October 5, 20223 yr For the first few years after we moved to Roswell every summer we had Roving Sands exercises based in Roswell and El Paso. It was ten days or two weeks when European troops were in town and the restaurants were passing out free meals to them if they were in uniform. It was a fun time watching a Mercedes bus carrying NATO troops downtown for an evening of liberty. Roswell welcomed the annual exercises before they were discontinued for budgetary reasons. We had one incident where a Danish troop was guarding a bunch of parked Hummers and a local teenager tried to steal one. He got shot...was wounded in the leg. Yes, their weapons were loaded. The next morning when the Roswell Police wanted to question the Danish troop he was already halfway across the Atlantic on his way back home in a Luftwaffe Airbus. Camp Hunter Ligget seems like an ideal place to carry on such joint nation exercises. https://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/local/article266807151.html Noel The tires are worn. The shocks are shot. The steering is wobbly. But the engine still runs fine.
October 5, 20223 yr There used to be a German Luftwaffe training squadron permanently based at Holloman AFB in Alamagordo...I think it's gone now. They were operating the last actively-flying F-104s in the US well into the 1980s. During DESERT STORM we flew a female Marine officer out of the theater in a C-141-she apparently was downtown shopping in one of the many local gold shops there and one of the Saudi morals police came in and started whacking her with a rod for not wearing her hag bag properly. As the story went, she then proceeded to pull his butt out into the street and put a whupping on him he'll never live down if he lives to be 100. Bob Scott | President and CEO, AVSIM Inc ATP Gulfstream II-III-IV-V Sys1 (MSFS20+24/XPlane12+11): AMD 9800X3D, water 2x240mm, MSI MPG X670E Carbon, 64GB GSkill 6000/30, nVidia RTX4090FE Alienware AW3821DW 38" 21:9 GSync, 2x4TB Crucial T705 PCIe5 + 2x2TB Samsung 990 SSD, EVGA 1000P2 PSU, 12.9" iPad Pro Thrustmaster TCA Boeing Yoke, TCA Airbus Sidestick, Twin TCA Airbus Throttle quads, PFC Cirrus Pedals, Coolermaster HAF932 case Sys2 (P3Dv5/v4): i9-13900KS, water 2x360mm, ASUS Z790 Hero, 32GB GSkill 7800MHz CAS36, ASUS RTX4090 Samsung 55" JS8500 4K TV@60Hz, 3x 2TB WD SN850X 1x 4TB Crucial P3 M.2 NVME SSD, EVGA 1600T2 PSU Fiber link to Yamaha RX-V467 Home Theater Receiver, Polk/Klipsch 6" bookshelf speakers, Polk 12" subwoofer, 12.9" iPad Pro PFC yoke/throttle quad/pedals with custom Hall sensor retrofit, Thermaltake View 71 case, Stream Deck XL button box Sys3 (DCS/P3Dv4/ATS/ETS): AMD 7800X3D, MSI MPG X870E Carbon, Noctua NH-D15S, 64GB GSkill 6000/30, EVGA RTX3090 Alienware AW3420DW 34" 21:9 GSync, Corsair HX1000i PSU, 4TB Crucial T705 PCIe5 + 2TB Samsung 970Evo Plus, TM TCA Officer Pack, Saitek combat pedals, TM Warthog, TM RS300 FF wheel/pedals, Coolermaster HAF XB case
October 5, 20223 yr Author The Luftwaffe had the northern half of the base and trained their fighter pilots there. They were flying Tornadoes and the last F-4s in the air in the United States. It made a good training base because they have much better flying weather days than they have in Europe. When I was still flying out of Roswell would sometimes see the Tornadoes making low approaches. Betty and I were hiking in Dog Canyon just south of Alamogordo and a young German couple came up the trail as we were having lunch. The young lady said she had never seen the sky so blue as it was in New Mexico. The highway between Holloman AFB and Alamogordo was full of billboards advertising in German. Note the New Mexico ZIA on the tail of the Tornado and on the chest patch of the German Colonel. https://www.alamogordonews.com/story/news/local/2016/04/14/german-air-force-leaving-holloman-2019/83046286/ Noel The tires are worn. The shocks are shot. The steering is wobbly. But the engine still runs fine.
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