European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - September 7, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 28 the stars and stripes monday september 1987 officer s biggest Battle alcoholism Coll mind rom Page 1 if there was a problem at  Beth said she stayed with Dane be cause she hoped he would change and because she believed he was faithful to her. Thai was he one thing i held onto she said. He s been faithful t thought that was his love for me even though he was t doing anything else in the House being a husband or a father i took that As love. When i found out about his infidelity thai was the Straw that broke the Camel s Back. He came Home drunk one eve Ning. The guilt he was carrying around was so heavy he had to confess to some  Bolh was making plans to leave Dane when the military police arrested him for fighting. The first blotter report was a red Flag Dane said. It s not something i m proud of Al All. Many times i became violent when 1 drank i was mad Al the world mad Al myself i was a very angry Man. I had been in fights prior to this icy just did t come 3own on the blot Ter  Dane was forced to go to the Community counselling Center. His drinking Bud Dies coached him on How to handle the Counselor. A Counselor gave me a Book to read called i la quit tomorrow " he said. I said sure i la do anything you say. I la read is books that s the Way i approached in. I read thai Book and it totally destroyed me. Realized i had a disease and there was not a Damn thing i could do Aboul  was not going to go away. The thought of total abstinence was horrible to me. I went out and drank a Little bit. I said look Here i can drink one Beer and then three Days later 1 went out an drank again and drank about four or live Beers in 20 to 30 minutes. I said. Of god look Al me and i wanted 20 More then. I came Back in Here alter thai and told her i be got a problem " Dane was sent to the Usa eur Al Cohol treatment facility in bad Cann stall where they dried him out gave him a kick in the pants and showed him the Way of alcoholics Anonymous he said. At affords you a timeout in life. They put you in groups of seven to 10 and you Tell your Story and that is where All the lies come out. They say look at you you Sod look at you you bum it s pretty Lough talk. If you arc honest eventually you will come around. All the problems in life were me thai was the big revelation. It s not your wife in s nol your Job it s nol your mom in s not your  the Tough talk helped. Dane has stayed sober for several months by Fol lowing the alcoholics Anonymous pro Gram. He also is trying to be a better husband and father. Our marriage is stronger than it has Ever been he said. We Nave our prob lems but i m sober today. We Tell each other How we feel. We re going through the program and we re both getting bet Ter. Bolh said he is changing now. We still have our disagreements bul he s Able to look at me and see me As a person and an individual. I am nol dealing with him in the old Way by ignoring him i confront him and say this is How you make me feel sometimes the stinking thinking comes through the alcoholic thinking Dane said his career was not Hurt after the truth came out Aboul Hij alcoholism. After six weeks at the alcohol treatment facility be returned to the same office. I had an understanding Chain of com  he said. Many people Don t. I had no repercussions whatsoever after i returned to work. 1 Haven t been treated differently i Haven t been Given privileges nor have i been abused. They could have Well destroyed my career if they wanted  Drunken driving leads army list of officer misconduct incidents by Chuck Vinch Washington Bureau Washington Drunken driving arrests accounted for three out of every 10 army officer misconduct incidents in 1986, by tar the largest single category charted by the . Army crime records Center in Baltimore. Total officer misconduct incidents dropped by 8.8 percent going from 1,078 to 983, according to the Center s statistics. Drunken driving accounted Tor 295 incidents in 1986, Down 16.7 per cent from the previous year s figure of company Grade officers were involved in the bulk of the misconduct incidents �77, compared with 158 by Field Grade officers and 148 by warrant officers. The Center lists eight categories of mis conduct larceny conduct unbecoming on officer a of Fitnich aria Iii ii flip fraud Drunken driving and other a category which coven a number of infrequent crimes. Misconduct incidents in 1986 declined in three of the eight categories compared to 1985. In addition to inc decrease in Drunken driving incidents larceny dropped from 10.9 percent to 10.6 percent while conduct unbecoming an officer decreased from 7,1 percent to 5.7 percent. The other category Rose from 27.6 percent of misconduct offences to 28.7 percent. Sex offences Rose slightly from 8.5 percent to 8.6 percent. Assault Inci dents increased from 5.6 percent to 6.4 percent. Drugs were involved in 4.2 of the incidents in 1986, up from 3.3 per cent in 1985. Fraud incidents increased from 4 percent in 1985 to 5.8 percent last year. Even minor misconduct incidents can have a serious effect on officer careers  to an army personnel Ofil Fis who said it s usually up to local com Manders to decide what initial course of action to take. If the offence is serious enough and is specifically covered in the uniform cod of military Justice a court martial could be the result he said. Bul with misconduct incidents Man limes we re talking about administrative action and that really depends on the situation he