The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, June 15, 1983, Image 1

Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page. It is also available as plain text as well as XML.

    mm |Texas A&M
me
Serving the University community
I 76 No. 161 USPS 045360 12 Pages
College Station, Texas
Wednesday, June 15, 1983
ichener discusses
exas. University
Israel envoy visits U.S.
to discuss troop pullout
United Press International has mine under fire at home for his back despite Washington s fears 1
by Jennifer Carr
Battalion Staff
I Pulitzer prize-winning writer
Jptnes Michener held his standing-
■dm-only audience spellbound
■uesday morning as he answered
liestions ranging from education
B what he thinks of Texas to how he
als with writer’s block.
Michener said it was two years
fo, during one of his dead periods,
at the Texas governor and Senate
iivited him down to look around
Td see if he was interested in writ-
Jg a book for the state’s sesquicen-
Ilnnial — the 150th anniversary.
I As he drove from San Antonio to
Bustin with the chief of police,
ichener said, the chief pointed out
Jat the stretch of highway they
vlcre traveling was the most danger-
|is in the United States. If he stop-
‘ a car headed south, chances are
Bwas stolen in the north and was
aded to Mexico to be sold, the
ief said. And stopping cars
aded north was even worse.
(Iiances are the car was full of drugs
■aded for the north. Gunfights
also weren’t unusual, he said.
|When they got to Round Rock,
ichener said, he met a Texas bank-
I'he banker also had a story to
tell. A man had come into the bank
that day with $1.25 million to de-
■sit in a special account. The man’s
wife was going to New York and he
■tin t want her to get caught short
lol money.
■ That same night, Michener said,
about 2 a.m., a Texas legislator was
■ot outside his hotel. As it turned
it, the legislator, who was trying to
:t evolutionist Charles Darwin’s
achings banned from Texas
hools, had arranged the shooting
i get sympathy for his cause.
“I figured any state that could
‘provide me with three such marve-
James Michener
lous stories in 24 hours weighed
enough.”
Texas is a major power factor,
Michener said. It has the Alamo,
San Jacinto, oil and a foreign border
with a different language and reli
gion. It’s been its own nation, it’s
been to war with a foreign power
and it’s gaining representation in
Congress. In a novel about the accu
mulation of power, he said, Texas
has an advantage.
Michener said he follows Texas
A&M’s career with great interest.
He compares it with the University
of Texas and other universities and
finds many similarities, he said, and
Texas A&M stands high in com
parison.
Michener said he is impressed by
the number of honor students here,
and by the attempts to attract out
standing faculty. However, he said
Texas A&M is not as unique as some
people might think. He’s not in awe
of Texas A&M, but he said Texas is
lucky to have the University.
Education is encouraging to
young people — an avenue of
escape from whatever position they
are locked into, Michener said. The
fact that Texas A&M is here is proof
that this was true in the past. It’s all
open, he said, and he is baffled that
people today don’t take advantage
of it.
As a student, Michener said he
always looked a little farther, always
tried to do something of excellence.
He raised a cheer from the many
educators in the audience when he
said: “I can’t conceive of education
being effective unless term papers
are required.
“The very good today are at least
as good as I was, maybe even better,”
Michener said. It’s the upper middle
level that has deteriorated, which is
a terrible group to lose, he said, be
cause they are the ones who run
society.
Michener compared education
with the publishing industry, saying
both are cheapening. Publishers all
want established writers like
Michener, not young writers who
will someday be great.
This attitude has never been
worse or more disadvantageous to
young writers or to the world as a
whole, he said. Publishers allow
themselves to fall into the groove of
a popular name or idea. The “follow
the leader” ambiance leads to a
cheapening of values, he said.
To break the pattern, Michener
said one must do the best work he
can in his own field, and “patronize
and support those who try to break
out.
“It is a writer’s obligation to write
in a variety of fields,” he said.
See MICHENER page 12
United Press International
Israel dispatched a top envoy to
Washington today to discuss a partial
pullback of its forces in Lebanon amid
reports of new fighting with Syrian
forces deployed in the eastern Bekaa
Valley.
Israeli warplanes thundered over
Beirut today and police said a road
side charge went off as an Israeli con
voy was passing by in the southern
part of Sidon, 24 miles south of
Beirut. There were no immediate re
ports of casualties.
Since the June 6 invasion, 500
Israelis have been killed in Lebanon
and Prime Minister Menachem Begin
has come under fire at home for his
government’s handling of the war
and the occupation. The newspaper
Ma’ariv said Prime Minister
Menachem Begin already has de
cided to order the withdrawal from
the Beirut area and the central
Lebanese Shouf mountains and that it
could start within weeks.
