Image provided by: Texas A&M University
About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (June 7, 1979)
i ecurity men mar Pope’s isit — well-wishers beaten ked th atl a ; Percent (ij ‘id lasty ' and tl ( l “latter tS United Press International ^GZESTOCHOWA, Poland — Security den surrounding Pope John Paul II beat J Uni l(p a priest, kicked and punched well- 1 “ j < : liers in the crowd and pummeled news [tographers Wednesday in the first vio- e of the pontiff s tour of his homeland, plainclothes security men turned what mid have been a picturesque ride ffipugh flower-strewn streets into a dem- jigtration of police statestyle brutality. United Press International photo- her Mai Langsdon was punched and d as he took a picture of the pope bting handicapped people outside istochowas Holy Family cathedral, photographer for Newsweek i magazine was beaten up. A Roman Catholic priest who tossed a bouquet of flowers into the pope’s open car was grabbed by security men, struck several times and hurled back into the crowd. Along the route of the pope’s motorcade some young men tried to run alongside the moving vehicles. Security men poured out of their cars and smashed the men with football-style tackles that left the men bleeding and bruised. When the pope arrived at the cathedral security men surrounded him so closely he was all but concealed from the crowds. Poland’s Communist rulers moved hun dreds of uniformed militiamen into Czes tochowa 36 hours earlier, apparently as a precaution against the invasion of tens of thousands of tough, muscular coal miners and factory workers from the Silesia dis tricts. The miners and workers were miffed that John Paul was not allowed to visit their districts, which are staunch Catholic strongholds, and that they had to come to see him instead. Until Wednesday, however, the secu rity precautions had been merely visible. Wednesday they became violent. The security men showed little mercy to the thick and enthusiastic crowd lining the route of the pope’s 15-minute motorcade. In order to get into action more quickly f 1 1"! I HE Battalion Weather Partly cloudy with scattered showers and a 30% chance of rain. High today will be in the mid 80’s and a low in the mid 70’s. Winds will be Southerly at 10-15 miles per hour. Vol. 72 No. 156 8 Pages Thursday, June 7, 1979 College Station, Texas News Dept. 845-2611 Business Dept. 845-2611 i$i I mancing new fire station epends on insurance rate By CAROLYN BLOSSER Battalion StafT College Station’s fire chief asked city uncil for $280,000 to staff the new fire fetion being built on the city’s south side fear Farm Road 2818. IChief Douglas Landau submitted this liginal request plus three alternative ans to the council during a special meet- ^ Wednesday. jjHis $280,000 request would pay for Highway six runs one way Heavy rains between Navasota and Hempstead closed a section of Highway 6 Wednesday afternoon after flood waters damaged a bridge a half-mile south of Farm-to-Market Road 2. North and south bound traffic was re-routed along U.S. 290 through Brenham, a Department of Public Safety spokesman said. The Texas Highway Department said the highway should reopen sometime Thursday morning. A section of Farm-to-Market Road 1774 between Navasota and Plantersville was also closed but was expected to reopen Wednesday night, the DPS spokesman said. enough personnel at the new station to re spond to both ambulance and fire calls at the same time. The first alternative plan, which would cost $128,971, would provide enough per sonnel to respond to fire or ambulance calls, but not both at the same time. The other alternatives would provide a staff for either an ambulance or fire ser vice. The council is seriously considering only the first two options. College Station’s fire department cur rently falls short of the Texas State Board of Insurance requirements. These statewide standards require 1.5 fire per sonnel per 1,000 people. Landau’s original request would provide 24 additional members (including one in spector) to the 27-member department now. According to the State Board of In surance, College Station needs 63 firefighters. “I think we do a good job,” Landau said. “You can’t do everything they want. It’s just not feasible.” City Manager North Bardell said Col lege Station has certain decreased liabilities which the board overlooks. He said the chances of fire are reduced since the city is new with little old construction, or downtown and industrial areas. The council is considering several plans for financing the new station, including raising property taxes