European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - February 5, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Sunday february 1989 the stars and stripes Page 7 Landers help sends Valentines to a patients Chicago a a suggestion from advice columnist Ann Landers May have started a run on the red ribbon and paper doily Market say organizers of a Valentine drive for veterans administration Hospital patients. Nearly a Quarter of a million cards Many of them homemade had been received by thurs Day said Pam surges a spokeswoman for the Hines a Hospital. Hines in the Western Chi Cago suburbs is the National Clearinghouse forthe card drive which is part of the feb. 12-18 National Salute to hospitalized veterans. We have More than 200,000 cards and Westill have More than a week and a half until Valentine s Day surges said. We be been told to expect about one million of them. They be been coming from every state in the Union plus puerto Rico. We be even had one from  the Valentine drive was our idea and whence told Ann Landers about it she said yes this is great " surges said. She hopped on the idea right away and the . Postal service gave us their cooperation too. They gave us a special add on zip code so the cards could be separated from the regular Hospital  Landers urged her readers to Send the Valen tines in her Jan. 24 column. The address for the cards is Ann Landers Valentine vet Hines a Hospital Hines 111. 60141-1489. Despite 9 deaths injuries Alaska Drill called Success Anchorage Alaska up Winter War game during one of Alaska s most extreme cold spells claimed nine lives and 88 frostbite victims and forced major cutbacks in Maneu vers military officials reported Fri Day while characterizing the exercise As a Success. In All there were some 253 cold weather injuries including 88 cases of frostbite two serious enough for amputation or other permanent effects 104 respiratory illnesses and 61 fractures or sprains from slip Ping on ice according to a military summary. This year s casualty figures compare to two death sin 1983 and one in 1981 from brim Frost training which is held in Alaska every two years. This year s480 medical cases including the 253 cold related injuries compare with 418 in 1987. Last year s brim Frost involved 24,000 troops. We whipped the weather air Force it.  Mclnerney commander of the alaskan air come at Elmendorf fab said of the two week join forces brim Frost 89 exercise involving 26,000 troops from the United states and Canada. He claimed the exercise met 80 percent of its objectives. Army maj. Gen. Harold t. Fields jr., commander of the 6th inf div in Alaska called brim Frost a great  an official summary of the largest Winter Maneu Persever staged in Alaska during one of Alaska s worst Winters painted a picture of Success in the face of adversity and said although the extreme cold took its toll on some exercise activities most of the exercise objectives were  it s been a bad two weeks maj. Jim Tillman said in an interview before the wrap up report was issued. The chief brim Frost exercise and grand finale were supposed to be a Large scale Force on Force mock Bat the pitting Friendly Blue forces against enemy re forces and involving All 26,000 troops. The Battle ended not with a bang but with a whimper. We jokingly called it the squad on squad instead of Force on Force because the command made a Deci Sion to reduce so much Tillman said. He said the Force was reduced 90 percent. Extreme cold and dense ice fog plagued the $15million exercise from beginning to end stopping Many of its 120 planes and 1,000 vehicles from functioning in the extreme cold. Even when Maneu vers ended wednesday weather grounded planes bringing the troops in from the Field. But officials said that by Friday All troops from the army air Force Navy coast guard marines National guard and reserves should be Back at their Home stations in 17 states. Canada formally pulled out of the exercise monday after a cc-130 crash that killed nine and injured nine at fort Wainwright near Fairbanks. The plane carry ing Arctic gear for a 500-troop Parachute jump crashed in dense ice fog at 52 below Zero. Brim Frost commanders scheduled 590 fighter operations involving f-15s and other aircraft but fewer than one Quarter of the sorties 143, were flown be cause of bad weather. Of 491 planned airlifts by c-130 transport planes 326 were flown. All 103 strategic air lift flights by c-141s were flown. A mid brim Frost statement said the weather displaying havoc with All concerned and Public affairs officers interviewed during brim Frost echoed this. Long Gray line May be stretched to Moscow West Point . A soviet cadets May be strolling around the West Point Campus next fall while american cadets study at russian military academies officials said. An Exchange of cadets Between the two superpowers has been approved by top government officials according lowest Point officials. The idea was first proposed in july by the Deputy com Mander of the soviet ground Force. Col. Gen. Dmitri a. Grinkevich during visit to the . Military Academy at West Point. The Exchange of military cadets would be for Brief periods probably lasting two weeks initially according to col. James Hawthorne director of Academy relations at West Point. Anything can happen of course but there is no plan for it to develop into anything longer than a Short term pro Gram Hawthorne said. The purpose of the Exchange would Beto help american and soviet cadets bet Ter understand each other. It s a cultural Exchange program with military implications of course said Hawthorne. The purpose is. Not for us to learn the inner Workings of the  he said the program s benefits May be decades away. These will be 19 and 20 year Olds. Twill not be for some years that they will be in any position to make decisions that might result in an easing of tensions but who knows this May pay dividends inthe  he said . And soviet officials hereto meet in Moscow to negotiate the Tim ing of the Exchange. The proposed program reflects a significant change in soviet american relations at West Point. Two years ago soviet astronaut Vladimir a. Doha Nibeko was forbidden by the army to speak at West Point and a invitation to poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko was withdrawn on orders from the Pentagon. For 100 years West Point has be entraining foreign cadets in a four year pro Gram. Currently 30 cadets from foreign countries Are at the military Academy. Alien crossing a traffic Engineer sets up a watch for people sign so far this year three illegal aliens sneaking into on the interstate Highway North of Tijuana Mexico. California have been struck and killed by cars. By is could Cost $400 million each if renovated Washington a the air Force Fleet of b-1b bombers could Cost up to $400 million each if the service goes ahead with All the planned improvements according to a published report. The new Cost estimate was part of another review of the troubled program by the general accounting of fice the congressional watchdog Agency the washing ton Post reported saturday. Some flaws discovered in the Rockwell International built bomber have been corrected but there Are still major problems with the performance of the plane the newspaper quoted the Gao report As saying. Those problems mean the bib May not have the Range it was originally expected to have or be Able to carry All the bombs and missiles planned for it the Post said. The by killed by then president Carter in 1977,was resurrected four years later by former president Reagan who said 100 of the swing winged planes were needed to update the nation s aging Force of nuclear armed bombers. Reagan ordered 100 of the planes at a Cost of $20.5billion. Three have crashed leaving the service with 97  air Force has already received All the bibs it intends to buy and is now proceeding with plans to buy the radar evading stealth b-2 bomber. The Gao concluded several of the a lbs problem shaven t been solved. Several areas critical to by mis Sion performance have not yet been demonstrated the newspaper quoted the Gao As concluding