European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - October 24, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Wednesday october 24, 1990 the stars and stripes a a a Page 3 my Ixia clerks keep wary Eye on Calendar mail Sorters know Christmas is lurking around the Corner by Vince Crawley staff writer with the . Forces in saudi Arabia a postal clerks grappling with 45 tons of mail a Day in saudi Arabia Are casting a wary Eye at the Calendar and what they say is the real Battle that lies ahead. The Christmas Rush. First it. Scott Segars the commander of a National guard postal unit handling much of the operation desert shield mail believes business will double Between the Start of november and the end of the year. And that has postal workers concerned. A was of now it would Bury us a said staff sgt. Jerome Mcreynolds a shift Leader in Segars outfit the 1241st a postal co from Montgomery Ala. But not to worry said Mcreynolds who had Active duty experience dealing with Christmas rushes when he was stationed at fort Campbell ky., and in Ansbach Germany. A a we la come up with a system to get the mail  the plan is to add More warehouse space since Segars 20 mail Sorters already Are hip deep in letters and packages at the army a main Post office in saudi Arabia. Units Are also volunteering extra mail orderlies to help with the work and Mcreynolds said that More probably would be called in for the Christmas workload. Segars said backlogs have been eliminated and the mail is flowing about As fast As it can under the present system. A to Speed up the mail any faster would require beefing up All locations with More people a the lieutenant said. Still the system suffers growing pains. The amount of mail being shipped to the Gulf Region has increased fivefold since operation dessert shield began and it does no to take much to upset the flow. Postal officials announced this week for example that letters sent to specific service members but tabled with the military so any service member addresses Are causing serious problems for Sorters. Letter writing campaigns by Church groups senior citizens clubs and schoolchildren a a not to mention columnist Abigail Van Burens a operation dear Abby Campaign a also Are testing the system. Much of the desert shield mail is unloaded from air planes in saudi Arabia and then sent to a mail terminal for sorting. There soldiers work 12-hour shifts lifting and sorting. The record so far is 200,000 pounds moved in one Day. Most mail arrives in sacks from the United states much of it grouped by unit Apo address. At the termi2 mothers finally score with boys football team Hinesville a. Up opponents no longer snicker when the fort Stewart Steeles and a couple of their moms take the Field. There had been plenty of stares smirks and visions of easy Victory from opposing sidelines at the beginning of the football season however when two new assistant coaches joined the squad of 8 and 9-year-old boys. But a 5-1 record has erased the smirks and deflated premature predictions of Victory. The Steeles were a bit dubious themselves about the teams chances since their Rookie coaches had no experience and a limited knowledge of football. Tibby Smith and Charlotte Clabough of Hines Ville volunteered their services when the army a 24th inf div Mech based at fort Stewart was deployed to saudi Arabia leaving Steeles coach Lany Cutchens without male assistants. Both Smith and Clabough have sons on the Steeles squad so they volunteered. A is amps Vinco can ploy army postal clerks sort through the mail at a saudi Apo sorting Center. Nal further sorting occurs. The army relies on fort Braggs 129th a postal co to take it out to the army units on tractor trailer rigs. One postal platoon is assigned to each of three army divisions with a detachment helping out the 1st Cav div said staff sgt. Jimmy Wilder of the 129th. A and these Guys  for instance the 24th inf div Mech routinely gets 11 tons of mail a Day. A with the bullets not flying the mail has been the no. 1 thing that keeps these Guys going a Wilder said. The 129th commander capt. Brad Seibel said last month that mail takes five to eight Days to arrive at the saudi arabian air base from the United states. It might take another 24 to 48 hours to move it out to the troop positions a �?o72 hours if they re Way up North a he said. For the most part the troops have stopped complaining about slow mail. The occasional month old letter shows up but letters mailed less than a week earlier will be in the same Batch. Soldiers and marines say their letters Home could get there faster. All mail leaving desert shield from the ground forces goes through the 1241st National guard unit where Segars people say it Seldom stays overnight. Mistakes and dissent mail also go there from across the theater. Mcreynolds the shift sergeant said stateside delivery times Are improving. A we used to just ship it to Juk Airport in new York. We re now separating it into the first number of zip codes and sending it to Juk Atlanta and  the unit also recently got an automatic cancelling machine which Segars said was a a real morale  it ended the tedious task of cancelling by hand. A second cancelling machine is on order. Again problems remain. Several family members who posed for a video postcards to the troops that aired during world series telecasts in saudi Arabia pointedly noted that they had not yet received letters from their loved ones in uniform. Against this backdrop is the Specter of the Holiday Rush. A a everybody a been telling me end of october the first of november. Then it Rolls from there a Segars said. Mcreynolds Christmas wish is that families in the United states pay attention to Post office pleas to mail Early. With Little risk of rain or sleet in saudi Arabia Only a late deluge of mail will Likely keep the postal workers from their appointed rounds. Still a it Means soldiers will be receiving mail from Home a Mcreynolds said. A a that a Good. So even if we have to put in extra hours if it lifts them up our Job is to get it to the  Bush seeking Golden Parachute for fired air Force Gen. Dugan by the Cox news service Washington a president Bush has asked the Senate armed services committee to provide fired air Force chief of staff Michael j. Dugan a a Golden Parachute to ease the pain of his abrupt dismissal last month. Bush has asked the panel to allow Dugan to remain on Active duty until the new year when a military pay raise takes effect and to receive pension benefits normally reserved for higher ranking officers. If the committee approves the White House request the 53-year-old Dugan would receive an annual pension of about $75,900 instead of the $58,650 which be ordinarily would be paid. Sen. Sam Nunn d-ga., the committee chairman has refused comment on the confidential request which the panel received from the White House last week. But some committee members Are privately disturbed by the request because of the presidents efforts in the current budget Battle to blame Congress for runaway Federal spending according to sources close to the com Mittee. Officially though the committee has a no comment at All a Scott Williams a spokesman for the panel said Friday. Defense Secretary Dick Cheney fired Dugan on sept. 17 for his outspoken discussion of . Contingency plans against Iraq. Cheney said Dugans statements to . Newspaper reporters in the Middle East a showed poor judgment at a very sensitive  in dismissing Dugan Cheney said the former fighter Pilot would be retired. And in London last monday the defense Secretary said in a radio interview that Dugan is a no longer in the air  but the following Day the air Force acknowledged that Dugan not Only remains in the air Force but has been assigned to special projects at the request of air Force Secretary Donald b. Rice. Air Force spokeswoman it. Col. Margaret Lowman said Rice is currently evaluating the services future needs for pilots navigators and missile Crew members and officer evaluation systems. And a this is not a project that has a particular end Date a she added