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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 15, 1971)
yei Che Battalion Cooler, may ram Thursday — Cloudy, rain show ers, thundershowers, southerly winds 15-20 mph. High 86°, low 72°. Friday — Cloudy, afternoon rain showers, southerly winds 10- 15 mph. Becoming northerly Fri day night. 10-15 mph. High 86°, low 68°. Vol. 67 No. 10 College Station, Texas Wednesday, September 15, 1971 845-2226 firstil <er Wi of thei is at tb ’ell fort! , "to jl£ just trjl: )tlon anii [ WHOti that 1« arterbat! of then all led Asked mditlon, 3,215 [: ready f« ig Mari ;o let i bice," tli me afj was rea: V\ INC erth Nine hostages held by rioters killed by guns ■ ATTICA, N. Y. (.T)—All nine hostages killed during the storm ing of riot-gripped Attica prison died of gunshot wounds, a county medical examiner’s report un expectedly disclosed Tuesday. For 24 hours, state officials had attributed most of the hostage deaths to slashed throats. “There were no cut throats or any kind of mutilation,” said an autopsy report from Monroe County Medical Examiner John F. Edland. He examined eight of the bodies. A ninth had been established as a gunshot victim. The nine were among 41 per sons who lost their lives in 96 hours of mutiny, according to revised State Corrections Depart ment figures on the worst riot in New York’s penal history. Forty-two inmates were listed as injured. “Shocked . . . bewildered,” was the first reaction of a depart ment spokesman to Edland’s post mortem findings. Later, however, Deputy Cor rections Commissioner Wim Van Eekeren said in Albany that there were witnesses to throat slash ings of hostages. And for the first time, he claimed the rioters had zip guns in their arsenal of home-made weapons — guns fa shioned from pipes, their firing pins powered by rubber bands, able to dispatch regular bullets. “This is definite, these weapons were found,” Van Eekeren de clared. But in Attica, without being told of Van Eekeren’s statement, but after it was made, the Cor rections Department public rela tions chief, Jerry Houlihan, was asked by newsmen if any fire arms were found in the rioters’ cache of weapons. “No, no firearms have been found,” Houlihan replied. The confusing revelations came as officials ordered all hostages, witnesses, and police officers in volved in the Attica situation not to talk to newsmen. The slain hostages were among 38 guards and other prison em ployes held captive four days while 1,200 of Attica’s mostly black 2,254 inmates mutinied. Throughout the uprising, state officials described the rioters as armed only with clubs, makeshift knives and spears and tear gas launchers seized from a store room. A few of the hostages who escaped the prison bloodbath had even described how their lives were spared by sympathetic in mates, who failed to carry out orders to execute them by slash ing their throats. The Attica death figures con- •stituted the greatest U.S. prison toll since 1930, when disgruntled convicts set a fire in the Ohio penitentiary which took 320 in mate lives. The first Attica fatality stemmed from the initial convict seizure of four of the prison’s five eellblocks last Thursday, when fires were set and hostages taken. The victim was a guard, who died 48 hours later of head injuries. In Monday’s assault by more than 1,000 state troopers and sheriff’s deputies following a tear gas drop by National Guard heli copters, nine hostages and 28 prisoners first were reported killed, presumably in the course of the assault, although state officials said some of the hostages had been slain hours earlier. Later the number of inmate dead was raised to 31. During he day, a Buffalo federal court order barred Attica officials from questioning the rioters, until they had been given a chance to consult with lawyers. Herman Schwartz, a lawyer, argued in the U.S. District Court that virtually an entire cellblock of prisoners faced possible crimi nal prosecutions. New York State has abolished capital pun ishment except in rare cases—one being the slaying of a prison guard at the hands of an inmate. A controversy continued to swirl around Republican Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller, who brought the National Guard to Attica and approved the bloody, all-out storming of Cellblock D, last bastion of convict resistance. During the uprising, Rocke feller refused a convicts’ demand to meet them in the prison yard, saying he felt no purpose would be served. The governor also said he could not constitutionally grant a rebel demand for total amnesty, in re turn for freedom of the hostages. When an ultimatum for release of hostages subsequently was ignored, the police forces were unleashed against the rioters. Before the riot, Attica’s inmate population