TIME: Almanac 1993/TIME Almanac 1993.iso/time/031891/0318202.000

Text File | 1992-08-28 | 3.4 KB | 78 lines

                                                                                BUSINESS, Page 67

Rolling Out the Green Carpet


Gulf victors return to jobs, perks and other pleasures


    A popular war sure has its pluses. While federal law ensures
that the nation's 225,000 active reservists can go home to
their old jobs -- and paychecks -- many companies and
legislators want to do even more for the victorious troops, the
first of whom are now returning. Congress is suddenly awash in
bills that would award them all sorts of benefits: health care,
increased G.I. Bill education benefits, better access to home
loans. The House of Representatives this week may vote on a
bill to raise combat pay, retroactive to Jan. 16, the day the
war began.

    Employers have been pitching in while the troops were away.
In a survey of firms in seven large cities, 52% are paying
their gulf-stationed employees, and 25% of those will continue
until the troops are mustered out, according to William M.
Mercer, a consulting firm. Even employers who can't be so
generous are looking for ways to help. "State law does not
allow us to pay the salaries of people who are activated,"
complains police chief Billy White of Tupelo, Miss., where
several cops have been making considerably less as reservists
than their $1,800 monthly salaries. "So everybody's been
chipping in $5 to $10 to help out these families."

    But with the war coming in the trough of a recession, some
companies stopped paying reservists on active duty and were
happy to lose the burden. At USAir, 140 pilots were called to
the military, but that fit right in with the struggling
airline's plans. It furloughed 211 pilots last year and will
send an additional 600 their walking papers in 1991. Such
companies may have trouble reabsorbing reservists who demand
their jobs back, but experts don't expect the phenomenon to
have much impact on the U.S. economy, largely because troops
will march home in relatively small groups over many months.

    With their jobs secure, the biggest problem facing most
returnees will be simply fighting off the everyday monotony
that is bound to creep back into their lives after the
life-and-death stimulation of war. "There's going to be a very
high high, followed by a natural letdown," says Meg Falk, head
of the Navy Family Support Program. "Everyone's got to come
down to earth."

    Soldiers looking to maintain their morale can take advantage
of the myriad freebies and perks that businesses are offering:
a free tour of Universal Studios, free baseball tickets,
discounts of up to 70% on major airlines, possibly even free
tuition at some state colleges (Minnesota and Nevada). "We are
very grateful for the job that they did," says Morris Lasky,
president of Lodging Unlimited, a hotel-management company
offering free rooms to returning vets. "We want to add some fun
to their homecoming." Iowa's Steamboat Casino River Cruises
gives vets a free trip down the Mississippi, while California's
wine country is pushing free lodging, meals and wine -- a
welcome opportunity after months of booze-free life in Saudi
Arabia.

    More primal desires can be satisfied at the Mustang Ranch,
a legal bordello near Reno, which is offering gulf heroes a
free day with a floozy. Some 800 servicemen have already signed
on. Soldiers will be soldiers.


By Richard Behar. With reporting by Gisela Bolte/Washington.