European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - March 16, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page the stars and stripes wednesday March 16, 198s funds Cut May trip up some families student dependent travel program rules change a William j. Bartman Washington Bureau Washington Many service members overseas who want to bring hair College student child Tea Over far a visit Ai government expense Are in Tor a Surprise this year As Many parents already have found out. Congress has Cut funds for the Siu Dent dependent travel program in Haf. From Las year s s4.7 million to s2.4 Mil lion ill is fiscal year. In addition to cutting the funds for be once per year free round trip Congress also quit covering the entire distance of the Tnp leaving much of it for the Parent to pick up. The identical program for government civilian worker Hil been left intact causing some military Pennines to com Plain. We feel basically thai he govern Mcnol has broken a contract said Syd Ney Hickey government relation director for the National military family association. She Laid the parents who need the service an a Small percentage ofic military and a lot of the people it Don affect Don t know about it the Cut Back  cmdr. Mary Shupack of he Penta gon s compensation office said thai while the travel program for children of civilian employees is far smaller than the military one culling Only the services program raises a question of  the Senate last year wanted to Cut out the entire travel program for service Mceben but the House persuaded in tout Back Only on the service provided. For us past several Yean the govern ment has paid for a student s entire trip from College All the Way to the parents duty nation. Students now mint get 10 the ban coast of the United states Lora military charter Seal to the Airport nearest the parents duly station. After that it s up to the students to get he res of the Way. The House s rationale for the scaled Back travel service Wai that service member stationed in the United states must pay to get their children to and from College 10 Why should those Over seas have it differently but we say Ibe kids overseas Are really in an entirety different situation Hickey said. Number one this is one round trip a year. Which Means if you want to see your child in the summer and for Christmas you Nave to pay for one trip yourself. And if you can t Jird the trip what Are you going to do with the student we can t automatically assume thai there arc aunts and nudes somewhere for All of these  Abo Kickey added lot of our Stu dents work during the summertime in order to help defray their College sex  Bui it is extern Ely difficult for a College student to find a Job Oversea. So they Are not adding that Ettry income thai they can in the  when the Nymfa gelt ill Chance to testify before the congressional appropriations committees this Spring hockey said in win Dofi Nilly say thai this it breach of  but even if the group can Tway con Gress Money for the program this Yea already is dwindling. And the defense department has Taid it will not be seek ing supplemental appropriations this year for anything. Soured say the air Force s student travel allocation is running out the quickest. I know it s starting to a out within the individual commands Laid one air Force official. At this Point in time i m not in a position to release where we Reat financially. The Pentagon is assessing the program for All services. / honouring Tito  Leader Mikhail Gorb Tuhn and his wife Ralsa Plire a Wreath at the Tomb of yugoslavian Leader Jinp Broi Tito in Belgrade Vukos Latu tuesday. Carbs he the first soviet Leader it Volt Yugoslavia i Tiglio years pm to i new declaration on soviet yugoslav relations. The Donini ent is expected to Chart a new path correlations Between Moscow and Symn lava which broke with the soviet a in 1948. Lively round of debate expected Over increases in officer corps by Chuck  Bureau Washington after the defense department admitted that 23 percent of the officer slots create Between 1980 and 1986 Are not combat essential con a regional aides predict Lively new round in the de Bate Over the recent increases in the officer corps. Lawmakers concerned that much of the growth in the officer corps could not be supported by valid War time requirements used that As a Juslin Calion to Force Mill year officer strength cuts on tic Pentagon in Fis Cal i9ij6. Of the total growth of 33,591 officers between1980 and 198677 percent Wen added through valid changes in Force Structure doctrine wartime shortfall workload training and joint requirement said de sense Secretary Frank Carlucci in a cover idler accompanying a massive new report putting officers instead of civilians in Mcnol of Llie remaining 23 percent of the new slots 7,733 billets was questionable the letter said. But Carlucci said the Way the military services de Fine their officer requirements is basically sound and that stricter Pentagon oversight would go far toward correcting whatever problems exist. Pc also re emphasized the argument thai further cuts Over the nut two years As required by Congress would severely degrade combat capability. Congress directed the Pentagon to Cut 6 percent of us officers Between 1987 and 1990, a Cut of percent already has been made with 2 percent cuts set for fiscal 1989 and fiscal 1990. In defending his request for Congress to repeal fur ther cuts Cariucci said in the report that the reductions to be made this fiscal year combined with those made in fiscal 1987 a total of 8,819 authorized. Stop already exceed the non validated growth by More than 1,000,the 2-Indhthidt report showed that the army and air Force had the highest rate of non validated officer growth Between 1980 and 1966, at More than 30 per cent each. Only 7.6 percent of Navy officer corps growth and 1.9 percent of Marine corps growth could nol be termed  blame for much of the non validated growth could be placed on the historical tendency of the serv ice hierarchies to favor officers for Many positions that could be handled Fiat As Well by civilians the report , while each of a services had some officer level requirement Trivich could probably have been filled with civilians they were unable to pursue that alternative because of congressional ceiling of civil Ian a length the report  report paints a Bleak picture of future wartime capabilities if the additional planned cuts of 4 percent Are left on the books but some congressional Side apparently Are still not convinced by the Pentagon s  still have a lot to talk Over with the depart ment of defense said one Senate aide. We have a hearing scheduled for this thursday on manpower requirements and you can be sure that this will be the prime topic on the  hearing will be before the Senate armed serv ice manpower and personnel subcommittee chaired by sen. John Glenn Ohio one of the strongest Back ers of the officer cuts. Navy acting to increase health care availability by William j. Bartman Washington Bureau Washington tie Navy u trying to Correct its health care availability problems through a number of Steps including a major increase in contractor provided care. In fiscal 1986, the number of circumstances where Navy health beneficiaries were unable to gel medical attention increased More than �0 percent from he previous year said or. William Mayer assistant Secre tary of defense for health. The following year those instances increased yet again although by Only 10 per cent. To reverse this problem the Navy will increase its budget for health services contracts from j15 million in fiscal year 1988 to j98 million in fiscal year 1989, which begins in october. Through s health service contract the Navy Jar chases health services either As direct care to the patient or indirect support to the military stiff with the " contractor coming directly into the military health facility. Other Steps to improve Navy Medicine that Mayer outlined for the House appropriations defense sub committee last week included adding 1,000 Active duty health professionals in the current fiscal year and increased pay benefits to help retain physicians. The cheapest provider of health services is the military person said Cape James Mathews a Navy spokesman. He said ant of the Goat of the Navy sur Geon general vice adm. Lames Zumble is to get in creases in medical end strength which actually is a savings to the government until that happens however the Navy wants to bring As Many of the a Cali service contractor As pos sible into its own facilities. It s a Jot cheaper to treat people in military hopi tals than of have them out it champs or what Ever Mathews said. The military facilities Are cheaper to run than out Side Dionici because the Navy already is paying the overhead on its own locations. Support systems such As laboratories and pharmacies already Are on site in Europe we have some minor health service con tracts in the United kingdom clinics and they Deal with individual contractors such As radiologist and obstetricians Mathews said. More Yueh arrangements Are anticipated around the world. Mayer credited an aggressive Campaign slatted by Zimble for helping to stunt the increase in health care unavailability in the Navy. In another health related area Zimble said that at any Given time about Loper cent of the female military population is pregnant. Zimble told the subcommittee he wants to address the problem of pregnant unmarried sailors through a High powered educational program and it Reiswig responsibility in parenting it s a difficult prob that the Admiral said. A recent study it a Navy obstetrics Center la san Diego showed 41 percent of the pregnant women were unmarried