European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - June 15, 1977, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Snow fare soles by Bob hover staff writer Rian encyclopedia Salesman in a favorite port of Call for the navys 6th Fleet in the Meriter says he still makes his pitch to sailors aboard but Reddell is an Navy officials Point out that the policy which once permitted a colourful collection of International paddlers to track ships around the Mediterranean has As a result the big sales Bonanza with the Fleet Lias salesmen were once welcomed aboard ship with open arms but the Navy reversed that policy two years salesmen such As boasting links with the manage to Circum vent policy and talk their Way aboard certain i go right aboard the Reddell said in an interview in the been Selling Long enough that some of the Guys i knew As lieutenants Are ships but an official says that Reddell and others like him represent no More than 10 per cent of the army of salesmen who once did a multimillion Dollar business with the Fleet at ports Between Gibraltar and the Given the byzantine atmosphere of per suasion and intrigue that characterized the the transformation has been re before the change in paddlers knew the movement of the Fleet As Well As and sometimes better than the men on the moving from port to port they Gath ered at boat landings to await trails port to the ships where they set up their wares in shipboard bazaars for a captive the scene Seldom varied in Barcelo Palma and the ports of the French Riv at Naples and Trieste and at Athens and Competition was fierce and often fights on Shore were not uncommon among who sometimes shared the scandi Indi belgians and chinese sold an endless array of pretty girls in tight sweaters often Selling correspondence courses to sail ors thinking about pretty girls Back for some the tradition of sales to the Fleet dated Back chinese tailor William Sunyue once boasted aboard the aircraft Carrier Forrestal in Athens that his father dealt with the Navy in China in 1908 and sold a uniform to Ensign Jack a number of salesmen were legitimate and made an honest Effort to be fair with their but others were unscrupulous or downright efforts to bribe commanders and Supply officers by offering them gifts that included free hotel rooms and dates with attractive girls were recorded in the files of those who engaged in illicit activities often tried to conceal their Handiwork by using several names and carrying extra because of their itinerant lives they usually managed to stay one step ahead of the while vendors had More Access to Navy ships in the med loan anywhere getting rid of them want tradition was part of the As the commanding officers of naval vessels and still the ultimate say As to who boards their but the decision to eliminate visits now written into legs was made to clean up a situation that High ranking officials Felt had gotten out of three principal reasons Are Given for the drastic reduction of Vendor visits 0 Crews were not getting consistent value vendors were fleecing the Crews and they knew too much about the movement of the from direct Security was being violated with visit ing vendors privy to the movement of 9 ships were incurring heavy losses on contract items bought from vendors for which there was no under the former policy some ships returned to the after Mediterranean Tours with losses that ran into Many thou Sands of the change had to be said Max Van 6th Fleet logistics the vendors were fleecing the Crews and they knew too much about the move ment of the he As a first some 200 Vendor contracts with the Navy resale sys tems office for sates aboard ship were permitted to this drastically reduced the rent Dement for ship Board Vendor vendors Servic ing Magazine and confectionary con tracts with the Navy Exchange still Call on but their visits Are under tight As a substitute for contracts that were permitted to the Navy Exchange now procures foreign merchandise for the Fleet and stores it in warehouses at Naples and in addition to this sailors in the Fleet May order items through the exchanges Yokosuka this new program has meant a Price stability that never existed Van Valkenburg there was a Bazaar atmosphere in the this is gone he most of the vendors no longer go aboard ship be cause contracts were allowed to its a much better Deal for the Crews this they Are the cos of the ships Are basically Happy with the new and were Happy with Security is another reason Why we dont want an the vendors anytime Yog do this allow a Large number of vendors aboard you Are taking an unnecessary despite the ban on shipboard visits Ven Dors continue to make nuisance with commercial ports throughout the med open to it is impossible to pre vent some salesmen from trying to visit k encyclopedia salesmen go aboard consonance with present Van Valkenburg said in response to a query about Riddells visits in Palma Page a6 the stars and stripes june 1977