THE BATTALION
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 1980
Page 9
nation
'
Congressman says better
U.S. civil defense needed
I- United Press International
WASHINGTON — Ike Skelton is
in his second term as a congressman
and one of the unsolved Washington
mysteries to him is exactly what hap
pens at 11 a.m. the first Wednesday
of each month.
“A siren goes off on Capitol Hill
and it is supposed to be for civil de
fense. The missiles are coming or
some such thing,” he said.
He took a drink from his glass of
iced tea in the Democratic Club.
"I wish someone would explain
what the siren means,” the man from
Missouri said. Skelton has a Missou
rian’s show-me attitude, of couse.
But he is also a member of the
post-Watergate class of congressmen
who are not overly obedient to party
discipline, who startle and some
times sadden party leaders and who
regard the fellow titled a “whip” as
something out of political S&M.
He is six-feet-four and even seated
in a Democratic Club chair he has
height over his luncheon compan
ions. Skelton smiles; not for nothing,
he is kin to comedian Red Skelton.
“There are definite plans on what
to do with the President and the
cabinet and the higher reaches of the
Pentagon if the missiles come
flying,” he said.
“But as far as I can find out there’s
no plan on what to do with congress
men if Doomsday threatens.
“Oh, I understand the Capitol
hallways are marked as fallout shel
ters and there are the tunnels under
the House and Senate. They don’t
seem to blast shelters though. ”
He finished the iced tea and began
working on the glass of water.
“Sure, I know about that monthly
siren. But what does it mean? What
should one do when one hears it?
Ah, the mysteries of Washington.”
His wife Susie — she is a coffee
drinker — sets down her cup.
“Maybe it just means you’re expend
able,” she said.
Skelton smiles again. “Maybe so,”
he said. “But what really worries me
is what happens back home in Mis
souri.”
He noticed something among his
district’s 16 counties — a bit of Kan
sas City and Independence Harry
Truman’s town of course and 15 farm
counties to the east — when winning
his first Congressional election four
years ago. “I kept noticing these
fenced-in gravel yards out in the
middle of fields. I found that near
Knob Noster, near Whiteman Air
Force Base, there were 150 of the
little gravel plots.
“In the middle of each was a ce
ment cover. Each of the 150 was a
launching site for American’s inter
continental balistic missiles. When I
got here I asked the Pentagon if this
meant that my district would be a
target for some enemy attacking the
United States.
“Well, yes they told me. In fact
the Fourth District of Missouri ranks
39 on the Pentagon’s list of Amer-
ican’ss 40 most likely targets.
“So I began to try to find out what
would happen to my constituents if
worst came to missile worst. The
answer was: not very much in the
way of safety. Now, I don’t want you
to think my folks are unpatriotic. The
opposite is true.
“I have never heard anyone com
plain about us housing the missile
silos. But a little real civil defense
might be nice.”
Skelton found $24 million was
being spent last year just to make the
Knob Noster silos thicker and thus
safer from enemy missiles. “And
only $101 million was being spent to
provide civil defense for all the
American people.
Nixon supports boycott
United Press International
PASADENA, Calif. — When
Richard Nixon was president, he
advanced detente with the Soviet
Union. But now the former chief
executive supports a U. S. boycott
of the Olympics in Moscow in re
sponse to the Russian invansion
of Afghanistan.
“The Soviet Union is engaging
in activities that are in violation of
the precepts of international con
duct,” Nixon said.
He also said registering men
for a possible draft should be con
sidered because of recent Soviet
military actions, but he dismissed
the drafting of Women.
“I think the suggestion that
women be registered and be
drafted is ridiculous,” Nixon said
in the interview with the Pasade
na Star News.
Defense school for executives
5 United Press International
COLUMBIA, Mo. — Dick Tho
mas takes time from his law practice
in this university town — hardly con
sidered a world hot spot of terrorist
activity — to teach anxious execu
tives how to protect themselves from
terrorists.
For a part-time job, business is
good.
Since Thomas and three associates
began the school last year, 55 execu
tives have undergone intensive
training at the rural Ray Chapman
Academy.
“The reason the terrorist business
Playboy pays
Somers fee
and diamond
United Press International
CHICAGO — Playboy Magazine
will pay actress Suzanne Somers
$10,000 — and publisher Hugh M.
Hefner will give her a diamond — for
a nude layout of the actress that
appeared in the magazine’s Febru
ary issue, a spokesman says.
The pictures were shot in Mexico
several years ago as a test and re
mained in Playboy’s photo files'until
they were discovered recently — af
ter the actress had become a televi
sion star.
“Technically, we don’t owe her a
fee for the original test, ” Gary Cole,
photographic director for Playboy,
said Friday. “But we were so pleased
with the way the thing turned out we
felt she deserved the same fee Play
mates are usually paid.”
A spokesman said Hefner already
has, selected a “large” "diamond as
added compensation for Somers.
‘There are no longer any hard feel
ings,’’ he said.
About a million extra copies of the
February issue were sold — prob
ably because of the photos of
Somers, the spokesman said.
is getting to be such a popular thing
is that it is successful,” said Thomas.
Thomas became interested in self-
defense after he was threatened by a
disgruntled husband while working
on a divorce case. He believes that
fear of terrorists has become a fact of
life and will remain so.
The lawyer said today’s will-
protected executive shopld have a
.38-caliber revolver strapped to his
calf and a submachine gun under the
front seat of his car.
Ideally, there should be a body
guard to handle the submachine gun
he said. If the executive wishes, they
will train the bodyguard.
Since the school opened in 1978
students have come from Venezuela,
Puerto Rico and Germany. A three-
day course costs from $700 to $850.
Students must shell out $1,250 for a
six-day version.
Thomas said they teach students
when to shoot and how to shoot
properly.
Thomas, 37, operates the school
with Ray Chapman of Columbia, a
world pistol champion. James Ciril-
lo, a customs department firearms
instructor in New York City, and
Ken Hackathorn, who teaches law
enforcement in Marietta, Ohio,
commute for special classes.
The school operates on a 35-acre
site using odd-looking structures
that provide a variety of experience.
Final tests are given in old house in
the country.
One of the case studies at the
academy is the kidnapping of Italian
Prime Minister Aldo Moro in 1978.
Thomas said he believes the Moro
kidnapping and murder probably
could have been prevented if his
protectors had learned their lessons
at the Chapman school.
The first graduate to report using
his training — as executive from
Puerto Rico — said he “avoided se
rious problems” because of what he
learned.
Thomas said several women have
taken the course and were easier to
teach than men.
“Because few of them have used a
gun before, they don’t have bad
habits, “Thomas said.
One graduate, a Kentucky execu
tive, said he carries a . 45-caliber
automatic for protection against un
stable people he comes across in his
business. He asked that his name not
be used.
“I don’t go around telling people I
, learned how to use a gun,” he said.
“They think you’re paranoid.
“If I don’t have a gun and I’m
accosted, assaulted, someone
molests me — I have to do what they
say,” he said. “With a gun in my
possession, I have a choice. In that
sense, the school paid off.”
Although other schools teach
shooting, Thomas said the Chapman
Academy is one of a kind in that it
teaches both executives and security
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Thomas said he hopes to add de
fensive driving to the curriculum.
“For the politics, that’s a big part
of it, ” Thomas said.
“If your driver doesn’t know how
to drive,” he said, you could wind
up in terrorist hands.”
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