It seems that these days in Germany, most US military posts are OPEN,
which means - NO GUARDS! With fewer than 55,000 troops where the US
formerly had over 325,000 just 10 years ago... this leads to problems.
In one city alone (3 posts), there has been over 50 vehicles stolen from
the MOTOR POOL! A mix of late 5 ton and HUMMV vehicles.
People just cut the fence line and take what they need. It may be that
these vehicles are being taken by east european organized crime to provide
reliable trucking/transportation over the poor east road conditions... !
Perhaps they were as impressed as everyone else by the performance
in Saudi and everywhere else... Perhaps what sparked all this was the state
department giving away surplus to the ex-warsaw pact forces from DRMO
lots...
An unspecified number of vehicles have also been stolen while unattended
out on the road; Allegedly, company commanders have been relieved of any
driver found parking a vehicle without a locally fabricated second locking
mechanism.
Well, it seems the news people were'nt completely wrong, but perhaps the
700 vehicles was over a period of time. Still, 50 vehicles taken from a
motor pool sounds like poor manning and security to me.....
Merry Christmas to all of you, and to the soldiers doing the impossible job
of guarding these places over a cold and windy christmas far from home and
family!
LT Gerry Davison - Denmark - Europe.