Western Germany September 1992

[sschofield]

This is more of a sort of general enquiry, so I assume it's OK in this section, so here goes...

Back in August 1992, myself and a good friend set off on our first overseas spotting trip. It was nominally based around the airshow weekend at Beauvechain, still an F-16 base back in those days, with some other bits and pieces thrown in too, including other bits of Belgium and some German destinations. We planned an itinerary based around staying in Youth Hostels (which were surprisingly good quality, especially in Germany). We started out off the boat (remember, the Channel Tunnel was still yet to open in 1992!) at Zeebrugge early evening, before heading to an overnight near Beauvechain.

Next day we hit Brussels, Brustem, Bierset and then worked our way (down the back straight at Spa, as the road used to run back then!), into Germany, arriving into Birburg town just as a thunderstorm rolled in! Once that had abated, we then set about finding the base (of course, no Satnavs then either, just a Michelin map on the Navigator's knee!) - We were able to see it across the valley from a couple of miles, where we noted a pair of KC-10s, and eventually got close enough to the base to read these off. First question - We were led to understand (by some Dutch spotters we met at the base the next day) that these tankers had brought some US-based F-15s over to Europe, and possibly beyond. Over the next 2 days there was no sign of these flying, does anyone know if there was any kind of deployment back then? The "Sharpshooter" website has no mention of them, although it does state that 4 1FW F-15s deployed on 11th Sept, and then 2 went onwards to Lipetsk in Russia, but this was 10 days earlier?

On Day 2 at Bitburg (2nd Sep), the base was busy, with lots of based F-15s flying, but also a lot of helicopter activity, including Dutch Allouettes, US Army Blackhawks, German UH-1s, and a couple of interesting visitors including a German Elint Atlantique and a Portuguese C-130H. We later stumbled across a column of a couple of Dozen Dutch army personnel carriers not far from the base, which led us to believe there was some sort of exercise on. Second question, does anyone know if this was the case? Was this still the era of Reforger, Able Archer, Crested Cap etc? Everything certainly felt like it was on a war footing!

Next up we moved to Ramstein, where again it was BUSY! Over an afternoon and the following day we logged around 30 based F-16s, as well as 10 out of the 12 deployed Maryland ANG A-10s under an unknown "Coronet" deployment, along with a few visitors including 3 Canadian CH-136A Kiowas that overflew and evaded ID!

Eventually we worked our way back into Belguim and did a weekend at Beauvechain show (20-odd F-16s logged and some nice visitors too!), slowly working our way back to the UK after a very successful week away.

So as I say, really just a bit of an opportunity to reminisce, and also to ask if anyone knows whether we had inadvertently found ourselves in the middle of a war game, because it certainly felt like it!

thanks

[JAWS]

Stuart,

From BAR/BARG Aug 1992

Bitburg AFB

2nd September

Eight 1st FW F-15C's arrived here from Langley AFB on 2.9 and
continued eastwards to Jordan for an exercise two days later.

They comprised:

81-0036 FF F-15C 27th FS Ylw
82-0008 FF F-15C 27th FS Ylw
82-0010 FF F-15C 27th FS Ylw
83-0027 FF F-15C 27th FS Ylw
83-0030 FF F-15C 27th FS Ylw
83-0038 FF F-15C 27th FS Ylw
83-0039 FF F-15C 27th FS Ylw
83-0041 FF F-15C 27th FS Ylw

It doesn't mention the KC-10A's but in BAR/BARG Sep 1992 under Frankfurt/Rhein Main it says "The two 458th ARG KC-10A's on 2.9 ("White 55/65") supported the 1st FW F-15C's deployed to Bitburg that day (see AU701). These were listed as 85-0033 & 85-0034, are these the ones you saw ?

No reports of any CH-136's or of any Exercises at that time.


Couldn't find any reports for 3 x CAF CH-136 or of any Exercises going on at that time.

[sschofield]

Thanks for this Steve,

The KC-10s we saw at Bitburg were 84-0189 and 87-0124. Interesting that the deployment tankers went to Rhein Main, whilst 2 apparently unconnected went to the same place as the F-15s!