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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (June 6, 1994)
nale Weather Tuesday will be partly cloudy, high in the 90s, low in the 70s — National Weather Service New York wins East conference championship clinched, 94-90 over Indiana Page 3 Fight against tyranny Editorial: D-Day allowed the United States to show the world that aggression and tyranny would not be tolerated. Page 5 THE MONDAY June 6, 1994 Vol. 98, No. 151 (6 pages) ‘Serving Texas A&Msince 1893 PPPsuiiP -mk SyJD f/plsT, DR//: , .4 •' f v\\y MoH •es.. /O Mofie s/ utes.., •s Medical v building ott, Sher- ndation of ampus in i 100 med- ost-gradu- For the liege has jntage of ly practice IS student \ug 4 student or ting student student sg2 student 5 g3 student udent ng itudent itudent July 7 ?3 tudent g2 udent <s tudent ident ng yS udent NEWS A&M professor dies in house fire A Texas A&M University professor died Thursday in a house fire in College Station. Dr. Lee Northcliffe, a professor of physics, was killed by smoke inhalation while he slept. Lt. Eric Hurt, of the College Station Fire Department, said the fire had apparently started in Northcliffe’s living room. Though the fire was quickly put out, smoke had already filled the house. Campus to observe Allied invasion A celebration to remember the D- Day invasion of Normandy will be held today at 2 p.m. in the Sam Houston Sanders Corps of Cadets Center. "Remembering D-Day: 50th Anniversary” will feature exhibits, videotapes, personal remembrances and reflections by faculty. Dr. Paul van Riper, professor emeritus of political science, will speak on the implications of D-Day, and Dr. Joseph Dawson, associate professor of history, will speak about “Rudder’s Rangers," an elite unit that was led by James Earl Rudder, who later served as A&M president. Margaret Rudder, his widow, will also reflect on the events of D-Day. Associate vice chancellor named Ana “Cha” Guzman, program director for the Texas Alliances for Minority Participation program and associate professor of education at Texas A&M University-Kingsville, has been appointed associate vice chancellor for academic support programs for the Texas A&M University System. Guzman will assist the System's seven universities and eight agencies in developing and coordinating academic support programs and collaborative faculty, staff and student relationships. One of her areas of interest will be to help ease the transition for students going from undergraduate to graduate school. She will also assist the universities in developing programs to enhance student recruitment and retention. Texas may become gambling state DALLAS (AP) — Some gambling experts say it’s just a matter of time before Texas joins 21 other states with some form of casino gambling. Texas already sponsors bingo, lotteries and pari-mutuel betting. Bills permitting floating casinos are expected to be filed in next year’s legislative session. In a debate sure to be repeated next year in Texas, casino operators and university researchers from around the country debated exactly what gambling means in America. Speakers at the last week’s International Conference on Gambling and Risk-Taking in Las Vegas split on whether gambling is a panacea or a passing fancy. They also argued over whether state-sponsored gambling helps turn people into compulsive gamblers. Researchers at the conference, which ended Friday, said gambling is one of the nation’s fastest-growing industries, and that Texas may add to that growth. Texas Gov. Ann Richards has said that if casinos are legalized, she wants them land-based with accompanying tourist attractions. No lotto winner picked Saturday No tickets correctly matched all six numbers drawn Saturday night for the twice-weekly Lotto Texas game, state lottery officials said. The numbers drawn Saturday night from a field of 50 were: 16-30- 20-36-7-10. Lottery officials estimate the jackpot for Wednesday night’s game will be $10 million. Today's iB. , . Classifieds 4 Comics 6 Mail Call 6 Opinion 5 Sports 3 Sources: West Point Atlas of American Wars 1900-1953, France Magazine, Atlas of World War II, Triumph and Tragedy AP/Carl Fox Rudder General plays pivotal part By James Bernsen The Battalion “No soldier in my command has ever been wished a more difficult task than that which befell the 34-year- old commander of this provincial ranger force.” Gen. Omar Bradley said these words about then Lt. Col. James Earl Rudder, who on June 6, 1944, led a detachment of 225 men to Pointe du Hoc where, under heavy fire, they scaled 100-foot cliffs to knock out several German heavy guns, which, trained on Omaha and Utah beaches, may have defeated the largest invasion in world history. Joe Fenton, Class of ’58 and curator of the Sam Houston Sanders Corps of Cadets Center, said the invasion of Normandy was a turning point in his tory, and Rudder, Class of ’32, played a crucial role in the invasion. Rudder served as president of A&M from 1959 until his death in 1970. “The cliffs at Pointe du Hoc were steep, treacherous, and rocks crumbled and bombs jarred large boulders loose,” Fenton said. “Plus, there were Germans shoot ing down at them.” Margaret Rudder said her husband didn’t like to talk about the attack. “He lost so many men, it just hurt him to talk about it,” she said. “I think he was modest about his role.” After a 30-minute bombardment of the area by the Battleship Texas, the Second and Fifth Ranger Battal ions were to scale the cliffs from their landing craft and seize the strategic point. However, due to a guide’s navigational error, they were 38 minutes late in arriving at Pointe du Hoc. In that time, the Germans had re-fortified their positions and dawn had come, making the mission seem impossi ble, Mrs. Rudder said. Grappling hooks connected to ladders were fired from Please see Rudder/Page 4 Rudder Normandy invasion changed outlook of WWM By James Bernsen The Battalion On June 6, 1944, 160,000 soldiers of the United States, Britain, Canada, France, Poland, Norway and other Al lied nations took part in the largest in vasion in the history of the world. In his book, “D-Day, June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II,” historian Stephen Ambrose said the op eration that took place 50 years ago may have determined the entire course of the war. Adolf Hitler, who had over-extended himself in the war against the Soviet Union, wanted to persuade Joseph Stalin that the German Army