I was playing around inside of the plane on a midnight shift (sehr verboten-very forbidden) and I knew that you were to never touch the red handle (many urban legends about airmen ejecting into the roof of hangers) so I avoided it religiously. However, no one ever said anything about the yellow handle. Curiosity got the better of me and I pulled it. Suddenly I heard a very loud bang that sent my heart into my throat. I froze and after a few seconds I realized that I was probably going to live so after my blood pressure returned to a relatively normal level I exited the cockpit very quickly with the plan of jumping in my truck and not looking back-praying that I wouldn't be court-martialed.
When I exited the plane I saw that I had dropped the R4F's tailhook. I tried to lift it back into place but the thing must have weighed a ton so I followed through with my original plan and ran like a frightened rabbit.
Thank god-I never heard a word about it and this is the first time that I have mentioned it since.
I hope the statute of limitations has expired for the uniform code of military justice (UCMJ).
Anonymous Airman
Do you have a good story from Zwei? Funny, scary, informational? Post it here. Fill out the form below and share your memory of Zwei with the rest of us!
Old "Red eyes"
In the early 90's I was staioned at Zweibrucken. When I strated there, I was told It the base was located smack-dab on a hilltop that was part of the WWII German Zeigfreid Line. I knew there were bunkers and old gun positions everywhere in the town and both on and off base.
I was getting a tour of the base when the NCO (I can't remember who it was) told me of the legend of "Old red eyes". He said when the US secured the area after the war a group of local farmers had become tired of a particulalrly nasty local nazi officer who was trying to blend in the small community to avoid detection. The legend goes on to say that the farmers had been subject to his tyranny for years prior to the end of the war. After a week or so of begging them to shelter him, a group of the farmers finally took him to a glen and hung him. The portly officer begged for his life but refused to take responsibility for his actions.
The NCO told me the munitions storage bunker (NNMSA) area was built on this glen years later. He said the place was home to the officer, who still wandered through the (NNMSA) looking for a place to hide. His nickname was "Old red eyes" and you could see his shadow on top of the bunkers on quiet nights. Some civilian old guys had sworn they had seen him peeking in the antiquated guard shack windows, his evil eyes glowing red.
I had worked the NNMSA for the first time on the night shift and the place was pretty creepy even all lit. You could hear a mouse fart out there at night. I was told had to do hourly(?) physical checks of the bunkers. I remember the area itself was about 4 acres or more. I was pretty creeped out so I would sit in the gateshack with the lights on and keep myself busy. Nobody came out there at night besides the sporatic patrol. Someone called me and asked if I needed a break. I told them no, I was ok. They told me to make sure when I sat in the gateshack to keep the lights out so I could see outside at all times. I kept thinking of the story as I sat there in the dark.
No sooner than I had become comfortable sitting in the dark, I looked out the window and saw two glowing red dots looking in the window. I went numb. When I regained my wits, I saw that the "eyes" were actually the reflection of two red lights off of a power junction box reflecting off of the window. The lights went on and I spent the rest of the shift walking around the gateshack to keep my mind off the story.
I'm sure this story has been recycled a million times around Zwei, but it was pretty funny when I look back on it. It also worked well when you broke open a calume stick, rubbed it on your face, and popped up at the window when the new guy was in the shack (Damon Jones!)
Badger
26th SPS 1989-1991
Busted
.
I remember riding on NR-2 for the night and SSgt (no name to avoid embarrassment) was being used as the bad guy for our exercise. He climbed over a fence and hid in the November area. He eluded us for awhile but gave himself away by not turning off his radio. We just kept keying the mike and we finally chased him into the brush where we did not want to go. So instead we started throwing sand bags down the hill and finally nailed him. He came up finally, covered in sand but swearing we never hit him.
I remember his face was welted and sandy. What a loser. About a week later he got caught stealing computer stuff from the BX
and got an early retirement if you know what i mean. I really enjoyed that night. I think it was Tsgt Boals first night as our flight leader.
Gary Bradbo Bradley
26th sps 88-90
Holy- cow
.
Zwei stories I must have hit this place at the perfect time. There are stories of stupidity, like when some of the cops were robbing the bx and storing the stolen goods in their rooms in dorm 18. The dorm next to dorm 18, which was all women, many stories about that place. Funny stories of setting at the ECP, leaning against the sand bags as the F-4 would come by, goose the engines and blow you out of your chair. (Teach ya to check his line badge). Setting over by the old fire station and the guys testing the
crash trucks seeing if they could hit ya with the spray from the front nozzle. Doing laundry at the Laundromat at 2AM playing
defender and eating popcorn. The long uncertain nights at the front gate during a terrorist alert when you new they were in the
area and had planted a bomb down town at the hospital the day before.
