After Landing at Ramstein...

Willkommen! Welcome to Germany! Hooray you made it!

Alright, now you've landed and you just got off the Patriot Express. Great job getting this far without any hassles. Take a deep breath and be prepared for what is next.  Patience is your friend, don't forget that. Besides, you have all this information which most people don't have. You will be fine.



When you get off the plane and walk down the corridor, the service member will be ushered into one room and the dependents into another room next door.  These are nice rooms with terminal type chairs in them with glass walls so you can all see each other.  Sit and relax and be patient. The service member will be filling out paperwork and turning in a copy of his orders and their DA-31.  After they are all done with their paperwork, you will join him and continue on to the next stop.

Immigration:
Please have your passports ready. These are not your tourist passports (which you will want for traveling around Europe), these are the passports issued by the military that have the SOFA stamp in them saying you can stay in Germany.  You will be waiting in a long line. Once it's your turn the sponsor and his dependents go up to the window and present the sponsor's ID card and the dependents' Passports.  If you are all good, and I can't imagine you wouldn't be, you proceed around the corner to collect baggage.

Baggage:
My first suggestion is get a baggage cart if one is available. They may not be. We had to wait a very long time to find one. But, unlike with commercial flights, everyone with you in the baggage claim area just got off the same flight. They are all waiting for the same luggage to show up.  Just be patient. While you are waiting there is a tiny little USO right in the baggage area. They have two stools and a little counter. They have coffee, hot chocolate, hot water with tea bags. Usually there is some sort of a treat or two for you to have. They also have a little glass shelf with toiletries in it for you to use. Please take only what you need. For those of you with pets, they usually have those disposable kennel liners in there. Grab a couple if you need them for your pet.  The baggage for us was very slow. Talking to others they said it is usually slow but this was exceptionally slow. It took us about 2-hours for our luggage to show up.   The space is crowded and small so keep an eye on your kids and pets, try to make the best of it. Once you have all your luggage loaded on your carts then you proceed out of this area.  If you brought your pet with you now is when you need to have a copy of all their documentation that is required ready to hand off. ...

Vet screening:
There will be someone to gather your pet paperwork and collect a fee of 55 Euro per pet.  If you already have an extra copy for them it will go much faster.

The next room:
You have your pet sorted, your luggage and now what? Since you are going on to Grafenwoehr, you will be directed to another room where you can park your luggage cart and walk into another adjoining terminal room with nice views of the runway, another USO, and more comfortable terminal type seats.  Here you can get comfortable with plenty of room to spread out.  Once everyone has their luggage and has arrived in here (up to an hour) the service members will be briefed on what is happening next.  They will get their orders back, verifying where they are going, and they will have their signed DA-31 as well.  Now you will be told if you are spending the night in Ramstein or not.

Depending on when your flight is you may or may not be spending the night. If you do spend the night, the next thing they do is call you up and have you fill out your form for the hotel. Once every service member has it filled out the families have 15 minutes to grab what they need from their luggage for an overnight stay. Just grab what you need!  Your luggage will all be secured until morning.  When everyone is ready you will be escorted across the street to the hotel where you will be assigned a room. Once your room is assigned, you will give your building and room number to the Soldier waiting at the end of the counter.  You are not out of pocket for this. If you have pets you will be out of pocket for the pet fee.  Also, if you have pets, you will be lodged in a pet lodge which you will need to take a taxi to. There is an ATM there and you can go get Euro out of it to pay for the taxi.  I think our fee was 5Euro one way.  The Soldier will also tell you all when to be back in the morning to check in for your bus ride.  Be on time.  If you do take a taxi to your next stop be sure to get a card or phone number from them so you can call them to pick you up in the morning.

The Ramstein PX is like a small mall. It is two story and has everything imaginable in it. I may be exaggerating, but just a little..  After you are settled you are free to go get some food. There are most of the normal eateries you find in a PX food court, such as Taco Bell, Subway, Starbucks, etc.  There is also a Johnny Rocket's Burger (old fashioned burgers and shakes) and a Chili's sit-down.

I hope this helped you out. Keep a good attitude, everyone who has come before you has done the same thing, so be positive.

For the next leg of your journey read "the bus to Grafenwoehr."