European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - December 14, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Sunday decsmber14, 1986 the stars and stripes Page 3 of to open new flight slots to women by Norman Blackcap military Wal str Washington the air Force has decided to open to women More than 1,600 Job slots that involve Crew assignments to reconnaissance and electronic War fare air planes. Air Force Secretary Edward c. Aldridge or. Mid Friday. The decision Means More than 95 percent of Alt air Force positions an open to qualified and interested women Aldridge added in a Spetch to the Washington chapter of an organization known As women in de sense. The air Force continually strives to make the Maxi mum number of positions available to women. Over the past five years the air Force has opened approximately 30,000 positions to women. This is another step for Ward in this continuing Effort Aldridge noted Many people had been surprised by the revelation earlier this Spring that women had flown some of the tankers used in Panl to refuel Al 11 bomb ers thai raided targets in Libya. The Secretary said the latest decision would affect1,645 positions for women flyers and technicians involving Crews for rc-130 reconnaissance aircraft and ec-130 electronic warfare planes. In the Case of the ec-130s, officers and enlisted women Wilt be eligible to apply for Only certain mis Sions undertaken by those planes the air Force said after Aldridge s speech. They will not for example be allowed to Crew such a plane on a combat Mission. Rather they will be allowed for the first time to apply for Crew slots that involve certain classified continuing studies of electronic War fare defences. Capt. Miles Wiley an air Force spokesman said the service has eight ec-130s that Are used to develop and apply techniques to ensure that . Communications Are Safe from hostile countermeasures the planes also can be used in a search and Rescue role Tor plotting radio , Wiley added. The opening to women on the rc-130s, on the other hand docs nol contain any restrictions. Those planes Are routinely used for High Altitude electronic recon Naissance missions that do nol require them to Fly Over a Battlefield Wiley said. Thus in each Case Aldridge added the decision will be implemented in such a Way As to Honor the so called combat exclusion policy which Bare women in any of the armed services from working in jobs where hey could be exposed to hostile fire or the possibility of  said the air Force leads All . Armed serv ices with roughly 12 percent of its 610,000-Mcmber Active duty Rosier composed of women an increase from 3 percent a Little Over 10 years  terminally ill boy has True spirit of giving Jacksonville Fla. A a Ter Minally ill 14-year-old boy who was Given a 1200 shopping spree showed he understands the True meaning of Christmas when he used the Opportunity to buy gifts for his family. Richard Ron lines who has muscular dystrophy and May have Only a year Tolive thought of others More than himself when he made his purchases thursday. A child s dream a program that tries to fulfil the wishes of terminally ill Chil Dren sponsored his shopping spree at Pic n save a discount department store. We figured he d gel primarily toys for himself said store spokesman Jim Miranda. But he stays in the toy depart ment Only a few minutes then he goes into the clothing department men s department then to hardware. After a while we got choked up. We said do you realize what he s doing he s making Christmas for his family " Pic n save managers decided at that Point to pick up the lab for the boy purchases Miranda said. A child s dream donated the original $200 to the homies family. Who got the Blessing we got the Blessing Miranda said. It was really the spirit of giving. We thought we were the ones giving bul he gave us the  the youth collected items for his Mother father and two Brothers. The total was More than 1200, but Miranda did not disclose How much More. Miranda watched As the wheelchair bound boy picked out after shave women s clothes and a fishing Rod As Well Stoys for his Brothers and himself. Richard s Mother Clara  works As a waitress said the pre sents and the Money will brighten the family s Christmas. When we got Home we wrapped everything and put it under the tree. He s a Little excited right now she said. She said she was surprised when of All the things Richard could have chosen from a child s dream he picked a shop Ping spree As his dream come True. A child s dream is a program sponsored by Telephone Industry employees including Active and retired employees of Southern Bell. It go Richard s name through a hospice program that helps Ter Minally ill patients and their families. Massive mom a photo Brook a 16-year-old, 2,500-Poond Black Rhinoceros puzzles her Newborn offspring at Brooks a old zoo in Brook Field Iii. The 70-Pound baby is report edly the 69th Black Rhino in Captivity in North America. 287 More recruits rejected after positive aids tests by Norman Black a military writer Washington the defense department said Friday its continuing surveillance for exposure to the disease aids resulted in another 287 recruits being denied entry into the armed services during the three months ended sept. 30. Releasing its latest quarterly report on aids blood screening the Pentagon said it was continuing to Chart an Overall positive rate of about 1.5 cases per 1,000 individuals tested. Aids or acquired immune deficiency syndrome is a fatal disease thai destroys the body s ability to resist infection. In the United states it has been confined primarily to homosexuals intravenous drug users and people who received tainted blood transfusions. Since the testing program began in october 1985, 976 recruits 917 men and 59 women have tested positive for the antibody associated with aids and therefore were determined to have been exposed to the virus. The Pentagon said it tested 174,591 recruits Dur ing the latest three month period raising the total tested since the surveillance program began to 641,220. The defense department s testing program is by farther largest of any organization or government Agency in the world. The Pentagon now requires All recruits to be tested before entering the service and is in the pro Cess of testing All 2.1 million men and women on Active duty As Well. Under defense department regulations any re Cruit who tests positive for aids exposure is automatically denied entry into the military. People Al ready on Active duly who test positive May remain in the service if there Are no signs of the disease itself bul face restrictions on Job assignments and overseas deployments. The Pentagon said it continues to see a wide variance among recruits depending upon whal part of the country they were from. The . Territories. Middle and South Atlantic state regions have the highest prevalence of antibody positive applicants and the West and East North Cen trial Mountain and new England states have the lowest prevalence Rales the Pentagon said. The report also noted that older recruits continued to show the highest positive test Rale. The latest report further shows the percentage rate of positive tests has remained almost constant since testing began at 1.5 cases per 1,000 individuals tested. The male rate was pegged at 1.66 cases per 1,000 men and the female rate at 0.66 cases per 1,000 women. The military rate is higher than that being reported by civilian blood agencies but Pentagon officials stress it is impossible to meaningfully compare in figures because of such differences As average age. Aids study focuses on prostitutes in Germany London up a group of 448 female prostitutes in Germany who had . Military clients and who regularly supplied condoms were found to be free from aids infection according to a re port Friday in the British medical Jour Nal the lancet. But it said that other research had showed that Overall in Germany i per cent of licensed female prostitutes have the aids virus and that the figure for unlicensed prostitutes is 20 percent. In the study group the demographic mix of their clients the absence of Intra venous drug abuse and the frequency with which condoms Are used for All sex Ual practices May be protecting these prostitutes from infection the report said. A spokesman for the . Army hos Pital in Nuernberg said the Hospital provided technical assistance to the Girman health department which conducted the Survey with a researcher from Yale University medical school the Survey said that among 448 licensed prostitutes studied in March and april in Nuernberg none tested positive for aids. In responses on questionnaires 97.5 percent said that when they practice vaginal sex with a client a condom was used. A Large majority also said condoms were used for masturbation and Oral sex. Nuernberg has a population of half million with 25,000 . Army person Nel. Of the prostitutes 21 percent regularly had . Military clients and they had an average of 13 clients per week. All the prostitutes in the study group were German or were from other West Ern european nations had an average age of 30 and had been prostitutes for an average of 6 years