The Battalion
M. 71 No. 28
jo Pages
Monday, October 10, 1977
College Station, Texas
News Dept. 845-2611
Business Dept. 845-2611
Inside Today:
B-CS growth is on the way up, p. 3
Chili lovers are on their way home,
p. 6
Mark Patterson writes on Waco, p.
9
1/3
Military chiefs battle
over treaty with Panama
United Press International
WASHINGTON — As one member proposed an on-
the-spot study by the entire Senate Foreign Relations
Committee in Panama, two high-ranking retired military
officers Monday were prepared to support the controv
ersial canal treaties.
Adm. Elmo Zumwalt, chief of naval operations from
1970 to 1974, and Gen. Maxwell Taylor, chairman of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff between 1962 and 1964, were set to
testify the treaties would not endanger U. S. national se
curity.
But they’ll be crossing swords with Adm. Thomas
Moorer, another former chairman of the joint chiefs,
who opposes the treaties and also was scheduled to tes
tify.
Sen. Frank Church, D-Idaho, a ranking member of
the Senate panel, proposed the full Foreign Relations
Committee travel to Panama to clear up some concerns
about the treaties.
Church proposed the trip during a television inter
view (CBS-TV’s Face the Nation) in which he was asked
if it would be a good idea for the chief Panamanian
negotiator to testify about differing interpretations of
some treaty provisions.
T’d much prefer to see the whole Foreign Relations
Committee, after we have completed our initial hearings
and during the recess, to go to Panama,’ replied
Church, who is acting chairman of the 16-member Se
nate panel when Chairman John Sparkman, D-Ala., is
absent.
That would give the lawmakers a “first-hand view” of
Canal Zone defenses, he said, and they could get “some
feel of the political climate in Panama and also the at
titude of other countries in the Caribbean — Colombia,
Venezuela, Costa Rica and possibly some of the island
governments in the Caribbean itself.
Church also said the administration must act strongly
to shift public opinion about the treaties if it hopes to win
Senate ratification.
“I think the treaties are in deep trouble now,’’ he said.
Sen. Strom Thurmond, R-S.C., a determined oppo
nent of the treaties, has questioned the sincerity of some
active duty military officers like Gen. George Brown,
current chairman of the joint chiefs, in their support of
the treaties.
Thurmond and other opponents hinted the active offi
cers are not free to speak their minds because of adminis
tration pressure.
Last week, Thurmond introduced a letter against the
treaties from four retired naval officers — Moorer and
three former chiefs of naval operations, Arleigh Burke,
Robert Carney and George Anderson.
Since studying the treaties, however, Carney has
modified his position and told Sen. Robert Dole,
R-Kan., he could support the accords if amended as Dole
suggests.
Committee sources report Gen. Matthew Ridgway,
former U.S. commander in Korea, and Gen. William
Westmoreland, former U.S. commander in Vietnam,
also favor the treaties.
Meeting held in Kansas City
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Battalion photo by John White
Forgotten windmill
o longer pumping water, a forgotten windmill stands as a bit of road-
de scenery for drivers taking Hwy. 30 east to Huntsville last Sunday.
A six-member delegation with repre
sentation by all major local entities pres
ented testimony Friday at Kansas City,
Mo., in support of continued operation of
the Federal Aviation Administration
(FAA) control tower at Easterwood Air
port.
The group included Texas A&M Uni
versity’s vice president for business affairs,
Howard Vestal; Ed Davis, director of
management services for the university;
Bryan-College Station Chamber of Com
merce President Armand Frank Brazos
County Commissioner Bill Cooley; Bryan
Mayor Pro Tern Henry Seale, and College
Station City Councilman Lane Stephen
son.
They appeared before a four-man panel
which conducted a public hearing for re
sponse to the FAA’s recent announcement
that the government is considering the
discontinuance of control tower operations
at 73 airports throughout the nation, in
cluding Easterwood.
The local delegation emphasized safety
considerations and cited the recent and
projected growth of Bryan-College Station
and the surrounding area in its request
that the tower continue to be operated by
the FAA.
Resolutions supporting continued oper
ations at Easterwood were formally pres
ented to the FAA on behalf of the City of
Bryan, City of College Station and the
Metropolitan Planning Organization of
Bryan-College Station.
In requesting that Easterwood be
excluded from any closure plans. Vestal
said the local airport appears to be an “un
fortunate victim of timing.”
He pointed out the facility exceeded last
year the volume of operations that the
FAA predicted for fiscal year 1978 —
104,000 take-offs and landings. He also
said the FAA’s projected loss — even with
the low figures — is only $8,000 over the
next 15 years.
Vestal added that nearly 10,000 opera
tions were conducted at Easterwood last
month, a rate rapidly approaching the
114,000 annual figure which the FAA con
tends is the break-even point for its cost-
benefit consideration.
Frank indicated industrial development
would be “seriously curtailed” if the tower
were closed.
