CHAPTER TWO - MORNING IN AMERICA
In May of 1983 a spot opened up and I was finally allowed to rejoin my Air National Guard unit. Things were finally falling into place but I was still not able to buy a car. Since my transmission went out in Florida I was not able to trade my car because I was upside down on it because I owed more on the car than it was worth. I was forced to have it repaired in order to keep driving. Before I was finally able to trade the car in 1987 I put three rebuilt transmissions in it, an engine, and several starters. I was either walking, running, or hitching rides to work more than I was driving. My first Guard drill was spent preparing for a two week camp at Rhein Main AFB near Frankfort Germany and we were scheduled to leave toward the end of the month. We were being deployed to Rhein Main to work an air show there. Because of terrorism across Europe in the 1970's and 80's the base was basically closed to the German public. Other than the locals who worked on the base. or vendors delivering to the base, the German civilians were not allowed to go there. There had been acts of terror all over Europe and a bomb had been found on a railroad track near the perimeter fence at Rhein Main. The Baader Meinhoff Gang, or Red Army faction, was an ultra left wing German terrorist group. The Red Army Faction was responsible for a series of assassinations, kidnappings, bombings, bank robberies, and shoot-outs with police over three decades.
It was my understanding that this air show was going to be the first one to be held there in years. Huge crowds of Germans were expected on base and I heard numbers as high as 300,000 people could be there. For that reason Military policeman from both the Air Force and Army were being sent to work the air show from all over Europe and America. Our commander was a great guy. He had been a former finance officer in the regular Air Force and had been stationed at Erhac Turkey after I left there in 1971. In my opinion, however; he was unsuited to be a Security Police commander. We were just starting ABGD, or Air Base Ground Defense training. An army Captain, and Vietnam veteran, was attached to our unit in order to train us in infantry and fire team tactics. Because our C-130 was going to be packed to the gills we were not allowed to take our M-16's and ammo. Our Major assured us that Rhein Main would furnish us with the weapons needed to work the air show.
I was uncomfortable about going into a possible hostile environment without our weapons. Other than very short trips around Savannah's Travis Field during a medical evacuation exercise in 1979 I had not been on an airplane for any length of time since left Turkey. I was very nervous about flying on a C-130 all the way to Germany and back. One reason we couldn't take our weapons was that a Minnesota Air National Guard plane loaded with nurses and medical personnel, along with all of their equipment, was picking us up on their way to Germany. We were only allowed to carry our personal bags and the uniforms we were wearing. We were packed in so tight I knew what a sardine felt like.
Since there was a mix of male and females on board our toilet had a curtain around it. Fortunately, I never had to poop on one of these flights but I could not avoid having to pee. It was embarrassing having to step over a long line of people on my way to the toilet. Especially, people I didn't know. After a four hour flight we landed at Bangor A.F.B. Maine. Although it was the end of May there was still snow on the ground. The next morning we took off for the Azores, which was another six hour flight. It is an experience landing in the Azores. They are a group of islands in the Atlantic near the coast of Africa that belong to Portugal. The U.S. has an airbase there called Lajes Field and it is used as a stopover and refueling station for aircraft on the way to Europe and the Middle East. The cross winds make for a rough landing and by the time we finally touched down I was sweating bullets. You could see the ocean on both ends of the runway. It was a beautiful and mountainous island that was formed by volcanic activity. We spent the night there and early the next morning took off on another six hour flight to Rhein Main. Rhein Main was on one side of the air field and the Frankfort International airport terminal was on the other. This was the busiest air field that I ever worked at. Twenty-four hours a day there was a continuous stream of every conceivable type of aircraft landing and taking off. As soon as one landed another was taking off.
