Page 8 THE BATTALION WEDNESDAY, JULY 2, 1980 Police car fire cause determined by Ford United Press International NEW ORLEANS — It took Ford Motor Co. engineers almost a month, but they have finally concluded that overflowing trans mission fluid and improperly fit ting brake shields caused the series of mysterious fires in 1980 LTD patrol cars. Police Chief James Parsons im mediately began putting the 103 new vehicles back into service Monday, ending a 20-day ban on their use. Police planned to inspect the entire fleet of vehicles for their fluid levels and brake shields be fore placing them back into ser vice, and that may take 10 days. The fires, which began May 28, caused only one minor injury to a patrolman who fell to the ground as he was fleeing a burning car. The blazes continued through June 9, when police officials ordered all 110 of the vehicles out of service for tests. A dozen Ford engineers work ed with police mechanics to in vestigate the fires. Robert H. Transou, a Ford spokesman, and Deputy Police Chief Henry M. Morris Monday issued a statement that 15 of the cars were back on the streets and the rest would return to service after inspections. Transou and Morris said no one knew how the cars got too much transmission fluid in them. “Ford concluded an excess of fluid in the auto transmission, possibly in combination with an incompletely seated transmission oil filter dipstick cap, allowed fluid to escape from the transmis sion onto the hot exhaust and then ignite,” they said. “Possible presence of water in the transmis sion could have been a contribut ing factor. “Ford’s conclusions were reached after an extensive check .... The purpose of the examina tions is to be sure the cause has been eliminated. The vehicles can certainly be returned to ser vice after the inspecions and re quired adjustments can be com pleted. ” Turncoats: Korean War prisoners who stayed in China express mixed emotions about their decision OOrt United Press International Twenty-one stayed. But only two stuck it out, and they are still in China today. What is a “turncoat”? That was the label in America nearly three decades ago for the 21 U.S. Army youths, Korean War prisoners, who chose not to come home — to stay in “Red China.” Death took one. Three disappeared into Europe. Fifteen came back to America over the years. Call it homesickness. Call it turning of the stomach against the Communist life. Call it the way of the misfit in any country. Call it the disillusionment of the young who have followed a gleam and found it dulling. Those who returned to America, Adams vividly remembers the day he took a crudely fashioned knife and cut his toes off because of spreading gangrene caused by frostbite in prison. dishonorably discharged from the Army, called collaborators, were disillusioned again. Turncoats. The term stung. With the 30th anniversary of the Korean War outbreak on June 25, they have mostly concealed their whereabouts. The two in China — and the fact of their being there will surprise many — are available and vocal. One is exuberant: “I was decades ahead of Nixon. History has vindicated my deci- —~"t: The other seems rather wistful: “My decision caused so much heartache and hardship to my family — because of that, maybe I wouldn’t do it again.” But politically he has no regrets. He misses American football. Both have Chinese wives and families. Among the more vocal of those who can be traced in this country is Clarence Adams of Memphis, Tenn., whose Chinese wife taught him to cook. He now runs “The Chop Suey House,” a Mandarin Chinese take-out shop. Adams says he was never a communist. Communists cap tured him. The privations of their prison cost him three toes. He vividly remembers the day he took a crudely fashioned knife and cut them off because of spreading gangrene caused by frostbite in prison. “I counted to 10 about a hundred times before I finally did it.” He has no regrets. He did his “growing up” in a prisoner- of-war camp in North Korea and at Peking University in China, he says. “I think about it as a very unique experience. I think life in the POW camp and in China settled me down. I was a poor, uneducated black. If I had come home, that’s all I could have hoped to remain. The only good jobs blacks were getting then were as teachers and mailmen, and I knew those were far and few between.” Adams said he was “wild and running with the wrong crowd” when