Kaiserslautern. My husband cannot get fuel to fly home and my grocery card stopped working. What is actually happening?
Not political. I do not know what any of this means and I am getting nothing from the base.
Card did not work at the commissary. Two aircraft that were supposed to take his section out on Monday are still sitting there. Somebody said it is "the payment thing."
We have two kids in German schools. Nobody will tell me whether we are leaving in a week or in a year.
From the closed record — not known to anyone in this thread
26 January 2026, 18:30 — Rutte asks for one pageThe Secretary General writes directly to the President. Not custody, not security, not a change in who holds the weapons. One page conceding that the oldest guarantee in the alliance will not end by departure rather than by decision.
3 February 2026, 18:00 — Four courses of action for sixty warheadsForce the fence and start a war with three founding allies. Burn the weapons in place. Sit still and call it leverage. Or sign Rutte's page. Hegseth recommends sitting still.
5 comments
Plain version: the asset freeze on the 20th means European banks cannot process payments for the US government. Not "will not" — cannot, legally.
So the Air Force can have a fully fuelled aircraft, a crew, and a clearance, and still not fly, because it cannot buy the fuel for the next leg. That is why they are sitting there.
It is not about you or your family. It is a plumbing failure, and the plumbing is the entire European banking system.
Thank you. That is the first explanation anyone has given me in a week.
Same here. What is getting to me is that the Germans have been kind about it. Our neighbour brought over Kuchen and apologised. For what? She did not do it.
We keep being told we are in a hostile country. I have not met the hostile country. I have met people who feel as sick as we do.
Thirty-one years, four tours in Germany. I want to say something that will be unpopular.
Those aircraft are not being held by an enemy. They are being held by a country that spent seventy years being the reason our families were safe here, and that we froze out of the payment system nine days ago while its ally's territory was under our occupation.
I am not saying who is right. I am saying do not let anyone tell you the people at that fence are the reason your card did not work.
Mod note. Keeping this one open because people need practical answers. Political fights go to the other subs. Anyone doxxing units, movement dates or manifests gets a permanent ban and I will not be discussing it.