European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - November 21, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 2 a a a mail the stars and stripes wednesday november 21,1990 like grains of Sand by Randy Pruitt staff writer in Eastern saudi Arabia postal workers Call it the a sea of mail a More than 100 heavy wooden pallets Strung out along the worlds biggest Beach a saudi Arabia. But its anything but a Beach party for the military postal workers who daily face from 13q to 150 tons of arriving mail. A what gets difficult is when you take All that mail into the desert and then it has to be broken Down by name and unit and delivered to each tank and artillery unit a said maj. Gen. William a a Gus Pagonis commander of the army scentral support come. A a we re not talking about a few Miles Between units. We re talking about hundreds of in Many Remote places there Are no roads just tracks in the Sand. Depending on location mail reaches soldiers from seven to 15 Days after it is mailed in the states. The goal is 10 Days or fewer. With Christmas approaching Pagonis said he expects the crush of mail to nearly double. And that a not including the 200,000 additional troops expected to arrive by mid january. Workers from two Reserve and National guard postal units now pull shifts of 12 hours or longer just to keep up. Working alongside them in Dusty hot surroundings Are teams of newly arrived soldiers waiting to be assigned to their units. Two additional postal units Are expected to be activated within 30 to 60 Days Pagonis said. A you can use any Soldier to move the bulk around but it takes a qualified technician like a postal clerk to know How to s&s.1 Ken Georgs Sorters at a saudi air terminal Wade through letters and packages destined for in operation desert shield. Divide it up and stamp it a he said. As recently As Friday a backlog of 205 cargo pallets of unprocessed mail took up an acre or More of Sand. With so much mail on the ground the process of sorting and distributing it has been slowed even More. A you try to work the older mail first a but sometimes it is hard even to find the said. One thing bogging Down the mail system is the volume of letters written by schoolchildren and others to a any Soldier a Pagonis said. A we try to segregate that and move the mail that a for a specific general is no Killjoy however. He older mail a air Force capt. Phillip Jewitt likes the troops to receive the mystery let ters and packages. Quot a 75-year-old gentleman wrote to a any Soldier a and i wrote Back to him a Pagonis said. A the wrote Back and said i was the first general who Ever sent him a note. He said he saw Georgie Patton in world War ii from his foxhole but he never talked to contributing to this report the Loa Angeles times army dentists have hands full with Gulf Mission by Rosemary Sawyer staff writer dental care at army facilities in Germany will be hard to come by Over the next months As dentists concentrate on care of soldiers and then ship out to the persian Gulf a medical command spokesman said tuesday. It. Gen. John m. Shalikashvil Deputy commander of the . Army in Europe has directed that All soldiers receive certain types of dental care by mid december regardless of whether they Are bound for the desert. Army dentists Are Busy meeting that goal by doing checkups and providing treatment for soldiers identified As Likely candidates for dental emergencies in the next year. Full Mouth a rays Are also being done for soldiers who done to have them on file in a Central records facility. These records would be used to identify soldiers in Case of death. A the . Army in Europe employs about 360 army dentists and 419 civilian dentists in its dental clinics. Bill Swisher 7th medical come spokesman could not release the number of army dentists who will deploy in support of desert shield. Despite the changes emergency care will always be available at the facilities Swisher said. Routine and specially care for family members will be limited while dentists ready troops for deployment Swisher said. After the troops have been processed and the dentists begin to deploy routine care of family members will continue to be limited and specially care wont be Avail Able. Soldiers remaining in Europe after the deployment can expect to receive routine care and limited specially care. Routine care includes cleanings exams and fillings. Any More Complex dental work a such As Root canals crowns Bridges and dentures a is considered specially care. Providing dental care for civilian workers a is very difficult in any Case and we re going to have to limit it to emergency care Only a Swisher said. Most dental facilities can provide lists of local civilian dentists he said. The medical command has requested reservists be assigned to a fill the gaps left by deploying dentists but it was unclear whether that will occur Swisher said. News update his vaccine testing Geneva up the world health organization has begun Small scale trials on humans of potential aids vaccines. The initial tests Are taking place in mainly industrialized countries to determine the safety of the vaccines and whether they stimulate antibody production against his the virus that causes acquired immune deficiency syndrome the . Health Agency said. Dod wants Congress to drop lottery idea correction because of an editing error an article on contingency hospitals in Europe incorrectly said european based personnel would por Mally staff the facilities. Contingency plans Call for the personnel to be brought from the states however Many of the stateside based people normally expected to staff the hospitals already have been sent to the Middle East. Therefore officials in Europe do not yet know from where in the states the staffs will come. By Chuck Vinch Washington Bureau Washington the Pentagon is urging Congress to reject an overseas lottery despite a Survey that shows overwhelming support among service members. The Survey conducted by an Independent research firm under contract to the army involved 12,300 questionnaires mailed randomly to military personnel. More than 3,100 were returned. The results showed that 81 percent of enlisted personnel and 62 percent of officers thought a lottery was a Good idea. About two thirds believed it would help morale welfare and recreation programs while almost half said a lottery is a just another form of senior military leaders however said the turbulent atmosphere of potential base closures and Force reductions makes this a bad time to proceed. A they just Felt that they have too Many other issues going on to Deal with a new initiative like this right now a said Navy capt. Frank Jepson the Pentagon director of personnel administration and services. The decision by the chiefs of staff of the air Force and army and the chief of naval operations has raised questions not Only on Capitol Hill but also in the Pentagon. A a they be never been too keen on this a said a Pentagon source who spoke on condition of anonymity. Quot its a morality thing. These Are conservative individuals who can t shake the notion that approving a lottery Means condoning congressional aides say the moral argument is invalid considering that Slot machines Are found on most overseas military installations. A How can you say a lottery is somehow immoral but Slot machines Arentt a asked one congressional staffer. A and its not like a lottery is some revolutionary new idea. It s pretty commonplace Jepson acknowledged that Slot machines Are plentiful on military bases but said the service chiefs a just did no to want to open the door any in Ost to thirds of the states have lotteries. Thirteen of those along with the District of Columbia have joined to form lotto America a multistage lottery Pool with prizes up to $40 minion. A military version which would be limited to overseas locations to avoid conflict with state run games would be the first federally supported lottery. The Survey results and the services recommendations have been sent to Congress As required by the 1989 defense authorization act. The congressional staffer declined to predict when lawmakers might make a final decision on an overseas military lottery. A but in the current budget climate when funds Are shrinking across the Board i think you a have to look Long and hard at any potential new Revenue source a the staffer said. The idea of a military lottery has been kicked around for at least four years. An army proposal in 1986 called for tickets of $1 and prizes of up to $5,000. At the time army officials estimated that a lottery could bring in As much As $30 million a year. In March 1987, then Secretary of the army John Marsh or. Cancelled the project. Reportedly he feared that a lottery would encourage gambling particularly among Young troops who could least at Ford it. ,
