Air Force Sweetheart To Be Elected At Ball Saturday Night
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CORDY HORNBERGER
SUSIE VERMERSCH
BEVERLY HAVEMAN
DARLENE YARBROUGH
LINDA MOLTZ
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Volume 61
Burn Victims
Still Critical;
Wilson Moved
Texas A&M freshman Joe B.
Wilson, critically burned in an
automobile accident in Fort
Worth Friday, was moved from
the intensive care unit of Harris
Hospital to the Brooke Army
Medical Center in San Antonio
iWednesday evening.
The Texarkana, Ark., student’s
S mother, Mrs. J. B. Wilson, said
her son’s condition was still criti-
~ cal, but his doctor thought it ad
visable to move him to San An-
Paper tonio -
The second student in the acci
dent, Wayne H. Werdung, a
sophomore from O’Fallon, 111.,
was taken to Brooke immediately
after the crash. His doctors re
ported his condition late Wed
nesday as “critical—no change.”
Mrs. Wilson said her son was
conscious and “mentally helping
his doctor.”
“He told me he loved me,” she
said, “and I think that’s a very
good sign.”
Mrs. Wilson thanked the nu
merous A&M students who had
sent flowers, cards and letters.
“My son often told me how Ag
gies rally around their friends,”
she continueed. “Tell them I know
Joe appreciates their prayers.”
The A&M students, in Fort
Worth for the A&M-TCU foot
ball game, were injured when a
car struck their auto from be
hind at a traffic light. The im
pact of the crash slammed their
vehicle into a third car, causing
a gasoline tank to rupture and
: ignite. Passers-by pulled them
from the wreckage.
Both students had burns over
80 per cent of their bodies.
Aggie Players Start
Advance Ticket Sales
Advance tickets for the Aggie
Players’ production of “Death of
A Salesman” are on sale at the
Aggie Players’ Publicity Office,
Guion Hall; Student Programs
Office, Memorial Student Cen
ter; First Bank and Trust, Bry
an; Carroll’s Corner (Ellisons’)
North Gate; Lew Ann’s, North
Gate; and Gibson’s Discount Cen
ter, Redmond Terrace.
Tickets are 75 cents for A&M
students with ID cards. General
admission is $1.
COLLEGE STATION, TEXAS THURSDAY, OCTOBER 21, 1965
Number 219
ARCHITECTS BOOST TOMB BOOM
Architecture students try to drum up busi- costumes and a ready-made coffin. The
ness for their yearly Tomb Boom dance dance will be held after the Baylor game
through the use of appropriate ghoul-like Saturday night.
Cushing To Start
New Checkout Plan
The long-awaited automated
book charging system is due to
begin operation Monday in Cush
ing Library.
According to Rupert C. Wood
ward, the associate library di
rector, there has been a delay
because the plastic badges have
been late in arriving. These
badges, to be distributed to the
students, are the first step in
bringing this new system into
reality.
In attempting to keep the li
brary up-to-date until the new
one is built, there have been
many changes other than intro
ducing the new automated book
charging system.
This year, the authorized em
ployment of the library has been
increased from 46 to 59 persons
including larger clean-up crews
working in the stacks. Not only
will the stacks be kept cleaner
but the lighting will be greatly
improved with the installation of
fluorescent lights. More stools
have also been scattered through
out the stacks, enabling many
more people to sit down.
Changes on each floor of the
library have relocated many
items. These changes on the
first floor include the security
door check re-established, and the
moving of the circulation desk
to the rear of the lobby.
Students used to finding the
microfilm readers in the Refer
ence Room on the second floor
will now find them in the lobby.
SCONA Filing
To Continue
Deadline for filing for Tex
as A&M delegates to the
eleventh Student Conference
on National Affairs has been
extended through next week.
Applications may be filed
at the Memorial Student Cen
ter director’s office, the main
desk of the MSC, the Com
mandant’s office and the Stu
dent Affairs Office in the
YMCA.
Prospective applicants must
have reached junior classifica
tion and must have an overall
grade point ratio of 1.5. Stu
dents must also have achieved
a 1.5 GPR for the previous
semester and must not be on
any type of probation.
SCONA XI, scheduled here
Dec. 8-11, has for its topic
“The Far East: Focus On
Southeast Asia (The Chal-
langes of A Dynamic Region).
