‘It’s Sure Nice To Be Home’ Say The Astronauts
Cbe Battalion
VOLUME 64 Number 128 COLLEGE STATION, TEXAS WEDNESDAY, JULY 23, 1969 Telephone 846-2226
PUT IT OUT
Several of the visiting firemen get some on-the-site train- Airport Monday. The school continues through the week,
ing at the 40th annual Firemen’s school near Easterwood (Photo by Monty Stanley)
Fire Chief Is Walking History
Fireman School
Attracts 1800
Two New Divisions
Passed By Board
Irwin W. Speckels, fire chief
emeritus of the Schulenburg Vol
unteer Fire Department, is a
walking history of the Texas
Firemen's Training School.
“I first came here in 1932,” he
tells you proudly. “I have missed
only one school, in 1940 when I
attended the International Asso
ciation of Fire Chief’s Conven
tion in Spokane, Wash., as the
official representative of Texas.
1 was the state president.”
Chief Speckels is attending his
36th municipal training school
this week at Texas A&M. He
retired last September as Schul
enburg chief, a position he held
for 35 years.
GRE To Be Given
Graduate Record Examina
tions for August graduates at
Texas A&M will be given Aug.
8-9.
Seniors scheduled to grad
uate must register at the
Counseling and Testing Cen
ter in the Academic Building
by 5 p.m. Tuesday, July 22,
noted Auston Kerley, center
director.
A $6.50 fee must be paid at
the fiscal office and the fee
receipt brought to the Coun
seling and Testing Center.
Students will be notified by
mail whdm and where to report.
University National Bank
"On the side of Texas A&M.”
—Adv.
He is one of the seven mem
bers of the Firemen Training
School Advisory Board, and the
only member ever to be reap
pointed. He first served from
1944 to 1956 and was reappoint
ed in 1961 to a 10-year term.
“My greatest enjoyment each
year is coming here to see my
friends,” he confessed. “It hurts
me, too. Each year I find some
of my old buddies have passed
on.”
“I guess when you get the
smoke in your throat it’s ‘once a
fireman, always a fireman’,”
Speckels said.
The Schulenburg movie and
hotel businessman was 31 years
old when he first enrolled but
had been around fires and fire
fighters all of his life. Speckels’
dad was a former fire chief at
Wichita Falls and La Grange,
and served as president of the
state organization in 1913.
5,008 Enroll Here
Second - semester summer en
rollment at Texas A&M totals
5,008, announced Registrar Rob
ert A. Lacey.
Lacey said current registration
represents a 6.2 percent increase
over th6 same period last year.
The total includes students en
rolled at the Texas A&M Adjunct
at Junction. The Marine Labora
tory at Galveston and partici
pants in the Texas Maritime
Acadetny summter cruise to the
Mediterranean.
“Only one course was offered
in 1932,” he explained. “Now
we have 13 courses and more
instructors than there were stu
dents in ’32.”
He noted that the first course
he took at A&M was similar to
the present basic fire-fighting
course, except they didn’t fight
fires.
“We would fill a washtub with
gasoline, light it and then put it
out with a hand extinguisher,”
Library Adds
Two Staffers
Two additions to the Texas
A&M library’s professional staff
have been announced by Jack B.
Smith, acting director.
Miss Judith A. Arnn has join
ed the staff as assistant science
and technology librarian.
Mrs. Rita B. Estok has been
appointed science and technology
librarian, effective Sept. 1.
Mrs. Estok joined the staff
Feb. 1 as assistant research libra
rian. Her library science degree
is from Carnegie Institute of
Technology Library School in
Pittsburgh.
Formerly in the University of
Oklahoma library’s automation
department, Miss Arnn holds a
biology degree from Central
State College of Edmond, Okla.,
and the M.S. in library science
from OU.
he recalled.
Speckels said the traditional
group picture points out how
much the school has grown.
“The first few years I came
we shot the picture on the YMCA
steps. Now we use Kyle Field to
get the 1,800-plus into the pic
ture.”
