European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - May 23, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 2 b the stars and stripes saturday May 23, 1992 at a glance Ross Perot poked Ftp on thursday at the republicans a a goofy debate Over Murphy Brown and single motherhood. Sec presidential Campaign stories on Page 4.Peanut butter questioned the government and the Peanut Industry find themselves stuck in a debate Over Labelling rules for Peanut butter. A Page 4dod retirements Stow regular and Early retirements at the Pentagon have decreased As Congress talks about giving defense department retirees a six month salary Bonus. A Page 5smoking rate tumbling smoking in the United states reached its lowest level in 35 years. A Page 6handcuffing probed military police in Aschaffenbur Germany will receive refresher training in the use of Handcuffs after investigations revealed that an my erred in handcuffing a 13-year-old family member. A Page officer s retrial set the assault retrial of one of the White police officers in the beating of Black Motorist Rodney g. King will be held in los angles county a judge ruled Friday. A Page 9 fund proposals criticized several proposed revisions in the rules governing Mutual funds May not be in the Best interests of investors experts say. A Page 17cut Index Abby Ann Landers .19 comics. 19-21 commentary. .13 crossword. 19 a m i 1 v faces no places .10 letters. .12 Money matters a .17 sports. 22-28 to listings. .27 weather. .11 from Page 1 Field artillery battalions. Two other army installations a Robinson Barracks and Pond Barracks a will be partially closed. Robinson Barracks in Stuttgart is the Headquarters for the 6th area support group a military police company and two medical detachments said Millie Waters a spokeswoman for the . Army Europe she said officials have not determined How much of the installation will remain. Only a handful of the original 900 soldiers Are left at Pond Barracks in Amberg which was the Home of the 3rd so of the 2nd army Cav regt. The entire regiment will withdraw from Europe this summer. However the housing area near Pond Barracks is not closing. In addition Amberg elementary school medical clinics and a sports Field will remain open Waters said. Most of the air Force bases on the latest list a have no significance whatsoever. They done to even have people at them a said capt. Andree Swanson a spokeswoman for the . Air forces in Europe headquartered at Ramstein a Germany. Many of the bases arc connected to previously announced withdrawals and base cutbacks. For example at least 10 Sites a one sixth of the list a Are related to the air Force withdrawal from Hahn a Germany Swanson said. This includes three housing areas the sewage system and six a water system annexes a which Are a water Wells and assorted pumps a Swanson said. She also said closing the Bachelor housing facility near Zaragoza a was a a obvious because the air Force is leaving that Spanish base. The three army Sites closing in Italy have a total of 162 military positions and at least six foreign workers Waters said. Some of the facilities Arentt Well known. The Griesheim missile facility for example is apparently a collection of Mounds visible from the windows of the stars and stripes newsroom in Gries him Germany. Few employees Are even aware it exists. Swanson expressed the same Lack of recognition when reviewing the Pentagon release. A i done to even know How these Are associated with us a she said. Technically the United states does hot close overseas bases. Instead it returns them to the governments of the nations where they Are located. Eight of the army facilities in Greece Italy and Turkey Are actually nato Sites shared by the United states according to an army release. The United states will return its portions of the facilities Over to nato forces. Fridays announcement also updated the Fate of two army locations in Germany that were previously announced for partial closure. Bleidorn Cavern in ans Bach and the Heilbronn training area will be completely vacated by . Forces. The reductions in South Korea will affect 509 positions including 246 military ones a Pentagon release said. To Date 559 overseas facilities have been marked for closure or cutbacks since 1990, the Pentagon said. Of those 524 Are in Europe. Report finds business trips for ski offered hawaiian locales Little work Washington a Globe trotting officials from the Pentagon a strategic defense initiative spent $2.4 million in travel last year and Hawaii proved to be a favorite destination a congressional report says. The hawaiian trips appeared to include More vacation time than official work Days according to investigators for the House government operations committee. The study found that ski officials took 65 trips to Hawaii and stayed at exclusive hotels on Maui and Kauai islands even though military facilities for distinguished visitors were available. Overall 109 ski officials took 218 trips to 16 