
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 14, 1990                   TAG: 9003142878
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B1   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: MADELYN ROSENBERG
DATELINE: PULASKI                                LENGTH: Short

WARNER TO SEEK WORK FOR ARSENAL

U.S. Sen. John Warner, R-Va., pushed aside a microphone Tuesday night and turned a speech at the Elks Club here into an old-fashioned town meeting.

He acknowledged residents' concerns about recent layoffs in the New River Valley, and told the mostly partisan crowd that he would work to keep the Radford Army Ammunition Plant in business.

"When you cut down on military expenditures, the first thing to be reduced is the Army," said Warner, who is ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Warner said the likelihood of engaging in a ground war is slim now that Eastern Europe is moving toward democracy, and "when the U.S. Army goes down, the beans blankets and bullets go down."

The arsenal laid off 70 workers in late February and officials have said another 230 jobs will be lost through attrition.

Local residents said Tuesday night that they were worried that foreign imports, including a move to accept DIGL-RP, a propellant used in tank rockets from West Germany, was pulling business away from the United States and Pulaski County. Previously, the arsenal was the Army's main producer of the propellant.

"We're trying to work it out," Warner said, when asked why the U.S. was accepting the product from a foreign country. "I can't give you a clear answer on the arsenal question."

by CNB