The Kaiserslautern Military Community Center project, overseen by the 435th Civil Engineer Squadron at Ramstein AB, Germany, recently had a 15-ton dome lowered into place, completing one more segment of the 840,000 square feet of hotel, shops, base exchange, restaurants, and movie theater, scheduled to open in January 2007. The 350-bed hotel actually plans take its first guest in June 2006. Brig. Gen. Danny Gardner, US Air Forces in Europe Mission Support director, calls it a “little piece of the United States” to improve quality of life, but he adds that it is not intended to replace the benefit of exploring new places and trying native foods and services.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's recent direction that the military services return to a more old-school approach to basic training—with instructors "tossing bunks" and "putting their hands on recruits”—will likely require the Air Force to rewrite policies for military training instructors it has modified over time to cut down on such…