See The World -- and Pinch Pfennigs

By J.D. Reed

This will not be one of the great Christmases in the life of U.S. Army Specialist 4 Donna Revis. A chaplain's assistant at the Army's St. Sebastian Chapel in Frankfurt, Revis scrimped and saved to rent an off-base apartment for herself and her son Joel, 4. Since 1985 the rent has skyrocketed from $380 a month to more than $600 plus utilities, a bite she can no longer afford on a salary of $992 a month. There is no room on base for a single mother with a child, so Revis has had to move into a barracks and send Joel home to her parents in Ohio. "When I'm away from my family and son," she says, "Christmas really doesn't exist at all."

Revis' problem is not unique. The U.S. dollar's long slide against European currencies has forced many of the 326,000 uniformed Americans serving in Western Europe to make painful adjustments in their living standards. Soldiers and their families have had to abandon off-base shopping and housing, which has created both a morale and a money problem. Says Navy Commander Philip Souza, a staff personnel officer at the headquarters of the U.S. European Command in Stuttgart: "Nobody's starving, but we have very little mobility outside the gate."

The change in their fortunes has been a bitter surprise for many G.I.s. As recently as February 1985, they could exchange a dollar for 3.30 German marks; at that rate West Germany was a dream posting. Although a shortage of on-base housing existed even then, many soldiers brought along their families and spent weekends traveling around Europe. Now they get less than 1.70 marks for the dollar, which means in effect that all local prices have doubled.

Rents near the bases, notoriously steep even in the best of times, are higher than ever: some G.I.s pay $700 a month or more for modest one-bedroom apartments in Frankfurt or Stuttgart. The military's overseas housing allowance, which is adjusted for inflation, is supposed to cover 85% of off- base rental costs. Nonetheless, Army and Air Force personnel must borrow heavily from the military to pay real estate finders' fees and make rent deposits. Now thousands of G.I.s are trying to move back to the barracks, and some, like Revis, have had to send their families Stateside.

While West Germans are enjoying the highest standard of living they have ever known, Americans are hunkering down on their bases. Aging post facilities such as clubs and gymnasiums are overcrowded with soldiers who used to spend as much time as possible away from the posts. Shopping in post exchanges has become a way of life again, but even that is not the bargain it used to be. Thanks to congressional demands that PXs be self-sufficient, prices on many goods have risen 25% over the past 14 months. Says Specialist 4 Michelle Williams, a clerk in Stuttgart who arrived last March: "All I heard was that Germany was the place to go, that you could visit castles and that the economy is a blast. But when I got here I thought, God, it's so quiet. There's really not much to do. And I can't afford anything downtown."

Luxury cars, once a bargain during a tour of duty in West Germany, are now beyond the reach of all but high-ranking officers: the Army registered only 136 BMW owners this year, compared with 1,044 in 1985. The 2 1/2-year waiting period for a Mercedes-Benz has shrunk to six months. "Canceled orders used to be simply unheard of," says Gottfried Plangg, of the firm's NATO sales division. "But now everybody's nixing orders placed when the dollar was high."

The military has tried to boost morale as well as spending power. Since the last low-dollar period, in 1979-80, the Army has improved the way it computes cost of living allowances. They are now adjusted monthly and take more prices into account. The Army provides financial advice and such services as family- emergency funds and low-interest credit. Despite the decreased value of the dollar, say Pentagon spokesmen, there has been an increase in requests for extensions of West German tours of duty. But some observers worry about whether that trend will continue in the face of new pfennig-pinching campaigns.

Armed Forces radio broadcasts glum little ads urging G.I.s to use egg timers when they call long distance and to watch for red-tag sales at the PX. "We used to say, 'Come to Europe and broaden your horizons,' " says Major Dennis Pinkham, a public-affairs officer at European Command. "Now that word is out that things are tough, that's kind of a bitter pill to swallow." With many economists predicting even harder times ahead for the shrunken dollar, the pill is most easily washed down with cut-rate beer in the barracks.

With reporting by James L. Graff/Frankfurt