A senior official denied that a deci
sion had been made to redeploy
troops — a move opposed by
Washington — and said, “There is
certainly no date and no deadline.”
but he said Foreign Ministry Director-
General David Kimche was traveling
to Washington to discuss partial pull
back despite Washington’s fears that a
unilateral redeployment into south
Lebanon would encourage Syria to
keep its troops in Lebanon.
Deputy Foreign Minister Yehuda
Ben-Meir, who said he was unaware
of a decision on redeployment, said
Israel “does not need anyone’s per
mission if it wants to bring the Israel
DTWTE Forces back from any parts
of Lebanon.”
Israeli and Syrian troops traded
mortar fire for an hour in the Bekaa
Valley Monday, the second serious
confronation between the opposing
armies in a month along the confron
tation line in eastern Lebanon, Beirut
radio said.
Green Berets set up
facility in Honduras
United Press International
PUERTO CASTILLA, Honduras —
More than 100 Green Berets — many
Vietnam veterans — began construct
ing a 200-acre military base to train
Salvadoran troops in Honduras by
the end of the month.
The 114 Green Berets, wearing
canvas “slouch” hats and fatigues,
landed Tuesday in the Carribbean
port of Puerto Castilla, 180 miles
northeast of Tegucigalpa, joining six
other American soldiers at the site.
The military base is controversial
in Honduras and in other Latin na
tions, which see it as a major escala
tion of the Reagan administration’s
military commitment in Central
America.
The special forces troops have only
about 48 hours to set up tents and
construct field kitchens and other
facilities on the brush-covered land,
before their transport ship, the USS
Lemore Country, departs.
The group’s commander, Maj.
Arthur N. Zieske, 44, said his men
would turn the 200-acre site, 6 miles
outside Puerto Castilla, into a tempor
ary base ready to receive trainees by
the end of the month.
Baptists asked to nix
public school prayer
,ewis predicts two sessions
United Press International
KN ANTONIO — Because law
makers failed to act on a number of
issues during the regular legisla-
Isession, House Speaker Gib Lewis
licts Gov. Mark White may call
special sessions, the first in two
Iks.
^ewis said Tuesday he expected
to call the first to solve the
ellosis controversy and to allow
lakers to renew the Texas Em
inent Commission. He said he
lie
thought White would call a second
special session in “four or five
months” to deal with education
funds.
The brucellosis issue could be re
solved Thursday when federal Judge
H.F. Garcia is expected to rule in Au
stin on whether to quarantine Texas
cattle.
A state court order prohibits en
forcement of the state’s current
brucellosis program. Brucellosis is an
illness that affects calving and milk
production.
The Department of Agriculture
planned a quarantine for June 1 be
cause the state’s brucellosis law does
not meet federal guidelines, but the
quarantine was postponed by court
order.
White had hoped to meet with De
partment of Agriculture Secretary
John Block to discuss the controversy
Tuesday night, but a spokesman for
Block said there was no meeting
Tuesday and none was scheduled.
United Press International
PITTSBURGH — Southern Bap
tists, who comprise the nation’s
largest Protestant denomination, are
being asked to oppose government-
prescribed prayers in public schools.
A resolution opposing such prayer
was introduced Tuesday at the South
ern Baptist Convention’s annual
meeting, and will be voted on either
today or Thursday.
The convention passed a resolu
tion last year expressing support for
voluntary prayer in public schools.
“When we get law into the regula
tion of religion in any fashion, we
have violated what we believed as
Americans since our Constitution was
written,” the Rev. Wendell G. Davis,
pastor of a Baptist church in North
Carolina, told the resolutions com
mittee.
Davis sad he did not anticipate any
.opposition to his resolution.
The Rev. Jimmy Draper, pastor of
the First Baptist Church of Euless,
near Dallas, had predicted earlier the
school prayer controversy would not
be an issue.
Davis wrote the resolution jointly
with James M. Dunn, the executive
director of the Baptist Joint Commit
tee on Public Affairs in Washington.
Dunn testified last month at Senate
subcommittee hearings on a constitu
tional amendment allowing voluntary
school prayers, supported by Presi
dent Reagan. Dunn told the hearing
“the Constitution as it now stands
offers ample protection for worship.”
In another resolution introduced,
The Rev. J. Donald Keen, of the Park
Road Baptist Church in Charlotte,
N.C., asked support for a mutually
verifiable nuclear weapons freeze be
tween the United States and the
Soviet Union. /
“Without a change in our present
course there will not be a chance to
work on other problems, because
otherwise human life as we know it
will be destroyed,” Keen said.
Draper, speaking at the opening
session, told 17,000 conventioneers
representing nearly 14 million South
ern Baptists that only people with a
deep commitment to Christ can
change a “sin-cursed world.”
