European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - October 9, 1977, Darmstadt, Hesse                                S. Readiness 3 increasing role of women in the . Armed forces was underlined during reformer exercise in Germany. The typical russian Soldier a conscript who stolidly endures a prison like existence. Last of a series " by Fred s. Hoffman associated Pressw Hen a recruit arrives at it. Jackson s.c., for Basic training the army cuts his hair almost to the  or eight years ago that might have sparked protests and even confrontations with commanders. Not now. Today s recruits May grumble. But they submit. This As much As anything else Symbol izes the changed atmosphere from the draft based army of the Vietnam War Era to the All Volunteer Force of the late 70s. The motivation for most enlistments is economic not patriotic. Many sign up to further their educations through military service. There Are no jobs out there said pvt. Kenneth Johnson. 27, of Altadena Calif. Pvt. Charles alien. 21, of new York City is Back in the army because he could t find work after a two year hitch As a teen Ager and he says he May try to stay in for 20 years. When i got out two years ago i did t have a Job. There was nothing but  pvt. James Sullivan. 23. Of Rome ga., said " i wanted to get out of a rut. I was just hanging  he sees the army As a Chance to learn a skill thai May earn him a Good civilian Job later. Pfc. Janice Bailey. 26, went to Oregon state University for three years but could t finish for Lack of Money. She joined the army for educational benefits and May work for a commission. I used to be anti military but i be changed my Opin Ion she said. There Are so Many Bene  these attitudes were reflected in inter views at bases in the United states and abroad. The army which had trouble attracting Quality recruits in the years just after the draft ended in 1973, is doing better. But it is still having Trou ble getting enough of them. One Index of this is the pressure put on army recruiters to fulfil quotas. Some of them apparently make extravagant even untrue promises to prospects. The result can be a disillusioned  Recruiter glorified what i was going into said pvt. Dawn Anderson of Sacra mento Calif. Recruiters told some girls it s easy to get out of the army if they find they Don t like it. It s a lot harder to adjust because of this sort of  Drill sgt. Kenneth Ramsey of Las vegas nev., said the recruiters Tell them that Basic training is easy. The recruiters Are up against the Wall to meet  maj. Gen. Richard Prillaman whose Job is to produce trained soldiers from the recruits sent to him acknowledged that the army is having real problems meeting our Quality goals. The army is the least glamorous of the services said Prillaman commander of it. Jackson. We Are seeking the highest numbers of any of the services so we have to take some we Don t  but Prillaman said that a screening process we Haven t had before is eliminating most of the poor performers in the first six months of Basic and advanced individual training. This is before the new soldiers Are sent to operating units. To confident that the trainees we Are sending out today Are better than the ones we produced in the 1970-1972 draft period Prillaman said. They Are As Good As we have Ever  this assessment was generally echoed by generals battalion and company com Manders and sergeants in combat and sup port organizations. Sgt. Maj. Joseph Canada of Augusta ga., a Veteran of 25 years service said at it. Stewart ga., that acceptance of discipline is much better now than in the late Days of the Vietnam War. It. Col. Jack Griffith a tank battalion commander at it. Hood tex., said we can teach them. They think More than the Guys we were getting in the late 1960s an dearly 1970s." maj Gen. George s. Patton Iii com Mander of the 2nd armoured division said this Soldier will  but there were scattered . Col. Bruce Smalley of Stowe vt., an up from the ranks training battalion com Mander said i just Don t have the feeling i could Call on the vast majority of these Guys in the clutch and have Confidence they d be  and sgt. . Carl d. Poer of Elpaso tex., said i liked the draft system better it gave us a Good Cross Section kept us balanced racially and educationally. On the whole i think we get the undereducated the unemployed and the  for Lack of a More definitive tool the Pentagon measures the manpower Quality level of each service by the percentage of its enlisted men who have completed a High school education since manpower specialists say High school graduates Are More reliable and less Likely to be discipline problems than dropouts. All women recruits must have at least a High school diploma by that Standard All of the services Are doing pretty Well. The air Force " the trainees