European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - August 09, 1993, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Monday August 9, 1993 the stars and stripes Navy gearing to open combo portals continued from Page 1 enlisted personnel in the ranks of Petty officer first class and below to each car Rier. Overall the Navy wants to have unto 3,500 enlisted women aboard seven carriers by the end of fiscal 1999. Along with the spruance class destroy ers other ships of the list include Arleigh Burke class guided missile destroy ers and Whitbey Island class Dock Landing ships. Officials also Are consid ering opening two classes of amphibious assault ships. In terms of skill Fields or ratings Ashe Navy Calls them Only a handful still remain closed to women. The Navy opened six enlisted ratings i april under a separate initiative that formalized the assignment of women to the Navy s combat aviation Community including Antisubmarine warfare electronics warfare fire control Man and Gas tur Bine systems. Women already have begun moving into combat aviation units As a result of the april policy change. The first women to join a tactical car Rier based Squadron reported just a few weeks ago to the Carrier air Wing assigned Navy statistics on women Aso june 1993 on Active duty enlisted officer / son Seal duty in aviation pilots naval flight officers student aviators women 56,997 48,730 8,267 8,207 371 total men women 540,402 470,94 69.478 161,000 17,450 source Bureau of naval personnel Sas r we re Only converting ships at the rate that behave women to support embarkation on them capt. Ron Peterman to the Eisenhower. The Wing assigned tothe Carrier Lincoln also has been identified for assignment of female combat i  the exclusion Law for combat ships is repealed three More enlisted rat Ings Are Likely to open fire control technician gunner s mate guns and gunner s mate missiles in those newly opened ratings sufficient numbers of women will have to be grown Peterman said we re Only converting ships at the rate that we have women to support embarkation on them he said. We can to faster because in some cases we Don t have a mature inventory of  woman entering one of the newly opened ratings will take about 10 years to reach chief Petty officer he said. You Don t want to assign a Bunch of female Junior enlisted personnel to a ship without having some mid Grade or senior level female leadership there already not because there s a separate Chain of com Mand for women but simply because we want some Good role models out there he said. But for the most part women already Are established in the majority of ratings that Are assigned to combat ships Saidt. Cmdr. Donna Looney with the office of the special assistant for women s policy in the Bureau of naval personnel. The seamanship skin Jar the technical skills the engineering skills Are All the same for noncombatant and combatant ships Looney said. A boiler technician on a Oiler is the same As a boiler technician on a  once the initiative for combat ship moves into gear the Only duty for which women will remain barred will be three enlisted ratings associated with submarine duty Seal sea air land units an special boat units that Are designed to fight on  of ballistic missile submarines to accommodate women appear feasible but fast attack subs on the other hand seem to present More hurdles on that  re kind of noncommittal on the submarine Force Peterman said. Wended to study that  Seal and special boat units will re main closed to women because they Are ship alterations for women differ in Cost Navy says by Chuck Vinc Washington Bureau Washington the costs of modifying Navy ships to accommodate women vary widely because ships reconfigured differently according to Navy officials. For example it will Cost about$128,000 to modify a spruance class de Stroyer to accommodate 25 women but about $400,000 to revamp a command ship to accept about 900 women. The modifications consist mostly of installing solid bulkheads or some other partitions Between berthing areas and adding extra toilet facilities where necessary said capt. Ron Peterman head of enlisted plans and policy in the Navy s Bureau of person Nel. There s a Standard of privacy behave to meet Peterman said. Women can t be living in or near passageway that men have to pass through. And a woman can t be walk ing through a men s berthing area to get to her  the most extensive modifications will probably have to be made in the berthing areas for chief Petty officers said it. Cmdr. Donna Looney of the office of the special assistant for Wom inv policy in the personnel Bureau. For enlisted personnel we can usually take a compartment that s Al ready there and just add a head Looney said. For officers it s the same thing. We Don t have to make modifications to the staterooms again except maybe to add a head toilet but in a chief s area there May be20 to 30 people living in one or two berthing areas which Means the exist ing areas will have to be subdivided. That s one of the major expenses she said. As with All other ships that arc Al ready open to women there will not be different standards of habitability on the combat ships Peterman said. The women Are not going to have extra mirrors different lights or couches in the bathrooms he said. The Navy equivalent of ground combat units. Once the combat exclusion