Stars & Stripes

16 September 1993

By Joseph Owen

Heidelberg bureau

Mannheim, Germany - An Army Staff Sergeant received a bad conduct discharge Wednesday for having stolen food and equipment from the dining hall where he worked so he could use it in a restaurant he had opened.

Staff. Sgt. John W. Waddell, a food service worker assigned to the 272nd Military Police Co, admitted that crime and others, including padding monthly figures that indicated the number of users of the Taylor Barracks dining hall.

In February of this year alone, Waddell acknowledged, he increased the recorded numbers of diners by about 3,600.

The dining hall adjoins the Mannheim Legal Service Center, where Waddell's one-day Court-martial occurred.

A seven-member officer and enlisted panel sentenced Waddell to a reduction to the lowest enlisted rank, but no jail time, according to his civilian lawyer, DAVID COURT.

Waddell had pleaded guilty to larceny, falsification of official documents, misuse of a ration card and illegal resale of tax-exempt goods.

Waddell said he had boosted the patronage figures to offset the amount of food lost because of inefficient cooking.

The short-handed staff, unable to cook to order in the midst of a meal, instead prepared too much food in advance of each meal, he said.

When the rest was served later as leftovers, he said, nobody ate them.

"The amounts of food were staggering that were going out of the dining facility as food waste," Waddell said.

The inflated figures were used to justify the reordering of food to cover the next meal cycles, he said.

Nobody questioned the patronage records until local Criminal Investigation Comd agents began probing Waddell's activities in March, he said.

The accuracy of patronage was especially important in January, according to Waddell's company commander, Capt. James J. Wolff.

"During that time, they were deciding whether or not to close the dining facility here on Taylor Barracks," he said, acknowledging that inflated totals would make closure less likely.

Regarding the thefts, Waddell admitted to having stolen 40 pounds of ham, 48 cans of dehydrated peppers, 14 bags of flour at 5 pounds each, a fire extinguisher and various amounts of salad vegetables, cheese, French fries, hamburger buns, toothpicks, floor soap and hand soap to use in his restaurant in

the nearby village of Neckarshausen.

He also admitted having bought groceries at an Army commissary and wine and liquor at an Army Class Six store for use in the restaurant.

Waddell had pleaded guilty as part of a pretrial agreement limiting any jail sentence to six months, but that became irrelevant when the court declined to imprison him at all.