i
ecurity men mar Pope’s
isit — well-wishers beaten
ked
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“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.”