European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - January 13, 1969, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Post the stars and strip monday january 13,  ton Irementa by Marc Hiuet is Washington Bureau chief Washington is two pay changes expected to be Given serious consideration by Congress Early this year will affect everyone in uniform. One is a defense department plan to i go to a salary system for careerists with a selected raise for All servicemen. The other is a proposal for a 12.6 per Cen across the Board boost in base pay. Each of the plans follows completely different philosophy of compensation. Officials who have been working on pay prob lems for the past few years ask should a fair amount go to those on Active service while they Are actually performing their duty and should this be supplemented with reasonable retired pay or should Active duty pay beheld Down and should retired pay be further improved tied in with these opposing views is the problem of career retention clearly visible to the army Navy air Force and Marine corps by the resignations and Early 20-year retirements of Many officers and noncommissioned officers the services would like to see remain on duty. Rear adm. Lester e. Hub Bell who has headed a joint defense pay study group forthe past three years feels the new salary system the defens department proposes is fair to both those on Active duty an to All the retirees. At present now the system favors Early retirees at the expense of those on Active duty and those who serve Long careers. Our proposed reforms redesigned to be attractive to the men who Are going to make pour Active duty forces in the future years recognizing that Mostof them will probably not serve All the Way to retirement Hub Bell says. The present system leans to heavily on the approach of pacing most of the Reward fora career into retired pay de sense department official feel to the Point where it is costing too much and harm ing instead of helping the serv ices. As an example officials say since 1962 the pay for Active duty regular military compensation has increased 41.4 per cent while Basic pay and therefore retired pay has increased by 50.1 per cent. A 12.6 per Cen Basic pay raise on july 1 would make this disparity even worse since 1962 retired pay would have gone up by 69 per cent while Active duty pay would have gone up by Only 54 per cent. This re tired pay advantage widens each time a regular military pay raises added to Basic pay and Al ready most men get More re tired pay than Active duty pay for a career. For this reason the com plaints that Are registered against the Hubbell pay Reform and officials say they Are relatively few come fro those who Are about to retire but not from younger  with close to 20 years of service stand to gain far More personally from an in crease to retired pay than from an increase in Active duty pay. Not Only would the opponents oppose pay reforms probably even after being shown that the mean More duty pay to nine out of ten career men but the could also be expected to oppose any other proposals such As in creasing quarters or subsistence allowances that do not carry-a0 Tive duly increased Over into retired pay. One example of this attitude is merry capitulation local Fasching clubs stormed Hanau s Philips Ruth Castle resulting in the capitulation of the City administration and the opening of the Fasching season there. Pretty troopers at table were in the at tacking Force and induced lord mayor Herbert Droese with microphone to surrender. . Harry Evans seated Center. Tank choppers sack up s. Vets in Mekong Delta Ca Mau Vietnam a probe by about 5,500 vietnamese rangers marines and army regulars in the tangled u Minh for est reflects an improved Allie military stance in the new Yeai in and below the vital Mekong Delta. No government or american officials profess to believe t h e Viet Cong have been Defeated 01that All is Well in the nation s Rice bowl. They say however Here is More pressure today on he guerrillas than Ever  is counted in modestly expanding Security rings Aroun najor cities and the comparative ease lately of driving along route 4, the main Delta Highway. The majority of the 7,500 Square Miles of the Delta and its 7 Mil lion people remain under Vietcong influence started cold we started cold from the 1968 tet offensive when we Fereall holed up in our forts said an american colonel who is a adviser to the South vietnamese. The chief Factor is a Large Dos of . Helicopters now available to make the three vietnamese Delta divisions More Mobile Able to pile on reinforcements when Contact is made. Much of the Delta for the first time is no routinely patrolled by scout and gunship  had never been a major Campaign before in the u min Forest 250 Square Miles of mated Woods and swamp near the Gulf of is am 150 Miles South a West of Saigon. It never was militarily feasible before a . Adviser said. The u Minh serves As the sup ply dump and Headquarters for the Viet Cong s 3rd military re Gion which commands 19,000 guerrillas in the six Southern most provinces intelligence officers say. Starting last month 11 Viet namese battalions were sent in by helicopter. Their supporting artillery followed within minutes in a typical .