European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - February 16, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Ike so ram Lpes vol. 50, no. 307 sunday february 16,1992 d 8693 a is Dave Aldio his goggles dotted with Snow a frosty tech sgt. Roger Coe of Rhein main a Germany navigates his forklift through a blizzard during operation provide Hope. I russian soldiers take boxes of Granola bars from forklift pallets and put them onto waiting trucks. 3as David Doldi Airlift shows America care gesture More important than food official says by Chuck Roberts staff writer a Moscow a a c-5 Galaxy touched Down on the outskirts of Moscow on Friday loaded to near capacity with Chili Granola lasagne pie filling starburst Candy and other food items. After the air Force plane landed. Yeltsin but if you re a starving russian but the purpose of the last flight to the the plane part of operation provide on the Street its not a said the embassy former soviet capital was More important Hope touched Down at Sheremet Evo employee while standing in the snowy than the 179,620,000 pounds of cargo Airport about 1 . Freezing weather. Said a . Embassy employee speaking a politically and psychologically its of the official said television reports Are Quot dive for russian president Boris n. Above the Roar of the Jet engines soon festive a see Airlift on Page 2 Torrejon airmen packing it in after three decades of service by j. King Cruger Mediterranean Bureau Torrejon a Spain a for More than 30 years american warplanes roared into the sky from Torrejon a Spain. Air Force b-47 bombers and f-86, f-102, f-4 and f-16 fighters trained for War and defended Freedom from Torrejon. These Days the sounds of screaming american Jet fighters Are but Seldom heard at the base 10 Miles Northeast of the Spanish capital. Today Only a dozen f-16 fighting Falcons remain at Torrejon. By March 24, in compliance with the 1988 defense cooperation agreement Between Spain and the United states the last of the Multi role f-16s will have vacated Torrejon. The f-16s, in their heyday about 80 of them have been leaving Torrejon since last fall. Some of the planes have gone to air bases and air National guard units in the states others have been transferred to Ramstein and Span Dahlem air bases in Germany. A those Are the Only two american f-16 bases remaining in Europe. We went from four big f-16 bases in Europe Down to those two Small ones a said air Force it. Col. Chuck Brammeier commander of the 614th fighter so Torrejon a Lone remaining fighter outfit. I Mem Sas the 614th has called Torrejon Home for nearly 20 years. Soon it too will be no More. A a we be accumulated a lot of mementos in that time. We will just Box them up and they will go into storage perhaps they will go to Aviano a in Northern Italy when the 401st fighter Wing transfers there without its aircraft in May a said Brammeier 40. The 614th deployed for War on aug. 28, 1990. During the situation briefing to the pilots Many Learned for the first time where the country of Qatar was located. In 12 hours they would deploy the Complete Squadron of two dozen f-16cs to Doha Qatar where american aircraft had never before been stationed. Because of the unusual nature of the deployment the squadrons Advance team departed for Qatar with a briefcase full of Money approximately $3 million to build and establish flying operations at a spartan base according to the official history of the 401st fighter Wing during operations desert shield and storm. The 614th, bolstered by a half dozen pilots from another of the wings squadrons the 613th, engaged in 46 Days of combat. They attacked an array of targets including surface to air missile Sites in Kuwait chemical storage bunkers at fortified Republican guard positions in Iraq an iraqi nuclear research facility and Baghdad soil refinery during the first Daylight f-16 raids on the iraqi capital. Another Squadron the 612th, deployed for the War to in Ciurlik a Turkey to launch daytime attacks against Iraq As a second front across iraqis Northern Border. The 612th�?Ts objectives according to the wings official history a were to deny a Northern Sanctuary for iraqi air and ground forces to Force iraqi air Force air see Torrejon on Page 3north americans Shine As Golden girls of downhill Meribel France up a the continent of North America celebrated a resounding Victory Over the Alpine nations saturday when Korrin Lee Gartner of Canada won the olympic downhill and Hilary Lindh of the United states finished second. Austria a Veronika Wallinger salvaged some of see related olympic stories in sports Europe a tattered reputation and took the Bronze medal. Just As potential medal winners were gathering for interviews in the finish area Lee Gartner came from the 12th Start position and clocked a winning time of 1 minute 52.55 seconds. Lee Gartner was about a second off the Pace Over the top of the course but took the jumps Well and raced a near perfect Bottom half to Clinch the Gold. Lindh always an outside medal Chance took her coaches advice seriously. On Friday . Coach Paul major said that if she could put an indifferent training result behind her she could Spring a Surprise. Lindh was slow out of the Start and by the second intermediate time she was Only sixth. But she put in a great burst to finish second with 1 52.61. Wallinger clocked 1 52.64 for third place. Pre race favourites Katja Seizinger of Germany and Austria a Petra Kronberger came in fourth and fifth respectively