Alexander W. Riedel

Alexander reports on the U.S. military and local news in Europe for Stars and Stripes in Kaiserslautern, Germany. He has 10 years experience as an Air Force photojournalist covering operations in Timor-Leste, Guam and the Middle East. He graduated from Penn State University and is a Defense Information School alumnus.

@lexRiedel

riedel.alexander@stripes.com

A Sexual Harassment/Assault Response and Prevention Program pin is worn by a service member at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Va., in 2018.

Air Force will treat expulsion as default punishment for personnel who commit sexual assault

A recent update to Air Force personnel policy has made discharge from the service the default consequence for sexual assault convictions.

Protestors listen to anti-war songs during a "Dance of the Dead" protest against war in Ramstein-Miesenbach, Germany, June 25, 2022. The event was organized by the Stopp Air Base Ramstein campaign.

Skulls and scythes: Protesters meet for ‘dance of the dead’ near Ramstein Air Base

A Buddha bust in the basement at the Buddha Museum in Traben-Trarbach, Germany, June 11, 2022. The large open basement offers Buddha steles and statues from Thailand, Cambodia, China and Japan and shows off the building's wine-cellar origins, with large intake spouts once used for wine production still visible.

Discover the thousand faces of Buddha at meditative Moselle village museum

An archive photo shows builders and locals after the finishing of the Restaurant Dürkheimer Fass, in Bad Dürkheim, Germany, in 1934. Placed next to fairgrounds, the giant wine barrel restaurant has been a tourist site since it opened its doors.

Restaurant at Germany’s giant wine barrel serves hearty meals with matching-scale portions

Officers of the Rheinland-Pfalz special police squads shown during training in an undated file photo. A suspected member of the Islamic State terrorist group was arrested near Speyer, Germany, June 13, 2022.

Suspected ISIS supporter arrested in Rheinland-Pfalz, charged with planning violence against Germany

The man arrested in Germany, identified only as Aleem N., is accused of plotting violence against the German state and being a member of a foreign terrorist organization.

A Project Origin robotic combat vehicle drives across a demonstration area during exercise Combined Resolve 17 at the Joint Multinational Readiness Center in Hohenfels, Germany, June 8, 2022. Opposing Forces used the concept vehicle to challenge exercise participants during field maneuvers.

‘It’s not human’: Army brings combat robotics closer to battlefield during field testing in Germany

The new robotic ground vehicle called Project Origin made its multinational debut at a training exercise this week with more than 5,000 troops from across Europe.

The Air Force Inn at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling, Washington, D.C., in an undated file image. The facility has ceased to accept reservations and is slated to close in July 2022.

Air Force to shutter two base lodging facilities, review future of others

The service is reviewing each installation’s lodging operation based on “current inventory conditions, historical occupancy rates and projected future needs,” according to a statement.

Jamie Jamison gently touches a commemorative stele that marks the area where her great uncle died in 1944 during a visit to the site May 28, 2022. Jamison is the great niece of Bernard Gautier, one of the two Office of Strategic Services men killed during a firefight with German troops near the village of Le Rialet.

‘Real courage’: Remembering the OSS commandos who helped defeat the Nazis in Southern France

Memorial Day weekend events commemorated the men of the Office of Strategic Services who parachuted in to help France’s resistance fighters in their struggle against the Nazis.

An F-16 demonstration team pilot wipes sweat from his head at Misawa Air Base, Japan, April 18, 2018. A draft memo shared on social media indicates that airmen may soon be allowed to wear wider mustaches.

More mustache freedom? Air Force proposal would give facial hair room to grow

Airmen aspiring to mustachioed greatness, your time may have finally come.

A roadside memorial along country road K22, near Ulmet, Germany, memorializes the deaths of police officers Yasmin B. and Alexander K., as seen on May 11, 2022. The two police officers were shot and killed not far from U.S. military bases in Baumholder.

Suspect in Kusel killings shot policewoman as she lay wounded on ground, prosecutor says

Spiesen-Elversberg resident Andreas Johannes Schmitt, 38, is accused of singlehandedly killing the officers during a traffic stop near the U.S. Army installation in Baumholder during the early morning hours of Jan. 31 to avoid arrest on suspicion of poaching.

Service members of all branches now have the option to keep their guns in their in-home storage without cutting into their household goods weight allowance during moves, the Defense Department announced.

