My impression is that they left their homebase and flew into Frankfurt’s airport...where the Air Force was going to pick them up...in a Air Force blue bus (American made, so you see it a mile away), and then shuttle them to Ramstein for the cargo flight onto the final destination.
They’ve likely done this thousands of times. The issue is....having Air Force blue buses (or green Army buses) running around to pick-up or deliver GI’s at the airport. Up until 1999...it was a contract deal and a German bus would shuttle folks wherever you were going...so you dressed in civies and got picked up by a German.
Now, I will add this...most all of these GI’s meet at the USO point...which I would also suggest as being a dumb idea to maintain, but it’s been there forty years.
Thanks for the post.
Why there wasn’t armed security onboard the bus, I will never know. I chalk it up to complacency by the higher-ups.
The stupid jerk muslim asshole shooter will get, what , perhaps 10 years in prison?