European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - December 04, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 22 letters to the editor sunday december 4,1994 european edition. Col Steven s. Hoffman a of. I commander publisher Bernard a. Zov1stoski. " editor. News and editorial Deborah Absher news editor Bill Walker european editor Bob Wicker sports editor George mane City editor to write us unit 29480 Apoate 09211 Orost Facell 1437 64278 Darmstadt Germany news Tel fax 06155-601416 to Call us dial 06155-601 plus Extension or Dan 34 8-8 plus Extension As follows o news ext. 237,255,282, 226,326. Sports ext. 225,269,263,332,321,221. Features ext 230, 245,341. Letters to editor ext. 208,400. Education Jimi Jones ext. 226. Business news ext. 326. A news bureaus Heidelberg Germany Effie Baleen room 117, rime sir. 104. 69115 Heidelberg Telephone Dan 370 7010 or civilian 06221-23421 Tel fax 06221-10554. Kaisers Stern Germany Kevin Dougherty and Doyle Tidmon. Building 2899, Pulaski Barrack Apo a 09227-3717 Telephone Dan 489-6585 or civilian 063.1 52104 Tel fax Dan 489-6357 or civilian 0631 -5360357. Nurnberg Germany Ron Jensen. Building 21, Wil Ham o. Darby Cavern Apo a 09222 Telephone Dan 460-7256 or civilian"q911-712563 Tel fax 0911-717130" Wurzburg Germany Pat Beamam. Bund Long 220, room 109, Faulenburg Cavern Apo a 09036 Teter phone Dan 351-4289 or civilian 0931-286958 Tel fax 0931-8896770. Mediterranean sue Palumbo end Marian Hamilton Naples. Italy pc 810, Bon 66, of pole 09619 Tele phone Dan 625-4880 or civilian 0817624049/4547 Tele fax 0039-81-7624049. Northern Italy j. King Cruger pc 64, Box 473. Apo a 09601 Telephone Dan 632-8176 or civilian 0039-434-66-8176telefax 0039-434-668222. " United kingdom Nancy Torner Marc Mcfann and Dav Dudlo. Building 464 Cess us Raf Mildenhall Apo a 09459 Telephone Dan 238-2220 of civilian 0638-542226 Tel fax 0638-718013. New York City Timothy Calll room 63$ 201 Varlock st., new York 10014 Telephone 212-620-3333 Tel fax 212-620-3268. Washington . Chuck a Inch and Cindy  Oast a the Pentagon room 2e758 . Box 46095, Washington . 20050-6095 Telephone 703 697-6695 telefax703-693-6368. Business departments maj Richard k. Major Usa Deputy commander dal Eesle newspaper operation director Jame by Ockl circulation manager Jeffrey h. Kingdom comptroller Germany Belgium Italy. United kingdom Netherlands Spain Tel fax 0130-840048 07811-8775 16783456 0-800-898854 06-022-7629 900-99-4955 06155-601436 Clr Cultron v toll free customer service for Home or office delivery inquiries or delivery problems Call 24 hours marching Forward i believe the writer of military in de Cline nov. 17 needs to crawl out of his Cave and Wake up to reality. I Don t be Lieve the men and women of the armed forces think wars nowadays Are 0"clean,quick" nor More  is he saying they Are not As bloody As when he jumped Over Normandy his comment that former Navy it. Paula Coughlin Isth cause of the destruction of the Navy s fighting spirit is insane. The military is not the same today As twas yesterday i agree. Thank god. Thank god women and men who want to get a higher education great Job skills and serve their country can do it together. Men Are not the Only ones who Are proud of their country. Women have fought Long and hard to get where they Are today which still in t far enough. Tracy Ehrlich Ramstein a Germany fast for getters Germany Augsburg civilian 0821-544529, Tel fax 0821-544565. _ Berlin civilian 030-8331846, Dan 332-3548. Kaiserslautern civilian 0631-57070 or 57079, on 489-7100, Tel fax 0631-60698. Nornberg civilian 0911-712558, Dan 460-7001. Stuttgart 0130-840048. 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To our readers let us know what you think we encourage our readers especially those who have never submitted a letter to write to us. Letters expressing readers View Points or opinions Are published Dally on this Page. All letters must be signed and include address and Telephone number. Send to letters to the editor the stars and stripes unit 29480, Apo a 09211. Or fax country code 49 06155 601-395, Dan 348-8395. We Reserve the right to edit letters for clarity length and taste i be been waiting almost a month thread angry letters from local education officials about Gen. David a mad Dox s decision to eliminate the functional academic skills training fast program in Usa eur. But no letters have appeared. That s a shame. It tells you How quickly usar eur people get in line even people who know better. Is the program needed you be got to be kidding. At Baumholz Merthis year 1598 out of 3021 incoming enlisted soldiers almost 58jsefcent failed the screening test for fast. At other communities the results Are the same. These Are soldiers who cannot read at what the army considers its Basic literacy level. Yet at the same time col. Richard Bridges Usa eur s Public affairs chief can go on record crowing that today s Soldier is a Heck of a lot smarter than yesterday s and does need the fast program r i suggest Gol. Bridges visit any Educa Tion Center any Center and talk to the Counselor. Hell get an earful and it won t be Public relations tripe. A or let him visit Usa eur s retention people at 1st per com. They la con firm whare cry . Demographer has known for the last five years that the _ Pool of High ability Young people is dry Ling up fast and that recruiting standards will have to be lowered. _ _ v in fact that s already happening. A re Tention no in bad Kreuz Nach tells me that for the first time in years the army i recruiting soldiers in mental category 4. Will they need the fast program you Tell me. Col. Bridges says that almost 100 per cent of today s recruits have High school  he s right. But what he _ does t say. Is that those recruits fail to meet the army s current Reading requirements. -. V.  7 right now the army s non commissioned officer s education system noes is recommending Reading Ley Els of 10th and Lith Grade for its Coc and Ancor courses courses which every career no has to take. Suggest that col. Bridges ask the Educa Tiosh centers How Many of their cos currently read at those Levels. Hell get another earful. To clearly i m unhappy with Gen. Mad Dox s decision to a the fast  what i m even More unhappy with is the foolish Way it s been done. Obviously no one talked to people involve d with the soldiers. No one talked to Counselor to teach ers to retention sergeants or god for bid to soldiers themselves. This was a top Down decision and like most such decisions it utterly forgot the people atthe Bottom the vast majority of whom Are minorities that s a shame a real shame. Jim Antonovich. Merlenbach Germany god deals in love the minister who officiated at the two South Carolina Smith boys funeral states that sometimes god takes from us the most precious jewels in life so he can give them Back to us in  i would encourage anyone to run from a Church whose minister believes god operates in this manner. " god created us with a free will. This free will enables each of us to conduct our lives As we see fit. God desires that we focus ourselves on him Bull the Choice is ours. Pain and suffering Are often the result of people exercising this free will As in the Smith Case. ,-.