countries Hawaii and Alaska in fiscal 1991, which ended sept. 30. All the officials travelled by coach except for the ski director who flew business class. The total travel Tab was $2.4 million. The investigators preliminary report made available thursday is based on travel vouchers from the ski office and written responses to questions. It said additional investigation is needed to determine whether ski officials violated any Federal Laws or regulations with their travel. The government operations committee in conjunction with Congress investigative Agency the general accounting office conducted the inquiry after receiving complaints from ski employees the employees of the Pentagon a Multi billion Dollar program said that a overseas travel was handed out As a Reward to favored officials. A the business meetings cited for the trips were frivolous. A some officials used the trips to further their own careers. The Federal government has invested about $28 billion in the ski program which Aims to build an anti missile defense system. A what we Are discovering now is that a club Sdit has some pretty attractive travel benefits for its officials a said rep. John Conyers jr., d-mich., chairman of the committee. A spokesman for the defense departments ski organization maj. Mike Doble said thursday that the department had not seen the report and would have no comment. The report found that expenses for the trips to Hawaii were $118,817 and that ski officials spent a total of 471 Days in the state in fiscal 1991. The ski assistant general counsel Michael Van Zandt took the most trips to Hawaii a 10 visits for a total of 71 Days. During one trip in july Van Zandt had five full workdays during a 14-Day visit. In another instance the assistant Deputy for strategic defense Richard bleach spent 14 Days in Hawaii and worked a total of seven Days according to travel records obtained by the committee. Bleach spent 2vi hours at the University of Hawaii Shilo Campus on monday july 8, and because of his work the ski program paid for him and his wife Sherry to stay at the Kona Hilton resort that weekend. The official purpose of bleaches trip was to Brief the staff of the commander in chief of the Pacific come on the ski program and visit various ski Sites. The briefing took 45 minutes the report said. Other frequent destinations for ski officials were Britain and Scotland 94 trips Europe 24 the Caribbean four and the Middle East and Russia 14.judge from Page 1 Friday in a Post trial ruling and final order on Quot wilful unlawful commander  in his ruling Mahoney said a in. 16 years As a trial and appellate judge no previous example of such Cavalier disregard for due process and the Rule of Law comes to  the judge quoted a previous ruling that a command influence is the mortal enemy of military  both Long and his Legal adviser clearly knew it was unlawful to violate the judges order but believed the a  be slight a Mahoney said. Mahoney said in his final order that he reduced the sentence a for the express purpose of deterring commanders and judge advocates from committing or condoning similar breaches of Taw when displeased by judicial  Tilghman of the 920th Field training det will serve his sentence at fort Leavenworth kan., but was being detained at the Raf Lakenheath confinement facility until the Issue was  from Page 1 do for years a be Able to assure our own defense a Kohl said. France quit nato s military Wing in 1966, but says the new corps is not meant As a rival to the Alliance. Germany says its commitments to nato will not be affected. A we want the presence of americans in Europe a Mitterrand told a news conference. A we know what we owe to  the new european corps will be under the umbrella of the Western european Union the european Community a defense Arm. Mitterrand invited other Union members to join the corps and said Belgium Luxembourg Spain and Italy were potential participants. The corps missions will include defense of Western Europe humanitarian assignments and peacekeeping operations. Kohl reiterated his desire to revise Germany a Constitution so German troops would be Able to participate in missions outside nato territory. The French and German transport ministers announced plans to link their High Speed rail networks cutting rail travel time by roughly 40 percent on lines connecting Paris with Berlin Munich and Frankfurt. The ministers said the Accord will make possible travel times of six hours 30 minutes from Paris to Berlin four hours 45 minutes to Munich and three hours 30 minutes to Frankfurt. Each country will build new tracks allowing speeds of up to 155 Mph in Germany and 137 Mph in France. The ministers said they see the new links As part of future High Speed network that would link Paris with Austria and Hungary via Munich and with Moscow via Frankfurt and Berlin. Details on financing and a construction timetable were not released. German officials expect their portion of the project to Cost about $10 billion