Officials Recommend
Parkinglmprovements
New Seating Setup Explained
A revised student seating arrangement will
go into effect at Saturday’s football game with
Baylor University.
The student section has been enlarged to in
clude sections 122 through 132 instead of the old
nine section setup.
Seniors and graduate students will enter
through ramps P and Q while juniors will enter
through ramp O. Sophomores will use ramp N and
freshmen will enter through ramps L and M.
AH students should fill their respective sections
from the north to guard against a spillover into
seats reserved for Baylor students.
Ushers will ask students to flow northward
after they enter Kyle Field.
The new seating schedule was prompted after
the confusion which resulted at the first home
game two weeks ago.
All students should advise their dates of the
appropriate ramps to enter to avoid further con
fusion.
University Lectu re
Slate Announced
The University Lecture series
for 1965-66 at Texas A&M has
been announced by Academic
Vice President Wayne C. Hall.
Dr. James I. McCord, president
of Princeton Theological Semin
ary, will give the initial lecture
Tuesday. Former dean of Austin
Presbyterian Theological Semin
ary, McCord is a leading member
of a group exploring possibilities
for union among American re
ligious groups.
Dr. Theodore W. Schultz, dis
tinguished professor of economics
at the University of Chicaco, will
discuss “Public Approaches to
Minimize Poverty” on Dec. 12.
On Jan. 10, Dr. George Gamow,
professor of physics at the Uni
versity of Tolorado, will speak
on “Evolution of the Universe”.
Widely respected for research in
nuclear physics, Gamow is best
known for studies of the birth
and life of the universe.
Dr. Jose Maria Chaves, Colom
bian educator, lawyer and diplo
mat, will discuss Latin American
Affairs Feb. 18. He is president
of Institute Israel — Iberoameri-
ca and has represented his coun
try in Washington and at the
United Nations.
A two-time Pulitzer-prize win
ner, Allan Nevins, will lecture
during the spring term. A date
and topic are to be announced.
Nevins won Pulitzer prizes for
biographies of Grover Cleveland
and Henry Ford.
Officers Probing
Pistol Range Theft
Law enforcement officers Wed
nesday continued investigation of
a weekend burglary of the Texas
A&M Armory.
Stolen from the firing range at
Kyle Field late Saturday night
or early Sunday morning were
five .22-caliber target pistols, two
.45-caliber pistols, a telescope
spotter, 5,000 rounds of .22 am
munition and 3,000 rounds of .45-
caliber ammunition.
The burglars apparently used
a jimmy-bar to gain entrance to
the armory, Campus Security
Chief Ed Powell said. They broke
six locks on three steel doors, he
commented.
Powell also said that the range
was regularly patrolled and had
been checked at 5 p.m. Saturday.
The theft was discovered 10 a.m.
Sunday.
Assisting in the investigation
are Texas Ranger D. L. Lutner,
FBI Agent Bob Wiatt, and Col
lege Station Police Chief Lee
Norwood, Powell said.
Recommendations totaling
nearly $250,000 for improving
campus parking were submitted
Wednesday by the Housing Of
fice and Campus Security, Ben
nie A. Zinn, Director of Stu
dent Affairs, announced.
The 14 recommendations were
submitted Monday by Zinn and
Security Chief Ed Powell. After
review by the dean of students
they will be forwarded, to Presi
dent Earl Rudder for possible
submission to the Board of Di
rectors.
Zinn said there were 4,928 stu
dent cars and 2,854 staff cars
registered this semester. Because
of the increase and the construc
tion taking place on the campus
which usurps many parking
spaces with construction mater
ials, 1,200 additional parking
spaces are needed. Most of these
cars are not cared for by tem
porary spaces spread throughout
the campus.
Zinn explained that the major
parking problem concerns the
day students. Nearly one-half
of the student cars are registered
to them. The first day-student
parking lot was not built until
four years ago and, according
to Zinn, their cars far outnumber
their spaces at this time.
Other parking problems are
experienced by those students
living in the northwest area of
the campus. Freshmen living in
that area are now asked to park
in the “Hempstead” lot in the
Duncan Area.
The only recent parking lot
built was at the Veterinary Hos
pital last year for $1,600.
