Daily News from New York, New York • 2

2 200tgs DEFENSE SPENDING in billions of 1981 dollars -7 (fiscal years) pB 0 "I wiipiiin-yiiT imvp '67 '73 '80 '85 Our defenses are down and here's why A four-man team of News reportersJoseph Volz, Richard Edmonds, Bob Herbert and Alton Slagle traveled 50,000 miles and spent two months getting hard answers to a hard question: Are the armed services able to fight a war? They talked with the men who'll fight the war if it comes: the officers end enlisted men on the ready line, Army, Navy, and Air Force. They also talked with those of the brass who were willing to talk and not many were, as it turned out. You'll find answers vital to our tecurity in this in-depth, seven-part ieries. Each of the four reporters has military service in his background: Volz and Herbert, Army; Edmonds, Air Force, end Slagle, Navy. symptoms of the military muscular dystrophy afflicting our armed forces.

Today U.S. defense outlays account for almost a third of the entire federal budget and are rising toward $200 billion a year. Yet estimates are that in its present state of readiness the Air Force could fight only seven days before running into serious breakdowns from lack of maintenance and spare parts. A recent Congressional study showed that an F-4 Phantom in flight is likely to suffer a parts failure every 24 minutes. Langley Air Base in Virginia, a major F-15 installation, failed a key readiness test last month when it was unable to get enough planes operational.

The result was a drastic shakeup in command rS VEN NOW THE Navy has trouble I pi getting some ships to sea without -LJ borrowing key personnel from other vessels. At Pearl Harbor, the destroyer USS Strauss passed an inspection only by borrowing two chief petty officers from another ship. The deception came apart when the same inspectors ran. across the same two-petty officers on their own vessel. As for the Army, it is generally acknowledged that of the 10 combat divisions stationed in the U.S., only six By JOSEPH VOLZ First of a aerlBB -Copyright 1988 N.Y.

News, Inc. CT3HE ONCE-MIGHTY U.S. military machine that crushed Germany Ld and Japan in World War II is today a crippled giant Its planes, its ships, its guns, its tacks still look awesome, but they rest on a fragile base that is dangerously weak in men, money and materiel. This became all too apparent to a team of four Daily News reporters who spent two months visiting bases from Pearl Harbor to Fort Bragg, from the bleak missile sites of the Dakotas to the sands of Fort Bliss, asking one basic question: "Are we ready for war, any war?" are in any kind of shape to fight. At Fort Ord, home of the sad-sack Eisenhower make a secret rendezvous in mid-Atlantic.

The Eisenhower, heading to the Mideast, does not have enough Phoenix missiles for its F-14 Tomcats. So the Nimitz, returning from its Mideast station, stops to transfer its weapons to the Ike. Army troops in training at Ft Benning, gather eagerly once a week to watch a cadre fire a TOW missile, the infantry's major anti-tank weapon. That's as close as they come. The TOW costs too much ($3,200 unarmed, $12,000 with warhead) to let everybody train with it These are, of course, only selected The answer, from hundreds of officers and enlisted men who will do the fighting if conflict comes, was almost unanimous: "Hell, no!" Some samples of our wheezing military machine: Three F-15 Eagles, the world's best fighter plane, sit on the tarmac at Luke (Ariz.) Air Force Base, looking sleek and lethal.

A visitor notices that they are tied down by ropes. Why? Because they have been so stripped of engines and parts to supply other planes that they are only hollow shells, likely to blow away in the desert wind. The aircraft carriers Nimitz and liu ui.Lciiit.ijr lyivisiuii, a sau-cjcu lojr tain said, "We don't even have the equipment to get across a river if it's over our heads." Some of these Army divisions (by far the best is the 82d Airborne) are (Continued on page 94) VMATS INSIDE McQUEEN BODY flown back to Southern California for cremation. Page 4 NAB EX-CONVICT on suspicion of committing eight rapes in last 1 3 months, say Suffolk County Police. Page 7 OTIISn FEATURES TOMORROW Parents are facing a drug epidemic among children.

In Westchester County, fifth-graders have been found smoking marijuana. Christopher Norwood begins three part series on how parents can fight the drug problem. In the 1st Person section COMPUTER BUFFS gathered in the city to beat 'em, or take 'em apart Page 18 EARTHQUAKE in Northern California registers 6.6 to 7.1 on Richter scale. Some injuries were reported. Page 5 123 124 128 126 83 61 Almanac Jimmy Breslin Business Editorial Page -Andrew Greeley News Briefs 129 4 1 83 65 71 10 Obituaries -People Liz Smith Suzy Sylvia Porter View BEGIN FLIES to U.S.

with hopes of becoming first foreign leader to meet with President-elect )N New York Nwl Inc. Tl Daily Newt. New Yorkl pictora imwmi, MbHslie every ar by New York tWT Ronald Reagan. Page 6 Second clest oestMe eald at New York. N.Y.

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