Photo By Senior Airman Jared Lovett | U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Kamiah Johnston, 786th Force Support Squadron food...... read more read more
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Airmen assigned to the 786th Force Support Squadron support aircrews and passengers here by preparing in-flight meals. Located near the flightline, the Jawbone Flight Kitchen operates around the clock to provide boxed meals for a range of operations, including aeromedical evacuation missions, passenger transport and aircrew travelling through the installation.
“I love being able to feed people,” said Tech. Sgt. Cory Howard, 786th FSS food service production manager. “To produce a good product for people to eat to keep them moving throughout the day.”
Units ordering food will choose from four different supplement options and 11 different entree items. They can mix and match whichever supplement they want with whichever entree that they crave. Then the staff in the kitchen will take that, prepare it and place it into a flight box which will then be picked up by fleet services who deliver it.
The Jawbone Flight Kitchen prepares a range of meals designed to travel on aircraft and accommodate dietary needs. They offer grilled chicken, chicken wraps, turkey ham club sandwiches, turkey sandwiches, ham sandwiches and a couple of vegetarian options. “There is no mission without nutrition,” Howard said. “If you have no food in the tank, you have no gas to go anywhere.”
A small team of Airmen maintain 24/7 coverage of the kitchen to ensure meals are prepared and delivered whenever missions require support.
The importance of the kitchen becomes especially clear during time-sensitive missions, where Airmen working at the kitchen must rapidly respond to urgent needs.
“Just recently, we pushed out 180 meals for a medical evacuation mission,” Howard said. “We had less than a six-hour notice to get that together.”
Howard said the team was able to complete the order in under two hours.
For one of the four Airmen who work the kitchen, this experience changed their perspective on the importance of their work.
“They hadn’t eaten anything,” said Senior Airman Kamiah Johnston, 786th FSS food service journeyman. “They needed something to eat. I could tell from the phone call that they were desperate and in need.”
Johnston said moments like these reinforced how even small tasks contribute to a larger mission.
“It’s nice to do something that helps other people in a different aspect,” she said. “Of course, people go to the dining facility and we serve people there but it’s different when you’re helping somebody that’s on a mission or that’s flying from somewhere.”
She emphasized that providing meals goes beyond routine food service, it directly supports recovery and mission readiness.
“It’s not just giving sandwiches or just giving these itsy-bitsy items of food,” she said. “It’s actually giving someone nourishment. It’s helping someone get better than they are in whatever situation they are handling at the moment.”
Howard believes that the impact is felt across every mission supported at Ramstein.
“Every day we have a direct effect on flight line missions,” Howard said. “We make sure that meals get out there on time with coordination through fleet services, and that enables the mission to go to sustain every aircraft that comes through this flight line.”
From preparing a handful of meals to supporting large-scale flight operations, the Ramstein Jawbone Flight Kitchen remains ready to respond whenever aircraft and crews require support.
| Date Taken: | 03.17.2026 |
| Date Posted: | 03.18.2026 06:15 |
| Story ID: | 560789 |
| Location: | DE |
| Web Views: | 27 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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