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
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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.
■■