European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - October 26, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Wednesday october 25,1988 the stars and stripes pages fliers Start getting their Goatskin jackets Are a hit but retention Angle Falls Flat by Dave Diehl . Bureau Raf upper Heyford England if the air Force thinks a j100 leather jacket can keep us fliers in the cockpits a few of the men who were among the first to receive them hum news for their service. As fihe Pilot Cape. Mare Miller put it i Don t think anyone was foolish enough to think that if you give somebody a leather jacket they la stay in the air  Miller 34. A former enlisted Man who has been flying jets for More than eight years was one of about 180 pilots and weapons systems officers at Raf upper Heyford to gel the new Goatskin garments first popularized by . Air corps pilots during world War ii. The 20th tac fighter Wing was picked As the first to get the jackets because at 70, it ranks As the oldest unit in . Air forces Europe. Fliers from about 18 wings in Safe will be issued the jackets Between now and August 1989, according to maj. Charles Martin ofus afe s support division. He said Here at Tilburg a West Germany arc next in line to receive the jackets. When it announced the idea last year the air Force said the is million Purchase of some 53,000 jackets was intended to enhance Esprit do corps among Fliche and help curb their exodus from the service often tobit salaries at the airlines. The service later backed away from the retention idea when members of Congress questioned spending tax Money on leather jackets especially ones made from foreign goals As later was revealed. Maj. Gen. Marcus Anderson the 3rd air Force commander and the Man who formally presented the jackets to the upper Heyford fliers on monday is one Leader who would like to see the jackal for act Calion Issue left behind. The retention Factor got blown Way out of proportion he said monday after presenting the Jacksis to about 20 aviators at the upper Hoy lord officers club. It never was a prime reason. The intent from the beginning was to recognize the important contribution that our air Crews were making and tic it Back to our  some officers accuse the Media of distorting the Issue. "11 started to get somewhat cynical Miller said of the controversy which began in Washington last sum Mer. People suddenly became grudging about it. La was perceived that it was taking food out of babies Mouths. It s a Small thing when you consider the National  jackets aside pay career progression and family life Are High atop the list of retention factors say Many pilots. There arc some things that make people want to make the air Force a career said 79lh tac fighter so commander it. Col. Larry Carter a Pilot with Lyt years in the air Force a leather flight jacket he said is not one of  Carter pointed out that the jackets Are about the same Price As the summer and Winter Nome jackets issued to every flier. And he said the Cost of the new leather jackets which Are issued at no Cost once in a flier s career is equivalent to about 10 Days Worth of incentive flight pay for a m Idle vol Captain. None of the pilots however denies that the jackets Are meant to set operational air Crews apart from the rest of the air Force. By regulation All aircrew person Nel fully qualified to Fly at any Lime after september 19b7 will be allowed to Wear the jackets throughout their careers. The men who zipped on the new jackets monday seemed to like them. In fact although the jackets meet All safely regulations for Wear in and out of the cock nits Many had doubts about wearing them on the flight line test they get a stray spot of Oil or Hydraulic fluid on the Classy skins. Some pilots think the new jackets similar in design no their predecessors arc Back where they belong after being missing since just after world War 11. Said Al i in Pilot 1st it. Mike Killcy la seems to me hat the leather jacket was always recognized As part of he fighter Pilot  no Berlin pack but Koh Gorbachev talks fruitful Moscow a West German Chancellor Hal Mut Kohl tuesday said he and soviet Leader Mikhail s. Gorbachev failed to agree on whether to reunify Berlin but signed accords to help the sick soviet food Industry and put a West Gorman in space. The Chancellor earlier highlighted his concern for human rights by meeting with Andrei Sakharov the Nobel peace prize laureate Al the West German ambassador s residence. Kohl speaking to reporters before a second round of talks with Gorbachev took a philosophical View to the dispute Over Berlin that surfaced in banquet speeches the night before the last word of history is neither spoken by me nor by or. Gorbachev Kohl  a dinner speech Gorbachev had said of the Ber Lin dispute the attempts to upset what has been created in the postwar process or push through unrealistic policies is an unpredictable and even dangerous business he appeared to be referring to Kohl s proposal for change in the Sirius of Berlin and closer Rel Lions be tween nato member West Germany and Moscow aligned East Germany. Since the end of world War ii West Berlin has been under the control of Llie