The chief said he has two spe
cial memories of the early
schools.
“We held our first aid classes
in the mule barn and the salvage
operation training left us look
ing like a bunch of hogs. We
would be covered completely with
oil and ashes,” he remembered.
The one-week training for
community firemen, most of them
volunteers, is “the greatest thing
to happen to Texas,” Speckels
said.
“This training is the best in
the world,” he assured.
The chief emeritus is a life
member and past president of the
Guadalupe District Firemen’s and
Fire Marshals’ Association, a
past president (1941-42) of the
state organization, a 20-year
member of the city council and
10-year member of the Schulen
burg School Board, five of them
as president.
He explained he is the last of
the Speckels firemen.
“All my boys are two girls,” he
chuckled.
FIRST BANK & TRUST—Home
of the Super C D - 5% interest
compounded daily.
Registration for the 40th an
nual Texas Firemen’s Training
School topped 1,800 as municipal
firemen kicked off the first of
three one-week firetraining
schools.
“We have started classes and
are on our way,” said Henry D.
Smith, chief instructor. The mu
nicipal school is the first of three
one-week schools scheduled at
Texas A&M through Aug. 8.
Smith said the registration in
cludes 1,114 firemen. The re
mainder are instructors, special
equipment representatives and
visitors.
Among the instructors is Leo
Bales, who has attended almost
every training school since 1935.
Bales is a retired fire chief from
Lampasas and served on the Tex
as Railroad Commission’s Liquid-
fied Petroleum Gas (LPG) Divi
sion.
“This is a wonderful school,”
he said. “The small town fire
departments have benefitted
greatly from this training pro
gram. If they didn’t get train
ing here, they just wouldn’t get
it.”
Bales missed attending the
school while serving in the U.S.
Navy during World War II. He
is a technical instructor art the
1969 school.
Firemen will be joined by dis
tinguished visitors at a banquet
set for 5:30 tonight in A&M’s
Sbisa Dining Hall.
More than 3,000 spectators are
expected tonight for a public fire
fighting spectacular hosted by
the Training School.
Richard Russell, chairman of
combined field operations and
demonstration coordinator, said
school instructors will present a
90-minute exhibition starting at
7:30 p.m.
The Richardson Fire Depart
ment chief reported the instruc
tors will battle fires in a trans
port truck, overhead storage
tank, house, several large pits
and a fire extinguisher project.
Russell noted a special equip
ment demonstration will also be
featured with manufacturing rep
resentatives demonstrating the
latest fire-fighting innovations.
Special equipment to be dis
played was not announced until
late Tuesday, Russell said.
Spectators will walk to each
demonstration, Russell explain
ed, as there is no seating facili
ties at the Brayton Firemen
Training Field near Easterwood
Airport.
A&M hosts three one-week
schools. The municipal school
opened Monday and continues
through Friday, with a record
1,114 municipal firemen enrolled
this year.
An industrial school will be
held next week and a Spanish
speaking school will start Aug.
3.
Creation of a College of Edu
cation and a Department of
Forestry Science at Texas A&M
was authorized Monday by the
Coordinating Board, Texas Col
lege and University System.
Texas A&M also received Co
ordinating Board approval to
offer seven new degree programs,
including doctoral degrees in
architecture and environmental
design and computing science.
The new College of Education,
authorized for establishment prior
to the fall semester this year,
will include six departments:
agricultural education, industrial
education, health and physical
education, educational adminis
tration, curriculum and instruc
tion and educational psychology.
Universtiy officials noted the
latter three departments will be
new, evolving from A&M’s cur
rent Department of Education,
part of the College of Liberal
Arts. The other three depart
ments are now included in the
Colleges of Agriculture, Engi
neering and Liberal Arts.
Enrollment in the various
teacher education curricula at
Texas A&M, the officials pointed
out, has increased from approxi
mately 500 to 1,200 during the
past five years.
Texas A&M’s board of directors
approved plans for formation of
the college at its April meeting.