Gun safes removed from weight allowance calculation for US military personnel changing duty stations

The Joint Travel Regulations were amended last week to allow empty gun safes up to 500 pounds in combined weight at no personal cost to military members going through a permanent change of station.

Highway A6 in Kaiserslautern, Germany, May 5, 2022. The road is a major thoroughfare for commuters and travelers, and runs between U.S. Army and Air Force bases.

Tesla crash on rain-soaked autobahn bumps US military truck, delays traffic near bases

A Tesla driver hydroplaned on the A6 highway on Thursday morning, hitting guard rails and colliding with a U.S. military semitrailer truck, local police said.

Kaiserslautern police launched an investigation for attempted murder after unknown perpetrators threw wooden logs from a bridge onto highway A63 near Mehlingen, Germany, April 27, 2022. A motorcyclist who hit the wooden poles lost control of his vehicle and suffered severe injuries.

Attempted murder probe opened after wood tossed onto German highway injures US motorcyclist

Authorities have elevated their investigation into who threw fence posts onto an autobahn near Mehlingen late last month, severely injuring an American riding a motorcycle.

The German state of Rheinland-Pfalz, home to tens of thousands of U.S. service members, will shorten its COVID-19 quarantine to five days for asymptomatic people, beginning May 1. Those testing positive during a self-test at home should confirm their result at a testing center via rapid antigen or PCR test.

Shorter COVID-19 quarantine rule to take effect in Rheinland-Pfalz, home to US troops

Health Minister Clemens Hoch announced that starting Sunday, people who test positive for the illness will need to self-isolate for at least five days.

Col. Jason Edwards, then-U.S. Army Garrison Rheinland-Pfalz commander, takes a water sample at the military's Pfeffelbach Water Treatment Plant near Baumholder, Germany, in 2019. The Pfeffelbach plant operates independently from the German municipal water supply. Local officials rescinded a boil water notice for most people living off-post near Baumholder on April 19, 2022. The notice was issued after elevated levels of a harmful bacteria were found.

Water boil notice near Baumholder partially lifted; most water again safe to use

People living near the U.S. Army’s Baumholder bases can again safely use municipal tap water without boiling it, Birkenfeld district officials said in a statement.

Sgt. Daniel Baudoin, a water purification specialist with the 240th Composite Supply Company of Baumholder, Germany, shows off freshly purified water he and his team produced during an exercise in Poland, June 2, 2018. German officials asked residents in Birkenfeld district, which includes Baumholder, to boil their tap water due to bacteria contamination detected before the Easter weekend.

Bacteria contamination triggers water boil notice near Army’s Baumholder bases

The boil took effect in Baumholder, urban areas of Idar-Oberstein and more than 34 towns and villages in Birkenfeld and Herrstein-Rhaunen districts.

Capt. Nichole McCarthy and Maj. Abby Gromowsky, 535th Airlift Squadron pilots, complete a training mission at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, on March 23, 2022. Eligible mobility pilots now stand to earn up to $420,000 in incentive payments for reupping with the Air Force.

Air Force opens up checkbook in quest to keep sought-after pilots from private sector

The service is promising some aviators up to $420,000 over 12 years, according to a 2022 bonus program document released Monday.

Air Force has scheduled site surveys in late April or early May 2022 to determine the location for its new U.S. Space Force Space Training and Readiness Command (STARCOM)Headquarters. The STARCOM staff will comprise existing manpower transferred from the current Space Operations Center and new personnel to be added over the next several years.

Space Force announces contender locations for STARCOM training headquarters

Under consideration are Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif.; Buckley, Schriever and Peterson Space Force bases in Colorado.; Patrick Space Force Base, Fla.; and Los Angeles Air Force Base, Calif., which is slated to be home to Space Systems Command and renamed as a Space Force base.

Empty sunflower and canola oil shelves at a Rewe grocery store in Darmstadt, Germany, April 4, 2022. Since the start of the Russia-Ukraine war, Hamsterkaeufe, the German word to describe panic buying or hoarding, has set in, and demand for cooking oil and flour has left bare shelves in many stores.

Off-base groceries in Germany slated for double-digit percentage price hikes

U.S. service members and their families may see their off-base food bills rise as prices jump sharply for everyday goods and groceries throughout Germany, amid higher energy prices driven by Russia’s war on Ukraine.

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Alexander W. Riedel

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