I
The Battalion
Vol. 71 No. 109
10 Pages
Thursday, March 2, 1978
College Station, Texas
News Dept. 845-2611
Business Dept. 845-2611
Inside Thursday:
Houston’s annual hoopla, p.6.
Batik fashions stars of the show, p. 8.
Mark Thurmond: blue-eyed lefty
from Aggieland, p. 9.
ommando unit
brmed by Carter
United Press International
ASHINGTON — President Carter
dered formation of a secret Army
mando unit to provide the nation’s
-time force for combating hijack
ings and other terrorist acts outside the
country, government sources said today.
The force has been given the code name
Project Blue Light for its formative
stages. Sources said a nucleus of Green
liners claim officials
lehind recent violence
e
r
United Press International
Fists flew in Illinois. Hot words erupted
West Virginia. Retired miners
latened to set up their own picket lines
le proposed new contract between the
|Wand the Bituminous Coal Operators
ixiation wins ratification in a weekend
Washington, President Carter looked
ven Council
mdidates file
>r April election
By KAY WALLACE
Seven city council hopefuls met the 5
jn. filing deadline yesterday for College
ion city election.
ollege Station voters will elect a mayor
three city councilmen April 1.
ignatures on the petitions filed must be
ified by City Secretary Florence
ley as those of registered College Sta-
voters before the candidate s name
be placed on the ballot ,
andidates have filed as follows:
1AYOR -
Lorence BraVenec, incum-
It mayor of College Station
Karl A. Crawley, sop ho
le environmental design major at Texas
M University
COUNCILMAN, PLACE 2 -
H nner B. Adams, owner of
fms Transfer and Storage Co
David L. Pugh, assistant
■lessor of urban and regional planning.
COUNCILMAN, PLACE 4 -
Tony Jones, owner of Tony
Jes Construction (Jo
Patricia B. Boughton,
ipiemaker
UNCILMAN, PLACE 6 -
James H. Dozier, associate
of finance
to the priming of federal guns he promised
to fire “as early as Monday’ should the
contract be rejected.
The coal strike was in its 87th day today
and with acceptance of the new contract
designed to end it hanging on the will of
the union’s rank and file, UMW officers
Wednesday strove to “educate” their
members with briefings and a $40,000 ad
vertising blitz.
Other pro-ratification forces took a more
direct approach.
In Springfield, Ill., four miners who had
spoken out against the contract at a union
meeting were jumped and beaten as they
left — allegedly by the bodyguards of
Kenneth Dawes, one of the union’s chief
negotiators.
Ron Joiner, 35, sported a lump over one
eye and cuts on his face as he described
the assault to reporters.
"I started going to my room,” he said.
“Then these guys jumped my two buddies
— one who has a bad arm. They had him
down and were stomping him. I reached
in to help him and then I got kicked
around pretty good.
With Joiner in the melee were Richard
Bartolotti, 30; his brother, Gary, 26, and
David Hilton, a local president.
“If we don’t approve the contract,
they’re gonna try and beat us up," said
Hilton. “To get me to vote yes they’re
gonna have to do a lot more than knock my
eye out."
Four men — all alleged associates of
high-ranking UMW officials — were ar
rested and charged with battery. They
were identified as John Cox, Gerald Haw
kins. James Poe and Vollie Bishop.
Dawes, at the meeting to sell the con
tract to the miners, denied he had any
thing to do with the attack.
“Miners live dangerous lives, he said.
"They speak their piece pretty fast. For
them to back away from anything — even
a fight — is not their way.
Boxing Aggie Style
Aggies packed into the National Guard Armory last night to witness the
2nd annual “Fight Nigh” sponsored by Sigma Phi Epsilon. Bill Takacs,
freshman premed, anticipates the next move from opponent Richard
Pfeiffer. Takacs won in a 3-round decision. Fighting continues tonight
starting at 7 p.m.
Berets from the Army’s Special Forces
have already quietly set up headquarters
in a post stockade that has until now been
used to house prisoners at Ft. Bragg, N.C.
There they are assembling a hand
picked force of unconventional warfare
veterans, some of whom took part in the
1970 Son Tay prison camp raid into North
Vietnam. The unit is planned to number
around 200 men by this summer, the
sources said.
