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What started off as a young man working in his youth group’s concession stand selling ice cream to patrons of the Flugtag air show on Aug. 28, 1988, ended up being an event that helped shape his Air Force career.
Michael Curtis, beginning his senior year in high school, was living in Germany with his family and had attended Flugtag for several years before the crash.
“Flugtag in 1988 and the years prior were big events on base and was actually a large fundraiser for the people who lived here,” said Maj. Michael Curtis, 435th Air Ground Operations Wing chaplain. “I remember working at booths for the booster club where my dad worked, as well as my youth group ice cream stand.”
At the beginning of the day, Curtis was selling ice cream. Later that afternoon, he and a few friends went to find a place to watch the air show.
“Everyone was trying to find a good place to stand and watch,” Curtis said. “In the middle and in the front was a great place to be.”
After watching the show and seeing many demonstrations, Curtis and a friend decided to leave a little early to help a buddy work on his car. Moments after they got up to leave, they heard the big crash and turned around to see a fireball of wreckage.
“I remember feeling a sense of shock, knowing that I had been standing in that area shortly before and also knowing a number of people that were engulfed in that fireball,” Curtis said. “At that point, we realized what had happened as chaos started to erupt in the immediate area.”
Through all the noise and screaming, Curtis and his friend decided they were too far to help and left the scene to stay out of the way of emergency responders.
“Growing up around the military I was always told if I’m not helping to get out of the way. That’s what we did,” Curtis said. “I remember those days following the crash very clear. There were ads playing on Armed Forces Network asking for blood donations. At school, if some of our friends didn’t show up that first day, we weren’t sure if they were killed, injured or what. It was the days before cell phones and internet so we weren’t in touch with everyone.”
Now, 25 years later, Curtis offers a prayer at the memorial on base as well as the commemoration at the church in Ramstein-Miesenbach.
“There are a number of people who have been involved in a small therapy group over the last 25 years, and I think it is beneficial for them to interact with someone who saw and experienced some of the same things they did,” Curtis said. “Someone who is also able to understand, professionally, the grief process we go through in life.”
Looking back at his life, there were many events Curtis said led him to become a chaplain, and the air show disaster was one of them.
“Talking with our chaplains here at the time of the crash was very helpful,” Curtis said. “It made me realize that people who provide ministry to those in need during difficult times are very important.”
There were many things that came out of the crash in 1988: changes in how air shows are conducted and the standards that need to be upheld, but from a chaplain’s perspective, there was something else to learn from it.
“One of the biggest things we can learn is to ask ourselves about our hope in life and realize that no matter what, every day holds new challenges and it’s God that brings us through,” Curtis said. “We can get through just about anything with God’s help.”
