European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - April 17, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Thursday april 17, 1986 the stars and stripes Page 9 unit s performance measures up to award by Brenda Hosier staff writer Meckenheim Germany for six months units in eight Usa eur major subordinate commands competed to improve the maintenance procedures of equip ment without knowing what they could win. Fifth signal come received the mystery prize tuesday. The Victory earned them their own door to door calibration and equipment maintenance team from the 517th maintenance in for six months. We will deploy a five person tide test measurement and diagnostic equip ment support team to each battalion com Pany or unit in the winning command said capt. Robert h. Thomason operations offi cer 5i7th maintenance in. The teams will be on site for 10 to 15 Days and will provide full dedicated support to that unit and other units in that area. However first priority goes to units of the winning  the door to door visits will save time Money and possible damage to equipment for the command but also will offer training opportunities to the soldiers on the support teams. Our units won t have to travel Long Dis Tances with the equipment which is particularly Good for our Remote Sites said chief warrant officer  Puzulis 5th signal come tide support coordinator. It will give us better service and availability  and on our Side of the House my sol Diers will be getting the hands on Field experience and training they can t get Here said it. Col Gerry Sellman commander,5i7th maintenance in. Tip test measurement and diagnostic equipment Independence program was a two phased program designed to in crease Europe s awareness of support requirements for test measurement and diag Nostic equipment and radial instruments. This kind of equipment is everywhere and affects every person s life in. Some Way Sellman said. It s not just equip ment that soldiers use on the Job. The meat Scales at the commissary an individual s Wristwatch and the Gas pump at the service station Are some examples of tide. How do you know a liter is a liter or a Pound is a Pound if the Scales and pumps Aren t calibrated equipment is Only effective when properly maintained an that s our  the first phase of the tip contest was a theater wide educational Effort to upgrade and familiarize organizations on equipment management procedures Sellman said. The second phase which ran from july to january measured the effectiveness of improved procedures in Usa eur s eight major subordinate commands. The com mands account for 90 percent of Europe s 137,000 pieces of tide and radial. Points were awarded each command for accomplishments in five categories reducing delinquency on scheduled equipment to or below 3 percent Liaison visits by unit coordinators and commanders turn in of obsolete or unneeded equipment Quality Assurance audits and timely pick up and re turn of monthly calibration recall listings. The 5th signal come earned 20,790 Points and had the greatest improvement in lowering its delinquency rate. The Delin Quency rate reflects a unit s percentage of equipment that missed or was late for scheduled calibration and maintenance. The command lowered its delinquency rate to 4.9 percent in january 1986 from 44 percent in june 1984 and continued to lower it to 3.3 percent in March. Usa eur s tide delinquency rate dropped from 20.7 percent in september 1984 to 2.91 percent in february 1986 on 118,00 pieces of general purpose tide As a result of the tip program. Army Roundup army activates new unit to haul heavy equipment to Eslingen Germany a heavy equip ment transport unit was activated tuesday at the Panzer Cavern gymnasium said maj. James Al lard spokesman for the army s 2nd support come. The 11th trans co a subordinate unit of the 2nd support come s 4th trans in will operate from the army s to Eslingen maintenance facility under the command of capt. Mark c. Anderson. It is assigned to move tanks and other Large equipment for Vii corps units that do not belong to a division and that used to borrow the equipment. Allard said the 2nd support come is one of the new company s future customers. Others include the 7th engr brigade the 2nd army Cav and the 210th Field arty. New site opened to help train runway repair Crews Darmstadt Germany combat engineers got a Chance to fill some of the holes in their train ing at the newly constructed runway repair site near Ernst Ludwig Cavern. The new site which was recently dedicated and turned Over to the training resources audio visual Center is one of Only three training areas in Ger Many where engineers can perfect their combat skills in runway repair. We did t have a place to get on the ground and actually do what we do said capt. Joe d. Manous commander of cob 94th engr in. Our wartime Mission is to interface with the air Force. If an Airfield is bombed they la do a Quick repair to keep things moving. But we come in to make a Perma nent fix. This is really a tremendous asset Manous said. There Are so Many things we have to simulate but Here we can really do realistic Field  150 temporary Job slots being ended by v corps he Frankfurt v corps he is terminating approximately 150 temporary employees not filling permanent authorized positions and is limiting the number of new hires. Only positions considered mis Sion essential will be approved according to a statement released by v corps he Public affair office. Anticipated budget cuts from the passage of the Gramm Rudman Bill resulted in a six week hiring freeze in late 1985. In late january the corps received its annual financial target for funding All appropriated fund civilian labor expenses for fiscal 1986. An Overall hiring freeze was deemed unnecessary because the financial target Given each pro Gram manager was considered sufficient. The majority of the