The operation is headed by Col. Charlie
Alvin Beckwith, 49, a tough Green Beret
who ran a clandestine surveillance and
guerrilla warfare unit in Vietnam.
Sources at Ft. Bragg say Blue Light al
ready has been unofficially dubbed “Char
lie’s Angels” by its first members.
The decision to go ahead with the opera
tion was made in the aftermath of the dar
ing rescue of 91 hostages aboard a hijacked
Lufthansa jetliner last October at
Mogadishu, Somalia, by a special West
German commando unit known as GSG-9,
the sources said.
Pentagon spokesman Thomas B. Ross
confirmed that Carter issued a directive to
Defense Secretary Harold Brown in De
cember authorizing steps to increase anti
terrorist capabilities, but declined com
ment on any further details.
But sources said the Mogadishu inci
dent focused administration attention on
terrorist dangers and increased concern
over, the lack of U.S. readiness to cope
with similar incidents in remote parts of
the world.
They said while some troops from vari
ous services had been given sporadic train
ing, it was apparent the United States
lacked the ability to react with “surgical
counter-terror force in highly demanding
situations with hostages such as hijackings
or attacks on U.S. citizens.
A secret Pentagon document dated
Dec. 28 said the new unit will be armed
with special weapons and equipment.
Sources said it is expected to take
months to train a full unit and up to two or
three years for it to reach the proficiency
of German or Israeli anti-hijack comman
dos.
Ag students
work rodeo
in Houston
BY MARTHA HOLLIDA
Where can you get on-the-job
training, experience the real world of
your profession, meet important
people in your field, receive pay for
long hours of work, and love every
minute of it? No where else but the
Houston Livestock Show.
The Houston Livestock Show and
Rodeo is here for its 46th year and
the 57 Aggies who are working at the
show this year continued what has
apparently become a tradition.
“Essentially we have been send
ing A&M students to work since the
show had its beginning. The number
of students has increased as the show
grows larger,” said professor
emeritus R.C. Potts.
The animal science department
sent 43 students to assist in the live
stock office. These were primarily
juniors and seniors majoring in ani
mal science. There were also stu
dents from other areas of agriculture.
These students did such things as
work at the judging shows, assist the
livestock superintendents, handle
the trophies and ribbons events,
and provide information,.
The agriculture journalism de
partment sent 14 students to Hous
ton to work in the press room. They
wrote press releases about the
shows, interviewed the owners of
the champion and reserve champion
animals, provided press representa
tives with information concerning
the shows, and photography work.
The students stayed for different
lengths of time depending on the
show schedule. They are chosen on
the basis of their grades and class
work.
The pay is $2.65 an hour and hours
range from 12 to 16 hours a day or
more if there is still work to be done.
(See Ags and related stories
page 6)
Battalion photo by Paigi* Beasley
Joe Tolbert, junior Ag-eco major from Houston, seems happy to ‘
surrounded by boots while visiting the Houston Livestock Show and
Rodeo. See Focus page 6 for related stories.
Representatives from student
governments hold conference
By LINDA SULLIVAN
More than 100 delegates from 20 Texas
colleges and universities are expected to
attend the biannual Texas Student Associ
ation (TSA) convention on the Texas A&M
University campus Mar. 3-5. TSA mem
bership is open to all public and private
colleges and universities in Texas which
have student governments.
Twenty-two different workshops focus
ing on the problems of student govern
ment will be offered during the three-day
convention. Heading the workshops will
be students and administers from the at
tending schools.
Juniors Joe Beall and Laura Brockman
are the student coordinators from Texas
A&M for the convention. Serving on the
TSA rules committee, both students have
been instrumental in planning the conven
tion itinerary.
“Workshops are the main part of the
convention this semester,” says Beall.
“We re concentrating on getting everyone
useful information, and the overall ex
change should be very beneficial.”
Brockman foresees a “timely and effi
cient last semester’s convention held at
North Texas State University in Denton,
Brockman says planning for the March 3
convention began in October. At the close
of the Denton convention, delegates
unanimously voted Texas A&M as the site
of the spring 77 convention. Brockman
says several out-of-town speakers for the
convention cancelled at the last minute,
but this did not present any major difficul
ties.