Since there was a mix of male and females on board our toilet had a curtain around it. Fortunately, I never had to poop on one of these flights but I could not avoid having to pee. It was embarrassing having to step over a long line of people on my way to the toilet. Especially, people I didn't know. After a four hour flight we landed at Bangor A.F.B. Maine. Although it was the end of May there was still snow on the ground. The next morning we took off for the Azores, which was another six hour flight. It is an experience landing in the Azores. They are a group of islands in the Atlantic near the coast of Africa that belong to Portugal. The U.S. has an airbase there called Lajes Field and it is used as a stopover and refueling station for aircraft on the way to Europe and the Middle East. The cross winds make for a rough landing and by the time we finally touched down I was sweating bullets. You could see the ocean on both ends of the runway. It was a beautiful and mountainous island that was formed by volcanic activity. We spent the night there and early the next morning took off on another six hour flight to Rhein Main. Rhein Main was on one side of the air field and the Frankfort International airport terminal was on the other. This was the busiest air field that I ever worked at. Twenty-four hours a day there was a continuous stream of every conceivable type of aircraft landing and taking off. As soon as one landed another was taking off.
We arrived on a weekend and the air show was to be the following Saturday. Until the air show we were on a daily training regimen along with briefings. The briefings were primarily about terrorism and what we should be looking for. Bombs were the greatest threat, especially car bombs. A car bomb exploded at Ramstein A.F.B. Germany near Munich on September 1, 1981, injuring 20 people. Two years after we left Rhein Main on Aug. 8, 1985, a terrorist car bomb exploded outside the headquarters building at Rhein Main, killing Airman First Class Frank Scarton and dependent Becky Bristol. Almost four months later on November 25th, a car bomb exploded at a U.S. Military Post Exchange (PX) in Frankfort, injuring 36, including 18 U.S. military personnel and 15 U.S. civilians. The bomb was contained in a silver BMW. A friend of mine, who was an Army M.P. at the time, was supposed to be working where the bomb exploded, but by the grace of God he was off that day. The man that replaced him was injured. As I stated earlier a bomb had been found just outside the perimeter fencing on a railroad track feeder line that brought supplies into the base just a few weeks before we arrived. The threat of a bomb was real and we paid close attention at these briefings. We were also warned about a device called a wrist rocket. It was a sling shot worn on the wrist by terrorists and they fired steel ball bearings at their victims.
Base authorities were also expecting riots and demonstrations led by the Green Party. They were upset over the planned construction of a new runway on the base. One day was devoted to riot control training but we were assured that the German Polizei would take care of any riot or demonstration that occurred on base rather quickly and they were very good at it. Another day was devoted to Air Base Ground Defense Training. We were issued M-16's and we attached a small box to the front of the barrel that directed a laser toward the person you were shooting at. Blanks were used to add realism to the training and the laser was synchronized to fire every time we pulled the trigger. Everyone was wearing sensors on their helmets and torsos that would beep if the laser made contact with a sensor. If there was an intermittent beep it meant that there was a near miss or you were wounded. A solid beep meant that you were dead. If you were beeping you were out of the fight until a judge or someone with a key came around and turned you off. Then you were alive again and allowed to get back in the fight. It was a sophisticated and expensive form of laser tag used by the U.S. military. The official name for it was Multiple Integrated Laser Engagement System or MILES gear.
At Rhein Main we trained in a wooded area on base and divided up into fire teams. Our Army Captain put a key in a steel ammo box and placed it in the middle of a clearing. Whichever fire team was able to get to the key first was the winner. As I was running and hiding out in the woods I noticed large holes everywhere and some of the holes were huge. It suddenly dawned on me that these holes were bomb craters from World War II. The large holes were from 1,000 pound bombs and the smaller ones were from 500 pound bombs. The area looked like the surface of the moon with vegetation. Rhein Main had been a German A.F.B. that was heavily bombed by allied bombers during the war. I was running through the woods when one of my fire team members jumped out from behind a bush. Thinking he was the enemy I fell hard on the ground and busted my lip on the barrel of my M-16 trying to avoid being shot. After training I had to go by the dispensary and get a couple of stitches in my mouth.