One of the all time best: There use to be an Army 20MM Vulcan sight on the base, down the road from the BI, by the P.O.L.
area. They had a guard shack at the entrance that was manned by one MP. One night, on the midnight shift, I was working LE; we
got a call about shots fired in the Army area. We went over there and found that the Army MP had unloaded the entire clip of
his M16 into a cow. Yes a cow. There it laid, riddled with bullet holes. It had wondered in from a hole in the fence out
back Apparently, this MP was in the gate shack with the light on, which we all know you can not see out side, and he heard this
moaning noise coming from outside. He tried looking out the window but of course could not see anything. As time passed, the
noise got louder and closer, putting more fear into this fine young product of an Army of one. The landline he had to the CQ
did not work, he was all alone, and had just re-assembled his weapon after taking it apart and playing with it. Deciding to
show his bravery, he rushed out side, challenged the noise, and came face to face with the beast. Panicked and having his finger
in the guard, he had the weapon on full auto. He emptied the entire magazine on the cow. Needless to say he was relived of
duty and the Army had to pay for the cow. From that point on, the MPs manned that post with their M16s, their .45 cal
handguns with leashes (so they would not loose them), all with no ammo. If they had a problem and needed ammo, they had to call
their CQ on the landline that did not work and the OIC would bring them ammo. Ingenious.
Jim Maffett
26SPS
1/82-1/84
The Zweibrucken "Clapper"
.
LIGHT ALL UNIT ON/OFF!!! I remember that trick was the most popular hazing for all FNG's. Luckily being a military brat i had heard about alot of the stuff and didnt fall for it. But i did help get a few FNG's. I know that we got quite a few. Someone small(me) would hide in the light unit and turn it off and then The OR-1 would tell the newbie OR-1a to turn it on by yelling LIGHTALL UNIT ON and he would demonstrate by yelling and it would come on and off when he yelled the opposite. And then he would let the new guy try it and of course it didnt work. So he would take the newbie over to the unit show him the manual way. Then he would yell to start it up again and shut it down and then tell Newbie to try and it again but it wouldnt work. So after embarrassing the guy
for awhile, he would send the newbie to manually start it and I would jump out and scare the bejesus out of him. I recall quite
a few pissed pants. By the way my hazing was at Nimza one night. I got the red eye treatment by some LE guys. Man did
two small maglights with red lense's have me speechless and shaking. I was about to charge one and shoot but i then heard
the uncontrollable laughter and the K9 barking. I dont remember who it was but if they read this im sure they will. AHHHH the
good old days when hazing was PC and fun.
Gary Bradbo Bradley
26th SPS 88-90
Crossing the line
.
I was a young RCAF Air Force Policeman assigned to security duties at RCAF 3 (F) Wing, Zweibrucken in 1966 and working in
the Quick Reaction Area (QRA-or Q as we called it) when I crossed the yellow No Lone Zone lines around an uploaded aircraft on standby. Each aircraft was guarded by a Canadian AFP and an American AP. It had been a long and boring evening and as I walked about the aircraft and hangar I suddenly realized there was a yellow line on both sides of me, in front and behind. I quickly looked up and there was the AP keeping a careful eye on me and he promptly advised me to get back outside the NLZ. A good chuckle by both and it broke up the monotony of the evening.
Al Jones, AFP
RCAF Stn. 3 (F) Wing Zweibrucken, 1966-1969
A pain in the rear
I was stationed at "sunny Zwei" from 1975 - 1977. Does anyone remember Capt Messick (He was the Squadron Co). I don't remember the dogs name or the handlers name, the dog was an X sentry dog. They had fazed out sentry dogs and some had gotten retrained to patrol dogs (Anyway this dog was mean). We had an incident in which there some personel out of CE were running a black market out of the snow barn on Zweibrucken. The handler and his dog was working in the area near the snow barn and for a couple of months the k-9 kept giving him alerts coming from the base perimeter fenceline near the runway. Especially at night when there was no flying operations going on. The scent was going up to the fence then going back away from the fence. At first we thought they were false alerts. Then one time it snowed and we had tracks. That night the handler and dog was coming to back out the area toward the gate with Captain Messick. I was working the gate that night. Capt Messick had gotten a little bit to close to the k-9 and got bitten in the ass. Now thats something you'll never forget.
TSgt Bullard (retired) SrA at the time.