Confirmed guest politicians include:
John Poerner, candidate for Texas railroad
commissioner; Mark White, candidate for
attorney general; and Joe Christy, candi
date for senate; and Price Daniel Jr.
Beall terms the convention an “ex
change convention” because of the scope
of the workshop topics. Subjects to be dis
cussed include short-term loan programs,
athletic funding, working with adminis
trators, small college problems and
academic fraud. Since Texas A&M is the
host school, several workshop leaders are
affiliated with the University, such as Dr.
Carolyn Adair, director of student ac
tivities and Dr. John Koldus, vice pres
ident for student services.
Besides the workshops, a barbecue is
scheduled for delegates at 7 p.m. Saturday
at the Quonset Huts.
After a general assembly meeting Sun
day at 10 a.m., delegates will elect the
new TSA executive officers. Traditionally,
only the piesident and vice president are
elected officers, but if a new bill is
passed creating the offices of service infor
mation director and legislative director,
there may be four vacant positions.
Beall is campaigning for the presidency
against Robert Rainwaller of the Univer
sity of Texas at El Paso. Beall’s platform
spotlights working to strengthen com
munication lines among TSA officers and
schools.
If Beall wins Texas A&M would be
headquarters for the TSA information,
which Brockman says would be a “big
asset” to both the school and TSA.
Company makes
ado about firing
United Press International
NEW YORK-Companies rarely boast
about firing people.
But American Red Ball Co., one of the
country’s larger national moving firms, has
just announced with some fanfare that it
fired 23 agent firms in 1977 because of cus
tomer complaints.
“This is the first time, I think, that any
firm in our industry has made a big deal in
public of insisting that agents and affiliated
independent contracting van operators
live up to a prescribed code of ethics,” said
J.J. Thorne, Red Ball’s marketing vice-
president. “But somebody had to make a
stand because customer complaints have
been rising.”
The most common complaints concern
overcharging by inflating the weight of the
cargo hauled and failing to live up to prom
ised delivery dates. Many of the com
plaints reached the Interstate Commerce
Commission.
Although the dismissed agents ac
counted for a fair amount of business,
Thorne said, “The way we see it, the only
one who can lose by an agent’s getting the
ax is the agent himself. We and our cus
tomers gain.”
Thorne said Red Ball began to move se
riously to get in tune with the consumer
movement in 1972 and he believes that is
one reason the company has fared well in
the years since despite a general downturn
in the cargo carrying business.
Thorne said there are many things the
average family can do when it has to make
a long distance move in order to head off
the kinds of problems that bring about se
rious complaints.
“It usually pays to let the movers do a lot
of the packing, particularly of valuable
chinaware, art objects and antiques. Not
only will the movers do it better, but if
they do it there’s no question about who’s
responsible if something goes wrong,” he
said.
High costs often actually are the fault of
the customer through either carelessness
or sentiment.
“People insist on moving very heavy
pieces of furniture of very questionable
value or future usefulness,” he said. “Such
stuff should be sold off or given to charita
ble agencies. But amazingly we have
people who insist on moving kegs of rusty
nails, worn out auto tires or stacks of
firewood — then they complain about the
extra weight charge on the bill.”
Another headache is those who want
van lines to move firearms and ammuni
tion. That’s against the law, you have to
ship them separately by express.
And some people fail to have major elec
trical appliances disconnected and serv
iced before the moving van arrives. Re
frigerators and freezers should be de
frosted and empty.
Moving men also do not like to haul val
uable jewelry or houseplants. Both are too
big a risk. People should take them with
them by plane or car if possible.
Battalion photo by Barbara Richerson
Bent Mercedes Benz
Jim Richerson of 1208 Foster Ave., College Station, joins those who find
it cheaper, if not easier, to do their own minor auto repairs. The cost of
automobile parts and labor continually increases, and in the Bryan-College
Station area, few garages can or will service and repair foreign cars. The
easiest way to fix a dented grill seems to be to do it yourself.