European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - November 16, 1973, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 the stars and stripes Friday november 16, 1973 soldiering is called on to perform variety of tasks during Absalon express by Dan Synovec Nuernberg Bureau chief Soro Denmark is soldiers of Aco 16th Erir in the Only . Army tac tical unit taking part in an eight nation nato Field exercise Here have been called on to perform a variety of tasks. Capt. Malcom r. Floyd 33-year-old roof the 1st army div unit said his soldiers have been moving and working 18 hours Aday since nov 10, constructing and destroying barriers laying minefields an building Bridges. They have also he noted been Given the Mission of fighting As infantry. On monday the 2nd platoon joined the italian Alpine unit to which it s attached in a ground assault. That crunching offensive still baffles officials of the Ace Mobile Force am who have responsibility for the Field exercise phase of Absalon express. Attacked Allie the attackers were supposed to be going after the aggressor Orange Force com posed of British and danish troops but in Stead fell upon the bewildered belgian forces holding Down their right flank. The belgian infantrymen were airlifted out of the Battle zone by helicopters in Hopes of preventing a Nasty name calling situation from developing. Am officials Are still trying to find out what prompted the erroneous offensive. The situation in t All that uncommon Inan exercise which brings together a Multi tude of nations and languages and one of the chief purposes of nato exercises such As Absalon express is to ensure that the mistakes occur in training where nobody gets Hurt. A demanding Job the Job of soldiering on nato Maneu vers is a demanding one said 1st it. Scott a. Kutz of Pottstown a. Military terms mean different things to people of other nato armies and the Lan Guage problem can be frustrating a times Kutz said. But the More we participate in these nato exercises the smoother things go. Putting up the danish army class 60 Bridge was not difficult be cause it goes together pretty easy. It Only has a 100-foot Span so we Are limited in our use of  Kutz referred to a girder Bridge which the unit s 1st platoon and a ragtag collect Ion of Cooks and mechanics had muscled into place earlier in the exercise. The nato exercise is an uplift for the soldiers of the 1st army div said maj. Gen. Adrian St. John div cd. He said the1st army div contributes about 1,000 men to the am with the majority being infantry and combat engineers. Less than Hal that number Are taking part in the current exercise. Our soldiers said St. John during afield visit with his troops get excellent training out of am exercises. They Are like adventure training with a purpose other than adventure. We had so Many volunteers for the exercise we had to run com petition among the units to determine who would take part in the Man Euver. These types of exercises Are nato inaction. It in t like the High level commit tees talking about cooperation. Here behave soldiers on the ground proving that nato units can work together and be a Force to be reckoned  capt. Floyd pointed to High moral among Engineer troops despite the Bone chilling wind which has forced most of them into Polar Bear like wardrobes. He said they have been getting two hot meals a Day and Only one of a rations. Interviewing the Happy go Lucky 1st army div troops during the exercise turn sup some sparkling quotes the majority of which cannot be printed. Two of the print Able comments it s cold but not As bad As the weather in Germany said a slim Soldier Wear ing a floppy eared army Cap cocked on tieback of his head. We d rather go to Copenhagen Hanback to Fuerth added another Soldier. Maps find problems few at exercise Kalun Borg Denmark is except for a couple of minor traffic Acci dents there have been relatively few prob lems during the eight nation nato exercise Absalon express said capt. Paul , base Provost marshal Here. Gerard who hails from Loganville ga.,is a . Exchange officer assigned to the British army s 3rd div Provo co a Royal military police unit at Midworth eng land. The local people have reacted very Well to the exercise and we be had no discipline problems involving any of our troops Gerard said. He said that 50 nato maps including 11 from the 1st army div s 501st my co headquartered in Ansbach Germany Are tasked with patrolling Supply routes an controlling traffic As Well As towns in the Man Euver area. The maps also Are charged with Over seeing the off loading of Supply ships at the Harbor Here onto nato army trucks tonsure they do not interfere with civilian traffic. We Are providing escorts for ammunition convoys hauling ammunition out to units deployed along the Forward area of the exercise Gerard said. Gerard said he was assigned to the  Royal police in May 1972 following an assignment at the . Army s my school att. Gordon a. The am Ace Mobile Force