“Without this tower, the case for
Bryan-College Station would be seriously
hampered in serving and attracting indus
try,” the chamber president told the FAA
representatives.
Commissioner Cooley, citing
projections for continued population in
creases, predicted it would just be a mat
ter of time until the FAA would be forced
to reopen the tower if it should go through
and its current plan.
“Any proposal to close the airport con
trol tower at this time should be consid
ered in the light of the possible necessity
of reopening the tower in a short period of
time, he observed.
He also said that closing of the tower
would jeopardize operation of the com
munity’s commercial air service, “thereby
denying to a large segment of ou popula
tion a highly desirable means e. transpor
tation.”
In addition to underscoring the growth
trends for the area, Seale questioned the
FAA philosophy of spending more than
$300,000 last year to upgrade the tower
and then immediately initiate action which
could lead to its closing.
“The compelling and overriding reason
for continuing to operate the tower is
safety,” Stephenson said.
He estimated that nearly a quarter of a
million people used Easterwood last year.
Aggie warfare: ammo-flour;
injured-none; winner-???
Soviet space capsule
fails; returns to earth
ivasn 11
1
By LIZ NEWLIN
Battalion Staff
exactly a scene out of “A Bridge
, ar ' the “soldiers” who fought
attic in a training field near Easter-
lr Port Saturday night didn’t seem
_ lnd ‘he makeshift" war.
' e attics are part of a semester-long
b , among platoons in the Texas
foand.
Went out there to have fun and get
W r. C0 ? e * n other platoons,” said
oehm, the senior band member
who served as commander of the action.
“Most everybody got killed at least once.’
Killing was easy. Each warrior was
given three bags filled with flour. This
ammunition was then dumped on one s
opponent. Boehm noted that about 200
pounds of flour were used.
Fighting occured on two lanes of woods
separated by a small lake. Boehm said that
because of the dense undergrowth, it was
“real easy to get lost.” But no one was re
ported missing or injured.
The goal of the offense was to place a
white helmet on the “objective”, a metal
pole or group of trees lighted by
flashlights. Each platoon had two chances
to defend their territory and to attack their
enemies’ and action ended about 11 p.m.
The senior band members who served
as umpires had the task of deciding which
soldiers had been killed. Only “live”
players could advance toward the objec
tive.
Umpires had to mingle with the group
to avoid giving away the group’s position,
but they also had to stand up to count the
fatalities. Hence, the platoons’ two um
pires were easy targets.
“The umpires got creamed with flour,”
said Boehm. “One umpire stood up and
got hit with about six bombs before he
could say anything.”
Band leaders are still trying to figure out
who won the conflict, and Boehm said
they hope to “weed through all the stuff”
and declare winners based on participa
tion, numbers “killed” and tides of the var
ious battles.
United Press International
MOSCOW — Unexpected troubles with
the Soyuz 25 space capsule Monday forced
the two cosmonauts to cut short their mis
sion and prepare to return to earth,
Moscow Radio announced.
Moscow Radio said the Soyuz 25 capsule
had approached to within 120 yards of the
Salyut 6 orbiting space laboratory early
Monday when unspecified troubles de
veloped and made a linkup impossible.
The radio broadcast said the two cos
monauts aboard Soyuz 25 have begun
preparations for a return to earth.
Soyuz 25 — with rookie cosmonauts
Vladimir Kovalenok and Valery Ryumen
aboard — was launched early Sunday on a
mission to link up with Salyut 6, which was
put into orbit Sept. 29.
It was the first Soviet manned
spaceflight since last February. Western
observers said it had been intended as a
space spectacular to mark the 20th an
niversary of the launching Oct. 4 of the
world’s first satellite — Sputnik 1 — and
the Nov. 7 celebrations of the 60th an
niversary of the Russian Revolution.
The announcement that Soyuz 25 was
being aborted was made at the end of the
noon (5 a. m. EDT) Moscow Radio news
after a 24-hour silence on the mission’s
progress.
The Soyuz 23 mission returned safely to
earth after a flight of only 48 hours from
launch to touchdown.
The Soyuz 25 cosmonauts are a pair of
rookies, who never have flown a space
mission before.
The latest mission lifted off from the
Baikonur Cosmodrome in Soviet
Kazakhstan before dawn Sunday from the
same pad used for the launch of Sputnik 1
into orbit 20 years ago.
O
j dated
lot
tji ^ ^elds blackens Ron Greenwade’s face to decrease reflection
atch eVening su n during war games. Steve Smith (left) and Doug Coats
Reparation for the battle at Easterwood Training Area.
Battalion photo by Curt Schwake
Curt Stumberg helps camouflage Tom Rhinelander with grass.
Battalion photo by Curt Schwake
Courtney Suttle is dead. Actually, that’s just the position band members
killed in war games were required to take, to avoid getting hit again and
to enable them to keep up with their platoon fighting in the woods Satur
day night. Battalion photo by Bernard Gor