European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - December 22, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Tuesday december 22, 1987 the stars and stripes Page 9 army s polish workers face big retirement adjustments by Joseph Owen stuff Kirl Bureau , Germany Francisck Mlak 64. Lost control of his future when the nazis abducted him from his Homo m Poland and forced him to work in Cic Many. As world War ii ended and the dust settled he got a Job As a guard with the . Army in France. International events uprooted him again in 1967, when France evicted its allies military bases. He said he did t mind much. It was Good for me there and Good Here he said. Mlak now is a Mechanic s Helper with the the 2nd support come s 6930th civilian support Center in of Manv and. As he has every two decades Mlak will reach another Crossroads when he turns 65 in january. This time it is his retirement. Mlak is one of some 30 War displaced polish Bache lors still working and living at Funker Cavern in Ess Lingen near Stuttgart. All of them must retire in the next three years and therefore will move off the Post into a German Community whose customs and Lan Guage Many of them Don t understand. Because of that the army and the City government Are seeking ways to make the move easier for the poles. I Don t think at their retirement we Are out of our responsibility. I think we have a moral obligation said support Center superintendent Fedor h. Kilmer a German who usually must Deal with his polish workers through a translator. Rittner said Funker Cavern housed up to i so polish workers after . Forces moved out of France. Some of them returned to France Over the years others got married and moved into their own residences. Still others got new jobs or retired. Now it s time for the last 30 to go and Rittner expects these longest surviving members of the polish enclave to find it hardest to adjust to life beyond the Post Walls. If these people go out and find a place to stay i think we should find some fellow who can speak their language. If there Are just germans around they la be stranded Rittner said. They belong to the Ess Lingen population just like crabby crate Jaren Horsley left the curator of invertebrates at he National zoo in Washington gels a helping hand from a fellow zoo staff member Tom Munte while unpacking a japanese giant spider crab from a crate at Dulles International Airport in Chan Lily a. All Nippon airways flew some of the big crabs from Tokyo and donated them to the National zoo. Other Esslinger. And it s up to us to take care of  said Rolf a Lohach the Ess Lingen lord mayor s special assistant in a separate incr View. Rittner said he approached City officials three years ago when he Cali cd the poles were reaching retire ment age. Two years ago he met with the workers As a group to discuss the problem and he plans to discuss it with each worker individually during the current holi Day season. So far the City has helped locale lodging for four poles. One a Man who lost both legs in an Industrial Accident will move into a cily owned dwelling with 14 other single men next week. A retired polish supervisor and a polish born army chaplain Call and visit the retirees periodically to make sure they arc getting along. The City helps out by aiming Mea us Wii Celi or other appropriate social service agencies and by seeking apartments for the next retirees. One proposal for the remaining workers Rittner said is to buy a House in which Many of them could live together. But Hohbach said the City would rather find individual dwellings for them. We arc not convinced that it would be a Good solution if we were to bring six eight or 10 poles together in one House. We would be More satisfied if we could integrate them into the City s everyday life like other foreign workers Hohbach said adding that Esslinger has no distinctly polish neighbourhoods. The polish retirees receive a pension Hohbach said so their problem is not Money but learning to Cook do their laundry go shopping and pay their Bills in a foreign society. Army officials say the disruptions the poles endured before coming to Germany Eft them disinclined to mingle with their German neighbors. Jan Michalczyk supervisor of the 8905th civilian support group to which the poles belong said Many displaced Eastern europeans worked for the army Afler the War Only As a temporary Refuge. They remained unmarried and aloof from their surroundings while waiting for communist governments Back Home to fall from Power. The poles ukrainians lithuanians latvians estonians stay in a country they Don t like and they can t go Home to see Brothers and Sisters. They wait and Sas Flolo by Joa How a Franciszck Mlak works on a Small engine. Wait and can t go Back Michalczyk said describing the initial years of uncertainty. Michalczyk a displaced pole himself eventually resumed Contact with his family members through the mail. He also married and he became a German Citi zen for his children s Sake. But other poles such As Mlak never saw or heard anything of their relatives or prewar friends again. They developed new associations Only with other displaced poles. I had one sister but i Don t know where she is Mlak said offering no other details. Rittner said the wartime experiences make it hard for outsiders like him to understand the poles and to figure out what kind of help they really want. It is always very hard to get a reaction out of them he said. They keep their feelings inside  3 More cosmonauts blast off for linkup with space station Moscow a three cosmonauts blasted off aboard a soyuz tm-4 capsule monday to replace a Crew at the Mir a narc station that has sri records for endurance in space. It will be the first Complete Crew change at a soviet Orbital platform. The current Mir Crew is headed by Yuri Romance to who has been in space for 319 Days. The White capsule left the Bai Konur space Center in soviet Kazakhstan on schedule at 2 18 . Moscow time. Its flaming engines spread a Rose coloured glow on the snowy landscape before the live television Broad cast showed the spacecraft disappearing As an Orange Cro s into the murky sky. Television then showed Black and White pictures of the cosmonauts inside the spacecraft. It reported that everything was functioning normally and ended cover age of the Blastoff after about 10 minutes. Tass the official news Agency said the three Cosmo nauts had barely reached orbit when they received a greeting from the Mir space station. We congratulate you on a successful launch it said. Looking Forward to meeting you on Board the Mir kvant  kvant is a Large Orbital Laboratory that docked with the space station on april 9. The Mir Crew was forced to make a spacewalk to Clear an obstruction Between the two ships to make the Docking possible. The soyuz tm-4 carried Vladimir Titov 40-year old Crew chief Musa Sanarov a 31-year-old flight Engineer and analogy Levchenko a test Pilot. The capsule is to Dock with the space station on wednes Day Tass said. It said the two Crews would work together on the space station for about a week before Romanenko and flight Engineer Alexander Alexandrov leave for Earth with Lovchenko. Radio Moscow said they would be Home by new year s Day. Tislov s Crew without discontinuing scientific experiments and checkups of the veterans will take Over the station and Start Independent work after the col leagues leave Tass quoted Veteran cosmonaut Niko Lai re Kaveshnikov As saying. Romanenko the flight commander has been in space since feb. 6. He set the world record for space endurance on sept. 30. Romanenko was accompanied into space by flight Engineer Alexander la Voikin who fell ill and was re placed by Alexandrov in july. Scientists arc interested in the effects of extended weightlessness on Romanenko to help them determine the feasibility of Long space flights such As a Mission to Mars. The Mission Marks the first time the soviets have attempted to make a Complete Crew change at a space station. Officials have not said whether the method will be continued creating the first permanently manned space station. Radio Moscow said the Mission of Titov and Mana Rov will be a Long one but did not say How Long they will be in space. It said they will be visited by several Crews during their Mission. Tass said Titov first flew a space Mission when he commanded a soyuz t-8 capsule in april 1983. He has been a cosmonaut since 1976. Sanarov and Levchenko Are making their first flights into space. Radio Moscow said Levchenko is to conduct some tests to help soviet scientists develop a reusable space Craft. This summer. Soviet scientists made their first test of a rocket they say will be used to boost a reusable Craft similar to the american space shuttle. There is no indication of when such a Craft will Fly