was ca pable of inflicting heavy casualties on it so that Stalin would seek a truce, Am brose said. "At A&M, the entire Class of '44 volunteered. There was a feeling that there was a job to be done, and they were the best trained to do it." —Joe Fenton, curator of Sanders Corps of Cadets Center “To do that, he needed more fighting men and machines,” he said. “To get them he had to strip his western front. To do that, he had to hurl the forthcom ing invasion back into the sea. That’s why D-Day was critical.” Dr. Joseph Dawson, director of the Military Studies Institute at Texas A&M, said that, had the invasion been unsuccessful, the Allies would have tried again, but another attempt would have taken months to organize. “If it hadn’t worked, they would have to go back to the drawing boards,” he said. “The Germans could have further developed their missiles and fired them at the large groups of massed ships. If the attack had been held a year later, they also would have access to larger numbers of the jet fighters which they were developing.” R. F. Franz of Bryan, who was in Baby died of suffocation, DA to pursue charges New curbside recycling program to begin the Signal Corps, part of the Army Air Corps, landed at Normandy several days after the invasion. “The beach was still littered,” he said. “Shells were still landing, and lots of ships were sunk. “I saw the realities of the hedge rows and how many dead soldiers hadn’t been picked up,” he said. “Then I real ized what we had gotten into.” Margaret Adams of Bryan enlisted at the same time as her boyfriend (now her husband), and was sent to Europe; he was sent to the Pacific. “We had an idea that we’d join up and be together like in the movies,” she said, “but it didn’t happen.” At the time of D-Day, Adams was a Please see D-Day/Page 4 By James Bernsen The Battalion The district attorney’s office will present charges to a grand jury in the case of a 21-year-old Texas A&M University student whose newborn baby was discov ered dead March 25 in a Mosher Hall garbage chute. Autopsy results obtained by the Bexar County Forensic Sci ence Center showed the infant died of asphyxia (suffocation.) Bob Wiatt, director of Univer sity Police Department, said the death could have been caused by a number of things. “She could have been smoth ered, died in the sack because of a lack of air, or because of food particles in the bag,” he said. “The examiner probably won’t release any more details until the case is presented to the grand jury.” The body was discovered after UPD received a report from St. Joseph Hospital in Bryan of a woman living in Mosher who ap parently had a baby. The woman denied having ever been pregnant and said she was “just ill,” Wiatt said. Bill Turner, Brazos County district attorney, said no date has been set at this time for the case to be presented to the grand jury, but all the information per taining to the case has already been collected. “This is not something that happens everyday, and we’ve moved very thoroughly and care fully,” he said. “We’re going to work with the defense attorney on scheduling the case, so the time is good for him.” Turner said ample time will be given to the defense to gather witnesses.Turner said he cannot speculate on the strengths of the case, but said a variety of charges will be examined. “We will go through the whole range of charges, from homicide to injury to a child to even mur der or capital murder,” he said. Paramedics responded to an emergency call concerning a woman who was bleeding heavi ly. The woman was rushed to A.P. Beutel Health Center and then to St. Joseph. After a thorough search of the building, the infant was discov ered wrapped in bloody towels in a trash bin on the second floor. Because the woman was a resi dent of the third floor of Mosher, it is believed the baby had been dropped down the chute. The woman, whose name was not released, has since returned to her home in Rockwall, in the Dallas area. By Amanda Fowle The Battalion A new curbside recycling program begins to day for single family homes and duplexes in College Station. Residents will separate garbage into bags designated for clear, brown or green glass, alu minum cans and newsprint. The program will also include newsprint collected on the Texas A&M University campus. Katie Gibson, College Station re cycling coordinator, said there will be no additional charge for the curbside re cycling service. The City of College Station has been con ducting two pilot programs since 1990. In these programs, residents living west of Texas Avenue have been allowed to combine all of their recyclable garbage into one bag and the city was responsible for separating it. Resi dents living east of Texas Avenue, however, have been separating their garbage into bags, just as all College Station residents will do un der the new program. Jim Smith, College Station sanitation super visor, said the city decided to have the resi dents separate the goods themselves because it cost less. “We are trying to hold our costs down and this system was much more cost effective,” he said. Texas Commercial Waste in Bryan contract ed the city to collect the items and market them for recycling. Champion Recycling in Sheldon has agreed to accept the newsprint picked up by Texas Commercial Waste. Magazines and slicked pa per will be mixed with newsprint. Ron Schmidt, general manager for Texas Commercial Waste, said the program will make recycling easier for the public. Making it easy Single family homes and duplexes may combine newspapers and magazines in their bins. “The public will not have to sort the newsprint them selves,” he said, “and this will divert even more garbage from the landfill.” Smith said that the pilot programs have been successful. About 10 percent of waste has been recycled instead of going to the landfill, he said. College Station hopes to expand curbside re cycling to include apartments and multi-family homes within the next year, Smith said. Gibson said College Station residents shou ’ < 1 reuse the green bins that were used (• . garbage pick-up. “Residents may keep the old green bins for use as a laundry basket, toy box, or storage bin, or give it to a day care, school or student that could reuse it,” she said. “Please don’t throw it away.” Sandra Tedrow, an administrative clerk with the City of Bryan, said that Bryan has no city recycling, but is investigating the possibili ty of having drop-off recycling locations aroonrl the city.