I am writing to make people aware of the discrimination against Department of Defense civil service retired personnel.

I am a GS-12 DOD employee working in Naples, Italy. I have full base access and privileges; however, when I retire with 35 years of dedicated service, they all go away. I will no longer be able to enter the support site in Gricignano to conduct my banking at Navy Federal Credit Union, see a doctor at the Naval Hospital or buy a jar of peanut butter at the commissary.

What rubs sand into the wound is that when entering the support site Navy Exchange or the commissary, [I see that] the majority of shoppers are NATO personnel, Italians along with their families, followed by Spanish, British, German, Dutch, etc. Even the Italian carabinieri [assigned to NATO] and their families are granted access and shopping privileges.

I do not have a problem with this, but to prohibit access and shopping privileges to the handful of U.S. citizens who are retired civil service workers in Naples, and permit all NATO personnel and their families privileges, is extremely unjust and wrong.

Larry MasonNaples, Italy