and moving funds from other departments. It will adopt a budget by June 27. Before deciding on a final plan, the council wants to know what direct effect both plans will have on the insurance key rate. The State Board of Insurance sets the rate based on the number of firemen, equipment, pump capacity, location of sta tions and other considerations, Bardell said. Landau will study the possible effects on the key rate and present them to the coun cil in a special meeting tonight at 7. The council will also take formal action on the authorization of the sale of a $6.1 million bond issue. The bond, which vot ers passed in April 1978, will finance the improvements to College Station’s utility system. Bardell and two councilmen will go to New York June 13 to seek a bond rating. they rode running boards of the black Russian-built limousines. The pope visited the cathedral for a meeting with monks and clergymen from the Czestochowa area. When he arrived people pelted him with flowers, including one admirirer who hurled a bouquet that struck him full in the face. A heavy thunder shower, the first break in the beautiful days the Poles called “the pope’s weather,” seemed not to dampen the crowds enthusiasm. Earlier Wednesday the pope said a pri vate mass before the haunting image of the “Black Madonna,” an ancient painting of the Virgin Mary and Poland’s most vener ated icon. Nuclear hotline established United Press International WASHINGTON — Direct emergency telephone lines have been established be tween the Nuclear Regulatory Commis sion and 68 licensed nuclear power reac tors and 14 licensed nuclear fuel and equipment plants in the United States, it was announced Wednesday. The lines, to be used in the event of an accident, were ordered as a result of com munications problems experienced during the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant accident in Pennsylvania. The NRC said all the lines were ac tivated June 1, a month ahead of schedule. Each of the “dedicated” telephone lines makes it possible for operations personnel to talk immediately with the NRC’s opera tions center here, now manned with tech nical personnel around the clock. The NRC said the only two reactors not equipped with one of the direct lines are Pacific Gas and Electric Co.’s Humboldt Bay Nuclear Power Station near Eureka, Calif., and unit 1 at Consolidated Edison Co.’s Indian Point Nuclear Power Station near Buchanan, N.Y. Both of these reac tors have been shut down for more than a year. The other facilities equipped with the new communications links are those oper ated by Babcock and Wilcox Co. at Apollo and Leechburg, Pa., and two at Lyn chburg, Va.; Texas Instruments C©. at North Attleboro, Mass.; United Nuclear Corp. at Montville, Conn., and Wood River, R.I.; Westinghouse Electric Corp. at Cheswick, Pa.; Nuclear Fuel Services Inc., at Erwin, Tenn.; JCerr McGee Corp., at Crescent, Okla.; Exxon Nuclear at Rich land, Wash.; General Atomics Co. at San Diego, Calif.; General Electric Co. at Val- lecitos, Calif; and Atomic International at Canoga Park, Calif. Watch out for that hair! If you’re Kerry Lewallen it’s wise to check your hair before you close the car door. Lewallen, who is a freshman pre-medicine major at Texas A&M, said her hair has been growing continuously for nine years with only an occasional trim. Battalion photo by Clay Cockrill 35th D-Day anniversary observed United Press International POINTE DU HOC, France — A frail and crippled Gen. Omar Bradley, who commanded the American D-Day invasion forces, whispered his praises to the dead Allied soldiers at a ceremony marking the 35th anniversary Wednesday of the Nor mandy landing that resulted in the libera tion of Europe. June 6, 1944. (D-Day) at 7 a.m., volun teers of the 2nd and 5th Ranger Battalion scale the sheer, 100-foot cliffs at the Pointe du Hoc under relentless enemy fire to si lence six 155mm German guns aimed at the Allied forces on Omaha and Utah beaches. “When those of us responsible for the landing worried about the guns aimed at our ships, Lt. Col. James E. Rudder told me, T can take care of that for you with my Rangers,”’ the 87-year-old general of the Army said from his wheelchair. Rudder, who commanded in the second ranger battalion, was jpresident of Texas A&M University from 1959 until his death in 1970. The Ranger operation was costly. Half of the men were killed or wounded. In a tragic twist of fate, the guns they climbed to silence had not yet been put in place by the Germahs. “It took more than guts to climb those cliffs,” Bradley said. “Let us pay honor to