Base authorities were also expecting riots and demonstrations led by the Green Party. They were upset over the planned construction of a new runway on the base. One day was devoted to riot control training but we were assured that the German Polizei would take care of any riot or demonstration that occurred on base rather quickly and they were very good at it. Another day was devoted to Air Base Ground Defense Training. We were issued M-16's and we attached a small box to the front of the barrel that directed a laser toward the person you were shooting at. Blanks were used to add realism to the training and the laser was synchronized to fire every time we pulled the trigger. Everyone was wearing sensors on their helmets and torsos that would beep if the laser made contact with a sensor. If there was an intermittent beep it meant that there was a near miss or you were wounded. A solid beep meant that you were dead. If you were beeping you were out of the fight until a judge or someone with a key came around and turned you off. Then you were alive again and allowed to get back in the fight. It was a sophisticated and expensive form of laser tag used by the U.S. military. The official name for it was Multiple Integrated Laser Engagement System or MILES gear.
At Rhein Main we trained in a wooded area on base and divided up into fire teams. Our Army Captain put a key in a steel ammo box and placed it in the middle of a clearing. Whichever fire team was able to get to the key first was the winner. As I was running and hiding out in the woods I noticed large holes everywhere and some of the holes were huge. It suddenly dawned on me that these holes were bomb craters from World War II. The large holes were from 1,000 pound bombs and the smaller ones were from 500 pound bombs. The area looked like the surface of the moon with vegetation. Rhein Main had been a German A.F.B. that was heavily bombed by allied bombers during the war. I was running through the woods when one of my fire team members jumped out from behind a bush. Thinking he was the enemy I fell hard on the ground and busted my lip on the barrel of my M-16 trying to avoid being shot. After training I had to go by the dispensary and get a couple of stitches in my mouth.
The rest of the week was devoted to training until the day of the air show. We were up around 0300 because we had to have our gear ready, eat early chow, and be at the assembly point at 0500. A very large group of SP's and MP's were ready for duty at the staging area that morning. My earlier fears about not taking our weapons were realized because the base only had enough weapons to go around for their own men. There were only a small number of M-16's left over. Only our 2 officers and senior N.C.O.'s were armed. The rest of us were virtually defenseless in a potentially hostile environment. We were made to line up in a long line. At intervals there were bomb dogs, along with their handlers, ready to sniff trash cans or anything that might contain a bomb. When the signal was given we slowly walked through the areas on the base and flight line that would be open to the public looking for anything suspicious. When the command staff was satisfied that the area was secure the base was opened to the public. I was posted on the aircraft parking ramp to watch the crowd line near the static display aircraft.
All through the early morning hours the crowd was growing larger and larger. Suddenly I saw leaflets being thrown into the air about 30 yards away. Several white vans appeared and very quickly German Polizei, wearing white riot helmets, and carrying long batons that looked like baseball bats, unloaded from the vans. Almost as soon as it started the Green Party demonstration was over. They arrested the leaders and whisked them away in the vans. The rest of the day was uneventful as far as bombs, rioting, or demonstrations. That is until a Canadian demonstration team, consisting of five F-104 fighters, taxied out for take-off. I had my camera in my pocket and had been snapping pictures of the crowds and of our people throughout the day. As the fighters were waiting for clearance to take off I took a picture of them. This demonstration team reminded me of the Thunderbird's, or Blue Angels, without the fancy paint jobs. After taking off four of the fighters remained in formation while one flew off on it's own. I took a picture of the four fighters as they flew overhead. Suddenly I noticed the solo pilot fly right over me at low altitude and veer off to the right. It appeared as if smoke was trailing from the cockpit and at that point I quickly lost sight of him. I went back to watching the crowd line. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed two American AF pilots standing near their aircraft engaged in a conversation.
Something suddenly grabbed their attention and they were looking up at something to my right. They turned and ran out beyond the tails of their aircraft as if they were trying to get a better look at it. It was then that I saw what they were looking at. The lone aircraft that had just flown over my head was now in a flat spin falling toward the ground. Like the pilots, I ran to left to get a better look just in time to see a fireball on the ground off in the distance. For a moment I was stunned until the reality sank in that I had just witnessed a plane crash. Then I remembered my camera and took a picture of the mushroom cloud of black smoke and of the fire engines as they began responding to the crash. The fire engines had been positioned with their water cannon pointed toward the crowds in case there was any disturbance. Ironically, we had prepared all week for bombs, demonstrations and riots. We were not prepared for a plane crash. Luckily for us the jet crashed off base in a parking lot and on the autobahn. In panic and from curiosity the crowd began running toward us. We were afraid of being overrun for a few moments but fairly quickly we were able to get the crowd back beyond the rope line again.