was 85 per cent black or Puerto Rican. All the guards are white. Rockefeller was upheld, how ever, by President Nixon, a group of Republican congressional lead ers, many of the nation’s gover nors meeting in annual confer ence in Puerto Rico, and leaders of various law enforcement or ganizations. Rockefeller had attributed the tragedy to “the highly organized revolutionary tactics of mili tants,” and said he would seek to determine “the role that outside forces would appear to have played.” WONDERING WHERE ALL THE LAND WENT, five registered quarter horses stand atop a mound at sunset near Abilene, Tex. The horses were surrounded by 40 acres of shallow water, a result of recent heavy rains. (AP Wirephoto) Seeks refuge in church McGovern attacked in Saigon SAIGON (.P)—South Vietna mese demonstrators hurling stones and firebombs trapped vis iting Sen. George McGovern for half an hour Tuesday night in a church where he was meeting with antigovernment dissidents. American soldiers dispatched by U.S. Ambassador Ellsworth Bunker escorted McGovern and four aides to safety—shaken but uninjured—after they telephoned the embassy for help. The 49-year-old aspirant for the Democratic presidential nom ination and critic of the Vietnam war was driven back to his hotel under an armed U.S. military police guard. He said he had no idea why the meeting was at- more TAMU makes than any institution AF officers in the nation A&M remains tops nationally in officer production through the Air Force ROTC program, offi cial Air Force figures show. “Comparative figures reveal that TAMU ranks first, rated with the nation’s other 168 AF- ROTC detachments,” stated Col. Robert F. Crossland, professor of aerospace studies. During the 1971 school year, 112 Air Force officers were com missioned at A&M. Tabulations show the AFROTC enrollment at 1,025, second only to Memphis State’s 2,131 which commissioned 50 officers. “We are very proud of the out standing young men being com missioned through the AFROTC program at A&M, and that we are No. 1 in the nation,” Colonel Crossland said. He expects the Aggie program to maintain its position indefinitely. The ranking A&M Air Force officer indicated at least 150 of ficers are expected to be commis sioned during 1971-72. The Citadel, with 700 AFROTC cadets and 101 commissions last year, was runnerup to A&M among “military schools” partici pating in special enriched sum mer field training at Eglin and Tyndall AFBs. VPI and VMI commissioned at 40 and 30 per cent of the A&M pace in 1970-71. A&M figures tripled enroll ment and commissioning figures of the nearest of eight competi tors in Texas. Texas Tech com missioned 35 of 346 AFROTC cadets in 1970-71. In World War II, A&M had 14,000 officers and 6,000 enlisted men serve on active duty, repre senting more than a fifth of the ROTC-trained men who saw ac tion. THE BICYCLES SEEM TO outnumber the students this fall. This photo, taken outside the campus library, em phasizes the possibility. Two students appear to have a hard time locating the door through the maze of two- wheelers. (Photo by Joe Matthews) tacked by the band of shouting Vietnamese. An official U.S. military police report said the key demonstrators included “two Buddhist monks and 20 Anti-American demon strators.” The military police said the crowds swelled to about 150 per sons and at first blocked Ameri can MPs and embassy Marine guards from rescuing McGovern and his party. The U.S. MPs called for assistance from the Vietnamese police, who helped block the demonstrators while McGovern and his aides were sped back to their downtown hotel. “This is one time I didn’t go to sleep in church,” the South Dakota Democrat quipped. McGovern arrived in Saigon on Monday for a three-day visit. He had moved about without visible guards, but U.S. authorities as signed a military police detail to protect him after the stone and firebomb-throwing incident. The attack on the church closed a day of anti-American demon strations and violence in Saigon and in the old imperial capital of Hue in northern South Vietnam. The war itself settled into near calm. The group McGovern met with is known as the Committee for the Improvement of Prison Re gime in South Vietnam, an anti government group which seeks release of political prisoners and prison reforms. It includes Buddhist and Cath olic leaders, university students and lawyers. It is sometimes called the Con Son Committee, a reference to the prison island where last year a disclosure of “tiger cage” prison cells kicked up an international furor and led to replacement of the cells. The anti-American demonstra tions generated at least four fire bomb attacks against American vehicles in various parts of Sai gon, including one in front of U.S. Navy headquarters and an other