European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - December 14, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Wednesday december 14, 1988 the stars and stripes Page 3 flying High in Sweden s new Gripe w combat recently High above i Ink Ftping a City South of Slock to _ 39 Gripe takes its Maiden voyage Holm. The $16.6 million Gripe or Griffin is become fighter reconnaissance or attack aircraft. The first prototype of Sweden s versatile be recently Hig  a City South at Slock equipped with More than 30 computers enabling it Todl Craft la jas3 Chi Jan Taki 3,000 slots to be Cut from. A rail if a by command staff s by Chuck Vince Washington Bureau Washington defense Secretary Frank car Luecil has ordered 3,000 military and civilian slots trimmed from the staffs of Multi service commands by 1991, Pentagon officials said. The move is the result of a defense department study done a year ago that said up to 7,300 slots could be trimmed from the Headquarters staffs of unified and specified command worldwide without hurting military readiness. The study was prepared for Carlucci by a 22-Mem bar Cam led by Derek Vander Schaaf the Pentagon s do puny inspector general. The cuts will involve a mix of military and civilian slots and will be phased in Over the next three fiscal years said Navy la. Cmdr. Jim Kudla a Pentagon spokesman. The army and air Force will take the biggest hits Kudla said. The army will lose 1,123 slots while the air Force Wilt lose 1,168. The Navy will be trimmed by 654 spaces and the Marine corps by 41. The remain ing 14 position Are under adm. William a Crowe jr., chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. The move was vehemently opposed by the joint chiefs who argued that Evert a Cut of 500 positions would damage readiness. But Pentagon officials bowed to congressional pres sure to accept a sizable portion of the study s recommendations to avoid completing a four year across the Board Cut in officer strength that would have total de 6 percent. The Dod study said Headquarters fat has grown so heavy that officials have lost track of some staffs. For example the defense department listed 33,132 positions in unified and specified commands m budget justifications to Congress while the study team identified 59,510 slots on the same staffs. Kudla could not say How much Money would be saved by cutting the 3,000 slots. But if All recommendations in the study were adopted the defense budget could be Cut by $1,7 billion by 1994, Vander Schaaf said  Kudla could not say which commands would be affected. The joint chiefs have been Given the num Ber and it s now up to them and their subordinate commands to determine How to implement the cuts hcs Aid. Some of the changes recommended by the Vander Schaaf team included deactivating the . Naval forces Europe in London labelled an Annec did middleman with no direct responsibility to train and ensure the readiness of assigned operational forces belonging to the 6lh Fleet headquartered at Gacita Italy. Abolishing inc army s Western come in Hawaii. While the unit is the army component to the . Pacific come the same function is performed by forces come Tor the . Atlantic come. There is no reason Why forces come should not also serve As he army component command for the Pacific the stud said. Eliminate the army s in corps in Japan and . Naval forces Japan and reduce . Forces Korea to a Shell  merge the military Airlift come military sea till come and military traffic management come under the . Transportation come. The study chastised Dod for not giving the unified command created in 1986, More direct responsibility and called the plan for the establishment of the command no plan at  military slots affected by the cuts will be reassigned to combat or combat support Fields while civilian in slots targeted for elimination will be offered other jobs in the defense department Kudla said. There will be no further reductions As a result of the Vander Schaaf study he said a Rig a is of be Ogrea by William j. Bartman Washington Bureau Washington when the Basic allowance for quarters increases Jan. 1, single service members  a higher percentage increase than their married counterparts. Bad increases usually reflect a single across the Board increase. This Lime How Ever the increases were targeted to ensure that bad  in almost All pay grades represents around 61 percent of housing costs for their pay Grade a Mili tary compensation official said. For enlisted personnel allowances next month will increase an average 10.2 percent for those without families and 6.6 percent for those with families. For example a single e-4 would receive �212.10 and an e-6 with dependents would gel $387.90. Currently those two categories receive $192.30 and s365,70, respectively. -. For officers allowances for those with out families Wilt increase an average 7.1 percent while Rales for those with families will increase 6.8 percent. The largest percentage increases will go top is 0-2s and o-3s with four or More years of previous enlisted service. Their raises Range from 13 percent for 0 3s to 23 percent for Ichols. These offi cers previously received the same quart ers allowance As other officers in their pay grades even though they generally arc older and have larger families bad increases for All other of s to o-3s" will Range from 4 percent to 7 percent with. The percentage increasing along with rank. Defense officials said the increases offer a More accurate reflection of re ported housing costs adding that surveys indicate that Junior enlisted members Are not in need of Large increases. Bad in creases for e is through e-4s will Range from 4 percent for the lowest ranking service member to 10 percent for the e-4. Overseas bad is supplemented by an overseas housing allowance. The applicable quarters rate is subtracted from the maximum housing Cost for that location. For example an e-5 in an area where the housing  11,000 and who receives 1350 in bad could receive up to a $650 overseas housing allowance if Bis rent reached $ 1,000, 5 Florida bases targeted to close papers say Tallahassee Fla. Kupij a Federal plan to close obsolete or unneeded military bases has targeted five installations in Florida including the . Force Caribbean Headquarters in key West a newspaper Story reported monday. By the end of the year the. Commission on base realignment and closure will recommend about two dozen facilities for closing trying to save he military up to s2 billion a year. A report by the new York times regional no spa Pere said Nas Whiting Field a possible Home port in Pensacola the . Forces Caribbean Headquarters a possible Home port in key West and the naval train ing Center in Orlando Are being considered for closing. Officials said an inspection team toured the training facility in Orlando last week but officials said the visit was not a sign of closing said spokeswoman i. Betsy Jenkins. An official with the  commission on base realignment and closings also played Down the visit. We have randomly selected a couple of dozen Mili tary facilities throughout the country and we have just gone to verify our information said commission aide James abbe. We Don t want to needlessly upset any communities Florida s congressional delegation has Sard All the Sunshine stale military facilities should be considered essential. But it s up to a 12-member commission on realignment to make the Choice. Abbey. Said the panel is beginning to assemble its list of potential closures this week. None of the potential Sites for closing has been publicly disclosed. Seventeen senators from a Northeast Midwest coalition have urged concentration on bases in the Sun Belt. We wish to prevent the further entrenchment of regional inequities stemming from the location of ensling military facilities the lawmakers said in an oct. 25 letter to the commission since the late 1970s, factions in Congress and in the defense department have been trying to move the Whiting Field operations to fort Rucker ala., where they can be combined with an army training facility. But Democrat rep. Earl Hullo and others have protected the base which is Home to 1,200 student pilots and a Slaff of 2,700 military and civilian personnel. We Don t expert Whiting to be on the list said Hullo aide Brian Keeter. It does t make sense for the consolidation to Lake  there is also a question about the key West bases since congressional sources said they Are considered too close to Cuba to remove All military personnel