The Canadian pilot, Capt. A.J. Stephenson, ejected just in time and was safe. The cause of the crash was an afterburner-flameout and the plane killed 5 people in one car on the autobahn. There was a pastor, his wife, mother-in-law and two children in the car. The plane also destroyed 50 cars in a parking lot, critically injuring several people. The takeoff had been normal and the planes performed a four-ship diamond and one solo. In the diamond formation they did loops and rolls and in between each of the diamond passes the solo would make a pass doing various maneuvers. They were well into the show. Several passes by both diamond and solo when after a diamond pass the solo suffered the afterburner flame-out and crashed. At the moment of the crash I didn't know any of this. I figured that I had watched the pilot die because I never saw him eject. In a home movie of the crash you can see the pilot eject just before the plane hit the ground. Not until the next day when I read the Stars and Stripes newspaper did I find out what had happened on the ground and how many people had died.
All through the early morning hours the crowd was growing larger and larger. Suddenly I saw leaflets being thrown into the air about 30 yards away. Several white vans appeared and very quickly German Polizei, wearing white riot helmets, and carrying long batons that looked like baseball bats, unloaded from the vans. Almost as soon as it started the Green Party demonstration was over. They arrested the leaders and whisked them away in the vans. The rest of the day was uneventful as far as bombs, rioting, or demonstrations. That is until a Canadian demonstration team, consisting of five F-104 fighters, taxied out for take-off. I had my camera in my pocket and had been snapping pictures of the crowds and of our people throughout the day. As the fighters were waiting for clearance to take off I took a picture of them. This demonstration team reminded me of the Thunderbird's, or Blue Angels, without the fancy paint jobs. After taking off four of the fighters remained in formation while one flew off on it's own. I took a picture of the four fighters as they flew overhead. Suddenly I noticed the solo pilot fly right over me at low altitude and veer off to the right. It appeared as if smoke was trailing from the cockpit and at that point I quickly lost sight of him. I went back to watching the crowd line. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed two American AF pilots standing near their aircraft engaged in a conversation.
Something suddenly grabbed their attention and they were looking up at something to my right. They turned and ran out beyond the tails of their aircraft as if they were trying to get a better look at it. It was then that I saw what they were looking at. The lone aircraft that had just flown over my head was now in a flat spin falling toward the ground. Like the pilots, I ran to left to get a better look just in time to see a fireball on the ground off in the distance. For a moment I was stunned until the reality sank in that I had just witnessed a plane crash. Then I remembered my camera and took a picture of the mushroom cloud of black smoke and of the fire engines as they began responding to the crash. The fire engines had been positioned with their water cannon pointed toward the crowds in case there was any disturbance. Ironically, we had prepared all week for bombs, demonstrations and riots. We were not prepared for a plane crash. Luckily for us the jet crashed off base in a parking lot and on the autobahn. In panic and from curiosity the crowd began running toward us. We were afraid of being overrun for a few moments but fairly quickly we were able to get the crowd back beyond the rope line again.
The Canadian pilot, Capt. A.J. Stephenson, ejected just in time and was safe. The cause of the crash was an afterburner-flameout and the plane killed 5 people in one car on the autobahn. There was a pastor, his wife, mother-in-law and two children in the car. The plane also destroyed 50 cars in a parking lot, critically injuring several people. The takeoff had been normal and the planes performed a four-ship diamond and one solo. In the diamond formation they did loops and rolls and in between each of the diamond passes the solo would make a pass doing various maneuvers. They were well into the show. Several passes by both diamond and solo when after a diamond pass the solo suffered the afterburner flame-out and crashed. At the moment of the crash I didn't know any of this. I figured that I had watched the pilot die because I never saw him eject. In a home movie of the crash you can see the pilot eject just before the plane hit the ground. Not until the next day when I read the Stars and Stripes newspaper did I find out what had happened on the ground and how many people had died.
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