“We have made a firm commit
ment to biblical principles, for which
principles our forefathers even dared
to die, Draper said.
&M to become center for marine geoscience research
by Angel Stokes
Battalion Staff
Texas A&M will become an inter-
Itional center for marine geoscience
‘Search as science operator of the
advanced Ocean Drilling Program —
if of the largest basic research prog-
f s in the world.
K fhe program, sponsored by the
t Oceanographic Institutions
Ip Earth Sampling, began in 1968
tli four member institutions and la
t
ter expanded to 10. Texas A&M is a
member institution.
Texas A&M will manage scientific
and ship operations, as well as pro
vide a storage place for retrieved
ocean cores, Dr. Stefan Gartner, chief
scientist of the program and a profes
sor of oceanography at Texas A&M,
said.
He said all JOIDES member insti
tutions were invited to submit an
offer to become science operator for
the program to the Joint Oceanog
raphic Institutions Inc. board of gov
ernors, which manages the deep-sea
drilling for the National Science
Foundation.
“A&M made the best offer,” Gart
ner said. Texas A&M made a commit
ment to build a special storage facility
for the cores and facilities for offices
and laboratories, he said, as well as
fund the transition period between
projects and provide three or four
faculty positions in connection with
the project.
Final plans for the facility and its
location have not been approved.
A permanent staff of at least 100
people will be associated with the $30
million a year project, which is
funded by the National Science
Foundation and supplements from
some foreign governments.
JOIDES formulates the general
program, he said, while A&M de
velops the detailed program and pro
vides the support staff that goes on
the exploration ship.
Dr. Philip D. Rabinowitz, director
of the project and a professor of
oceanography at Texas A&M, said
the final proposals must be approved
by July 8 by the JOI committee and
submitted by July 15 to the National
Science Board. The board is the last
hurdle, he said.
Texas A&M should begin taking
over the project in mid-October, he
said.
Previously, the Deep Sea Drilling
Program — a data-collecting phase of
the program — was operated by
Scripps Institution of Oceanography
in La Jolla, Calif.
During that time the Glomar Chal
lenger was built for the purpose of
deep sea ocean drilling. Although the
most advanced ship of its time when
built', drill ships used for oil explora
tion and drilling have become more
sophisticated than the Challenger,
Gartner said.
See AODP page 12
inside
[lassified
local. . . .
pinions
Sports. . .
Kate....
lational.
forecast
Cloudy to partly cloudy skies with a
0 percent chance of showers or
punderstorms through Thursday,
he high today and Thursday near
9. the low tonight near 69.
Former student saves five lives
in North Pole rescue mission
by Scott Griffin
Battalion Staff
On April 23, Major Don J. Currie,
chief of operations and training at
Thule Air Force Base in Greenland,
led a rescue mission near the North
Pole that saved five lives.
Currie, Class of’68, recently sent
The Battalion a copy of the rescue
report and several photographs.
“I don’t know if the ‘Batt’ has ever
been to the North Pole before,” Cur
rie said, “but I’m enclosing a picture
that proves it has been there be
fore.”
Currie said his trip started out as
an orientation visit to the Polar Re
search Laboratory at Ice Station
Crystal. But before boarding his air
plane, Currie was told that two Cess
na aircraft used by the laboratory
were lost near the Pole.
Currie described the mission in a
recent issue of the his base newspap
er, the Thule Times.
“We departed Thule at about 9
a.m.,” Currie said. “Once we got air
borne, we began to coordinate the
search effort.
“We were lucky in that we still
had periodic radio contact with the
lost aircraft,” he said. “But even
though we could talk to them, we
still had no idea where they were.”
Currie said the navigation system
used by the planes did not work well
above 89 degrees north latitude.
“Shortly after we left Thule,”
Currie said, “the two Cessnas de
cided to land and talk over their
Maj. Don J. Currie
situation. Once on the ground, the
aircraft pilots and Ice Station Crys
tal decided on a course of action.
The Cessna then took off again, but
were still unable to pick up the navi
gation signal being sent out from
Crystal.”
But Currie said the problems did
not end there.
“Meanwhile, further north, one
of the Cessnas was running low on
fuel, and they both decided to land
again,” he said. “When they did
land, the aircraft that still had fuel
damaged its landing gear.
“Now they were really stuck,”
Currie said. “After they landed, we
lost all communications with the air
craft.”
Currie landed at Crystal at about
2 p.m., three hours after the last
contact with the lost planes. About
an hour later, the stranded crew
contacted the station and reported
that everyone was safe, but they
were unable to move because of the
damage.
See CURRIE page 12
Maj. Don. J. Currie contributed a bit of Aggieland to
the North Pole, when he traveled to the Polar Research
Laboratory at Ice Station Crystal for an orientation visit.