European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - August 22, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 6 the stars and stripes tuesday August 22, 1989 Dod quietly working to put arms manuals on computer Washington a the Pentagon is quietly moving ahead with a plan to wean bureaucrats Battle ships and bombers from unwieldy stacks of paperwork and convert them to compact Cost effective computer disks. The Effort comes in response to a weighty problem a modern Navy warship carries 15 to 25 tons of operating maintenance and repair manuals the a i bomber has generated i million pages of How to documentation. The Pentagon says the Campaign could reduce the lifetime Cost of major weapons by up to 20 per can by converting masses of printed technical information into computerized databases. The Cost for technical data delivered with military hardware ranges from 10 percent to 30 percent of the total weapon system Price tag. Add to that the millions of dollars that must be spent year after year to keep the manuals up to Date. To spearhead the conversion of printed data to elec tronic form the defense department in september 1985 launched a program called computer aided acquisition and logistics support or cals. Bruce Lepisto Deputy director of the Pentagon s cals policy office said each of the military services has selected particular weapons to Lead the Way i carrying out the computerization Effort. For the air Force he said these Lead systems Are the advanced tactical fighter and the b-2 stealth bomber for the Navy the a-12 attack aircraft and ssn-21 so Wolf class attack submarine and for the army the Lex helicopter and m1a2 tank. Lepisto acknowledged that there had been som problem weaning military per sonnet As Well As defense contractors from Reliance on traditional paper documents. We re talking about a major cultural change Here he said. Some people Are Overly anxious and want to Rush in. And some people feel that better is the enemy of Good enough. What we re implementing is a new Way of doing business. And certainly there Are going to be people that want to go either faster or  Paul n. Pechersky co chairman of the cals Indus try steering group representing hundreds of defense contractors said we re still in the very Early  is a massive undertaking. From my own personal perspective. I think we re doing very Well. The first several years have been devoted to trying to gel our act together to decide what we want to Doand How we want to do it. And More importantly to try and get agreement on some of the Early digital information Exchange standards that have to be put in place he said. Pechersky corporate director of management information systems for a systems inc. In Dallas said the program is evolutionary not revolutionary. Well Sec various implementations of cals Well into the year 2000." the cals program involves development of standardized text and image formats so that electronic data can be readily exchanged Between a wide variety of different computer systems within the military and defense contractors. The Seybold report on publishing systems a pub Lishing Industry newsletter based in Media pa., has forecast that cals eventually will have a major Impact spreading far beyond the defense Industry. Peter Dyson associate editor of the newsletter observed the defense department handles so much printing and so much electronic information that they Are the classic 800-Pound Gorilla. Whatever they do sets a Standard. Every aspect of the publishing Industry is coming to grips with this electronic dissemination of information he said. And they re sort of mucking around not quite knowing How to do it. Because it s still a difficult technology. What the defense department has done is simply issued a Fiat. This is How you shall do it having said so. They re going to make it so. Large other chunks of the Industry arc going to go that Way simply because the vendors of electronic systems will have already written the software to do it for Dod Dyson said. Stateside army interpreter missing worked in arms inspection Salt Lake City a army investigators arc searching for an interpreter who disappeared earlier this month a military spokesman said. Staff sgt. Rasa m. Vasyliunas. An interpreter with the on site inspection Agency called in sick Tor work aug. 4 and has not been seen since maj. Bill Auer a spokesman for the 96th army Reserve come and fort Douglas said sunday. The inspection Agency was created in 1988 to Monitor soviet arms control inspectors in the United Stales including those stationed at the suburban Hercules inc. Plant. Auer said a display of Vasyliunas s photo graph in the news Media had prompted tips to the Provost marshal s office but none had proven solid. Vasyliunas 48, has been with the os1a for about a year. She Speaks German russian lithuanian and English. Nuke Plant operators scolded for shutdown delay Concord . A a nuclear Regula tory commission report criticized Seabrook nuclear Plant operators for delaying a shutdown despite the urging of arc officials when a valve failed during Low Power testing. Plant operators reacted in an unacceptable Way to the equipment failure although the Mal function was not a significant safety lapse the arc reported. It said pre test staff training apparently was inadequate. The Plant stopped the tests june 22 when a steam valve malfunctioned in a non nuclear part of the Plant. The arc said control room operators failed to follow procedures waiting nearly five minutes after the part failed to shut Down the Plant Al though an arc inspection team present urged them to do so. Pianist ust paws the keys but takes big Bow wow Shirley Mae Ross beams at her Star Pupil her Schnauzer Fritz during a performance. Rockv1lle, my. A frankly Fritz the Schnauzer does t know an arpeggio from a Doggie Bone. But when he plink planks a few notes on the family grand piano his mistress beams admiringly As if Van Cliburn himself were tick Ling the ivories. As far As Shirley Mae Ross is concerned Fritz is a Doggone sensation. He is by far my Best student said Ross who gives piano lessons to children in the living room of her suburban Washington Home. He s not a pet. He s an  twelve year old Fritz has been play ing the piano since he was a Pup. To show off for visitors he leaps to the key Board furrows his shaggy eyebrows As he looks at a Book of Beethoven sonatas and taps out a chord or two with his front paws. Fritz then races mt9 the Kitchen and wagging his stubby Tail wails next to a Cabinet door for his Reward a dog Bis Cuit. He has to be paid immediately Ross said. He belongs to the dog musicians  presumably he gets a biscuit and a half for overtime he plays and nausea she said. It s almost impossible to Stop  this Spring Fritz gained Fame when he appeared in a new Book titled dogs and their women published by Little Brown and co. There on Page 15, is a picture of Fritz seated at the piano with his mistress supposedly playing a duet. Get cracking Shirley or we won t end together Fritz is saying in the photo caption. Elsewhere in the Book a testament in words and pictures to the love affairs Between the women and their dogs is the former wife who said she replaced a 6-foot swedish husband with a 5-Pound  another is shown in her wedding gown kissing the dog who was her maid of Honor Flower girl Best Man and the one who gave me  Ross was grieving Over the death of her previous Schnauzer when her Hus band Dunwood f. Ross jr., an official at the nuclear regulatory commission brought Fritz Home As a 6-Wcek-old re placement. He s slept under the covers in my arms Ever since she said. At the urging of her piano pupils she taught Fritz to play. He loved to tear up kleenex tissues. So 1 put some kleenex on the piano keys and when he d hit a note inadvertently i d say of Fritz you wonderful dog and feed him a biscuit she said. He was trained within a week. He just loves to play the piano. And he has perfect pitch Fritz accompanies Ross on her visits to nursing Homes and senior citizen Cen ters where the dog s keyboard performances Are eagerly awaited. He plays three movements interrupted by a. Plause and munchies she said. Usually Fritz plays an andante first then a Largo for the second movement and he always ends with a Presto she said. He does cadenza All Over the place. Everything he does is  when Fritz travels he carries his own suitcase packed with a jogging suit a plaid Raincoat and a Mink coat. Its of a be of course but we must t let him know that Ross whispered. When they visit her father in Oil City pa., at Christmas time she said futz wears a Santa Claus suit to perform at the nursing  hates it Ross said because the Cap flops Down Over his eyes when be