European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - April 19, 2007, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 4 stars and stripes thursday april 19 2007 pounded us airmen can Only pay More As Dollar gets beaten by us currency by Geoff Ziezulewicz and Ben Murray stars and stripes Raf Mildenhall England British Pound surged tues Day passing the Point in the commercial Exchange rate and further cutting into the spending Power of americans living in England the Pound Rose As High As Early wednesday Accord ing to Media reports the Curren cys strongest showing since 1981 the threshold had not been breached since 1992 the Prospect of a Rise in the ilk interest rate in the near term was one of the main catalysts for the Pound breaking the threshold according to an anal Ysis on the web site of global in sight a financial firm the Pound had threatened to crack the Barrier earlier this year the web site states but the new potential Rise in the us in Terest rates was what sent the Ster Ling through the roof the pounds Rise is also a symptom of the dollars weakness which is currently trading at a two year Low against the euro according to global insight the Pound is expected to stay at or above the Mark for the foreseeable future but behind All the numbers speculation and trading frenzies Sang a currency Exchange rates indicator shows that the us Dollar Exchange rate for a Pound is at a Bureau de change in London on wednesday the Dollar neared an Al time Low against the euro and fell further against the British Pound in european trading wednesday morning air Force communities in England Are seeing the buying Power of their Money outside the Fence withering i compare it to the Gas prices airman 1st class Thomas Vogliardo said wednesday at Raf Mildenhall you gotta pay it theres no Point in get Ting mad about it but yeah it sucks since arriving in the country about a year ago Kelly 0 Vogliardo Sullivan and her air Force husband have had to curtail their socializing and Dis Posable income in the face of the mighty British Pound we quit going out altogether said Kelly Osullivan who works at a British run concessionaire at Mildenhall and gets paid in pounds we do that once every few months and we do cheap things on base and free things of base i just try not to spend too much airman 1st class Larry Mullikin said and despite the further devaluation of their Dollar this week air men and their families looking for immediate Relief from their costo Hving allowance will have to be patient information used to set the cola rate for the Sec Ond half of april wont be Analysed until next week Likely around wednesday when the per diem committee in washing ton will look Back on the previous two weeks to see if the rate needs to be adjusted said master sgt Scott Husted the financial services officer for the 48th comptroller Squadron at Raf Lakenheath for the committee to even con Sider a boost in cola based on Exchange rate increases or de creases the Exchange rate has to fluctuate by at least 5 percent Mullikin a Pound Worth for exam ple would have to go up by at least nine cents to before the threshold was met even if the Benchmark is reached however it takes time for a cola change to show up in airmen paychecks if s typically a two week lag Husted said but regardless of Long winded cola explanations and economic rigmarole personnel like Vogliardo said wednesday that they win Deal with the decreasing value of their paychecks As Best they can i like to have fun but i also like to watch my Money he said every time i take 40 pounds out i think of geez its like 80 Freak in Emai Geoff Ziezulewicz at email Ben Murray fifth guilty plea made in drug use charges by Geoff Ziezulewicz stars and stripes Raf Mildenhall England fifth service member Char ged last fall in connection with an undercover sting operation at Raf Lakenheath pleaded guilty tuesday to drug use charges airman Basic Quint cello town Send of the 48th equipment maintenance Squadron was sentenced to seven months confinement and a bad conduct discharge for using marijuana cocaine and ecstasy from february to August of last year according to base officials As part of a pretrial agreement Townsend will serve six months of his sentence staff sgt Vanessa Young a Lakenheath spokeswoman said wednesday of the 10 netted in the septem Ber drug bust four besides Townsend have pleaded guilty to similar charges in recent months those airmen who have pleaded guilty to drug use charges Are airman David Murphy of the 48th dental Squadron airman Basic Anthony Skervin of the 48th component maintenance Squadron airman Ronald Moore or of the 48th medical support Squadron and senior airman Christopher Givens of the 48th aircraft maintenance Squadron Skervin and Moore were punished with confinement and bad conduct discharges Murphy and Givens received confinement and reductions in rank the arrests were made in sep tember after air Force authorities began investigating rumours about a drug distribution ring in Early 2006 charges against five others Are pending base officials said earlier this month email Geoff Ziezulewicz at As Sci Weinfurt readies tribute word comes of More fatalities by Mark Stclair stars and stripes two More members of the Schweinfurt Germa a based 1st battalion 18th infantry regiment have been killed in Iraq officials said tuesday news of the deaths came monday of pfc Lucas Vincent Starcevich and sol Mario k de Leon As the unit and Community prepared to mourn the deaths of three other members of the 118 in a ceremony thursday afternoon since deploying last August and september the battalion has lost nine soldiers and 2nd brigade combat team 1st infantry division of which 118 is a part has lost 31 Starcevich 25 of Canton la died in Baghdad of wounds received when the vehicle he was Riding in was struck by a Roadside bomb de Leon 26 of san Francisco also died in Baghdad after being hit by Small arms fire during combat in a statement released through the Illinois lieu tenant governors office Starcevich family said he initially enlisted in the army in 2000 and was Honor ably discharged in 2004 after serving in Iraq he reenlisted in 2005 because he loved the army the Chicago Tribune reported Starcevich is survived by his Mother Eva Tom son his father Bradley Starcevich a brother and a sister de Leon was the third Soldier from the Bay area to die in Iraq in the past two weeks a memorial service for Starcevich and de Leon has not been scheduled Mark Heeter of the sch Weinfurt Public affairs office said email Mark Stclair