Readersforum.

• Position: Letters

Hazardous Waste Disposal

The article entitled "Environmental Regulations Limit Training of U.S. Troops" (July 2001, p. 34) quotes Jim Carr chief, counsel of the Defense Reutilization Marketing Service International, in several places and suggests that his comments were made during the NDIA's 27th Environmental Symposium and Exhibition held recently in Austin, Texas. For the record, Carr did not attend the symposium and did not speak with anyone from NDIA. The quotes attributed to Carr appear to be extracted from a contractor-prepared abstract of a presentation he made in August 2000 at the headquarters of the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA). Both the original abstract and the portions extracted for the artide misstate certain key iiicts regarding the Basel Convention and irs impact on the Defense Department.

First, the United States has signed the Basel Convention. The U.S. is not a party to the convention, because it has not ratified the convention by conforming its laws to the requirements of Basel.

Secondly, Spain objected to the shipment of hazardous waste from U.S. bases at Incirlik, Turkey, through the Straits of Gibraltar, because it did not recognize any existing agreements between Turkey and the U.S. as satisfying Article 11 of Basel. Since the U.S. was not a party to Basel and Turkey was, the shipment could not proceed and alternative disposal destinations were successfully located.

Joe Murphy

Public Affairs Officer

Defense Reutilization Marketing Service International

BATTLE CREEK, MI

Abrams Training

I reference to the article in the September issue of National Defense, titled, "Army Overhauls Its 70-Ton Behemoth--the Abrams Tank," there is a misleading statement concerning the training program.

The story says, on page 28, that "To help soldiers learn the digital package, GDLS [General Dynamics Land Systems] provides a 10-week training program at Ft. Hood."

The training program, rather, is managed by the Abrams New Equipment Training team (NETT), which has representatives from the U.S. Army and the Abrams program.

The team reports to Lt. Col. Lovett, Lt. Col. Miller and Col. Kotchman, the program Manager. The team is run by Tom Werth, a civilian official from the Tank Automotive and Armaments Command, Hugh Ashton, a civilian official from Fort Knox and 14 non-commissioned officers, under Lt. Col. Bartlett. Supplementing the team are 40 instructors from General Dynamics, who are under contract to the Army.

The 10 weeks of training...