European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - October 23, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Troop cuts hit soviet City Soldier by Charles p. Wallace the los Angeles times for 10 years Sergei Kush Wetovsky loyally served the motherland rising to the rank of Captain in the soviet army. Then eight months ago the unthinkable happened a the motherland fired him. Quot i gave everything i had to the country and got nothing Back Quot Kush Wetovsky said. Quot i have a family to support and they did t give me a Kopeck to live  like thousands of others Kush Wetovsky was a victim of the Sharp Cut in defense spending that has forced the soviet Union to slash the size of its armed forces. Earlier this month president Mikhail s. Gorbachev announced a further reduction of 700,000 from soviet forces taking them Down to 3 million. While such cuts Are extremely popular abroad the same cannot be said in the soviet Union especially in cities such As Vladivostok the Home port of the country s Pacific Fleet. The military presence in Vladivostok Means incomes not Only for service personnel but also for the vast industries that support them. The military presence in Vladivostok a a City that with its Hills and trolley cars resembles san Francisco a is visible on every Street Corner with sailors and soldiers window shopping or dashing into enormous Marble military buildings and clubs especially for servicemen. The military presence is so vast that the City had been closed to foreigners since world War ii a decision reversed by russian federation president Boris n. Yeltsin Only three weeks ago. Quot if you Are 40 years old and have been a Soldier All your life there Are not Many places you can find work Quot said Alexander Bre Khov a former soviet officer who was demobilized a year and a half ago. With the Economy collapsing few factories Are hiring workers. Bre Khov said that while the military tried to use the spending cuts to eliminate poorer Quality officers malcontents and alcoholics a lot of talented people got thrown out As Well. Never regarded As a glamorous Job military service was at least thought of As lifetime employment. Bre Khov attended business school after leaving the army and seven months ago set up a shop in Vladivostok staffed entirely by former military officers. The officers Are All College educated know teamwork and enjoy military discipline Bre Khov said on a guided tour of his perspective shop where goods Are sold at free Market prices. Bre Khov said that he has 25 applications for every Job a sign that Many military men Are without work. He pays the men 500 _ rubles a month about $300 at the commercial rate of Exchange plus a Bonus based on sales. Most soviet soldiers who leave the military with less than 20 years service get no pension when they Are released. The Shock of such a loss is amplified by the loss of free housing on army and naval bases which is almost impossible to replace and of the special military allotment of meat and food not available in civilian shops a soviet army Captain receives about 300 rubles a month roughly the average soviet Industrial worker s pay. Vladivostok a City of 600,000, and the surrounding Region Are also starting to feel the Pinch of reduced government spending on the vast military Industrial Complex. Quot the far East has always been a Strong military fist with the naval presence missiles and army bases Quot said Alexander Rad Ushkevich editor of a new business newspaper in the City. Quot virtually All business is connected with the military and its very difficult to Transfer to some other kind of  the factories have become accustomed to receiving Money from Moscow without trying to figure out whether they make a profit the kind of expertise deemed critical for economic survival As the country moves to a free Market. Rad Ushkevich said that while factories have not begun layoffs yet the government has sharply Cut production of weapons meaning that factories Are receiving greatly reduced income. Many technical people have quit their state jobs and have joined cooperative businesses that pay higher free Market salaries to build microwave ovens and  action Lin email problems blamed on . Postal service it Early Iasi summer when informed of the new improved mailing codes i followed the instructions to notify my correspondents of my new address. My Reward has been a Sharp reduction in mail. I have been receiving almost no magazines or Cata logs and have been waiting months for ordered prepaid merchandise. I finally phoned several magazines and sales companies. The employees there said that they had had no idea of How much postage it took to ship to Quot a Quot and that their computerized mailing systems were not set up to process mail to a location called a. My orders and subscriptions had been cancelled until unless i wrote with a Correct valid address. My specific questions Are. A Are we who complied with the new address instructions now forced to Send out More address cards changing Back to Quot Apo n.y., by Quot for a few months so our mail can be delivered a does the air Force have a fund set aside to reimburse us for undelivered magazines packages and our phone Call charges to straighten out the mess ? if not Why not9 a Why did t the air Force postal chiefs in Washington effectively educate the . Civilian companies and Post offices before forcing the system on us9 two friends in the states said that their local Post offices in late August would t process their packages to Germany until they had marked out Apo a and put the old Apo n in y. Back on the Label. Pat Baker Ramstein a Germany Elt. Col. Robert j. Demmel Deputy director of information management Safe replies we in the Safe postal business understand your disappointment with the new address change and the confusion surrounding the Quot a Quot is. Quot by Quot two letter state abbreviation. Many patrons Are under the impression that this initiative was a department of defense program. Let s dispel that Rumor immediately. The fact is the United states postal service uses is the driving Force behind this change of address program. Nonetheless its apparent the initial implementation of us Psi new address program has encountered some problems. Why because uses decided Early in the planning phase to target overseas postal customers and neglected educating Large mailers and businesses in the United states. Combined with an absence of an aggressive publicity program stateside these Are primary reasons Why you Are experiencing problems with your mailers. Your complaint along with the Many others we have received from disgruntled customers is genuine and has been passed on to the military postal service Agency a the Dod Agency responsible for watching Over military postal service matters and to interface directly with uses. Be assured you and others who have expressed their frustration with the poor mail service because of this new program have received the attention of those at the highest Levels within uses. In Short they have informed us that they Are now proceeding aggressively to resolve these problem areas. As a reminder this change in our address format will according to uses improve delivery service. Through the use of bar code technology and new advances in optical character readers All letter class mail destined for Europe will be machine processed thus substantial improvements in both accuracy and transit times Are anticipated when the implementation of this program is Complete in response to your specific questions we Are now Well into the implementation phase of this new program new zip codes Are in effect and Many patrons have notified their correspondents of a change of address if you continue to experience problems with a specific Mailer then by All Means give them your old mailing address if that a what it takes to receive your mail. The old zips and Quot by Quot abbreviation will remain valid through july 15, 1992. However i must encourage you to continue to use your new mailing address unless notified by a correspondent that they will not accept it. At this stage we will continue to recommend to patrons to change their addresses and allow uses to Correct these problems stateside. We Are relaying each and every Quot horror Story Quot we receive to the military postal service Agency for uses Resolution and will continue to do so until the matter is resolved. While no Avenue is available for you to seek reimbursement for your time or the Cost of Telephone Calls to Correct address problems we endorse anyone who has a piece of mail returned incorrectly to instruct the Mailer to Complete is form 3533, application and voucher for refund of postage and fees and submit it to their servicing Post office. Additionally customers should continue reporting All mail problems to their local postmaster by completing is form 4314-c, consumer service card located in each military Post office lobby. With this communication we will continue to bombard uses with customer grievances and ultimately solve these problems prior to the final phase of this program july 15, 1992, when the new zips and Quot a Quot two letter state designation become user mandatory. To write us readers action line is the readers court of last resort striving to answer some of the questions about life overseas in a military environment or questions about policies and guidelines when other avenues for answers Are not readily available. If you have a question and Don t know where to turn for the answer write to readers action line co the stars and stripes Apo 09211-4211. All letters must be signed and preference will be Given to those seeking information of general interest to our readers. Page 16 a the stars and stripes wednesday october 23, 1991