European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - February 28, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page b the stars and stripes sunday. February 28.1988 1 engineers dirty work saves Man Euver damage Money by Connie Dickey staff writer Ini Heidi Vest Germany every Day during v corps i  exercise four engineers Are out collecting dirt at 0-dark-Hundred to bring Hack to their office in Frankfurt. The soldiers part of the 517th engr Del and assigned Wilh the v corps soil Sample Survey team Are not playing with the dirt. They Are collecting data on How to prevent Man Euver damage and to determine where vehicles can safely travel during wartime. During the exercise we arc concerned with learning at what depth will we have Man Euver damage but. During a wartime situation All we want to know is can we gel from Point a to Point  said Sec. Ron Searle. No in charge of the detachment. The team has found that 75 percent of the soil throughout Germany is a mixed Sandy silly Clay Type. The other 25 percent is Sands gravels and peals. Scarle said. The two two member teams Are on inc Road by 5  sometimes earlier collecting dirt from the no a Day s Man Euver area. They Musl have their eight samples Back to corps Headquarters by 11 30 . For Lesting. Searle said. We give the to commanding general a Brief ing every afternoon on what can be expected the next any. We also Send out messages to inc commanders of the major commands and brigades advising them not to do off Road Maneu vers or very minimal Maneu vers i fwd find that that particular area could have a lot of Man Euver  the team members use a soil  to measure the hardness of the ground where vehicles will be used during Maneu vers. The Pine Trompler is a Long steel like Slick with a Point on one end used to Slick into the ground and a gauge on the handle thai measures inc pounds per Square Inch of pres sure required to break the surface. " Lur primary Depths for Reading arc three six and 12  Searle said for 25-Lon wheeled and tracked vehicles we use readings from nine to 15 inches of soil depth. We be found thai if we break More than three inches of soil our Man Euver damage becomes More costly. At three inches we still have ruts to repair and we gel lots of soil on our tracks bul it in t As bad As culling Inlo More inches  after the teams do the pressure lest in the Field. Lac Lake random soil plug samples. Using a hollow Cylinder to Cut a six Inch plug of soil they compact it b pounding it 100 limes into the Cylinder. This plug is then Laken to Headquarters for a computation of us rating Cone Index. The Index shows How much pressure soil can withstand. Searle said. They compare thai Index to a vehicle Cone Index Hal shows inc damage a vehicle is Likely to cause at Given Depths. Its the soil s rating Cone Index Musl be higher is Polo by Grenda hos Lei staff sgt. Kelly Reefer pushes a Pine Trostler Inlo the ground As part. 2 Russell Berkey records the resulting Riding. Than a vehicle Cone Index to prevent Man Euver damage Searle said. He said this year s warm a incr Wear her has caused the soil Sample Survey teams to recommend inc elements participating in caravan guard to limit their Maneu vers because the soil is just Loo soft and Loo Wal. Last year we had no problems at All. The exercise was held around the Fulda area and the ground was fro in solid. That s Good be cause vehicles Don t sink Inlo the soil when it is thai  he said the teams have Learned there is no use sampling the ground if it is solid but they go out it the soil is very moist or if Persi Lenl Rains Are fall ing. The Leam started collecting its soil samples Dur ing the return of forces to Germany exercise in 1985 and has picked up dirt from every1 major corps exercise since Ihnn. I be heard that because of what we did during refer Ger 85, we were Able to help save $8 million through Man Euver damage prevention Searle said. And because of the Dollar s poor showing which boosts the Cost of Man Euver damage soil Lessing is something that will continue he said. Armenian protesters disperse Moscow a Calm returned to the sir acts of Armenia s capital of  saturday after several Days of mass demonstrations but reports reaching the United states claimed that ethnic armenians remained camped in a Lent its in the Region where the protests began. \ hotel manager when reached by Telephone from mip scow. Said that everything is quiet in the City where Ai least five Days of Street protests prompted Smiel Leader Mikhail s Gorbachev to Appeal for restraint. Telephone operator in the cily also said the demonstrations had ended on saturday bul of Fps to con Laci armenian nationalist leaders were unsuccessful. Most calms to the cily have been Cut off since the demonstrations began and foreign reporters were pre denied i Tom travelling to the Small Republic on the turkish Border by order of in Louril the Sale Agency that foreigners Are required to use for travel and hotel accommodations. 