near the residence of Dep uty U.S. Ambassador Samuel D. Berger. All the vehicles were damaged, but only one casualty was re ported, a U.S. Navy petty officer was severely burned. The attacks were carried out by youths riding motorbikes. They hurled fuel-filled bottles or cans at the vehicles and escaped. The youths were believed to be radical university students who protest American presence in Vietnam and also oppose the gov ernment of President Ngu-yen Van Thieu. Their antigovemment stance and the vigorously antiwar repu tation that preceded McGovern to Banking is a pleasure at First Bank & Trust. Saigon cast doubt on any connec tion between the scattered fire bombings and the church attack. Also during the day, disabled Vietnamese war veterans demon strated peacefully in front of the U.S. Embassy for half an hour seeking help in getting higher veterans’ benefits. In another Saigon demonstra tion, a group of Roman Catholics calling themselves the Movement of Catholics for Peace called for removal of “American occupa tion troops.” At Hue, long a center of anti government and anti-American feeling, the U.S. military com mand placed the city off-limits to American servicemen after a sol-- dier shot and killed a Vietnamese youth and wounded a second. He said they tried to steal beer or soda from his truck. The incident touched off two days of anti-American incidents. In the latest, about 80 to 100 Hue University students staged a peaceful demonstration Tuesday morning. During a four-hour demonstra tion in Hue Monday night, five fire bombs were hurled at U.S. military police vehicles and at trucks and cars belonging to American civilian contractors. On the battlefields, only minor skirmishes were reported around the country. Once again, the heaviest activity was taken over by U.S. B52 bombers. The huge bombers mounted 12 more combat strikes in the north ern front below the demilitarized zone, concentrating on the region around Khe Sanh near the Lao tian border. The bombers dumped 360 tons of explosives on suspect ed North Vietnamese troop loca tions, bunkers, storage areas and antiaircraft gun sites. From the Mekong Delta in the southern end of the country, As sociated Press correspondent Richard Blystone reported four U.S. Army helicopters were shot down while supporting a small South Vietnamese operation on the edge of the U Minh forest. The helicopters were airlifting about 30 South Vietnamese infan trymen on a combat assault in the canal-laced delta area, a long time Viet Cong stronghold. Two were shot down by Viet Cong ground fire during the airlift and the other two were hit in rescue operations and forced to land. There was still no fighting re ported from the northern front below the demilitarized zone, where a nine-day-old operation by 13,500 South Vietnamese troops is under way. The opera tion so far has produced no fight ing larger than a patrol clash. Examination will be given for foreign service work A&M students interested in foreign service careers began making applications for a com petitive written examination of fered Dec. 4, reports Dr. J. M. Nance, U. S. State Department campus advisor. Applications to take the exam must be made on State Depart ment Form DSP-24, available at a local post office or from Dr. Nance, and postmarked no later than Oct. 31. The exam is given to persons interested in appointments in the U. S. State Department foreign service and as U. S. Information Agency information officers. Applicants must be at least 21 and under 31 years of age on Dec. 4. The exception is a person 20 years of age on the date who has successfully completed his junior year of college, Dr. Nance noted. The applicant must also have been a citizen of the United States for at least 7% years. Before appointment, a candidate must be at least 21, a citizen for 10 years and, if married, the spouse must also be a U. S. citi zen. While there are no formal edu cational requirements, Dr. Nance said most successful candidates possess an education at least equivalent to a bachelor of arts degree. Aptitude in written and spoken English is essential, the History Department head em phasized. All applicants must have a sound knowledge of U. S. history and culture. Not being able to speak a foreign language does not disqualify an applicant, Dr. Nance said. Of age to vote, but not enjoy Old enough to vote for or against it, but not old enough to buy it legally. That’s the situation confronting 260 College Station persons un der 21 who are eligible to vote in the Oct. 9 local option election on the sale of booze by the drink. Brazos County Tax Assessor- Collector Raymond Buchanan said persons in College Station under 21 who have registered may vote in the election. University National Bank “On the side of Texas A&M.” —Adv. ■■