1991 was to be my last year in the Air Force, and consequently at Sembach Air Base. Like I said before, the time I spent on base and the people I met during that time shaped my future like nothing before and probably nothing since. Desert Storm was over in a little less than three months, and by March, most deployed personnel had returned to Sembach, including my friends.
Over the spring and summer of 1991, Colin, Craig, and John all got orders to new assignments, or in Colin's case transition to serve his remaining military service with the California Air National Guard. This was to be the end of the "NATO Connection".
When I returned from my trip to the U.S., Colin was already preparing to return to the U.S.. This came as a shock, since Colin was the closest and best friend I ever had. We did so many things together, spent so much time together, that I wouldn't know what to do once he would leave. We had taken a trip to Paris to see the Paris Supercross (with our "hero", French Motocross Superstar Jean-Michel Bayle), and had gone on a weekend train trip across Bavaria, Switzerland and Austria.
I don't recall the exact day Colin left, but John and James were still around. I didn't see much of Craig anymore, since he had moved off base. Through my German friends Marcus and Martin, I met some other U.S. Air Force members, who eventually, albeit for a short time, became pretty good friends, namely a group around a guy named Michael Freeman of Scranton, PA. It's funny how I remember his name, and I think it's mostly because we talked a lot about how many Jewish Americans viewed modern day Germans, and how his views had changed drastically to a positive one, simply by meeting Germans like myself.
I took a group of them to the North Sea Coast on the island of Sylt one weekend during the summer, and we had a blast.
In September, another one of my new friends and I went to the Motocross of Nations race weekend in Valkenswaard in the Netherlands. There I was able to see my Supercross heroes from up close, especially Damon Bradshaw, Jeff Stanton, Mike Kiedrowski, Stefan Everts, Jean-Michel Bayle, and above all, Mr. Motocross himself, Roger de Coster. At some point I was by the track, when suddenly Jeff Stanton walked up to me to ask, when they had last watered the track. I told him, I didn't know, but being star struck and a bit flabbergasted, I asked him, if I could take a picture, since one of my air force friends was a big fan, but he got reassigned to the U.S. and sadly had to miss this event. He gladly obliged.
The summer went by and my last day wearing the uniform approached quickly. It is a tradition in the U.S. military to have your picture taken toward the end of Basic Training, sitting or standing proud in front of the Star Spangled Banner. We don't share that tradition in the German Armed Forces, but in August an opportunity presented itself, when a professional military photographer was available to have one's picture taken on base. I spoke to Col Fricke, and he allowed me to "borrow" the German and American flags from our SOC 3 headquarters, I put on my blue dress uniform and walked down to the BX, where the photo sessions were held. The photo taken is one of the proudest moments of my life, and to this day, I show it to everyone not fast enough to run away. My uniform also sprouts an honor we received for our volunteer work at the post office.
We were giving the U.S.A.F. occupational badge, in my case the United States Air Force Information Management/ Administration badge in recognition to our services to the United States Air Force during Operation Desert Storm.
September 30th, 1991 was the day that I left the German Air Force, and left Sembach Air Base, not knowing what to do next, quite frankly. Since I had some money saved, I decided to head back to the U.S.