we Are sending out today. Are As Good As we have Ever turned out " reported Over 90 per cent the army and Navy better than 80 per cent and the Marine corps expects to reach 75 per cent this fall. Commanders in All branches of the armed forces claimed that hard drug abuse no longer is serious that awol and desertions Are nowhere near the prob lems they used to be and that the racial Ai Moshere is much improved although tensions remain in some places. Along with the problem of attracting enough Quality recruits the services worry about holding onto men and women they have trained at considerable Cost to handle expensive and Complex electronics engines and other sophisticated equip ment. The army is Short of trained people in about 15 to 20 important skills  As tank and electronics maintenance technicians motor mechanics medical specialists and linguists for intelligence work. The Navy lacks enough trained people in some 30 skills. Industry grabs them up said Gen. Frederick Kroesen chief of the army s forces command which oversees Readi Ness. The air Force seems to retain its skilled technicians despite lures from Industry just As it has an easier time than the other services in recruiting Quality volunteers to begin with. We Don t go to sea for six months at a time said an air Force Genera when asked Why his service manages screening system alms to eliminate poor performers Early in training before recruits join operating units. New York times Jonathan Kandell to re enlist the same kind of specialists the Navy frequently loses at the end of a hitch. The Navy also is becoming alarmed at losses among Middle Grade Petty officers the Guy with the Overall technical exper Tise the Man needed to run a fire room to pull a periodic maintenance Check on a Jet engine As one Pacific Fleet officer put it. Adm. Isaac c. Kidd jr., commander of the Atlantic Fleet said Money is no longer number one on the hit Parade of Rea sons Why experienced men leave the Navy. It s the length of working hours length of separations. It s an unnatural life. Many of the kids these Days Are married where As 30-40 years ago it was a Bachelor s Busi  the army and Marine corps mean while say they Are working to eliminate abuses and irrelevancies from training and to make living conditions More pleas ant. Our training is All relevant said it. Col. Joseph Stringham a battalion com Mander in the 24th infantry division at it. Stewart. There Are no walks in the Sun or digging holes to keep men  the Marine corps claims officers now closely supervise Drill instructors who used to be virtually autonomous to pre vent any More incidents like the one in which a Young Texas recent was fatally injured during a Pugil St Wjk fencing exercise at the san Diego base. At it. Jackson army officers were seen in the background As Drill sergeants put their men through various paces. But some of the trainees told a reporter the Drill sergeants were often too Tough Anit profane in their language. There is no cause for them to talk to us that Way said one Soldier. Life in the Barracks is getting noticeably better with new air Condi toned Brick buildings springing up at Many army bases in the unite states. Gone or soon to go Are most of the old wooden world War ii Barracks where sol Diers lived in one big common room with no privacy. Now there Are cubicles where men live in Small clusters together with their Ever present stereos. Gone too Are the old fashioned mess Halls with crowded prison like tables re placed by airy color coordinated dining facilities with widely spaced tables an chairs. The Chow is unbelievable to veterans of the old army choices of egg styles at breakfast homemade pastries fresh vege tables three different kinds of meats on the dinner menu milk shake machines. In Europe it s a different matter so far As living conditions Are concerned. The Bachelor troops occupy often Dingy pre world War ii Barracks inherited from the German army. For married servicemen there is a 64-week wait for on base quarters in some places. The typical russian Soldier is ayoung conscript who stolidly endures a prison like existence an repetitious often dangerous train ing under rigid discipline. He is paid $3 a month less than 1 per cent of the $397 a month received by the Rawest . Recruits. This composite of the average russian Serviceman emerges from reports by . Officials with Access to intelligence sources and by military specialists who have observed the soviets close up. The two year conscript is housed in Barracks which Are surrounded by barbed wire army officials told Congress. He is fed a carefully calculated ration of food much like a farm animal and undergoes rigorous physical training and hours of political indoctrination. Garrison life in Eastern Europe is even More dismal the conscript