said. Administrative action leading to in voluntary separation could result from one incident or it could take two or three incidents or sustained poor performance Over a prolonged period of time before such action is initiated he said. Officers who fail to comply with professional standards May have to show cause in other words convince their superiors Why they should not be separated from Active duly the official said. Generally these officers have plenty of Lime to prepare a rebuttal the offi Cial to id. It s never a Case of them being kicked out before they even know Whan  fires from Page 1 acreage to about 629,000. The burned area is Only 72 Square Miles smaller than the stale of Rhode Island. Fires in those two Stales were being fought by22,000 firefighters up 2,000 from saturday according to the Boise inter Agency fire Center in Idaho which coordinates stale and Federal Crews. It said they were fighting 1,844 fires Down from saturday s 1,877. Smoke and Haze from the fires had reduced visibility to one Quarter mite late saturday when a private plane and a four engine Pacific Southwest airlines Jet came within zoo feel of each other said Jeremy James a spokesman for the san Diego based airline. The Jet carrying 27 passengers had to take evasive action 20 Miles Southeast of Oakland James said. Sunday was the third straight Day of favourable weather in California and Crews were making headway against the stale s worst blazes including the i19,00fracre paper Webb from Page 1 Wagon source said. Webb a Well respected military Leader who graduated from the . Naval Academy and was Deco rated in Vietnam has remained silent on the administration s persian Gulf policy seeking to avoid embarrassing the president the sources told the her Ald. The administration in an Effort to keep sea lanes open for Oil shipments from the Middle East has stationed 28 ships in the Gulf to escort kuwaiti tankers flying the . Flag. Complex fire in the stanislaus National Forest just West of Yosemite National Park a spokeswoman said. Officials said it no longer threatened the Merced drove of rare Sequoia redwoods in the Park. One firefighter was killed saturday and nine other were injured none seriously when a 4-foot-Diameler tree fell on their truck in six Rivera National Forest about 200 Miles North of san Francisco. The tree was in a fire area but was not burned or dead. Marines said. He was the second firefighter to die since aug. 28. California has had 1,252 fires. About 200 were still out of control sunday but the rest had been at least partially contained officials said. Fire officials said an intense Effort to prevent the huge paper Complex Blaze about 150 Miles Southeast of Sanfrancisco from spreading into towns East of Sonora was paying off with the fire 20 percent contained sunday. Thirteen isolated Homes and 17 bams and Sheds had been destroyed in the fire in Tuolumne county. On sunday morning authorities allowed the first contingent of about 250 of the 5,687 evacuees Back into the area. There were about 7,000 evacuees so Alewife Down from last week s 15,000, said la von Perez of the Forest service in Sacramento. Evacuation orders in southwestern Oregon that had kept 1,000 people from their Rural Homes were lined late saturday said Jim Fisher spokesman for the Ore gon unified coordination group in Salem which is directing the state s firefighting Elf butt about 2,000 Oiler evacuees were allowed to return earlier. With Crews gaining ground on Oregon fires that threatened Homes Ana with 600 hastily trained army soldiers scheduled to arrive monday from fort Ord calif., firefight in were being shifted to two blazes that have blackened 37,300 acres of Timber in the Sisk you National Forest Fisher said. That Means firefighters were to be assigned for the firs time to Oregon s biggest Blaze the Silver Complex which has charred an estimated 18,000 acres in a Remote unpopulated area 25 Miles West of Grants pass. Aircraft could not be used because of dense smoke. The number of Active blazes in Idaho dropped from m be to two sunday. Kuwait confirms missile incident Manama Bahrain a Kuwait s defense min ister confirmed sunday that a chinese made missile was fired at Kuwait s coastline Friday. Iran warned it would respond in due course to the expulsion of five of its diplomats from Kuwait. Iranian prime minister Hussein Musavi while giving no hint of what his government s reaction would be was quoted As suggesting that Kuwait had been forced into the decision by inc United states. Meanwhile six . Mine sweepers steamed toward the persian Gulf to help protect re flagged kuwaiti tankers. The esteem Conquest and enhance left Hawaii saturday morning and the inflict fearless and illusive left Virginia on sunday . Military officials said in Washington. The Tanker War appeared to have cased sunday after a week of intensive iraqi air attacks on iranian ships and coastal targets and retaliatory raids on ship Ping by iranian commando boats. Kuwaiti defense minister Sheik Salem Al Sabah told a Cabinet meeting sunday that the missile which nil Kuwait Early Friday turned out to be nude inching and had a Range of 80 to 100 Miles a govern ment spokesman said. The defense minister did not Call the missile a silk worm Bui other Well placed sources said earlier that it was one of the chinese built surface to surface missiles that Iran was known to possess. Although military experts say the silkworms have a maximum Range of about 50 Miles one diplomatic source speaking anonymously said the defense min ister almost surely was referring to a silkworm