1 Here was no direct wind on the situation in Nagor no Karabash the autonomous Region where the ethnic armenian majoral look to the streets to protest the soviet communist party s rejection of a proposal to give the Region Back to Armenia. It has been designated part of a neighbouring Republic. Azerbaijan since 1923. Gorbachev s Appeal read on armenian and Azer Bajanian radio and television Friday by a Central commit cd official was accompanied by a pledge from local party officials to ask the Moscow based communist party Central committee to reconsider the Territo rial Issue. Shortly afterwards the demonstrators in Erivan. Said by some to have numbered More than a million began to disperse. A Washington based group calling itself the Armeni an National committee of America quoted Telephone reports from inc Region As saying Magorno Karabash s main cily. Stepan Akert had been Lumen Inlo a tent City by armenian villagers from the Countryside. The group claimed azerbaijani had killed 70 armenians in the Region and that soviet troops surrounded Stepan Akert to prevent further ethnic violence. There have been other reports of deaths in the Region but mine has been confirmed. Kel Lions Between Azerbaijan a predominantly moslem Republic and predominantly Christian arme Nia have been tense for some Lime. This week that tension erupted first in the come sied autonomous re Gion whose population is i rec quarters armenian and Ihen spread to Erivan. World today India s Independence Day marked by Freedom run new Delhi. India a More than 120,000 people from Lodd Lars to prime minister Rajiv Gandhi ran in a patriotic show of strength saturday to Mark the 40lh year of India s Independence. Gandhi dressed in a Gray track suit and sneakers flagged olt the Freedom run near parliament House and thousands of people mainly schoolchildren flooded the  of the runners wore to shirts of Saffron Green and while the colors of the Indian Flag. Gandhi and about 70 other vips include info Cabinet ministers and movie stars joined the no for awhile. China presents biography of Deng with photographs Beijing a senior Leader Deng Xiaoping who has criticized the personality cult that surrounded Mao tse Tung. Is the subject of a government published biography that includes 500 photographs dating Back to 1921. Among the pictures half of which Are being Pun listed for the first time Are shots taken by Denis daughter when Mao exiled Deng to the Countryside during the 1966-76 cultural revolution the official China daily said . 83. Was branded a capitalist during the upheaval but he came Back after Mao s death in 1976 to steer China on a course of Market oriented Reform and opening to the outside world that has significantly improved living standards. The 304-Page Book compiled by the official Xinhua news Agency and the communist parly s department on party literature was described As the most Complete and accurate biography of Deng printed in China. Hyperactive Hippo goes on rampage in Kenya Nairobi. Kenya up wardens searched a Nairobi suburb saturday for a Hippopotamus who after wallowing in a sewage tank attacked a Man on a bicycle biting his head Back and thigh police said  said the animal suddenly Rose out of a Lank at a sewage Plant at Pandora on the Cit s Western out skirts near Nairobi National game Park and attacked the  Man was hospitalized and believed to be in Lair  animal knocked the Man Down and slashed his head buttocks and thigh before workers managed to drag him Clear. The Hippopotamus then wrecked the Bike before lumbering off. Wolves Best friends on the prowl in Canada Vancouver. . A Hunters became the hunted when three protesters armed with pots pans and cameras parachuted into northeastern British co Lumbia in an Effort to Block a government Wolf kill. As the friends of the Wolf members began their Effort in the Muskwa Valley on Friday the Western Canadian wilderness committee was in British co Lumbia s supreme court in Vancouver seeking an in Junction to Hall the Wolf Hunt. Justice Alan Macdonell declined to order an imme Diate injunction but ordered that the application be heard , another environmental group. Garlti first planned its own protest and said it would have people hike into the area to interfere Wilh the govern. Mem paid Hunters. British businessman freed from prison in Baghdad London a a British businessman who was pardoned by Iraq alter spending eight years in a Bagh dad prison 01 a Chaigr of bribing officials returned Home Friday. John Smith. -46, was working As a Salesman for British car sales Agency Hes air Dennis when he was arrested m 1979 while talking with an iraqi official in a Park. He was convicted in i960 of bribing iraqi officials and was sentenced to life imprisonment or 20 years. The officials were tried and executed according to an iraqi Law thai prohibits receiving bribes from for eign salesmen. The Law also bans officials from provid ing information relating to the state. In addition. Smith was accused of economic Espoo  but it was not Clear whether he was Ever Normal in charged or convicted on such a charge