An Army of Self-Helpers on NATO's Front Line

At Büdingen, a U.S. Army base near Frankfurt in West Germany, helicopter maintenance crews do much of their work under tents instead of in hangars. They use jury-rigged lighting and, in cold weather, kerosene heaters that military regulations prohibit as safety hazards. Across the road, 36 armed M-60 tanks stand ready to go to war—if they can churn their way out of a vast mudhole that turns into a pond whenever it rains. At Fliegerhorst barracks near Hanau, 15 miles south of Büdingen, helicopter repair crews have taken over the base's only gymnasium....