From: bergman@afnews.pa.af.mil (CMSgt Mike Bergman)
Newsgroups: soc.veterans
Subject: AF News Svc 12/10/92
Date: 14 Dec 1992 10:58:28 -0600
Organization: Hq Air Force News Agency/SCC
NNTP-Posting-Host: cs.utexas.edu

937.  Imminent danger pay
938.  Arms control
939.  AFA donations
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937.  Imminent danger pay
by TSgt. David P. Masko
Air Force News Service
     WASHINGTON -- Now that the U.S. military has secured the main entry
points into Somalia, the Pentagon is focusing on feeding the hungry while not
getting involved in civil fighting.
     Since September when Air Force C-141s began flying food and medicine into
Mogadishu Airport, the Somali region has been declared an imminent danger pay
area.
     Servicemen and women called to Somalia for Operation Restore Hope are
entitled to special pays, including hazardous duty pay, imminent danger pay
and family separation allowances.  Family separation allowances are for
separation from dependents for more than 30 continuous days as a result of
temporary duty.
     Additionally, enlisted men and women supporting Restore Hope are
receiving foreign duty pay.  The amount is based on a person's grade.
     Since announcing military plans for Operation Restore Hope Dec. 4,
Defense Secretary Dick Cheney has said the mission is to provide "open and
free passage" of relief supplies and to assist United Nations peacekeeping
forces."
     "What we'd like to be able to do is to begin turning over responsibility
to the peacekeeping U.N. forces that will be coming in behind us as soon as
possible," Cheney said on CBS "This Morning" Dec. 9.
     "If everything goes as well as it has overnight, then I think we can look
forward to begin withdrawing our forces, combat forces, certainly before the
end of January, maybe sooner."
     Thus far there has been no serious fighting between U.S. forces and the
fighting factions, but Cheney said "we don't want anybody who's part of our
force operating in areas where we're operating bearing weapons."
     "So if they encounter Somalis who are armed, they will be disarmed," he
said.
     Although the Pentagon has said the faction leaders, warlords and other
parties have been uniformly positive in their support of the operation, there
have been a couple of isolated incidents.
     "There has been factional fighting in the area of Baidoa, but over the
last couple of days that has subsided substantially," said Marine Lt. Gen.
Marty Brandtner, chief of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the
Pentagon.
     Brandtner told reporters Dec. 9 that there had been some reports of 48
people killed and some 50 wounded in the first days of Restore Hope, as
interclan groups were contesting over the road usage and taxes for an area
outside Baidoa.


938.  Arms control
by TSgt. David P. Masko
Air Force News Service
     WASHINGTON -- With the decline and dissolution of the former Soviet
Union, the United States is becoming more involved in international weapons
treaties, said the director of the On-Site Inspection Agency.
     Maj. Gen. Robert Parker, who heads OSIA's 700-member force of
international weapons inspectors, said the past four years have seen the
former Soviets transform from a military economy into an economy of
disarmament.
     "Our missile and bomber people should take great pride in the world
situation today because we won the Cold War," Parker said in an interview with
Air Force News Service.  "We won, I think, because of the sacrifices we made."
     One of the bolder slogans of the post-Cold War period, as indicated by
Parker, will be the entry into force of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty
next year.  START will reduce the strategic nuclear forces of the United
States and the new independent republics of Russia, Byelarus, Kazakhstan and
Ukraine.
     "For START, it's OSIA's responsibility to conduct inspections and
monitoring activities for the purpose of collecting data which will assist the
U.S. government in determining treaty compliance," he said.  "In addition,
OSIA will provide treaty knowledgeable escorts for inspectors and monitors
from the former Soviet Union during their activities in the United States."
     OSIA was formed in 1988 to implement the on-site inspection, escort and
continuous monitoring provisions of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces
Treaty between the United States and the former Soviet Union.  INF covers
land-based missiles with ranges of approximately 300 to 3,400 miles.
     In addition to INF and START, OSIA also provides on-site inspectors and
escorts in support of the Threshold Test Ban Treaty (for underground nuclear
tests), and the Conventional Armed Forces in Europe Treaty.  The agency is
currently preparing to assume similar responsibility in support of the Open
Skies Treaty and future chemical weapons agreements.
     Most recently, OSIA has been assisting the State Department dispense
humanitarian aid, food and medicine to the former Soviet Union as part of
Operation Provide Hope.  OSIA teams worked directly with local government
officials in distributing the aid to those most in need.
     Parker said many of the more than 200 Air Force people who work for OSIA
today are former missile and bomber crew members who were on alert against the
Soviets a few years ago.  Soon they will be implementing the START inspection
regime that will lower nuclear arsenals on both sides.
     Under the provision of START, both sides were required to exhibit their
strategic weapons systems to permit the other side to confirm data contained
in the treaty.
     Between September 1991 and March 1992, OSIA deployed nine inspection
teams to the former Soviet Union.  The teams were able to inspect eight
different types of heavy bombers and former heavy bombers, two long-range
nuclear air launched cruise missile variants, six types of sea-launched
ballistic missiles and 10 types and variants of ICBMs.
     The treaty will allow both sides the opportunity to confirm that the
total number of weapons, both deployed and non-deployed, does not exceed the
limitations mandated in START.  This will reduce U.S. and former Soviet
warheads from current levels of about 12,000 in each country to 6,000.
     The treaty allows both the United States and the former Soviet Union --
through their weapons inspectors -- to monitor specified types of strategic
weapons.
     "I've visited their strategic rocket forces, their bomber bases, their
tank farms, and one of the things that's come across in terms of an impression
is their military is a professional force," Parker said.
     "But they're very envious of the United States military."
     Parker said that probably without exception, he was told by former Soviet
military personnel that "we'd like to be like you."
     One of the other weaknesses viewed by Parker is, the former Soviets don't
have an NCO corps.
     "They don't have the people (NCOs) to do the day-to-day supervision of a
job, and I think they realize it is one of their shortcomings.  I think they
realize we are a professional force, we're proud of it, and I think they want
to emulate us.
     "The quality of our people is really our strength.  We've been very
fortunate with the services providing us with such outstanding people."
     In addition to people, one of the mutual benefits of on-site inspection
is the unbiased estimates allowed by seeing what is actually at a specific
military installation.
     Parker believes this is an instrument of confidence building because
these inspections open the countries up to one another.
     "We have the opportunity to travel throughout Russia, where they can see
Americans.  And probably just as important, the Russians have the opportunity
to see our bases, and travel through the United States and see what an
affluent society we really are," he said.
     "I think they go away with a different understanding of Americans, our
culture and our society."
     OSIA is headquartered at Washington's Dulles International Airport and
has field offices around the world.


939.  AFA donations
     WASHINGTON (AFNS) -- The Air Force Association's Iron Gate Chapter, New
York, donated $26,000 to different Air Force programs Dec. 4.
     Checks for $2,000 were presented for the Air Force Aid Society, $12,000
for the Air Force Village Foundation and $12,000 for the Air Force Enlisted
Men's Widows and Dependents Home Foundation.  The checks were presented at the
Pentagon to Air Force Secretary Donald B. Rice and Chief of Staff Gen. Merrill
A. McPeak.
     The Iron Gate Chapter was founded in 1961 by New York business and
industry leaders.  More than $1.2 million has been contributed to Air Force
programs by the chapter.
-- 
         
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