The new Department of For
estry Science will be a part of
122 Vets File
For Degree
A record 122 veterinary medi
cine students have applied for
graduation Aug. 8 at Texas
A&M announced Veterinary Med
icine Dean A. A. Price.
Dr. Price said the number of
D.V.M. degree candidates this
year represents an increase of 22
percent over the total in 1968,
when the present record was
established.
Commencement speaker for the
8 p.m. ceremonies in Bryan Civic
Auditorium will be Dr. M. R.
Clarkson of Chicago, executive
vice president of the American
Veterinary Medical Association.
Other participants include
Clyde H. Wells of Granbury,
president of the Texas A&M
University System Board of Di
rectors, and Texas A&M Presi
dent Earl Rudder.
the College of Agriculture’s
School of Natural Biosciences.
A&M was authorized to offer B.S.
and M.S. degrees in forestry.
The bachelor program, which
includes majors in wood science
and technology and forest re
source management, will be of
fered to entering freshmen this 1
fall. The first undergraduate
degrees in forestry, however, can
be granted from Texas A&M no
earlier than 1973, the board
stipulated.
In addition to the doctoral pro
grams in computing science and
architecture and environmental
design, Texas A&M was granted
a Ph.D. in veterinary medicine
science.
The university also received
permission to offer master’s de
grees in veterinary medicine sci
ence, epidemiology (veterinary
medicine) and statistics.
Chamber Backs
Amendment Two
The Bryan - College Station
Chamber of Commerce Executive
Committee Tuesday officially en
dorsed proposed Amendment No.
2 to the Texas Constitution and
urged its passage Aug. 5.
If passed, Amendment No. 2
would authorize issuance of gen
eral obligation bonds for devel
opment of Texas’ water resources.
“As many of us are aware,
the State of Texas has h master
plan for water development
which will have a very impor
tant influence on the develop
ment of our state,” noted Cham
ber President Ridley Briggs.
“The state is very interested in
intelligent development of wa
ter resources, and we in Brazos
County are particularly aware
of the potential of developing
water resources, as evidenced by
our endorsement and active sup
port of proposed dams on the
Navasota River, specifically the
immediate construction of Milli-
can Dam,” Briggs continued.
He urged local citizens to
familiarize themselves with all
nine proposed amendments sched
uled for a vote next mbnth. He
shid anyone desiring a summary
of the amendments should con
tact the chamber office.
Bryan Building & Loan
Association. Your Sav
ing Center, since 1919.
B B & L. —Adv.
The Inquiring Battman
Man Has Reached The
Moon: What
GARY HANES
Linden—Senior
“The Moon is only a start. The
feat will increase knowledge of
space and will enable longer,
more intensive flights. It would
be foolish to set limits on what
can come now.”
JOHN CORBETT
Waco—Freshman
“I believe that now that we
have reached the Moon, we can
settle the Moon and then move
on to other planets to set up
outposts and space stations.”
.
LAWRENCE WALLACE
Huntsville—Senior
“We have made more progress
in solving space problems than
in solving problems of hunger,
discrimination, and war. Why
can’t these problems be faced
as open-mindedly as the space
problem is?”
M. B. FLIPPEN
Orange—Grad Student
“I strongly favor a progressive
space policy. Yet it should not
be at the expense of our social
involvement programs. If used
creatively, it is certainly more
beneficial than our war ex
penses.”
JOE SCHRIEYER
W all—Sophom ore
“Now that we are there, we
must explore the Moon and be
gin to use its resources. It has
tremendous possibilities, and
now we should get on with the
job of exploring and using
them.”
Comes Next?
BILL MASKAL
New York, N. Y.—Senior
“It has definitely been benefic
ial to mankind but the Ameri
can people must realize that
it is for mankind—not for the
U. S. alone. This lack of reali
zation is the entire problem fac
ing us today.”
DERICK BONEWITZ
Houston—Senior
“I believe we should pursue
further exploration of the moon
as well as travel to the other
heavenly bodies. We aren’t go
ing to neglect our responsibili
ties here on Earth as some
think we will.”