Posted on 09/09/2007 3:37:03 PM PDT by Grzegorz 246
Prague- The Americans who would work at the possible U.S. radar base in Bohemia do not want to inhabit the nearby barracks the Soviet Military abandoned in the past, which the Czech negotiators have offered them for accommodation, reliable diplomatic and military sources have told CTK.
U.S. soldiers prefer constructing their own new building. This would mean falling trees in the selected locality on the edge of the military district Brdy, southwest of Prague.
According to officials' previous statements, the radar project preliminarily reckoned with the use of the buildings situated in the vicinity of the possible radar, where Soviet military units stayed in the past.
The Czech Defence Ministry continues to prefer this alternative, according to available information.
On Wednesday, the Czech and U.S. negotiators reached agreement on about a half of the points in the draft bilateral agreement on the radar base location. The agreed-upon points include articles on environmental protection and on Czech access to the information provided by the radar.
The Czech daily Lidove noviny has written that the Czech-U.S. agreements are to empower the Czech Republic to ask the USA anytime to remove the radar installation.
The agreements are to be signed for an indefinite time and both parties will be able to abrogate them anytime, the paper wrote.
The radar base staff is to comprise some 200 people, including 120 U.S. soldiers. The rest are to be civilians. The soldiers are to wear light arms, according to Lidove noviny.
Another round of the radar negotiations will be held in Prague on Wednesday when Jackson McDonald, negotiator from the U.S. Department of State, will arrive with a ten-member team.
They and their Czech counterparts will discuss the SOFA agreement concerning the U.S. soldiers' status on Czech territory.
The Czech government launched negotiations about the radar base with the USA this spring, in spite of the Czech population's prevailing negative stand on the plan and of the opposition's criticism.
The final decision on the project is expected next year.
Half the stuff the Soviets had in East Germany was WWII vintage. They stole it from the Nazis. Hell, maybe the Kaiser.
When I was in the Army we lived in pre-WW-I German barracks. They weren’t half bad, a lot better than the cookie cutter U.S. wooden squad bay style barracks, pre-WW-II.
Guy I know had occupation duty in Japan, circa 1946. They stayed in Japanese Army barracks. He was surprised how much better they were than U.S. barracks.
Of course, the U.S. troops in question are Air Force, their standard is something like a Marriot, with a better restaurant and spa.
Not these days. We do tent cities and temorary structures.
We do believe in good chow halls, though.
I got the answer:
Ship all those FEMA mobile homes sitting around in Louisiana and the surrounding areas to the Czech Republic!
Hook up the electric with the obligatory 110/220 converters and everything is jake.
Can you say “Listening devices embedded in the walls”? I knew you could.
Re: Air Force Dorm Life.
I was privileged, I now realize, to have been ordered to hear the Command Sergeant Major of the Army speak to we peons and proles back in the early 80s, in Korea. (This was not the black Command Sergeant Major of the Army that got caught date-raping his pregnant Staff Sergeant subordinate, but one or two before that one.) After the standard ooh-rah talk, The Sergeant Major (”SMaj”, pronounced “smadge”, pay grade E-9 & maxxed out) invited questions. He may have later regretted allowing questions.
Army Staff Sergeant #1 (E-6) stood and asked why the Air Force always got better quarters and less crowded conditions, and the SMaj of all SMajs harrumphed and hemmed and hawed and regretted that he was not able to comment properly on generalities, but would need more specifics. Army Staff Sergeant #2 then stood and asked why he had specifically come from a small, mixed detachment (near Frisco, I believe) and had been billeted with specific Airmen who had recieved, without asking, a specific subsidy for substandard housing. Staff Sergeant #2 wondered why he had not received a similar subsidy.
The SMaj of all SMajs harrumphed and hemmed and hawed again and regretted that he was not able to comment properly on this specific situation in generalities, without more information available. The Staff Sergeant involved offered more details, but, time constraints being what they were, the SMaj had to go on to other (planted?) questions, and was unable to fully unravel the apparent mix-up.
I did two hitches in the Reagan Army, and I’ve worked under some damn fine First Sergeants, but I never met a SMaj that wasn’t a despicable weasel.
BINGO
My brother was an EM in an AF civil engineering unit. They built tent cities on Anderson AFB, Guam, in the early seventies, but if the AF is going any place to stay, they believe in keeping up morale. I’ve stayed in former AF enlisted billets on Shemya (Eareckson AS), as a contractor. Not half bad.
First Shirt is political, 'SMaj of all SMaj..' is REALLY political.
(Also, "maxed out" or not, the retirement is pretty comfy.)
The correct answer, of course, is “If you want to live in AF barracks, join the AF.”
Traditionally, rank was a lot easier in the Army, but living conditions a little more Spartan. Also, the Army offered shorter initial enlistments. In the day, you could take a two-year hitch in the Army, AF was minimum of four. A lot of first termers weren’t sure they wanted a four year commitment.
Speaking as a former Army EM, people in other branches weren’t even sure if the AF was actually part of the Armed Forces.
“Speaking as a former Army EM, people in other branches weren’t even sure if the AF was actually part of the Armed Forces.”
Still true today. I’m an active duty Seabee (CE), stationed in Italy. I can tell you honestly, anytime you have the privlege to stay at an AF base for any length of time is like going to a 4 star hotel. Even in Iraq we would all get excited about going to BIAP to eat at the AF chow hall. It was great! Much better than what we were used to in Fallujah. Truthfully, I was surprised how good the food was in Fallujah as well though.
I was in Korea, 2ID, back in the mid seventies when the issue of subsidy for substandard housing came up. We were told that all housing had been declared to be up to standard in order to improve morale.
That was my first thought, never trust the reds.
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