RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany -- The Ramstein Community Center held their monthly Spouses Tour April 23, 2019 on
Ramstein Air Base, Germany. The Community Center Spouses Tour is an ongoing event that strives to educate
Ramstein newcomers on base facility resources and opportunities when they PCS to Germany.
Leaving home can become a familiar feeling for military members and their dependents. Often
times, families get settled at a new base only to end up getting orders somewhere else. Moving
overseas can be a beast, but service members and their families have multiple agencies here to help tame the transition to an overseas station.
One of the biggest concerns for families when they move to a new base is knowing where
different base facilities are located. Ramstein offers a variety of resources to military personnel,
DoD civilians, and their dependents, to help them navigate their way throughout the
Kaiserslautern Military Community. One resource that the base offers is the Ramstein
Community Center’s Spouses Tour.
“The purpose of our tour is to reach out to anyone who is new to the KMC area and to connect
them to local resources and activities, on and off base,” said Susanne Cruz, 86th Force Support
Squadron Community Center Event Planner and tour guide. “We aim to reach anyone who is
new to the area or even those who have been here a while but feel they do not know much
about it.”
The spouses tour gives Ramstein newcomers and spouses a guided look around base and off
base to include downtown Kaiserslautern.
“We first meet at the Ramstein Community Center for a 30-minute briefing where such entities
as the base library, Airman & Family Readiness Center, and Non-Appropriated Funds Human
Resources representatives are present,” said Cruz. “Then we get on a small bus and tour FSS
facilities on base: Outdoor Recreation, Aquatic Center, Arts & Crafts. We also point out other
facilities as we drive past, such as the clubs, Gear Up and Moms, the fitness centers etc.”
After taking a look at on base facilities, the spouses tour heads to Kaiserslautern to visit the
German American Community Office where tour members receive handouts, flyers and
information on the local community. This part of the tour serves as a great integration piece on
getting acquainted with German customs and cultures.
From the GACO, tour members walk to the center of Kaiserslautern to have lunch in order to
experience traditional German food and gain knowledge on restaurant dining etiquette in
Germany.
“Having local national employees at the Ramstein Community Center, we are uniquely
positioned to give our customers a tour with in-depth knowledge of the area and personal
experience to share,” said Cruz.
Cruz, a German National who moved to the U.S. after becoming a military spouse, is passionate
about the tour, and strives to make sure that everyone who attends her tour feels a “little bit
more at home” afterwards.
“I get to share a bit of my experience of having been a military spouse and lived [living] in a
foreign country, so I can empathize with our customers’ situation of being ‘a stranger in a
strange land,’” said Cruz. “I make it my goal to leave our customers with the impression that
Germany isn’t so ‘strange’ after all.”
The spouses tour is held every fourth Tuesday of the month. You can call the Ramstein
Community Center at DSN: 480-6600 or CIV: 4906371-47-6600 to sign up.