Tuesday, February 20, 2001

By Gary Kunich
Aviano bureau

VICENZA, Italy — When more than 700 troops deploy to a small base for a two-week exercise, how does the base accommodate their needs? Critical needs, that is, such as toilets.

"Well, it’s important," said Roger Sternberg, director of logistics for the 22nd Area Support Group, the man responsible for taking care of necessities during Agile Lion, an exercise to test the military’s ability to deploy to a hot spot and get Americans out quickly.

Sternberg and his staff have had the lion’s share of work ensuring reasonable quality of life for the visitors, who include Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine troops from across Europe and from the United States. That meant making make sure there’s fuel to warm the tents, shower trailers with private stalls, enough food and plenty of toilets.

"We have about one Porta-Potty for every 20 people," he said. "You don’t think about it all the time, but it’s a lot better than being in a field and digging a hole."

The joint exercise, which ends Wednesday, has been taking place primarily on an Italian base a few miles from Vicenza, while the participants — mostly officers — are living on huge tents on the baseball fields of Caserma Ederle in Vicenza.

"We’ve already used about 45,000 gallons of fuel keeping the tents warm, and we’ll use about 100,000 by the time the exercise is over," Sternberg said.

The logistics troops also ordered extra food for the dining facility, which has had twice as many customers since Agile Lion started.

The exercise participants aren’t stuck in their tents during off-duty time. The local military club is open around the clock until the end of the exercise, a bowling alley is across the street, a place to get Greek gyros is nearby, and the bustling city of Vicenza is a bus ride away.

"It’s fine; it’s about what we expected," Air Force Lt. Col. Russ Hodgkins, who deployed from Stuttgart, Germany, said of the overall facilities at the exercise.

For two weeks, he’s been living on a no-frills green cot on a wooden floor. Each tent is built to hold up to 115 people, but the one Hodgkins is in houses 87.

The troops give the portable toilets a thumbs-up, too.

"Actually, I was surprised. I’ve been in some nasty ones in Kosovo and Bragg," said Capt. Marcus Bates, a training officer deployed from Kaiserslautern. "Course, the gym is close and you can exercise there, hit the shower and the sauna. That’s even better."

Sternberg said the Army is going all out, paying a contractor $110 a day per portable toilet, to clean out the chemicals daily and to make sure the toilets are stocked with paper. It certainly beats a trip to the woods, some troops joked.

"I refer you to the Air Force uniform," said Capt. Jeff Blackman, who deployed from Florida. "I don’t go in the woods."

"Nothing wrong with the woods," said a Marine major walking with him who didn’t want to give his name. Then he looked over his shoulder at the yellow, plastic toilets behind him. "These are a little better."

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