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Published: September 26th 2018
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Well... we packed up and headed towards Ramstein Air Base, to hopefully get a flight out. At the time we left, there was a flight to Charleston, but it was showing 0 seats Firm. There was also a flight to Dover AFB (on a C5 with nice seats!) in the afternoon with 73 seats Firm. When we arrived at the terminal and parked our rental car, we went into the terminal to see that the Charleston flight now showed 49 seats, Tentative. After reviewing the Space A "present" list, we saw we were 70th and 71st on the list, so we decided it would be safer to take the Dover flight since that way even if everyone present wanted to go, we'd still make it. When the roll call started, there were several names called that hadn't been on the early morning Present list, so we got a bit worried. Apparently, about as many names called that were on the list opted for a different flight as new names on the Present list, since they called our names just a few spaces before being full. We checked our bags and waited for boarding call. They called for boarding and we all
went through the security check, just like commercial flights, and sat in the waiting lounge. About fifteen minutes later, they made an announcement that the plane had a fuel leak and would not be going at this time! Unfortunately, it was too late to pull our luggage and meet the roll call for the Charleston flight, but it turned out they only ended up with something like 8 seats, so we would have missed it anyways. We went back downstairs in the main terminal area to wait a while and see if it would be fixed soon. While we'd been waiting, we'd met a nice young lady name Alina who was married to an Air Force member named Sean. He was stationed here at Ramstein and she was flying back to the states to prepare for her husband's transfer. It was a very pleasant surprise when we were wondering what we'd do if the flight didn't leave tonight, and mentioned such out loud, Alina offered to let us stay with her and her husband off base. After waiting a couple hours and getting no word that the flight would be departing tonight, we decided to leave for their house. On the way, since none of us had eaten anything in a while, they asked if we'd like to eat dinner at one of their favorite places. We said sure, and chose the Thai restaurant they liked, offering to pay for their dinner in thanks for their offer to stay with them. As we talked more, we soon realized that my wife and Alina's husband Sean had a lot in common, as did Alina and I. After reviewing the menu, both Sean and I picked item 40 and both my wife and Alina picked item 41.
After an excellent dinner that we couldn't finish, we went to their house. They actually live quite a ways from the base... something like a 30-minute drive. They live in a very nice "apartment" and the 2nd and 3rd floors of a house. I say apartment because it is 2 floors and quite large for just an apartment. After a good night's sleep, we were up and gone by 6am, heading back to the base for a flight out. Soon after arriving, we were told that not only both C5s were down for maintenance, but even the C17 with only 19 firm seats was broken. So, at the time, we have no foreseeable options for a flight until tomorrow, and even then two out of the three flights heading to the states were C5s that were still broken. We are planning right now to accept the kind offer of Alina to return to their apartment and come back tomorrow to try again. I'll go ahead and post this blog entry just to let everyone know what is going on with us. Hopefully tomorrow, we'll get lucky and be heading home.
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