-, the ministers statement often Lead people further in their beliefs that god creates wars world hunger aids Etc. In order to subjugate and punish certain groups of people. This line of thinking coerces Many people into living their lives by a certain set of rigid guidelines for fear of what god May do to them if they Don t comply this is bondage an not what god desires. A relationship with god that is based on fear is unhealthy As is with any relationship. God reaches out to each individual in love accepting each one at their own Faith level not Faith Levels established and predetermined by certain groups of individuals. Chris g. Hutchings Raf Alconbury England the party s Over on election Day the party that would be King got the resounding no to their socialist Way of doing business. Unfortunately their eat Crow v speeches did not indicate that they have gotten the message even after the blood Bath instead of apologizing that they Cate to the whims of every Crackpot fringe group at the expense of average Ameri cans instead of apologizing to thousands of Law abiding gun owners for trampling Over their constitutional rights under the excuse of crime control instead of admit Ting to reducing the military to a Skeleton Force and instead of confessing that their ideas Are so far left that they have Eft the average american out the democrats believe they have failed because they were not Able to push More heavy handed id isolation Down americans throats. R the 92 election was a political Freak of nature. The blood Bath of 94 will Pale in comparison to the massacre of 96. Jack Lensley ---., Rhein main a Germany meet. His thoughtless remarks reflect contempt not Only for the president and the presidency but also for the military institutions of the United states and the people no serve in them. Sen. Helms lame reply that he was merely joking is stunning in its ignorance of recent american history. Consider the last 30 years a planned attempted assassination of former president Bush in Kuwait the attempted assassination of pres ident. Reagan leaving him seriously wounded two attempted assassinations of president Ford the assassination of president Kennedy the assassination of one presidential candidate sen. Robert Kennedy and the attempted assassination of another George Wallace the assassination of Rev. Martin Luther King our nation s leading civil rights activist. Some of these acts were perpetrated by verified lunatics other acts were committed by persons motivated by increasingly strident and hateful opposition tothe ideas or actions which these leaders represented. Lacking the capacity to n fluence people s choices through the democratic process criminals and terrorists have often resorted to the cowardly act of violence. Maybe this is Why i did t get the joke. Unwittingly however sen. Helms has reminded us of the fundamental tenets of our National defense Structure and the responsibilities we have As military Mem Bers in our representative democracy. These include the inviolability of civilian command and control. Civilian control Over the Mil itary is one of the foundations upon which our government was established. We have the strongest most profession ally trained military in the world precisely because of the sacredness of this relationship and the responsibilities we have to the democratically elected leaders under whom we serve in 1992, the  ple of our country put their Trust in Bill Clinton to be our president and thu sour commander in chief period. To inti mate that the military would seek to change our country a leaders through the barrel of a gun is repugnant. The nonpartisan apolitical nature of our activities. In recognition of the above Congress and our military leaders have understandably limited the political activities in which we can engage. Retired Gen. Colin Powell serves As maybe the finest role Model for military personnel in this regard. The fact that pundits Are still attempting to decipher his political affiliation is a crowning testament to his intentional career Long Effort to subordinate political concerns to the Best inter ests of his country. The responsibility to vote. The Only Way in a civilized society to express our _. Preference for political candidates. Living overseas and serving in the . Armed forces heightens our sense of being americans first and All other la Bels second. In the Wake of the turbulence created by sen. Helms our time is _ Best spent renewing our Faith in the democratic process remembering who bears the Burden for employing . Force worldwide hint it s not the senator from North. Carolin and proving by our words and deeds that sen. Helms Munfor. Lunate comments Are his alone. Brian Hurley a. Ramstein a Germany say it Ain t so Jessel sen. Jesse Helms recent statement regarding the ability and authority of  to serve As commander in chief and then the outrageous Asser Tion that our president might need a bodyguard when visiting a military base should cause All of us to pause for a to relegate Rush to limbo _ please spare us. Any further Rush Lim Baugh. It s bad enough that his program occupies an hour of american forces network with his egotistical ranting and distortions of the truth. We certainly Don t need to see his self serving commentaries in the sunday newspaper nov. 6. At least the accompanying car Toon got it right with the caption Lim Baugh can t Tell the  Charles l.  Wiesbaden a Germany