Law is re pealed the Navy will go to a gender Neutral ship berthing policy to the greatest extent possible Peterman  plan to commission new ships with gender Neutral berthing he said. Ultimately we expect that about 10 to 20 per  every snip s Crew will be women. The Navy now has about 57,000women making up 10.6 percent of the Active duty Force. We plan to keep about the Sam number of women at sea in the near future As we have now although Well be changing their platforms As they move to combatant ships he said. But in the larger sense the number of people in the pvt. Presley recalled not so tenderly continued from Page 1 Presley the Singer s father finally paid the  Geipel was the Campli Barrian when Presley was serving with the 3rd  div in Friedberg. Hewan t a big Reader she said. The few times she saw him in the Library was when he was looking for some of his Soldier  was always with the Mickey mouse comic books she said. Idon t think he Ever checked out a  As a 30-year-old Mother of two at the time Geipel was not As thrilled with Presley As the younger  those Days we had so Many draftees of intellectual Quality Gei Elsaid. He did t impress me As much As he did the younger people. I thought his music was subculture but Presley did impress the teen agers. Almost every Day Young girl crowded the Cavern Gates and the streets along the route Presley drove Home in his Mercedes Michel said. The former truck Driver from Mem Phis tenn., lived in a luxurious hotel for his first few months in  he rented a Large House in bad nauheim. His loud parties inspired the town s Young people to wire a loud speaker to a tree across from his Home one night Michel  1 a.m., the Loudspeaker started blasting / need your love tonight while Presley slept. When the police arrived the teen agers were gone but the lights were on in the Presley Home Michel  fact that Presley was Rich was also a source of irritation to some of the local people. Michel said Elvis once had a Black Eye from a run in with construction Crew Over a Bill totalling 100 German Marks at that time Worth about $25."he was walking on the Street one Day and stopped to Light a cigarette near the work Crew Michel said. He used a 100 do Bill to do it. A fight broke out because they did t think that was so funny. Elvis got the worst of the  18 months the local germans had in their midst the Man who the was arguably the most famous Singer in the world. They discovered that the cars the girls and the parties hid a Man who wanted  of the soldiers told me they expected a different Man when they met him Geipel said. But when they got to know him they would inevitably ask what made Elvis so special. As far As they were concerned he was just an other Soldier from  but if Presley the Rock Star did t impress the locals pvt. Presley did. Gei Pel and Michel said he was a Model Soldier. As a Soldier there were no complaints Geipel said. Most of the commanders seemed to be pleased that he was Here and was trying to do a Good Job. He never got in  Michel agreed As a Soldier away from the crowd he was a typical sol Dier. He did a Fine Job because i think he really wanted to and i think Colo Nel Tom Parker elvis1 manager did t want problems. He restrained  in 1960, pvt. Presley turned in his dog tags and was once again the  what he got from his time in Friedberg is unknown. But Friedberg was forever stamped As the place where Elvis did his  duty. The sudden Fame of the town bewildered Many of the residents Michel said. We appreciated the Fame he said. We had Many tourists and much Money flowing. But we never really understood what was so special about this simple truck  Navy is going Down so the percentage of women in the Navy is going  by 1999, the Navy expects women tomake up 15.3 percent of its Force. The same trend will hold for the population aboard ships he said,."the total number of women on ships won t go up but the percentage of women will go up compared to. The percentage of men. Looney said there is no question that women will succeed aboard the combat ships. Women have succeeded on Al ships they be been assigned to so far she said. This is  Opportunity but it s one we be been growing to Ward for almost 20 years. It really give women the Chance to gain skills in the High tech areas that will be critical to the Navy of the 21st  King s brother to take oath in Belgium Brussels Belgium a Prince Albert brother of King Baudouin who died july 31, will be sworn in As King Al beit ii today before a joint session of the bicameral parliament. The oath taking ceremony comes two Days after Baudouin was buried in a state funeral attended by scores of Royal and uncrowned Heads of state. Albert 59, will be Belgium s sixth constitutional Monarch since the country gained Independence from dutch Rule in1830. In accordance with belgian tradition he will not be crowned but simply pledge allegiance to the Constitution with these words i swear to observe the Constitution and the Laws of the belgian people to maintain National Independence and the integrity of the  after the 30-Rninute afternoon session the new King and his wife by then Queen Paola 55 will attend a ceremony at the Tomb of the unknown Soldier near the parliament buildings in the Cen Ter of Brussels. After that the new Royal couple will appear on the Balcony of the 19th-Cen Tury Palace in the Center of Brussels