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by Jennifer Svan at Stars and Stripes
The largest American military community overseas housed nearly 7,000 Afghan evacuees in an increasingly crowded tent city on the flight line Monday, while at least 60 others began their journey to a new life in America.
Base personnel are scrambling to support the influx, building shelters as quickly as they can and securing enough bottled water and food to provide 30,000 meals per day, the Air Force said.
Thousands of volunteers — many from the military community — are working after duty hours to support the effort in what base officials say is “an all-hands on deck” mission.
“Our focus here is being able to support and care for those evacuees that come to Ramstein Air Base,” said Brig. Gen. Josh Olson, the 86th Airlift Wing commander, on Monday.
The base can support about 10,000 evacuees, nearly doubling its capacity since Friday, Olson said. The nearly 7,000 people were being housed on Ramstein in aircraft hangars and tents divided into compounds. Twenty people sleep in each tent, with living quarters separated by gender.
“It’s busy, it’s big,” said Staff Sgt. Jasmine Holcey, who was ferrying snacks out to airmen at the evacuee areas. “I’m very surprised at how fast we were able to put this together.”
There were several impromptu games of soccer taking place, with men and boys kicking around a ball on the concrete tarmac behind the barrier that fences off their compound from the base…
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