26th SPS 75-77
Old "Red eyes" part II
One night I was working the gate of the restricted area that is close's to the munitions storage area. Out of nowhere I heard a sound of someone running down the taxiway toward the gate. It was the non-K-9 foot patrol in the area. This airman got into the gatehouse and stooped down into the corner of the shack. He kept saying that there was something out there. The Sat Team (3 man team) had played a trick on him on this troop. They had been telling stories for days about this big foot like creature that would cross over a 7-foot fence with climbing over the fence. Two of the guys, One had gotten up on the shoulders of this other guy that was over 6 foot tall. The guy on top had put on a poncho liner so it covered them both up (with eyehole slots cut in so the guy on the bottom could see to walk). Then they had taken 2 of the L-shaped flash lights (changed them to red lenses) in which they used to make it look like a monster with red eyes. Went off base and came up the hill in the back of the area toward the base perimeter fence line. This kid saw them and ran like hell toward front of the area. I'm really surprised to this day that this kid hadn't shot them. Does anyone remember this story.
TSgt Bullard (retired) SrA at the time.
26th SPS 75-77
The walk of Shame
This is a great site and it brings back lots of memories!!!! I was stationed at Zwei from 4/88 to 9/90 in the 2143rd Comm. I
was at the building behind the infamous Dorm 18 and being a shift worker it was always fun to walk back to my dorm after a
long 12 hour shift and see all the females (not always single either) sneaking out of the dorm doing the walk of shame!!!!!
You SP guys were the best, always made sure us Dorm 4 girls got home from the Softball games ok, sometimes even in a Humvee!!!!
Tiffany Eads
2143rd Comm 88-90
Summer of 84
I got orders for Zwei in early 1984. I was stationed at Dyess in west Texas so as you know, it's very hot there. I arrive in Germany in July on a weekend. My sponsor picks me up from Rhein Main and takes me to Zwei. He had no clue what or
where the 10th MAS Squadron was. I get there get into billeting because no one knew what to do with me because everyone thought I was at the wrong base. No one ever heard of the Squadron I was supposed to be in. When I found someone who
thought they knew, I thought I was in business. He pointed towards the flight line and said " I think it's down there." It was around noon and I had time on my hands so I started walking towards the flight line. I stopped when I saw nothing that said 10th MAS. As it started to get to be evening I felt the weather getting cooler. It felt like late fall, almost winter in Texas. Luckily
I had some long johns and I'm not ashamed to say I slept in them that night and many after that. When Monday arrived, I still had not met anyone from my "top secret" Squadron. That was getting ready to change fast. I was thrown for another loop (cool weather was 1st loop) when I found out I along with 6 others was the entire 10th MAS. I met the Commander and the first meeting was not good. Picture me and think of the movie Private Benjamin. I was 19 years old, confused and cold. I went into his office (the only complete office in the squadron. Itold him this was not going to work out. He told me to get out of his office and
grab a paint brush. He felt that would take my mind off the stupid idea I had that I could just "get out of these orders". The paint brush and hard manual labor was what myself and all of the other new arrivals did for a good while.
"Oh" by the way, did I mention there was not one single aircraft built at this point. We were so new and part of something special I did not even know I was
very forunate to be there in the first place. I not only stayed but did a short and long tour.
Thomas T.J Guerin
10th MAS 84-89
K9 gone wild
This one is about a K-9 gone wild!! I was working the main gate one afternoon with Greg "Fish" Fischer. It was the "Elite" gate section too. Well, Fish had his dog with him who didn't know what "out" meant. I know it was a slow day because traffic was very slow, so I decided to pass the time by teasing the dog with my right foot. I was playing the now you see it, now you don't game. Needless to say the dog had better reflexes than me and caught the tip of my boot. Wouldn't you know it, traffic starts entering the gate and here I am with one leg out the shack and the other in with the tip of my boot in a MWD's mouth. What a sight!! I'm wearing blues, white ascot, white gloves, and boots with white parachute cords. I know it took over 5 minutes to get the dog to come out and release. The dog didn't puncture any skin, but he did leave a gash in my boot. Hey Fish, I'm still waiting for my new boots!! Maybe I should call this “A1C gone stupid!”
Edward Bradley
26 SPS-'86 to '89
Sher was lucky...
I remember being on the patrol that covered the Sherpa (I don't
remember the spelling) parking pad. It was foggy and as usual I was sleepy on
this mid-shift. As I was driving around the Restricted Area, I must have dozed
off (for a few seconds) and when I woke up I was under the wing of one of the
planes about to run into it. I immediately got out of the truck to make sure
that no one saw me. When my secret was safe, I drove off thinking, "I'm safe for
