European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - January 29, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Wednesday january 29, 1992 the stars and stripes a Page 3 list offers assignment opportunities of personnel can apply for openings worldwide by Meridith Winder . Bureau air Force enlisted people stand a better Chance of picking their next assignment under a test program now under Way at eight air Force bases worldwide. The enlisted quarterly assignment listing or equal program gives personnel an Opportunity to look at available assignments and request their choices according to staff sgt. Brenda Price in charge of outbound assignments at Raf Lakenheath England. Lakenheath was selected As the test base for Safe and has been using the program since october. A before this program people did no to have this Opportunity a Price said. A we filled out a a dream Sheet listing what you want to put in  but under the test program enlisted members can View a quarterly listing of vacancies. The listing is broken Down by Job air Force specially co degrade location and the number of openings at that particular base. The listing comes from the assignments computer at the air Force military personnel Center at Randolph fab Texas. The new system does no to guarantee assignments Price pointed out. People at each base will still be competing against their Peers around the world for assignment preferences. A if someone puts in a Choice that does no to accommodate the requirements they still wont get what they want a Price said. A they Are always going to fill air Force requirements where Manning is needed. There Are no guarantees although they do apply based on the  she added that there will still be diversions and assignment cancellations. Price warned that its up to service members to come in and make their selection. Timing is also critical. Normally people have Only two weeks at the Start of an assignment Cycle to come in and make their choices.  find out where they Are going about two weeks after the selection month ends. A the time is so critical for people to come in and make their choices a she said. A if they done to do it they miss out. Once its implemented air Force wide and everyone is educated its strictly going to be up to the member. The air Force is not going to baby sit an individual to come out and fill in his a dream  a personnel overseas must indicate their preferences at least 10 months before their Date of reassignment before they Are locked into the assignment process. At that time they must decide whether to try for a stateside assignment or try for another overseas assignment. Not All enlisted personnel will be affected by equal. Chief master sergeants will get messages listing assignments. They then have to list their selections by preference. Senior master and master sergeants who used to follow the same procedure As chief master sergeants will now fall under equal. Others not affected by the new program Are military members married to other military members for joint spouse assignments special duty assignments which arc strictly voluntary and families who have special requirements such As medical or educational needs. The equal program will Start air Force wide in february Price said. But it will continue to be run As a test until the bugs have been worked out. A once they get the kinks out of the system to make sure its running of and benefiting the customer they re going to go full Force a she said. A Kathy Blackwell with daughter Molly reviews a scrapbook of correspondence with president Bush. President s pen pal has lost Faith a by Jon Marcus the associated press Barnstable mass. A Kathy Blackwell is the kind of pen pal George Bush probably could do without. The Cape cod woman has become a spokeswoman for neighbors suffering because of the Economy Ever since the president in his state of the Union address last year read from a heavy hearted letter she had written him. A year later she said things have Only grown worse. A there it is a year later and we re All still waiting a Blackwell said while fussing with her 15-month-old daughter Molly in her rented cottage. A a we be lost Hope. We be lost Faith in the  it was in frustration last year that Blackwell scrawled a two Page letter to the president. Her friends were losing jobs and businesses. Their Homes and cars were being repossessed. Their families were crumbling. Clients of project outreach an Agency Blackwel ran for the local school system to help parents find Day care were unravelling under economic pressures. A my heart is aching and i think you should know a your people out Here Are hurting badly Blackwell wrote. The president read the line aloud to Congress and said a i understand. And in a not unrealistic about the future. But there Are reasons to be optimistic about our  since then the recession in the Northeast has deepened. Unemployment on Cape cod reached 11.1 percent in november the last month for which figures Are available. It was 8.2 percent a year earlier. First time unemployment claims Rose 18.4 percent in november Ana 32.8 percent in december. Blackwell gave up her Job at project outreach which is itself in limbo after budget cuts. Her onetime salary is now going to a teachers aide. A something has to happen a Blackwell said. A when will they listen what will it take do people have to die on the sidewalks a she said she has received a unbelievably sad letters relating tales of woe from fellow Cape cod residents. She has also continued to write the White House and keeps the correspondence in a scrapbook alongside newspaper clippings from the Days last january when her outspokenness made her a celebrity. A evidence does indicate that the current economic slowdown will be relatively Brief a Bush wrote in March. Her husband Paul Thomas 38, a Fisherman who has been on disability since 1990 when he injured his neck recommended Bush read a different letter in this years state of the Union speech a resignation  plan shows surge to Stock fund by Mike Causey the Washington Post Washington a Federal civil servants now have More than $1 billion invested in their Thrift savings plans tax deferred Stock fund. That is an increase of More than $700 million in one year in investments and earnings in the Stock fund of the governments own 401 k plan. The savings plan is now Worth More than $11 billion. Last december workers moved $80 million they had in the super Safe a fund Treasury securities into the High risk High Reward Stock Market a fund. They moved another $25 million from the Treasury investment into the Bond Market of fund. The a fund is invested in the Wells Fargo equity Index fund which tracks the Standard amp poor a 500 Stock Index. The of fund is invested in the Wells Fargo debt Index fund. It tracks the Scarson Lehman Brothers aggregate Bond Index. Under the Thrift savings plan an optional part of the two Federal retirement programs workers can invest Between 5 percent and Loper cent of their annual salary up to a maximum of $8,798. Those in the new Federal employees retirement system nearly everyone hired after 1983 can qualify for a Matching government contribution equal to 5 percent of their annual salary. All investments and earnings in the Stock Bond or Treasury funds Are tax deferred until withdrawn. The current open season a when employees can sign up for the savings plan or reallocate contributions a Enas  talks to commanders about Black sea Fleet nukes Moscow apr president Boris n. Yeltsin met with commanders of the disputed Black sea Fleet tuesday appearing in the russian port of Kovoros sysk a Day after inexplicably cancelling two Days of appointments in Moscow his office said. Yeltsin a spokesman Pavel Vos Chanov said the russian president was aboard the Cruiser moskva with the Commonwealth of Independent states military commander Yevgeny Shaposhnikov gathering information about the Security of nuclear weapons. Vos Chanov said the visit was part of Yeltsin a preparations for an overseas trip later this week that is to include meetings with president Bush British prime minister John major and prime minister Brian Mulroney of Canada the Tass news Agency reported. Tass earlier quoted the mayor of Kovoros sysk Georgy Khz Obodov As saying the visit to the Black sea port was unrelated to the tug of War Between Russia and Ukraine Over control of the Fleet