboard the Enterprise, and the USS Kitty Hawk. In fact I was there when we hit that Russian Submarine on March 24, 1984. After my tour on the Kitty Hawk I transferred to NAS Lemoore I was in the transition team when the Navy transitioned from the A-7E to the FA-18C. I really liked the FA-18. It was like Star War compared to other aircraft. After 4 years at NAS Lemoore PCS to NAS Agana Guam were I was assigned to VQ-1 were I worked Electronic Countermeasures for E-P3C I was there for 3 years after that I retired. I moved back to San Antonio and finished my college degree in Biomedical Engineering. I don’t enjoy working in hospitals so I got back into avionics. I got hired at Laughlin AFB in 1995 as CommNav technician on the T-38. I worked on the T-1 also. I was at Laughlin for 7 years at that time. I took a job at Holloman AFB were I worked on the Navigation systems for the F-117, and later the F-22. When they closed the F-117 program I transferred to White Sands Missile Range as a calibration technician in microwave and low frequency DC section. I want to thank you for training me in proper troubleshooting techniques. It really helped me in my military and civilian careers. Thanks again Greg and have a Blessed day.

That would be me. I worked out of the FLSS from October 1972 to March 1976. I then returned to Chanute to become an instructor for 5.5 years. Look for me on Facebook, but leave the "n" out of my last name. Look for the profile photo of a kid on a Murrey Pedel Jet. I'm retired now after a 50 year career in Jet Engine Repair and Overhaul, both military and commercial. Danny Baltzegar is also in the video. He worked the FLSS at Laughlin during the same time period. We would both end up working for AeroThrust Corporation in MIami, but at different times. He is retired now too and lives very near JBSA Randolph in San Antonio.

I started doing two week Enroute Support trips for AFRES from Charleston to RMAB starting in 1987. I did 4 of them before I switched to doing trips to Ramstein. My last trip was in 2000, but I was activated for the gulf wars and spent 3.5 months at RMAB in the spring and summer of 2005 and left July 31st, shortly before the base was handed over to the Germans in October. Like you I have been following the construction of Terminal 3 at the Flug. In 2005 I took some pictures of RMAB and posted them on Google Earth. One was from the window of my dorm, 352. I posted the view from my dorm window on GE. The pictures are still on GE. If you go to the body of Term 3 on GE and look towards the bottom left you will find the photo I took from my dorm window in 2005. If you look at the historical GE view from 2003, the base looked exact the same in 2005 and you can see where my window was in the dorm.

@@gpolaski1 I wasn't able to see the images you spoke of. Are you on Goggle earth or earth pro ?

There were two F-16s. Both had a TX on the tail and a Texas flag for a tail flash. Must be Texas Air National Guard.

One of the two F-16s had an FM on the tail. That is the 482nd FW at Homestead.

All buildings, every one, on the former RMAB have been demolished and the new terminal building for the Flughafen is nearly complete. Nothing remains of the former base except the Berlin Airlift monument.

I didn't know you were stationed there. Elmo or Fairbanks? My youngest son retired from the USAF there (Elmo). After being stationed at Charleston for 15 years, they sent him to Elmo. That was in 2017, one year after our cruise there. He and his family are still there. His wife has a high paying job in one of the hospitals there in Anchorage and they have a nice home in a neighborhood that has a lot of military retirees. Great social life for all of them. He and his family have spent the last week here in FL visiting Universal and Disney World. They are flying back to Alaska today. We joined them at Universal last weekend. I suppose you saw that video.

@@gpolaski1 I originally enlisted in Alaska, and was stationed at Elmo 2 times, once in the mid 90's then again from 99 to 2007 when I retired.

You are correct the airman off base was killed. My dad, mom and I were on base when it happened. Super scary as a 6 year old. I remember going by after seeing the damage. We were there 81-90 my dad was in maintenance.

Our first choice that day was the Green Vault Museum, but it was closed. The Porcelain Museum was the Plan B, but it turned out to be very nice. We had been to Germany many times since 1987 (my sister has lived there sine 1983), but we had never been to Berlin, Leipzig, or Dresden, so we made it a point to visit them on this 2019 trip. Dresden was a pleasant surprise and we really enjoyed it there. We were also in France and Switzerland on that trip and you can see those videos in the playlist Europe 2019.

@@gpolaski1 Only got to Germany once: Munich, Leipzig, and Dresden. While all 3 are beautiful, I would rank Dresden at the top. The Green Vault is a wonder too. The real reason for Dresden was to hear opera at the Semper which was the catalyst for my trip to Germany. I had planned to go to Vienna, but couldn't get through to the opera online for tickets.

@@LJB103 I visited Vienna in 2005, and my wife and I went there in 2014. Beautiful city. We didn't go to the opera, but we did attend a concert in the Hofburg Palace. My sister and I had a mutual friend from high school on the east coast of Florida back in the late 60s that majored in music (she was the head of the Folksinging Club in high school). She went to Germany after college and signed on with the opera in Köln (Cologne) and was with them for many years, marrying a German and retiring in Germany. My sister lives in the Heidelberg area. This woman invited her up to Köln to see a production of My Fair Lady (which the woman was in....but this was 45 years after high school, so her part was that of Professor Higgin's maid) , which she did, and afterwards introduced her to the cast at a cast party after the production.

Спасибо большое, Тамара. Я молюсь, чтобы ваша страна оставалась в мире.

It was shot in October 2000 before all the major changes were made to CCHS.