-style  marines combed a Northern Finger of the Forest while rangers and regulars of the 21st division one of South Vietnam s Best exploited the  the first 10 Days of sporadic contacts the Vietnam Ese reported 479 enemy killed 300 by air strikes and 291 sur rendered. The vietnamese command feels the troops actually overran the regional Headquarters an several main Supply dumps. More than 100 tons of munition were found along with tons of medical supplies Telephone switchboards and a 10-ton print no press. The captured weapons count stood at 283, including 69 recoil Ess rifles antiaircraft machine guns and mortars. Extremely Low government casualties were reported 19 dead and 82 wounded. Most were he result of mines and Booby raps j Rusk presents department s awards to 24 is Washington Burea Washington is Secre tary of state Dean Rusk has presented the department s three highest awards to 24 recipient sat the 16th annual honors awards ceremony Here. Most of the awards were for Vietnam serv  foreign service officers were presented the Secretary Saward All posthumously in recognition of sacrifice of personal health including life in the performance of official  they were ambassador John Gordon mein Stephen , Usia and Robert k. Franzblau and Dwight Halogen jr., of Aid. The 15 who won the award for heroism were the Binh Duong Vietnam defense group Leo , Ben and Kenneth Ferguson Robert j. Furoy James a. Griffin George d. Jacobson George a. Jone Geraldj. Marcotte William l. Messick Edward j. Slack James , Conrad Stolzenback jr., e. Allan Wendt and Nathaniel Fine. With the exception of Jones an employee in Northern Ireland All the awards went for service in Vietnam. Distinguished Honor awards went to ambassadors Taylor g. Belcher Chester Bowles Robertw. Komer Rachel Conrad a son and Mathias j. Ortwein. 5th dimension to appear Rhein main a Germany special the 5th dimension 1968 grammy award winners will appear Here Jan. 17 at the no club 150 at 9 . And thence club 353 it 11 . These appearances will be the Only military club performances in Europe. J a comment in the january Mue of of tved affairs pub us Herby the Fleet Reserve As we have always opposed in creases in quarters allowances in lieu of increases to Basic Pav such As in 1952, As quarters Al Lowance increases Rob a Man of future retired  this attitude May be Fin for the Man who eventually retires and lives Long enough to collect on it but Pentagon officials Auk where does i leave the overwhelming major Ity of men who actually Bearthes Burden of defending their country Bat who will never re tire a conservative estimate show that an air Force master ser Geant e7 for example can expect to draw far More retire ment pay about $160,000 Fortis 20-year career than he Drew Active duty pay about $96.000 while he is serving that Ca reer officials  than 82 per cent of his total pay for 20 years of service will come after he retires. This is due mainly because he can expect to live and draw pay for some 37 years after re luring which is almost twice As Long As the 20 years he will have serve Don Active duty. In addition he and his dependents will have these of Exchange and commis sary facilities and will be full covered by medical care and social Security based on his military service. All this could Start at age 37, the same e7 would be $20,-000 better off if the 12.6 per cent raise in base pay were Togo into effect. Finally officials say therein the question of Cost. To pass along the 12.6 per cent raise fully into retired pay will in crease retired pay costs Over the next half Century by some $6 billion. The question is whether thesis the Best Way to spend Money to get the kind of Active duty Force that is needed now or whether the same or less Money spent on paying for Active duty directly would better provide the forces that Are needed. While it does not appear that the defense department will get More in return for $8 billion the Way the pay Laws now work in creasing Basic pay will com Pound the problem. Officials Point out that the cannot justify asking taxpayers to foot the Bill for giving every thing to everybody in the Light of already generous increase for retirees. Here is a comparison of re tired pay projections for in k7, with 20 years of service stage 37 at current Basic pay rates Active duty pay $95,182 37.3 per Cen expected lifetime retired or $1u7u 62.rper Cen total pay Forh year career $257,693 100 per Cen average pay per year served $12,885the same individual with a 12.6 per cent raise in Basic Puy Active duty pay $95,720 34.5 per Cen expected lifetime retired pay $181,378 65.5 per Cen total pay for 20-year career $277,098 100 per Cen average pay per year served $13,859 expected lifetime retired pay s based on consumer Price Index creases of 2 per cent a year u conservative estimate