RAMSTEIN AIR FORCE BASE GERMANY  (WKZO) -- In less than a week, Staff Sgt. Joseph Weems would have been safe at home in West Michigan. After years of working on Aviation ground crews for the Air Force’s 86th Airlift Wing. He had decided it was time to spend more time with his fiancée and his family.

German police say it appears the 24-year-old was riding a bicycle on a trail along a set of railroad tracks near the Ramstein Air Base Monday when he tried to cross the tracks and was hit by a train.

He was wearing ear-buds and apparently unaware that the train was rolling up behind him. German police are tryng to determine if the train sounded its horn, as it is required to do as it approached the unguarded crossing where he was struck.

Funeral services are pending.