uni cd slates France and Britain the victorious allies. The City has been divided since 1961 by a Wall that symbolizes the East West hostility of the cold War. Kohl said in a radio inter View in january there can be no real improvement in relations Between Moscow and Bonn if Berlin is not  on tuesday Kohl told reporters he was not sur prised by Gorbachev s remarks on Berlin. The world can l be changed in a couple of hours he said adding that he is optimistic that agreement eventually could be reached. Kohl said monday s talks had been often and in Helmut Kohl left and his wife Hannelore Greet Andrei Sakharov at the West German embassy. Part  two met again tuesday bul a Tass news Agency dispatch on the session did not say whether they Dis cussed the Berlin dispute. Tass said aides signed agreements including one on the peaceful uses of outer space Elsaid the pact provides forthe possibility that a West German would Fly aboard the Mir the soviet Union s orbiting space station. West Ger Man officials said the pact also could have German Astro nauts join soviets in travelling to Mars in 1994. West Gentian have travelled to space in 1983 and 1985 aboard the . Space  recent visits by austrian and italian leaders the soviet Union invited citizens of those countries to Fly aboard the Mir station. Ocul month French presi Dent Francois Mitterrand is to observe the launch of a French soviet space Crew to the  agreement signed tuesday Calls for West German companies to help modernize about 200 Soviel food and consumer goods factories Tass reported. The Kremlin faced with growing complaints has placed priority on eliminating food and consumer goods shortages. Kohl met earlier tuesday with soviet Premier Niko Lai i. Ryzhkova to discuss economic cooperation which includes a 11,6 billion German credit to the Kremlin to finance exports in food leather textile and clothing. Sakharov the founding father of the 1970s soviet dissident movement told Kohl there still arc political prisoners in the soviet Union and they must be re leased and rehabilitated according to German spokes Man Friedhelm Ost Sakharov was banished to the closed City of Gorky in 1980 for criticizing the Kremlin s military push into Afghanistan. Gorbachev allowed him to return to mos cow in december 1986.Kohl, who arrived in Moscow on a four Day visit monday paid homage tuesday to soviet and German victims of world War ii in freezing weather and under an Gray sky Kohl Laid a Wreath at the soviet Tomb of the unknown Soldier beside the Kremlin Wall. Tic ceremony a protocol must for foreign Dignin Laries visiting Moscow takes on a special poignancy when performed by a  distinguished guest honoured by a minute of silence the memory of millions of soviet people who died in the great patriotic War of 1941-45," Tass said in a Brief report. First lady urges drug War against users in . United nations a first lady Nancy Reagan monday called for a Home front War on individual drug users and said authorities should arrest Wall Street Bank ers buying cocaine during lunch. I is As important to Stop drug use in the United states she said As it is to Stop coca growing in Peru processing i Colombia and shipping through the Caribbean. It is often easier to make Strong speeches Abou i foreign drug lords or drug smugglers than to arrest a pair of Wall Street investment Bankers buying co Caine on their lunch break she said. Reagan who often has campaigned against drug use during her husband s presidency called for a new crusade against drug use at Home during a speech to the in. Third committee on social and humanitarian affairs. The Reagan administration has emphasized interdiction and stopping ilk Gal drugs from entering the country especially from latin America. Bul Reagan said the Battle also must be fought at Home. The drug user is an accomplice to every criminal act. Every murder every terrorist attack carried out by the narcotics syndicates she said. If we Lack the will to fully mobilize the forces of Law in our own country Larrest and punish drug users if we can not Slem the american demand for drugs then there will be i talc Hope of preventing foreign drag producers from fulfilling that demand. Drags must remain illegal at every step in the Chain she said. She was accompanied by Secretary of slate George Shutlz and . Ambassador Vernon Walters. She earlier met with Secretary general Javier Perez de Cue Lar. Reagan said the International efforts against drugs Are of vital importance an must be expanded. Drug traffickers Are International criminals who deserve Norest or Sanctuary she said. But she emphasized that it is the uni cd slates alone which bears responsibility for its own drug problem. 1 Amnot blaming other nations for America s drug problem. While most of the illegal drugs Are imported the drug users arc  to get serious about stopping illegal drugs Reagan said there can be no sub Sli Lulu for focusing on the user and that Means confronting All those citizens who use  we need to educate a generation to just say no to drugs she said. And in the meantime we must continue our fight against the production processing financing importation Sale and use of illegal