European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - November 26, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Sprint helps Mars offer free Calls Home by Ray Rovden Washington Bureau Washington a military personnel and defense department civilians have until Midnight saturday to make a free Call to the United states Courtesy of sprint and volunteers of the military affiliate radio system. For the eighth year the Kansas City based telecommunications corporation is opening its lines to people overseas with the military for the thanksgiving Holiday. Sprint places no limit on the number of Calls but local Mars operators May do so in the interest of fairness. Members of the Mars network use radio signals to relay Calls from european stations or ships at sea. To other volunteers in the states. Those radio operators then use toll free sprint lines to connect the parties. Sprint provided free lines for Mars Quot voice patches Quot throughout the pc Sun Gulf War. First time Mars callers arc sometimes confused by the need to say Quot Over when they Complete a sentence said Bob Sutton the army Mars chief at f Ort Hua Cliea. Ariz. Quot that s because the radio operator has to know when to switch from transmit Mode to receive Mode Quot he said. Quot both parties can t talk at  although then primary Mission is to provide emergency communications Sutton said Mars operators provide morale welfare and recreation services year round and Benefit Tom the practice. Officials with the 5th signal Conul in Worms. Germany Weie unable to Pio vide a list of Mars stations operating this Holiday by press time. I of Mote information. Contact the nearest Mars office. Sailors hit land for Holiday in dutch exercise by Kevin Dougherty Kaiserslautern Bureau Volkel a Netherlands a thanksgiving came Early for 40 members of the . Aircraft Carrier John f. Kennedy. Never mind the Turkey a these folks were just Happy to have their feet on the ground instead of on the deck of a ship at sea. Quot this is a Blessing from god a Petty officer 3rd class Erik Morea proclaimed As he stood in front of a Navy f/a-18 Hornet fighter. Morea a technician was among 40 seamen from the Kennedy who were taking part in a we Klong training exercise at Volkel a Southwest of Nijm Egen. With the dutch As hosts the exercise involved planes and personnel from the United states Britain Canada Germany and the Netherlands. The . Contribution to the exercise at Volkel called volk1t �?T92, included three f-14s and three f/a-18s from the Kennedy which is operating in the Mediterranean and three f 15s from Oesterberg a Netherlands. A Kc-135 strato Tanker based at Raf Mildenhall England. Refuelled aircraft in the 100-by-70-mile training area 140 Miles from Volkel Over the North sea. About 45 planes and 250 military pilots and technicians from five countries participated in the event which concludes Friday. N . Navy personnel and an air Force contingent from the 32nd fighter so at Oesterberg were to leave the dutch air base Early because of thanksgiving. Sonic planned to spend part of the Holiday at the base before heading Home. Quot just for us to get off the ship is a great Day a said Navy it. Rob Kerner an f-14 tomcat Pilot. Kerner and his shipmates were taking part in exercises intended to help the dutch air Force with its air defense training. Sometimes they played the Good Guys sometimes not. For Many of the . Air Force and Navy personnel the exercise also afforded the Opportunity to Exchange ideas and techniques As part of a joint operation. Kerner believes the lessons Learned from the persian Gulf War coupled with the draw Down of . Forces have Kerner Morea reinforced the need for the services to train together even More than before. Quot with desert storm it showed that we All have to work together a Kerner said. Quot we Are going to be smaller so we need to bring All the assets  training operations that involve More than one service is certainly nothing new. The . Military is always looking for opportunities to do joint and combined operations said it. Col. Virginia l. Pribyla a spokeswoman for the . Air forces in Europe. She defined joint operations As those that involve other . Services and combined operations that include Allied countries. A we have been trying to increase our joint training for a number of years a she said. The benefits of such training May not always be so obvious said Kerner and air Force tech. Sgt. Quinn a. Wright from Oesterberg. Tips on techniques and Maneu vers that might seem trivial or routine sometimes help in a big Way. Quot we do things differently from the Navy Quot Wright said Quot so we May learn something from them and vice versa. There is always a better Way. All you have to do is  suss John Bomor air Force sgt. Scott rear readies his f-15 Engle for an exercise Given by the Netherlands air  Happy in the Senate Washington up1 Georgia sen. Sam Nunn widely speculated to be tapped by president elect Clinton to be Secretary of defense said wednesday he is Happy in the Senate and Quot i imagine that s where ill  Nunn appearing on the Abc today program to discuss his recently completed tour of the former soviet republics also expressed regret Over the defeat of his democratic colleague sen. Wyche Fowler jr., in the Georgia Runoff election. Nunn also restated his opposition to Clinton a earlier intention to immediately strike the ban on Gays in the military. As for rumours he is being considered for a Cabinet position. Nunn said Quot in a Happy in the United states Senate and i imagine that s where ill stay. Quot i Haven to had any conversation with president elect Clinton nor any of his people about a Cabinet position a Nunn added. Search for missing Yachtsman called off by j. King Cruger Mediterranean Bureau the . Coast guard suspended a massive International search wednesday for Michael Plant an american yacht racer lost while sailing alone across the Atlantic. T he search was called off shortly after French divers wednesday morning entered plants capsized 60-foot Sailboat Coyote and found no sign of the Sailor. Quot divers from the Fri Nch oceangoing tug Malabar dived into the overturned Sailboat at 9 45 . Wednesday said Jim Mcgranachan a coast guard spokesman based at governors Island. . Quot there were no signs of the skipper and the Malabar also reported that the sailboats life raft was in the cockpit and was partially inflated. Quot based on that information the coast guard suspended the search for the miss ing Mariner pending further  Mcgranachan said. There had been speculation that Plant who has sailed alone around the world three times might be adrift on a the raft or holed up in the Capsid Hull a the coast guard is aware that he had Only the single inflatable life raft and that a what his people have also told us a Mcgranachan said. T he Coyote was found Over turned Sun Day about 450 nautical Miles North of the azores a mid Atlantic archipelago the Mali bar a divers entered Plant s yacht shortly after the tug arrived on the scene and while four military surveillance planes continued searching the storm tossed Ocean. Quot the French divers had a dangerous Job. It was treacherous work for them in 15-foot seas being whipped up by 40-knot winds a Mcgranachan said. Plant 42, a resident of Jamestown r.i., has been missing Lor nearly a month. He was on his Way from new York to  Sables Yolonne. Prance Tor the Start of a 24,000-mile, nonstop Solo race around the work. He planned to arrive in the French port by the end of october. The Sailor radioed a Lew Days alter leaving new York that his on Board electrical system was failing. Apart from a Brief radio signal on oct. 27 from his emergence radio Beacon Plain  not been heard from since in the course of a massive International search for Plant military Ai Cratl irom the United states Canada. Britain and France were involved. The planes included two . Coast guard c 13 its and a Navy p-3c Orion from patrol so \ deployed to Nas Kel Lavik Iceland. I he air Craft staged from Fields in Ireland Canada Bermuda the azores and France. Plants Sailboat seems to be in Good condition according to magi Buachan observers on the scene have noted that the boats rigging appears to be intact with a full set of sails those observers also have noted that the yacht s ballast bulb is missing irom the keel the bulb an k,50 1 Pound Lead Cylinder is designed to keep the boat upright against the counterforce of wind on its sails. Without ballast and with sails set. The Coyote would flip Over immediately and would not be Able to Light Itsell earlier reports said the  Navy  Vage ship grapple is expected to arrive Oil the scene saturday morning As Lar As we know the grapple is suit on us Way said me ii Nachan. Adding Quot we Don t know it univ Salvage attempt will be made