As the workday drew to a close at the US air base in southwest Germany, “The Star-Spangled Banner” rang out from speakers set up across the vast facility.
Minutes later, the speakers cranked up again, this time in the cadence of Arabic, calling Muslims to late-afternoon prayer.
The recording is just one of the remarkable changes that have taken place at the sprawling Ramstein Air Base in Germany in the past two weeks. Teams from the US military, the State Department, the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies have been racing to welcome, house, screen and send thousands of people — US citizens and Afghans — to the United States.
After Kabul fell to the Taliban on Aug 15, the United States began flying people out of Kabul at a rate of thousands a day. Many were brought to US military installations in Qatar or Kuwait. But by the end of that week, those bases could not safely support any more. Ramstein, which has served as a key transit point in Germany for troops and equipment throughout the 20-year war in Afghanistan, was called on for one more mission.
When the first arrivals touched down Aug 20, Brig Gen Joshua Olson, commander of the 86th Airlift Wing, told reporters the base could hold 5,000 evacuees. Two weeks later, it is housing nearly three times as many.
“When we got to Ramstein, I just felt like, now finally, I am safe,” said Hassan, a young Afghan who had worked as an interpreter for US Special Forces in Helmand province and managed to get on an evacuation flight last week. He declined to give his last name for safety reasons, because he had left his family behind in Kabul.
After months spent hiding and making fruitless trips to the Kabul airport to get a flight out, Hassan said that sharing a tent on a US air base with several dozen other people with little to do other than play soccer, volleyball or wait for the next meal didn’t bother him.
“I’m just glad I’m here,” he said.
Many of the troops and officials involved in the evacuation mission at Ramstein had spent time in Afghanistan themselves, believing they were part of an effort to help the country build a brighter, more democratic future. For them, making the Afghans at Ramstein feel comfortable and getting them to the United States as quickly as possible is more than an assignment. It is personal.