exercise he added shows How Well nato troops can work together As Well As get along even with minor language differ  spec. 4 Michael Heintzman a member of the 1st army div s my det said that  military policemen Are working to Gether in joint patrols. I m working with British danish Bel Gian and German maps he said. The language situation has been funny. When we Are briefed the conversation starts in English goes into French and ends up in danish. You can t get through a sentence without speaking three Lan  British my s. Sgt. Tony Truckle said the joint patrols Are working Well. Even though we Wear different uni forms and speak a variety of languages the nato exercises give us a Chance to Lear something about each other s methods and problems and How to go about  Russ missile to have 400-mile strike Washington a the soviet Union is perfecting a new naval missile that could hit . Warships from Over 400 Miles away even if they mane Vered to escape . Intelligence sources report. The sources said the soviets recently resumed testing their longest Range ship fired missile in far Northern Waters after an unexplained seven month  estimate the new missile identified As the ssnx13, probably will be ready for installation on soviet naval ves Here s a new packaging system that needs no can opener will fit into the pocket of a combat uniform and takes less time for food processing. Developed no can opener by the army s Natick mass Labora. Lories the system enables the army to provide the combat Soldier with greater Quality food and maximum variety. Pentagon won t seek draft resumption Washington up despite an anticipated army recruiting shortage of 15, 000 to 20,000 volunteers by next june the Pentagon has no plans to seek resumption of the draft a top Pentagon official said wednesday. William k. Brehm assistant defens Secretary for manpower told a news con Ference the army missed its recruiting goals for the ninth consecutive month in october. At the present rate the army s goal of having 792,000 soldiers in the fold by june would fall considerably Short Brehm said. A 15,000 to 20,000 shortfall is not idea but also is not serious enough to cause us to ask Congress to reinstate the draft he said. The army achieved 78 per cent of it recruiting objective in october Brehm said. Since the end of the draft was announced in january it has never reach edits monthly recruiting goals. The Marine corps made Only 68 per Centof its october goal but Brehm said the marines problem would be solved if the decided to take More recruits with below average scores on intelligence tests. He indicated the army was already absorbing As Many men with below average rating Sas it could use. Both the air Force and Navy however easily met their october goals and Brehm said the All Volunteer Force had turned out very satisfactorily for those two services. During october 29 per cent of the army s recruits were Black continuing a four month trend in which Blacks have comprised about 30 per cent of the army s volunteers. By comparison Only 13 percent of the draft age population is Black. Sels in about a year. That will increase the threat to an Amer ican Fleet already vulnerable to missile at tack. A senior Navy research official told con Gress earlier this year that from a Fleet defensive standpoint our most critical threat is presented by the anti ship mis  the soviet Navy which started devel Oping anti ship missiles years before the . Navy recognized their value already has at least five types with its fleets. But none of the present russian naval missiles is As far ranging or As sophisticated As the new ssnx13, according to intelligence sources. Technical details Are being kept secret but . Experts believe that russian planes or satellites probably would be use to help spot enemy ships. Information on target location Speed and course would be beamed Down to so Viet surface vessels carrying the missiles which then would be fired toward the Gen eral area in which the enemy ships were steaming. Once in that area built in homing de vices would take Over and direct the mis Siles at the enemy ships. Yes stereo photo expo starts in . Alconbury England is  sound expo 73, a four Day display of the latest in stereo sound and photo equip ment opened Here thursday morning forces shoppers in the United kingdom. The display opens at 10 . Daily through sunday. There Are a number of things which make this expo especially interesting to yes customers said Wade Raczynski an yes inventory management specialist. It s the biggest of its kind we be staged inthe . And we re featuring a lot of new  Raczynski also said that several companies displaying equipment and accessories will have technical representative son hand to answer questions. Everything we have on display will also be available for immediate delivery he added. In addition to i i and camera equip ment guitars will also be included. A Spe Cial guitar demonstration has been sched ruled for saturday afternoon