he decided to enlist in 1947. He was 21 when he was reported missing in action in December 1950. In China, he spent seven years in the university and won the equivalent of a master’s degree, studying the Chinese language and litera ture. \yhen he came home to Memphis after three years in the army, three years in the prison camp, and 13 years in China, he had a Chinese wife and two children and was called a turncoat. “I think it was out of fear that people treated me the way they did. I never became a communist. Our status in China was that of a foreign student visiting indefinitely.” He said that with each passing holiday his yi America grew stronger: “It never bothered me until Those who had refused repatriate came out of China almost to a man condemning the communist way of life. by RICH Spoi i Olympic I, and Leslie 1 Old friends turn out to be brothers United Press International FORT SMITH, Ark. — Elmer Vincent always wondered what happened to the baby brother adopted 40 years ago when their mother died in childbirth. Last week he learned the brother is a man he has done business with for the past 15 years, Arthur Vincent Scamardo. The brothers were reunited by Jenny Kolp, who is working on a reunion of orphans who lived at the Rosalie Tilles home at Fort Smith between 1912 and the early 1960s. “Elmer has been one of my good friends,” Scamardo said. “I can’t believe he’s my brother.” Vincent is a mechanic at Wortz Biscuit Co. at Fort Smith and for years has done business with Scamardo, an employee of a local sheetmetal firm. Vincent was 9, one of five children, when his mother died giving birth to a baby named Fred Robert Vincent. The baby was adopted before the other children saw him, and they never knew his adopted parents changed his name to Arthur Vincent Scamardo. “I never laid my head on my pillow at night but whatldidn t think about my little brother and wonder where he was. ” rr, who hac days. Then I tried to picture what it was like. Finallyllnjng to lead ’ I’m going home.’” Bo a banner Adams works seven days a week to keep his businessjick team won t When he returned in 1966, hoping to work as a teadjjtdoor Champ translator, he begged unsuccessfully for a year for anyjoljrop out of tn finally became a truck driver, and saved his money toopBngin the 40 cooking house. ‘i ran on T Those who had refused repatriation came out of ChimBnesday I n ly, or in two’s and three’s — the first three came out afteriBay I woke u year — and almost to a man they condemned the conuftnd my leg. way of life. One said, “It was hell. We ate like dogs. Weswes. I had b< a bam. We burned up in summer and froze in winter Hmonth. I ju All were accused by the army and by fellow priso; k supposed to cozying up to their captors in communist prison camp. H ^tupat 9 a.m. er, the Encyclopaedia Britannica notes that it was leamecmiing about i perhaps 15 percent of all American prisoners actlerr said the ’ collaborated with the enemy, and only a few — abMolitical disc percent — steadfastly resisted all Communist eflbrfi. indoctrinate them or to use them for propaganda purposHcould tell tl It also says that nearly 60 percent of the prisoners didSred,” he sail torture or neglect. Ing. I hearc frig, ‘What’s ling anywhen oplem. Ever fe ll do it, but' Be.’” Kerr said th< Bbered the o adopted at age 2 when Fred Robert was bom. ^av The family knows the brother’s name is now LarryB « Allen and he may be living in Los Angeles. H 6 8 ot b u t with one of the sisters about 3 years ago, they said. Kyo ne ’s beer When the Vincents' mother died and the two babies TW.r»«,n “I never laid my head on my pillow at night but what I didn’t think about my little brother and wonder where he was,” Vincent said. “Now that I have found out it is someone I’ve talked to and done business with for all these years, I can’t believe it. It is still a shock to me.” The men’s two sisters live in the Fort Smith area, and last week the four had a reunion, the first in 40 years. But they are still looking for another brother, Mayo Vincent, who was , , , , M... 1 know it adopted, Elmer Vincent and the two sisters, nowAnnScfc next sow and Lucy Wilhite, were placed in the RosalielB| recor( j ” orphanage. Jenny Kolp was there at the same time. \VbeiBgj e j u announced plans this year for a reunion, Vincent askedkBqualified for help him find his baby brother. 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