Armory revamp streamlines Ramstein weapons storage

Airman 1st Class Edward Drescher, Story and photo
Kaiserslautern American


***image1***A new Ramstein base armory was opened recently in support of the current Rhein-Main Transition Project.

The $400,000 armory, which was actually a two-year renovation project on the old armory, has nearly doubled the storage space for weapons and offices, and also provides some new amenities and security enhancements.

In addition to new features such as climate control, separate male and female latrines and a kitchen, the new armory is also in a more accessible location right across from the auto hobby shop in Bldg. 2389.

“The new location is closer to the flightline and it affords transient aircrews easy access, which decreases their turnaround time,” said Master Sgt. Derek Rabey, 435th Security Forces Squadron superintendent of training and resources.

The new armory provides five separate storage cages, where as the old one only had one storage room. This is beneficial because the armory is actually supporting everyone in the KMC due to lack of storage space elsewhere. With the cages, courtesy storage from other agencies can be stored separately and weapons and ammo can be stored apart as well, said Sergeant Rabey.

“It makes my job easier from an accountability standpoint,” said Staff Sgt. Jerbaine Dancy, NCO in charge of the armory. “It’s a lot easier to be accountable when everything isn’t stacked in one place.”

The armory also streamlines the process of getting weapons out of storage. If agencies using the armory for courtesy storage would like to check out just one or two of their weapons they can do that. If weapons are stored at the long-term base defense armory they must be checked in and checked out by the crate. This can cause a lot of headache over a few weapons, said Sergeant Rabey.

The new armory also nearly doubled the office space and storage space for important documents as well. This also helps in the accountability aspect because it gives more room for important files.

“The new armory provides the workers with a cleaner, easier environment to work in and allows us to provide the base better services,” said 1st Lt. Phillip DeAngelo, 435th SFS officer in charge of training and resources.