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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (May 4, 1981)
State / National THE BATTALION MONDAY, MAY 4, 1981 Page 7 Texas firm installs armor to protect against attacks art Hinchij x in the United Press International CARROLLTON — A tiny spe cialty auto firm’s business is boom- . o , thanks to political unrest, ter- i rorist attacks and kidnappings all over the world. Tetradyne Corp. produces pro tection — armoring vehicles to withstand assassins’ bullets and terrorist ambushes. Company officials say orders have been pouring in from all over the world — especially from the Mideast and Central America — cars that have been modified with steel armor, special deadbolt locks and protective glass. The work doesn’t come cheap: costs range from $11,000 for in stalling the most basic protection in a van to $40,000 for overhauling a luxury limousine. Neither price tag includes the cost of the basic vehicle. “We don’t ask too many ques tions,” said Tetradyne sales mana ger Robert Soussi. “But I need to know, if not which country, which area of the world is involved. ” Soussi, who speaks English, French, Spanish, Italian and Ara bic and handles most of the nego tiations over the telephone, said the firm needs to know at least the general area where the vehicle will be used so that the type of protection installed will fit the type of attacks common to that area. He said the caliber of bullets as well as the motivation behind attacks vary from place to place and the firm has different levels of protection suited to each. “We have all the statistics, all the information,’’ he said. “For ex ample, we know that kidnappers, in countries where company and government officials are often kid napped, allow themselves two and a half minutes to carry out the mis sion. Otherwise they abort.’’ Company officials refuse to re veal the specifics of their customer list and say they often don’t know themselves who the vehicle is for, since arrangements are often made through middlemen. Aside from the basic armor plat ing welded into a car to keep it from buckling in a rollover or crash, Tetradyne offers sirens, loud speakers equipped with tape recorders that call for help in the appropriate language, outside speakers that allow communica tion with attackers, two-way radios, gunports for shooting back and even a grenade launcher. The company, with 40 em ployees, turns out about 40 cars per month. Soussi said customers include U.S. grocery store chains that transfer large amounts of cash, oil companies with overseas operations, banks, and numerous government officials. Gramm says Reagan plan has House votes to pass s unfair bur ets, lifted, in nego ain deal United Press International WASHINGTON — Rep. Phil Gramm, D-Texas, said Sunday he believes there is “a good chance” the Democratic-controlled House will approve Presi dent Reagan’s revised budget proposal by 20 or 30 votes this week. The House is debating two major proposals: a plan to be introduced by Gramm and Rep. Delbert Latta, R-Ohio, that modifies Reagan’s budget proposal by cutting an additional $6 billion from the budget, and a Democratic alternative that would restore some binds to social programs. A floor vote on the plans is expected Tuesday or Wednesday. Of the total membership in the House, there are 243 Democrats, 191 Republicans and one independent. farmer ami I n an interview with the Cable News Network, suffed 1 ^ econserva fi ve Gramm said he believes “the vote is •go, Sraill go> n g to be close.” But he added, “I think we are building momen tum, and I think that there is a good chance that we are going to win by 20 or 30 votes.” •oved tbai such as cause they . U.S. con un in 1980, ig com for rtina. This igricultura! i money to offsets the -rgy- n a viable hroughout re en t 10 ye® mted afc Asked about statements by House Democratic leaders that they are also gaining momentum for the Democratic alternative plan, Gramm said, “I think that we are in good shape. “I think that their talk about gaining momentum is pretty reminiscent of our talk early in the Vietnam War about how we were going to have the boys home by Christmas.” Gramm said there is “a distinct possibility” Rep. Dan Rostenkowski, D-Ill., chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, will compromise with the Republicans on a tax cut bill rather than face defeat of his one-year tax cut plan. The administra tion has proposed a three-year tax cut bill. Gramm said he believes liberal Democrats are making House Speaker Thomas O’Neill, D-Mass., their “whipping boy.” “They want to say, ‘Well, it is not that our prog rams don’t work anymore, but it is that we got this old white-headed man who’s not dynamic enough and who’s not the strong leader we need right now.’ “I think that is unfair and totally unfounded,” Gramm said. e airline)! male busi- needed w ighly cot ■ss: female rving'b' 1 iks, the air- w territor- lispenser I oward Pat emainsi®’ /’s success id beauty ii f success to nd we be- one, Pat t a lot t h- ,ve to hire inie of th ! j tally coa 1 sswise ana Id be set- nt laws- ir deie" j ' itsetin'! jloyment hwest for Soutb enifl^ vouldf 1 cerned have If The)' United Press International STANFORD, Calif. — Surgeons hoped to remove Stan ford’s second heart-lung trans plant from his mechanical respir ator this weekend in a crucial test to see if he can breathe on his own. The patient, Charles Walker, 30, of Binghamton, N.Y., re ceived a new heart and new lungs in a four-hour operation Friday, and his condition remained critic al but stable Sunday. The operation was performed just 54days after Stanford Medical Center performed its first such procedure on Mary Gohlke, 45, a Mesa, Ariz., newspaper execu tive. Gohlke has set a world survival record for a heart-lung transplant recipient, and the success gives hope heart-lung operations may become reasonably safe. Walker’s new organs came from an undisclosed donor. Because of a congenital heart defect. Wal ker’s blood was not properly ox ygenated. This condition led to pulmon ary hypertension and resulting de terioration of both his lungs and his heart. When he was 13, he was told he had the lungs of a 90-year- old. In recent years Walker, an embalmer, has spent most of his time in bed and has been given weekly blood transfusions. With out the transplant, he was given less than a year to live. He was awake but sedated Fri day, and he was visited by his mother, June Spangenberg, and one of four brothers. Gohlke has been slowly regain ing her strength. She walks about her room and makes several short trips each day down the hall. Her physical therapy includes lifting 3- pound weights and she may be able to leave the hospital in another month. Three heart-lung transplants were performed more than a de cade ago at other institutions. The longest survivor only lasted 23 days and the procedure was aban doned. The operation was attempted at Stanford because of the availabil ity of a new drug, cyclosporin A. The drug suppresses the body immune reaction to foreign tissues without devastating its ability to fight infections. Take the $25.00 Challenge at Bud Warcf s! Youjusf can’t lose! So Sez Fiddlin' Foron SPECIAL NOTICE Optional Board Plan Summer Students may dine on the board plan during the First session of summer school at Texas A&M University. Each board student may dine three meals each day except Sunday evening if the seven day plan is selected, and three meals each day, Monday through Friday, if the five day plan is preferred. Each meal is served in the Commons. Fees for each session are payable to the Controller of Accounts, Fiscal Office, Coke building. Board fees for each plan are as follows: Plans First Session Seven Day - $171.43 Jun 2 through Jul 2 Five Day - $154.29 and Plus Tax Jul 6 throu 9 h Jul 8 Day students, including graduate students may purchase either of the board plans. ■h it a*" ,dl Summer heat may repeat United Press International The sizzling heat wave of 1980 — which browned out vast areas of Texas, killed cat tle and poultry, drove some farmers toward bankruptcy and monthly electric bills to unheard of figures — is threatening to stage a comeback. While weather experts are stopping short of outright predictions that the sum mer of 1981 will be as bad as 1980, they point out that the warmer-than-normal weather predicted for May and June could be a signal of higher temperatures later on. “It does indicate we should all start watching the situation very closely,” said Dr. Robert Livezey, a long range weather forecaster with the Climate Analysis Cen ter in Washington, D.C. “We should stay on the alert. This isn’t one of those years you can shrug off. ” A more ominous warning is being sound ed by the Texas Department of Water Re sources. “We are quite dry at the present time and we need rain badly,” said water depart ment spokesman Herbert Grubb. “Unless we get it, we have another disaster in the making. ” Last year’s devastating drought and heat, from which farmers are yet to fully recover, saw temperatures hit at least 100 degrees for as many as 42 days in a row. For metropolitan areas, that meant scattered water shortages, astronomical utility bills, frayed tempers and power cuts. Water experts are worried that if rainfall levels drop this year as they did last year, the state’s 70 or so major reservoirs will be down to about half of their capacity by the end of summer 1981. “There has been more rapid growth in our metropolitan areas than anticipated,” Grubb says. “It’s a statewide problem. We have grown more rapidly than water sys tems have been expanded to keep up with growth.” Grubb warned the problem may become even more serious in rural and agricultural areas. “Because it was so dry last summer and this winter, the soil is extremely dry. That’s why even when it’s raining we are not get ting a lot of runoff (which helps to fill lakes). The rains we have had in the last several weeks are wetting the top few inches of the soil,” he said. “Further north, where only the topsoil is wetted, unless the rains keep coming, the moisture (remains) very shallow and the water will be quickly used up by plants and dried out by the sun,” Grubb said. If that happens, he said, “we would have a repeat of serious drought on the farmer and the rancher.” Recent rains didn’t help matters much. Experts at the Texas Agricultural Extension Service in College Station say some of the rains were accompanied by high winds and hail which inflicted severe damage to crops, especially in Uvalde County. ^tient to go off respirator You Get What You Pay For. 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