when not on Maneu vers is a virtual prisoner in Camp and is permitted no Contact with the inhabitants of the Host country in East Ger Many Poland Czechoslovakia or Hungary. Training often consists of endless hours of repetitious practice. There Are indications that the troops ure often needlessly exposed to danger  As artillery fire mines close in bombing strikes and even chemical munitions to toughen  col. Frederick c. Turner who spent More than five years As a Liaison officer with soviet military Headquarters in East Germany has described the russian conscript As a healthy reasonably Well educated youth 18 or 19 who harbours few illusions regarding what life has to offer him in the Way of material  Turner wrote that the soviet draftee representing about 80 per cent of the rus Sian armed forces accepts two years of service without really expecting any alter  other officials said the russian enlisted Man accepts his lot stolidly. As the Way things  but from time to time there have been signs of dissatisfaction and unrest even in the soviet Navy where morale generally is said to be higher. The Crew of a soviet guided missile de Stroyer the Storoz Hervoy mutinied in the Baltic in late 1975. . Officials confirmed reports of the incident but the reasons for the Mutiny remain a mystery. . Intelligence received information also in 1975, indicating that soviet military cadets had formed an underground league for Mutual help and Protection against abuses. Sources said similar organizations sprang up in various officer training schools with the aim of strengthening the human rights aspects of military service As one intelligence report put it. Soviet Mil itary authorities were said to have acted tos press this activity. The soviet air Force is an elite service but defectors have told . Interrogators of spartan living conditions harsh punish ment for breaking rules and suicides. It. Viktor Belenko who flew his mig25 interceptor Jet to Japan last year was quoted As saying his family lived in a one bedroom apartment of base and had to get " the soviet conscript or noncommissioned officer is taught not to think but to obey . Specialists contend soviet training philosophy stifles initiative. By on a substandard diet while he was required to eat All his meals under close dietary supervision. American military specialists disapprove of soviet army training philosophy which they contend stifles initiative that could be vital in Battle. The soviet conscript or noncommissioned officer is taught not to think but to obey not to improvise or make snap decisions but to follow regulations to the letter army officials said. Enlisted men Are normally not permitted to talk on the Field radios and Are frequently denied Access to maps which Are classified. Compartmentalization is so strict for Security purposes that men working Only a few feet from each other in say a radar Van cannot perform each other s functions even in an  similarly . Air Force experts criticize the soviet air Force s methods of training pilots. When a . Pilot practices he s on disown said an air Force general in West Germany. We Tell him what we want him to do. We Don t Tell him How to do it. This encourages individual  Don t see that on the other Side. Their air Crews Don t seem to be doing the High Quality training Day to Day As ours  but this general added the russian do some Good things like flying an awful lot of sorties and practising close air sup port missions time and time  admission to All soviet air Force Aca demies is on a competitive basis but each candidate also must be politically Relia ble and receive a recommendation from the communist youth league Komsomol according to a . Air Force intelligence  reliability also Isone of the requirements for becoming a soviet naval officer. Family connections help  officers of the soviet Navy Are sons grandsons or nephews of party officials or naval officers says a . Naval intelligence source. Overall the soviet armed forces Lack combat experience. The Only russian military men who have seen Battle Are Middle aged generals and marshals whose fighting ended with world War ii32 years ago. The United states has been in two wars Korea and Vietnam since world War  the combat experience of american forces has thinned out in the 4 z years since the last . Troops left Vietnam. Most of the army s generals brigade and battalion commanders Are Battle vet Erans. So Are Many of the senior noncommissioned officers. But the vast majority of Junior officers and enlisted men and women have never experienced warfare. In the . Air Force an estimated 35 to 40 per cent of the pilots fought in Southeast Asia. But they Are moving out of the cock pit and into command staff jobs. A Page 14 the stars and stripes saturday october 8, 1977 the stars and stripes Page 15