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Ramstein Air Base (located at ) is a United States military airbase in the German state of Rheinland-Pfalz . The east gate of Ramstein Air Base is about 16 kilometers, or 10 miles, from Kaiserslautern (locally referred to by Americans as "K-Town"). Other nearby civilian communities include Ramstein-Miesenbach , just outside the base's west gate, and Landstuhl , about five kilometers from the west gate. OVERVIEW The host unit at Ramstein Air Base is the United States Air Force 435th Air Base Wing , which supports the USAF 86th Airlift Wing as well as other units at the base and surrounding region. Ramstein is a NATO support installation; it has not been given the designation of a NATO base. Canadian, German, British, U.S., French, Belgian, Polish, Czech, Norwegian, Danish and Dutch forces are located at the base. The 86th's mission is the operation and maintenance of airlift assets consisting of C-130E s, C-20 s, C-21 s, C-40B , and C-37A Gulfstream aircraft throughout Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. Ramstein's wings are assigned to the newly created HQ Air Command Europe also Headquartered at Ramstein AB. The base is the largest component of the Kaiserslautern Military Community (KMC), where more than 16,400 American service members and more than 5,400 US civilian employees live and work. US organizations in the KMC also employ the services of more than 6,200 German workers. Air Force units in the KMC alone employ almost 9,800 military members, bringing with them nearly 11,100 family members. HISTORY Ramstein Air Base is a great example of international collaboration: designed by French engineers, constructed by Germans and operated by Americans. Construction of the 3,000-acre base began in April 1951 under the provisions of a Franco-American reciprocal agreement, as the surrounding area was under French postwar occupational control at the time. The building of a major airfield came as no surprise to the local inhabitants who were no strangers to airpower. In 1940, construction of Autobahn A-6 was stopped when a bridge that was being built across the Rhine near Mannheim collapsed killing many workers. So a part of the unused autobahn near Kaiserslautern was used as an airstrip by the Luftwaffe . The old autobahn section is still used as the access road to the east and west gates of the base and the A-6 was re-built south of the air base after World War II . The airstrip was also used by the advancing U.S. Army Air Forces during the final months of the conflict. |
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