those men and pray that there will always be people prepared to do the impossible. Theirs was a wonderful operation.” Fifteen of the original Rangers attended the ceremony Tuesday night. Donald C. Pechakek of Elsworth, Wis., still wiry and athletic at 57, recalled, “Sure, I was scared. Only 175 of us made it to the top and only 69 lived through that night. It was our first time in combat and we trained three months to do it. When the time came, we just did it.” Pechakek, now a rural mail carrier and father of eight, climbed the cliffs again five years ago with two other Rangers. “We did it for the thrill,” he said. “If the ropes were here, I’d do it again today.” The Rangers’ commemoration coincided with the official ceremony to hand the Pointe du Hoc memorial to Gen. John W. Donaldson, who is (responsible for all American cemeteries in Europe. The ceremony, attended by French and American generals, veterans and dip lomats, was preceded by a religious cere mony at the American cemetery at Omaha Beach. White marble crosses mark the graves of the 9,386 Americans who died in the inva sion. Beneath a statue representing a stricken youth reaching to heaven, reli gious leaders said prayers before the vet erans of 22 U.S. units. Many veterans arrived early at the cem climher This cat seems not the least bit perturbed by the slim, slanted ledge along which he is creepig. The kitty’s wall climbing was on the University’s Halbouty geosciences build ing. Battalion photo by Lee Roy Leschper Jr. Ship fire claims 4; 2 others still missing United Press International COPPER HARBOR, Mich. — Coast Guard search crews found four bodies aboard the fire-ravaged Canadian freighter Cartiercliff Hall on Lake Superior and left little hope two other missing crewmen would be found alive. The rest of the 19-member crew abandoned the burning ship as the fire, which apparently broke out below the ship’s deck before dawn Tuesday, swept the stern. Five crew members, including the captain, were injured, one critically. As the 700-foot freighter was towed by its owner, Hall Steamship Co. of Montreal, to Thunder Bay, Ontario, U.S. and Canadian Coast Guard crews searched through the rubble below the deck for signs of the two missing men. They said, however, there was little hope of finding them alive. The bodies of the four unidentified Canadians were found below the ship’s deck. The Cartiercliff Hall, laden with corn, had been on its way to Port Cartier, Quebec, when the fire erupted in waters off the Keeweenaw Peninsula, Michigan’s northernmost point. A ship owned by U.S. Steel spotted flares from the distressed vessel and notified officials before dawn Tuesday. When the Canadian Coast Guard vessel Griffin, on its way to Thunder Bay for drydocking, reached the freighter, smoke and flames already were billowing from the hatches. A witness with field glasses said it looked “like a bonfire.” “I would assume they were sleeping and the smoke overcame them,” said one survivor, Jerry Mulrine. “Those who made it were very, very lucky. It was a very narrow escape. It all happened so fast.” Mulrine, a cadet on the ship for his first time, said he had just awakened when fire blew open his door in the crews quarters. He said he jumped through a port window to the deck. “Once out, we got some lifeboats down and some hoses going. We fought the fire for 15 to 20 minutes, but there was not much more we could do. We had to abandon ship,” he said. Ship’s Master Raymond Boudreault, a 20-year Great Lakes seaman, and three crew members suffered severe burns. Boudreault, Francis Chouinard, 18; Paul Bois vert, 58; and Jean Claude Langlois, 41, were flown to the University of Michigan Burn Center in Ann Arbor 400 miles away. etery to wander among the graves. Louis Taboti, 60, of New York City, was with the 29th Division when they landed. Clutching a scrap of paper with the number H.13.15 written on it, Taboti scanned the rows of identical white crosses spread neatly along the green lawn. “It’s the number of the grave of a guy called Ethridge,” he said. “He was from Texas and we were close. After we landed at Omaha, he went out on a night maneu ver to penetrate enemy lines. On his way back, my company shot him dead by mis take. It’s my first time back and I wanted to try and find him.” Harold Schoerer, 60, of Eureka, Mo., when asked why he returned for the ceremonies, said, “We are all getting older. This is probably the last chance for all us D-Day veterans to be together. Our leader Bradley is getting old and soon we ll all be dying off. “I guess you could call it our last hur rah.”