employees being terminated come from the director of logistics office. Army officials making child care top priority according to plan Dii Fot if \7�ktxil�by Chuck Vinch Washington Bureau Washington expanding hourly child care developing Low Cost alternatives for working couples and standardizing the training of child care employees Are top priorities of army child development services officials according to the third edition of the army family action plan. More than half our soldiers Are married said a spokesman for the army Community and family support Center. In More than 40 percent of those marriages the spouse works. We have 15,000 single parents. So we have to move beyond the old concept that child care is just another term for babysitting. And we  last year 124,000 children were enrolled in some Type of army child care said Suzann Tedesco army cd support outreach program director. The need is growing especially for hourly care she said. That s one of our most critical  but Tedesco said it s not always that easy for cd officials to plan for handling that need. Demand for hourly care always fluctuates so it s Hardtop program for it she said. Tedesco said the army is testing a Pilot program to provide hourly care in government quarters As Well As in child care centers. Daily care is already available in quart ers at Many locations but expanding hourly care to quart ers would greatly enhance the army s program Tedesc said. The family action plan Calls for increasing funding for this special purpose child care from $5.9 million this fiscal year to $7.5 million in fiscal 1987. Tedesco said the army is expanding outreach programs which she described As child care in settings other than family care of Center based  such programs include Parent co Ops Tedesco said. We could have parents Volunteer their services in re turn for reduced rates for their own kids in the future Tedesco said. In addition to expanding the availability of care officials Are standardizing training programs for All cd employees said Joy Guenther cd Center based program director. We be had a framework in the regulations that specifies certain topical areas to be included in the initial instruction for new employees Guenther said. For example someone without a Bachelor s degree should get 38 hours of instruction within the first six months of employ ment in such areas As prevention of child abuse health issues and so on. But there s been no development of those areas " she said we want to make this Standard at All installations so the Reg would specify not Only that they should talk about child abuse but also exactly what they should covering that  construction of new centers is continuing Guenther said. The army has designated $50 million for 19 cd construction projects in fiscal 1987. Evv maj  in i Jodi Jis a i. Higher pay from Industry keeping engineers from government work to a o t to it t1t /  a the government is having trouble recruiting engineers and scientists because private Industry offers better pay and working conditions support ers of civil service changes said tuesday. I am convinced that we have a problem of major pro portions due to the inability of our Federal laboratories to attract and retain High Quality personnel in science and technology Fields rep. Don Fuqua d-fla., chairman of the House science and technology committee told a Enate subcommittee. Fuqua and other supporters of legislation to pay higher salaries to government scientists testified that the disparity Between Federal and private pay Scales is producing High turnover at such agencies As the National Bureau of Stan Dards and the Norfolk va., naval shipyard. Starting salaries at the Bureau of standards run on the average about $10,000 behind the offers made by Indus try Fuqua told the Senate governmental affairs civil service subcommittee. Some parts of the Bureau like the Institute for com Puter science and technology can Only pay their people half As much As Industry does he said. Sen. Paul Trible r-va., said the turnover rate for Engi neers at the Norfolk naval shipyard was 13.4 percent last year defense laboratories preferred assignments for scientists and engineers Are also understaffed he said. The naval surface weapons Center in Dahlgren a has experienced a 16 percent turnover rate for scientists and engineers. The cause higher pay and benefits and better working conditions in the private  the Only Way to get technically competent people and keep them on the Job is to compensate them adequately said Trible who is co sponsoring legislation to give Federal agencies the authority to pay higher salaries for hard to nil technical positions. Sen. Jeff Bingaman d-n.m., who is co sponsoring another Bill with Fuqua said the government must give program managers the flexibility to Reward employee performance. Under the Fuqua Bingaman proposal agencies could establish alternate pay Scales for scientific and technical employees who would be paid under a wider salary Range Man agers would have the discretion to Grant raises and 5 percent of employees under alternate pay systems could be paid More than $72,300, the highest salary for Federal executives. This is a performance based pay scale Bingaman  hey Are not entitled to an annual increase it s very clearly designed to give the manager to Point out those he or she thinks deserve higher pay. The Federal office of personnel management is studying ways to make government technical jobs More attractive to scientists and engineers and will soon make recommendations to president Reagan said pm spokesman James Lafferty. Experimental personnel systems started in 1980 at two Navy laboratories in California have reduced turnover and improved morale Lafferty said. Scientists at the naval weapons Center at China Lake and the naval Ocean sys tems Center in san Diego Are compensated according to Amore flexible pay scale