Dancing Classes
To Begin Tuesday
The first dance class sponsored
by the Memorial Student Center
will be at 8 p.m. Tuesday in the
MSC Assembly Room.
The class, conducted by Man
ning Smith, will have ten les
sons per semester at a total cost
of $5, payable at the first meet
ing.
Girls from Bryan and campus
will participate as hostesses and
dancing partners.
Ray Ellis Would Have Told The College
By HUGH A. MULLIGAN
SAIGON, South Viet Nam fA 3 )—The last
time I saw Ray Ellis he was sitting on the
deck of his RAG—River Assault Group—boat
deep in the mangrove swamps and talking
earnestly about college kids tearing up their
draft cards and picketing the Army terminals.
Dawn was just breaking over the Mekong
Hiver delta, and Vietnamese infantry troops
were piling off the little boats and hacking
their way into the swamps. It was one of
those exquisite delta dawns, with a vast
flamingo sky swallowing up the morning star
and luminous white clouds already puffing
up into thunderheads far out over the South
China Sea. Ray loved the beauty of it all
as much as he hated the horror of war.
“If only these kids would come out to Viet
Nam and see for themselves what it’s all
about,” he was saying in the quiet, patient
way he has of making a point, without rancor,
without argument.
“If they could see how nothing moves on
these rivers once the sun goes down because
of the Communists, and what it means for a
peasant to give half his rice crop to a roving
Viet Cong tax collector, and what calculated
terror and murder can do to disrupt any
resemblance of government control in even
the humblest fishing hamlet. If they could
just spend a few hours on my boat talking
to these Vietnamese sailors they might learn
why these people still go on fighting after
20 years of it.”
But, no, that wasn’t the last time I saw
Ray Ellis.
I saw him once again as his coffin passed
through Tan Son Nhut Airport in Saigon on
its way to his home in Cap May Court House,
N. J.
The delta that Ray Ellis had loved so
much, the lovely, lethal delta, had exploded all
around him.
The recommendation for a posthumous
Silver Star, now before the President of the
United States, tells how Lt. Ray Ellis, U. S.
Navy Reserve, gave his life to save the Viet
namese boat and the Vietnamese sailors he
had come to aid.
It tells how at 5:55 one sunlit afternoon
RAG Unit 27 was caught in an ambush in
a narrow bend of a stream and hit from both
sides by mortars, recoilless rifles and 50-
ealiber machine guns.
It tells how Ellis made his way across
the deck from the pilot house to the radio
through that curtain of fires to call for an
air strike, made his way back again to take
command of the ship when the entire pilot
house was wiped out, and was venturing
across the deck once more to help a wounded
Vietnamese sailor when a 50-caliber machine
ripped into his hip, cut in two the hunting
knife hanging on his belt and drove the
pieces into his body so that he died almost
before the cry escaped his lips.
Two boats were sunk that day, and two
more put out of commission. In addition to
Ellis, the only American on the operation,
44 Vietnamese soldiers and 13 Vietnamese
sailors gave their lives in that crooked bend
of a narrow, muddy river. The Viet Cong
dead numbered 83.
The sitation will attest to the bravery
and competence of Lt. Ray Ellis, but it v’on’t
say anything about what he did for the Viet
namese people and what they thought of him.
The citation is no place to tell how Ellis
came 40 miles by helicopter twice a week from
his base in My Tho to teach English at the
Vietnamese school in Saigon.
The citation is no place to tell about the
nights he spent dining in the homes of his
Picketers
Vietnamese sailors, and about how he organ
ized them into a volley ball team and the
hours he put in trying to learn their language.
No citation will tell about the flowers
the people of My Tho heaped on his coffin,
and the delegation they sent to Saigon for
his final rites on this side of the world.
The citation attests that Ray Ellis was
a member of the Naval Reserve. It doesn’t
say that he had been accepted into the regu
lar Navy two days before he was killed but,
because he was out on that delta operation,
had not got around to signing the final
papers.
Maybe people on the picket lines would
have a hard time understanding why a former
teacher from Gettysburg, Pa., would want to
make a career out of the Navy, but if Ray was
around he’d explain it to them. He had a
teacher’s patience with those who couldn’t
understand.